LET'S BUILD A COMPANY: A START:UP STORY MINUS THE BULLSHIT [Paperback] GROVER HARPREET

Harpreet Grover (Author)
Harpreet is an active angel investor-some of his deals include Chaayos, ShopKirana and Avail Finance, among others. He has seen the journey of Ola Cabs closely from before the time it started. Beyond work, Harpreet is a mountaineer and ultra hill runner. Harpreet lives with his wife, Bhakti, and daughter, Diya, in Mumbai. He is passionate about figuring out how to help people pursue their interests and abilities.

Vibhore Goyal (Author)
Vibhore is a business-product guy who loves flying. Post selling CoCubes, he pursued that interest and received a private pilot's licence. Along side building CoCubes over the years, he found time to be co-founder at Babajobs and filing seven international patents during a thirteen-month stint at Microsoft R & D. He is now the founder & CEO of OneBanc, a fintech start-up. He lives with his wife, Jasjit, in Gurgaon. (Jasjit happened to be Harpreet's cousin so it is a complicated relationship now, but we are surviving!)

Harpreet Grover and Vibhore Goyal met in college and then spent the next decade of their lives building a company before exiting successfully.

One way to tell their story is this: they had a dream, they followed it and, then, through perseverance, they made it come true.

But that's not really the truth. Like everything in life-at least everything worth having-it wasn't that simple. There was blood, sweat and tears, there was loss of capital, loss of friendship and even a loss of faith along the way.

It started with a phone call from Harpreet's mother introducing him to an uncle who wanted some help. Or maybe it started when Vibhore and Harpreet met as roommates in Room 143 at IIT Bombay. What remains true is that soon both had quit their jobs and launched CoCubes. From no money in their bank accounts for eight years after graduating to becoming dollar millionaires two years later in 2016, this is a tale of grit-of a company built in India by two Indian-middle-class-twenty-somethings-turned-entrepreneurs-written in the hope that you can avoid the mistakes they made and learn from what they did right.

This is that story-the story that you don't always hear. But if you want to be an entrepreneur, and you prefer straight talk to sugar-coating, it's one you should read.

An authentic account of an entrepreneurial journeyA well-articulated narrative by Harpreet Grover and Vibhore Goyal, covering the struggles, triumphs and lessons learnt. As a first-time successful start-up, it makes a very engaging read with quite a few takeawaysAlong with the ups and downs of a start-up, the book offers great reflection on how hiring dilutes culture and on managing complex relationships within a companyThis is a story with real titbits that make the journey seem personal. As a reader who wonders what it takes to build a company from scratch, I loved reading what goes on in the mind of an entrepreneurThe journey of entrepreneurship is challenging, exhilarating and rewarding. The CoCubes story embodies all these aspects and makes for a fascinating and inspiring read for anyone interested in or pursuing entrepreneurshipI thought I would read the book over a few days and then I found I couldn't put it down and read [from] cover to cover in a day! Must-read for first-time entrepreneurs as Happy [Harpreet] and Vibhore's CoCubes story is very relatable and the easy-going writing style makes one feel that one is actually present! I found the second half of the book very interesting in how Happy shares his life and company-building lessons with an intimate look at the behind the scenes of the journey. Very refreshing and unique read which entrepreneurs will enjoyLet's Build a Company is a candid commentary on the joy, heartache and journey of the rollercoaster ride that is start-up life. Happy and Vibhore are relatable entrepreneurs and their well-captured journey and relatable experiences are a great summation of the people they are and what they set out to build!Harpreet and Vibhore's journey is like a textbook in entrepreneurship and is a must-read for young founders and wannabe founders. This straight-from-the-heart account of CoCubes, which I only had a chance to watch from a distance, is peppered with lessons that will help young founders learn about how entrepreneurship truly works-[the book] is not an account of overnight success but the travails of founders in taking something from idea to exit with all the drama along the way!Having been one of the earliest founders in the tech start-up ecosystem, the authors have presented their valuable entrepreneurial experience from ground zero in a manner that any reader will benefit from the sameAs a first-generation entrepreneur, Harpreet's narrative will inspire many young people. He has a lovely style that makes his book very readable. He comes across authentic. Tells you the stuff the way they really are. In parts tough, in parts full of hope, he tells you the story of an enterprise with the ease of a master storyteller. Harpreet is a great writer; visual, evocative, riveting, romantic. This book blurs the line between non-fiction and fiction in style and literary appealThe CoCubes journey will enrich the reader with an honest, on-the-ground perspective of starting a company and managing the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. It is a story of friendship, ambition, pragmatism, empathy and inspiration! Harpreet and Vibhore were my seniors in college, and they were inspirations to many, including me, to take the path of entrepreneurship. This book, I hope, inspires many more!