Book Review : Ganesha's Global Startup

Ganesha’s Global Startup by Prachi Garg is more like a pocketbook for entrepreneurs wishing to raise funding and take their business on a global stage. At 155 pages this is a short read with takeaways after every chapter.

The story involves Ganesha, a foodie who embarks on a food based business – ‘Sweet Post,’ after the experiences of a failed startup. This time around he has grown wiser and it shows in Sweet Post’s success. The business is doing good and he even wins the ‘Entrepreneur of the year’ award, but now the logical next step is scaling up and taking the business global. Does Ganesha have what it takes to make Sweet Post a global success? This is what the book is about.

Prachi Garg has used Ganesha’s story to share the possible doubts, pitfalls, deliberations and common mistakes that businesses planning to scale make. While the names are mythological, they don’t really influence the narrative in any way. The book is not about taking mythology and using it to show an entrepreneurial journey. It is more to show the kind of personality traits one should look for when looking for advisors, investors, collaborators and similar.

I liked the takeaway section at the end of every chapter. It touches upon important points during an entrepreneur’s journey and things that they should focus on. Like Ganesha many entrepreneurs are gripped by self-doubt when they are approaching a venture capitalist. The book has some advice and also adds a VC’s perspective. Understanding what they might be looking for will help improve the pitch and increase the chances of getting to the next level.

Similarly, it details the necessities that an entrepreneur shouldn’t ignore while scaling up. The right time to expand the team, getting the right people and investing in standardizing are few of the things that caught my attention. 

Overall, even if you aren’t someone to bother with tedious books, this can be a good way to remember the key points by reading and implementing the takeaways at the end of the chapter. The book isn’t much detailed and hence does not fall in the bracket of a true blue business book; however it is definitely something that will nudge you in the right direction. Similarly, the incorporation of mythological characters seemed forced and it could have been done without. 

A book of tips that is focused on various sectors or maybe there was a classification based on the diversity of approaches for products or services could have had a universal appeal.