“What made you decide to start your company?” Err..

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Last evening, I was pitching to a venture fund, talking about our cool conversational AI product at gnani.ai.

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I was just getting warmed up to talk about our unique call automation product for telephony lines , when the dreaded question popped up,”Why did you really start-up?” Huh?

I know every startup founder gets this question at least a few times a day from investors, employees,friends and family. Guess this question would have come up even more in the days when startups weren’t as fashionable as they are now.

If you are as much a Star Trek fan as I am, you will remember the episode when Spock’s father,Sarek, is asked why he married someone from Earth. His classic answer was “That seemed the logical thing to do.”

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This answer is simplistic, but never accepted and of course, there is always a real subtext to this story. Irrespective of the age that you startup, there will always be incidents in the past that signaled your taking the startup leap- the moonlighting projects that you did, the Tim Ferris and Walter Isaacson book on your shelf, your first Ad-sense revenue, your experiments with revenue models, your intrapreneurial plunges,your many earlier startup attempts and so on. Obviously, I don’t want to get talking about the “Retire at 30” online newsletters or the “Get Rich Quick” eBooks that you wasted money on.

I know some startup founders including a good friend of mine, who can answer this more easily, but typically reply with a “What’s your problem?” or “What does it have to do with this fund raise” tone. This friend of mine was on his way to do his Masters Course , decided to skip mid-way to his college and came back and announced to his dad that he was starting a company. Since then, he has founded several other companies and always been an entrepreneur.

Anyway, in my case, I had a great job with a great company, great bosses, a good salary with lucrative stock options, but I still quit.

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I guess the fundamental reason for many like me to start up is an aspiration to do more and a clear understanding that you, unlike others, have identified opportunities and problems that are waiting to be solved and your passion to solve a particular problem. In that situation, starting up seems an ideal choice and it does seem foolish to continue in the corporate world. Finally, it also needs things to fall into place- including sometimes finding a co-founder who wants to solve similar problems, an encouraging family and so on.

Going back to the original question, the best way to answer , as with everything else, is to be truthful , short and concise, and not worry about being judged.