There is one thing which is common between startups such as Housing, Snapdeal, and FreeCharge. Jason Kothari, referred as business turnaround leader was the former CEO of Housing & FreeCharge and former CSIO [Chief Strategy and Investment Officer] of Snapdeal. He started his career as the co-founder and CEO of Valiant Entertainment, a US based superhero entertainment company.
Majority of us know about the founders of these startups but not many might know that Jason Kothari played a pivotal role in the turnaround of these companies when they were facing the the most turbulent times. He is also the Executive Producer of the Bloodshot [Sony Pictures] starring Vin Diesel.
We had the opportunity to read the book Irrationally Passionate: My Turnaround from Rebel to Entrepreneur by Jason Kothari. The book reveals the inside story of how a rebel, train-wreck kid transformed himself into a successful young entrepreneur and business leader who became one of the top ten paid executives in India while in his 30s. Irrationally Passionate is a highly personal, authentic, open, and complete account of a young entrepreneur’s life.
About the Author
Jason Kothari went on to transform distressed internet icons Housing, FreeCharge, and Snapdeal, helping them save billions of dollars in value. He is also served as the advisor for giants like Softbank and real-estate developer Emaar which has invested billions of dollars in India. You can find more about Jason Kothari from his LinkedIn profile.
Detailed Review
Before I start off with the detailed review, one thing which I have to admit is that this book was in my bucket list since this blog has been a small [yet a crucial role] by interacting with startup founders about their startups. Coming back to the review, the book starts with Jason recollecting his childhood events where he tried his negotiation skills with a seller and managed to get a chess board for Rs. 30. This is what made Jason realize that he had the persistence and gut to turn things around in his favor.
He gets the first taste of entrepreneurship at the age of 19 where he is raising funds for a company named Valiant Entertainment which he has followed since his early years. The author also touches upon his childhood life in Hong Kong and later in the US. There are interesting learnings from the game of baseball and how Jason went on the learn the sport, inspite of facing several hurdles. As mentioned, Functioning as a unit made him realize the importance of being a selfless player and putting the team first.
It also touches upon the passion that Jason Kothari had for entrepreneurship and how he hung on to his passion. He also talks about the importance of making mistakes and not repeating the same by taking valuable lessons from those mistakes. Te most interesting part of the book is the section where he talks about the turnaround of Valiant Entertainment from bankruptcy and bringing it back to life. This is when he was the college student at Wharton and arranged funds from family & friends. Few years later, he transformed Valiant entertainment into world’s third largest superhero entertainment company which was later sold for $1oo million.
We particularly liked the chapter titled Not every seed is meant to bloom a forest which talks about the transformation of Snapdeal to Snapdeal 2.0, the turn-around of events, interaction with Snapdeal investors, transformation of FreeCharge, and more. It is a must-read for anyone who is slightly interested in entrepreneurship and startups.
Few excerpts from the book:
Sometimes, the most important decision an entrepreneur makes is knowing when to pull the plug. You have to understand what a sunk cost is and not throw good money after bad. These decisions are often among the most agonizing the entrepreneur encounters. As a battle-hardened business-people, we have conditioned ourselves to never quit, never accept defeat.
That’s what so deceiving about disinvestments or the closing of business lines or geographies – what on the surface may appear to be a ‘loss’ may actually be the key that unlocks the door to strategic wins.
There is emphasis on the sale of FreeCharge for shaping up Snapdeal 2.0. There are chapters that highlight about his role in Housing.com where he took over as the CEO at a very rocky time. He cites the importance of focusing on important features when building a product and why entrepreneurs [and key executives] should take right product decisions when building a startup. He also speaks about the series of events and interactions that led to the closure of renting module in Housing so that there is concentrated focus on the buying-selling module. He took the decision even when employees and other executives were of the firm belief that renting module was key to the company.
We liked the writing style and the usage of simple language throughout the book. It is around 230 pages long and consists of 11 chapters in total. We specifically liked the sections where he talks about his career as a turn-around specialist in prominent Indian startups. As entrepreneurship is hard, he also talks about the importance of meditation in controlling emotions and reducing stress & anxiety.
Closing Thoughts
It would have been better if more details were added about how Jason Kothari dealt with decision differences with other leaders within the company, internal politics being played, and more. This would have been an icing on the cake for this otherwise wonderful read!
You can purchase Irrationally Passionate: My Turnaround from Rebel to Entrepreneur by Jason Kothari by clicking on the link below: