What examples did you see in Bhavin's entrepreneurial journey for each of the 14 Rules?

Rule No. 1: There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get Outside The time Bhavin first
realised that he wanted to drop out of his PhD in Economics and be a full time entrepreneur by
offering an online rummy game to the Indians, he felt for that dream to fulfil, he had to leave United
States and visit India. Since the game was to be designed for the Indians and he had never been to
India before, he had to start by understanding the mind-set of Indians and their will to play online
rummy by depositing money. So, he got outside his building, i.e. he came to India from US.
Rule No. 2: Pair Customer Development with Agile Development - Agile software development is
a class of software development methods where demands and solutions evolve through collaboration
between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary
development, early delivery, continuous improvement and encourages rapid and flexible response. It
is a conceptual framework that focuses on delivering working software with the minimum amount of
work. In this case study, Bhavin realised that in order to continuously provide the customers with
awesome gaming experience and to retain the customer base, he had to improve his software, redefine
the technology and the online interface etc. with the help of his technical team as in agile development
methods.
Rule No. 3: Failure is an Integral Part of the Search- According to Bhavin himself, he failed
dreadfully many times but he hung in there and kept on learning from his mistakes such as choosing a
wrong person as the technology co-founder, few wrong and rushed decisions etc. Failures could never
demotivate him even for a while as he believed in himself and his two mantras that When there is a
will, there is a way and Do what you enjoy and enjoy what you do.
Rule No. 4: Make Continuous Iterations and Pivots- As Bhavin wanted to provide his customers
with awesome gaming experience each and every time they used to visit the website for online
rummy, so he had to continuously make iterations and pivots such as changing the interface,
providing safe and secure payment gateway, making the game more interesting, customized treatment
for regular players, feedback, loyalty programme etc. He understood in his initial days only that if he
wanted to make the game appealing to customers, then it was necessary to put efforts throughout with
the iterations and pivots in this gaming domain.
Rule No. 5: No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers So Use a Business Model
Canvas- They, like any other businesses had to go through the intense process of preparing business
model canvas identifying their VP, CS, CH, CR, KR, KA, KP etc. and finally evaluating their revenue
from the project. Bhavin did that homework for his company in US only and then he decided to come
to India for the execution of his plan.
Rule No. 6: Design Experiments and Test to Validate Your Hypotheses- It is crucial for any
entrepreneur to start with. He had to go through numerous runs of the online rummy game before
making it online. The online portal, the outlook, the payment gateway etc. and all for a successful,
trustworthy and awesome gaming experience for their first time customers and a customized one for
his repeat customers so that it attracts them.
Rule No. 7: Agree on Market Type. It Changes everything- The response from the market changes
the course of any business. Every entrepreneur has to be careful about this and needs to keep
himself/herself updated always about the market demands. The moment Bhavin understood the
smartphones are on a rise in India, he soon told his technology team to make the platform for the
mobiles so that online rummy can be played on their mobiles only which was an example of his
intuition which went with the flow of the market itself-hence it exemplifies this statement.

Rule No. 8: Startup Metrics Differ from Those in Existing Companies- The ground rules for a
start-up differ a lot from those of the existing companies. The first hurdle is the search for the
investor. So, Bhavin had to start it with the help of angel investors. Then, a startup takes a lot of time
to build a good and dedicated team and formulate its strategies which are already well defined in an
existing company so Bhavin had to really work hard on that part. Plus, they encounter many problems
regarding the permissions from the authorities etc. and Bhavin had to convince a lot of people that
what he was providing is NOT a gambling platform, as Rummy is NOT a game of chance.
Rule No. 9: Fast Decision-Making, Cycle Time, Speed and Tempo- Any new start up
establishment needs to make prompt and fast decisions, increase their thinking speed and the tempo to
match up with the existing competitors in the market as well as to make their product more and more
appealing for the customers. In Bhavins case, he had to make few hurried decisions both good and
bad such as moving to India suddenly, going for the company even though his technology backed out
at the last moment, shifting to a large office, skilfully getting the internet connection, making the chief
architect the chief technology officer and many more. About the speed and the tempo, he had to
continuously change the online interface, the portal, etc. to match with the thought process of the
players.
Rule No. 10: Its All About Passion- In most cases start-ups come out of immense passion of the
founder. In this case, Bhavin was such a passionate player of online poker in USA along with his cofounder that he decided to go for such a kind of thing in India but maintaining the transparency and
the legal issues. He had to go through a thorough research work to figure out rummy was a game of
skill in India and it can be offered for online gaming plus money making. He was so passionate that
he even dropped out of his PhD to pursue his entrepreneurship career.
Rule No. 11: Startup Job Titles are very different from a Large Companys- In large companies,
there are various job titles and different jobs are being assigned to different people. But, in a start-up,
the founder team takes a long time to form completely so one person has to take up as many job titles
as possible as per the requirements of the company. Bhavin worked day and night in many job titles
staring from handling sales, delivering letters, attending Board meetings, talking to the Bank people
etc.
Rule No. 12: Preserve All Cash Until Needed. Then Spend- Financially, the most important thing
in a start-up to preserve the cash and spend it whenever needed the most. A startup is generally not
funded by a VC, so its really advisable to preserve the cash. Bhavin also handled his cash very wisely
till he came to India first from USA, founding other members for the team, making the interface,
getting a space for their office, validating all the documents, getting permissions from Bank etc.
Rule No. 13: Communicate and Share Learning- Communication in between the team members
and sharing of ideas is a must for the growth of a startup even though the idea comes from a lower
level employee but the founder should see to it as a path breaking idea but not as a prestige issue.
Bhavin also trusted his core team very much and was very much open to ideas from his team. He
considered his team as a family.
Rule No. 14: Customer Development Success Begins with Buy In- For any start-up to work out,
customer development is one of the most crucial. In this case, it was Bhavins nave nature/immaturity
or the passion for his startup whatever it was, he worked hard based on his nature and passion to such
an extent to satisfy his customers by providing them with a real time online rummy playing plus
money making experience. All the problems that came in his way regarding the office shifting,
internet connection, payment gateway etc. he was able to tackle them all keeping in mind that
ultimately he needs to achieve customer satisfaction in any way possible.

Question 2. State what were Games24x7 BMC components.

Answer: - The Games 24X7 BMC components were as follows: CS- Segmented customers mainly people in the age group 25-55 years approximately and people in
the income group earning 4-5lakhs per annum and above
CH- Channels mainly through web sales, website rebranding, sales team, best in class loyalty
programme after sales
KR- Human resources in terms of architects, chief technology officers, technology team, sales team,
design team etc, Financial resources in terms of VCs like Tiger Global Management, Physical
resources in terms of few offices, Intellectual resources in terms of providing ideas to attract both new
and old customers
KP- Partnership with ICICI Bank payment gateway for safe and secure payment.
KA- Excellent platforms for both computers and smartphones, Networking, Secure payment gateway,
User friendly interface of game playing, Best in class loyalty programme, Hypothesis worked upon to
make the model work
VP- Newness as the first ever online rummy gaming in India along with money making and the first
ever legally approved payment gateway for online account creation and depositing money, Excellent
design of interface and the portal to provide awesome gaming experience, Prices from low to high
depending on our investment, Highly customized experience for the repeat players, Providing bonus
and coupons, 24X7 customer support, Answering to the trust and credibility problem of customers
with best in class loyalty programme, Rebranding of the rummy playing website, User friendly
interface, Speed of service really high, Accessible from anywhere just with an internet connection,
Platforms available on smartphones too.
CR- Social communities, Co-creation, Automated services, Self service through website, personal
interaction between team and its clients, loyalty programme, customized experience for repeat
players, awesome experience for the first time users, secure payment gateway