A very popular trend called startup is striking up the mind of every Indian these days. But has the country really laid the groundwork to get this generation transformed into STARTUP GEN?
WHAT IS STARTUP?
Academically, it can be explained as a venture at the initial stage of the business. In substance, it is a thoughtful process with an innovative mind to initiate a new business idea in the domain.
STARTUP-A NEED FOR INDIA
Economy of countries like India with immense population and growth rate of 7% is expected to grow fast over the next decade. In the last 3 financial years, the per capita income of country has been increased by 28%, whereas the domestic consumption saw an increase of 55%. Government is giving their best to digitize India which will result into increasing internet penetration leading to greater choices and people will be more connected using the internet. Our businesses are now online and the economy is ready to takeoff.
All this shows that there is huge base for generating demand but of different and new products to fulfill which we need more innovation in the country which can be channelized better through these startups. In other words, this generation is really in a need a lot of startups embedded with innovative ideas.
SUPPORTING FACTS:
- Smartphones users in the country till are 220 millions (May 2016) which accounts for 16% of the population which are expected to reach 317.1 million by 2019.
- Internet users have been increased to 34.8% of total population.
- Launch of startup India movement with various action plans like tax exemptions, fund support, early exit etc. for the entrepreneurs.
- Electronic mode of payments has been increased by 55% from FY’12 –FY’15 (in terms of no. of transactions which includes ATM, POS, Mobile/prepaid, NEFT/RTGS, Digital wallet.
- Strong trust shown by venture capitalist and angel investors 200 USD billion worth deals happened in 2015 from 225 AIs AND 300 VCs.
E-commerce players are already showing their full potential with the intention of capturing the retail market by providing services at lot cheaper rates and lucrative offers in order to make people habitual to their services. A topical example is of OLA cabs which are providing its services at INR6-7 per km, a rate almost half of the fares charged by other players.
Continue or Exit by making a valuation gain: There are a lot of serial entrepreneurs who are running business with a view of selling them at an opportune time and make an exit. In my opinion, a startup should not exit by getting acquired by giant players. Rather their ultimate aim should be to build something valuable for the generation and create a name for their brand in the long run. Having said this, there are a lot of factors to be considered for this.
Better to start after experience.
It does make a lot of sense to start your own venture after working for a professional organization and acquire necessary skills. It is important to learn how these crackerjacks handle their daily issues and affairs for their firm; how they analyze and how do they set their strategic vision.
Faith on Long Term Potential
People generally prefer to work for those paying them now instead of taking initiative to start working for them. This is a big trade off between ‘a bird in hand is better than two in the bush’.
Concluding, our country needs to strengthen these running trend called STARTUP as it will not only bridge the gap of our social problems like poverty, unemployment but will also prove to be a blessing for various sectors like logistics, IT, telecom, Education etc. which are necessary for the growth of any economy.
Blog is written by Ravish Tiwari, Student of Sem II, MBA FA 2015-17 batch
