Million Dollar Idea - Most of the would-be entrepreneurs in India wait for it to take the plunge in the wild start-up world. I have talked to many passionate individuals to verify this assumption and found it only partially true. Other reasons mentioned by most of them was a lack of great team and a missing ecosystem where entrepreneurship is supported.
Though I partially agree that a decent idea is some thing worth waiting for, but am not sure whether it necessarily needs to be a starting point. It can come with healthy discussions with the people you consider your core team. Great team is not some thing that we are born with. It can follow once you decide to take the plunge and start talking to people about your dreams -there are many people like us living around sharing the same vision.
Other reason which pulls the thought of entrepreneurship down - the current Indian ecosystem, is something that I found alarming since we need support from the industry veterans to change that. Everything said in newspapers seem like a marketing gimmick; we know the hard facts that the ecosystem to nurture entrepreneurs still don't exist in the country. There are VC/PE firms to infuse money in the start-up world but there are hardly any Angel investors/seed investors.
I had a chat with a VC some time back and his logic was that it's easy for us to invest 10 million dollars 5 times than 1 million dollars 50 times since it saves energy in hunting down the potential companies and later managing them. My immediate question was who needs 10 million dollars as a seed fund and he said "that's why we are not a seed fund" :)
Interesting, I guess management of time and energy of the VC firm is determining who needs to be funded today and at what stage. I am not saying that phase B or C funding is not required et al. All I am trying to mention here is that we need to nurture talent right from the start to make a Google come out of India. The very fact that most of the start-ups in India look out for $100k to $500k seed fund is because, in India, it's huge money and is good enough for a service company to sustain in the initial phase, but since the fund managers are interested in giving more money, they neglect these applications considering them trash or 'good but not interested' category.
We are missing the Indianized version of VCs - local money lenders or sahukars, who understand the Indian mentality and who could help in evolving talent right from the start. Narayan Murthy has taken a nice step in this direction though I am not sure about his targeted token amount.
We hope to see some Indianized VCs in the coming times who would help in cultivating the talent in more Indianized way. I hope we would get an answer to the 'No-Google from 1 Billion' syndrome, provided we get the right ecosystem.
Though I partially agree that a decent idea is some thing worth waiting for, but am not sure whether it necessarily needs to be a starting point. It can come with healthy discussions with the people you consider your core team. Great team is not some thing that we are born with. It can follow once you decide to take the plunge and start talking to people about your dreams -there are many people like us living around sharing the same vision.
Other reason which pulls the thought of entrepreneurship down - the current Indian ecosystem, is something that I found alarming since we need support from the industry veterans to change that. Everything said in newspapers seem like a marketing gimmick; we know the hard facts that the ecosystem to nurture entrepreneurs still don't exist in the country. There are VC/PE firms to infuse money in the start-up world but there are hardly any Angel investors/seed investors.
I had a chat with a VC some time back and his logic was that it's easy for us to invest 10 million dollars 5 times than 1 million dollars 50 times since it saves energy in hunting down the potential companies and later managing them. My immediate question was who needs 10 million dollars as a seed fund and he said "that's why we are not a seed fund" :)
Interesting, I guess management of time and energy of the VC firm is determining who needs to be funded today and at what stage. I am not saying that phase B or C funding is not required et al. All I am trying to mention here is that we need to nurture talent right from the start to make a Google come out of India. The very fact that most of the start-ups in India look out for $100k to $500k seed fund is because, in India, it's huge money and is good enough for a service company to sustain in the initial phase, but since the fund managers are interested in giving more money, they neglect these applications considering them trash or 'good but not interested' category.
We are missing the Indianized version of VCs - local money lenders or sahukars, who understand the Indian mentality and who could help in evolving talent right from the start. Narayan Murthy has taken a nice step in this direction though I am not sure about his targeted token amount.
We hope to see some Indianized VCs in the coming times who would help in cultivating the talent in more Indianized way. I hope we would get an answer to the 'No-Google from 1 Billion' syndrome, provided we get the right ecosystem.
I am not aware of the VC's presence in the Indian financial environment. But I know that there are million of dollars locked in the safes of filthy rich people in India who do not know what to do with so much money (black or white)
ReplyDeleteI believe what can be done is to come up with an initiative to establish a Seed funding agency in agreement with the GOI where the rich people can come and park their money freely without any tax liabilities. This will not only give mobility to their stagnated money in the lockers but could also earn them great returns. At the same time the entrepreneurs will get the much needed support for implementing their ideas.
@Daga - Great Idea. but I know some Government initiatives where they are doing the same. For eg. - RE-Search program, CIIE - IIM Ahmedabad is supported by MNRE, GOI and Gujarat government where they provide support both financially and mentoring wise. I agree to the fact that there is a need of much more support, both from government and private sector.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I have read your blog. interesting to see your interest in entrepreneurships and start up blossoming. Keep it going and let us connect some time. We might some things to talk about.:)
ReplyDelete@Manuraj - thanks for the feedback.. I have moved to Mumbai lately. Lets catch up when you are in town..
ReplyDelete