NEW YORK—Not many people would leave a stable job in corporate America and an office with a $50 million budget to start a new venture from their homes, but that is exactly what Anand Sanwal did. He left his job at American Express and founded CB Insights, a startup company monitoring and analyzing data about private companies.
CB insight was founded in 2008, just before the market crashed. The beginning was tough, forcing Sanwall to pay his 2 employees out of his own pocket for a few months. Currently, the company has eight employees and interns are lining up to get a chance to work in an exciting new venture.
The Epoch Times:What is it like to be an entrepreneur?
Sanwal: Being an entrepreneur is exciting, frightening, and all of the above. We have really good days, and some bad days. There are highs and lows. I would not keep doing it if the highs weren’t greater in number than the lows. The winds keep us going.
We have created something from nothing. We had an idea, we didn’t have a website, didn’t have a team. We just had nothing. Now we compete against very large companies and we beat them for business. We are still a relatively unknown brand but I think people see value in what we do. That feels great.
There is a process of creation, and winning customers and building something people want, which is extremely nice.
Epoch Times: How did people react to your decision to leave American Express?
Sanwal: My wife has been super-supportive. She saw that I was not content, so she said, ‘You need to do it for yourself.’ Some friends at American Express wondered, ‘Why are you doing this? You are doing well here, and it seems excessively risky.’ But for the most part, people who know me well knew that I was not going to be happy working in a big company forever. Their reaction was, ‘It is about time.’
In 2008, everybody was worried for themselves. It was a crazy time for everybody. They wished me well and got back to what they needed to do, keeping their job.
Epoch Times: Do you have advice for people who are becoming entrepreneurs?
Sanwal: I hate giving advice. You have to just give it a try. You can over analyze it; you can put your models together, but ...
If you are trying to sell to whoever, go talk to as many of those people as possible and ask, ‘I am thinking of building X, would you buy it?’ You don’t have to leave your job to do that.
If the reaction is really positive maybe you have something worth exploring. If they say ‘Nahh’, then maybe it’s not. More likely, they would say, ‘That is not exactly our need, but here is our need’. Then you might end up figuring our how the product looks.
A lot people talk about entrepreneurship because it is kind of sexy. Like running a marathon, everybody talks about doing it but 99 percent of the people don’t do it. But, those who are out there, trying to talk to people will ultimately cut the cord.
CB insight was founded in 2008, just before the market crashed. The beginning was tough, forcing Sanwall to pay his 2 employees out of his own pocket for a few months. Currently, the company has eight employees and interns are lining up to get a chance to work in an exciting new venture.
The Epoch Times:What is it like to be an entrepreneur?
Sanwal: Being an entrepreneur is exciting, frightening, and all of the above. We have really good days, and some bad days. There are highs and lows. I would not keep doing it if the highs weren’t greater in number than the lows. The winds keep us going.
We have created something from nothing. We had an idea, we didn’t have a website, didn’t have a team. We just had nothing. Now we compete against very large companies and we beat them for business. We are still a relatively unknown brand but I think people see value in what we do. That feels great.
There is a process of creation, and winning customers and building something people want, which is extremely nice.
Epoch Times: How did people react to your decision to leave American Express?
Sanwal: My wife has been super-supportive. She saw that I was not content, so she said, ‘You need to do it for yourself.’ Some friends at American Express wondered, ‘Why are you doing this? You are doing well here, and it seems excessively risky.’ But for the most part, people who know me well knew that I was not going to be happy working in a big company forever. Their reaction was, ‘It is about time.’
In 2008, everybody was worried for themselves. It was a crazy time for everybody. They wished me well and got back to what they needed to do, keeping their job.
Epoch Times: Do you have advice for people who are becoming entrepreneurs?
Sanwal: I hate giving advice. You have to just give it a try. You can over analyze it; you can put your models together, but ...
If you are trying to sell to whoever, go talk to as many of those people as possible and ask, ‘I am thinking of building X, would you buy it?’ You don’t have to leave your job to do that.
If the reaction is really positive maybe you have something worth exploring. If they say ‘Nahh’, then maybe it’s not. More likely, they would say, ‘That is not exactly our need, but here is our need’. Then you might end up figuring our how the product looks.
A lot people talk about entrepreneurship because it is kind of sexy. Like running a marathon, everybody talks about doing it but 99 percent of the people don’t do it. But, those who are out there, trying to talk to people will ultimately cut the cord.
