Start up culture in India - a bubble?

[CricketCartoons]

Every other day I hear of some new startup and talks of how much funding it got. The other day read about some start up which provides home delivery for tea. Read their website, and all say that we are here to disrupt the billion dollar market for blah blah. I don't understand business at all, but wondering what knowledgeable posters think about this phenomena of fresh grads forming a startup and getting millions in funding. Is it all a bubble or are they really adding value?

 

[IgnitedMind]

A bubble in terms of number of people starting startups..but obviously only a few will become a billion dollar giants. Most will fade away or be a just another good business. However, the culture of entrepreneurship is a huge positive sign which will have ripple effect on many things including generating employment which is an absolute necessity as we have the highest percentage of young population in the world... and it is impossible for existing govt or private sector to provide all the jobs. And one more positive is Brain drain will happen less..

Loved the benefits provided by the "Startup India" Initiative by Modi....should be a huge boost for budding entrepreneurs

 

[sshakir411]

The success rate with Startups is much lower...but if there is venture funding available with ease then that is great for India. It's hard to say if they're adding value yet since we haven't seen anything like fb/uber/twitter coming out of India...but the rise in startups is definitely a good trend.

They say if you want to know what the hottest jobs will be 5 years down the road, you should look at where Harvard Business School grads of today are going to. Major Tech firms or Startups are the new thing.

Will have to wait a while and see how it develops to answer your question accurately, but the breeding of entrepreneurship is a major value add for India.

 

[cricketjoshila]

The success rate with Startups is much lower...but if there is venture funding available with ease then that is great for India. It's hard to say if they're adding value yet since we haven't seen anything like fb/uber/twitter coming out of India...but the rise in startups is definitely a good trend.

They say if you want to know what the hottest jobs will be 5 years down the road, you should look at where Harvard Business School grads of today are going to. Major Tech firms or Startups are the new thing.

Will have to wait a while and see how it develops to answer your question accurately, but the breeding of entrepreneurship is a major value add for India.

Flipkart in terms of valuation is among worlds top startups

 

[sshakir411]

Flipkart in terms of valuation is among worlds top startups

didn't know about Flipkart until now. Thanks!

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Great thread.

I would love to see all the responses here.

I think start ups that don't own their intellectual property are going to get killed. Unless they grow fast enough to become a brand thereby making copycats less effective.

 

[sshakir411]

Great thread.

I would love to see all the responses here.

I think start ups that don't own their intellectual property are going to get killed. Unless they grow fast enough to become a brand thereby making copycats less effective.

Startups that are proprietary do have greater value but you don't necessarily have to have any IP or patents to be successful . You can take a regular existing business model and do it better than it's been done before.... an example of this are numerous dating/matching sites that have become popular in the US. Nothing proprietary about them...but some are way better than the others.

 

[Ironcat]

The start-up model in North America these days goes something like this:

1. Come up with a neat idea and begin with a couple of whiz kids from top schools.
2. Prove the prototype with the help of a seeder/angel.
3. Recruit a couple of top MBAs/biz folks to manage the business and raise funds.
4. Get initial customers, raise VC funding, get more customers, raise more funding, market bigger = get more customers, raise more funding, etc.
5. Keep looping through 4 until (A) you burn though all the funds without much customer traction or (B) your customer base grows large enough that it's everyone else who ends up in (A).
6. IPO or sale.

Profits are not an objective in 1 though 5. Sales are. You can even go IPO without profits - as long as you can show your losses are dropping.

Not too sure about Indian startups, but I'd imagine the opportunity set doesn't yet require the whiz kids in 1. Too many traditional business models to 'disrupt' as the US startups did 10-15 years ago.

 

[PetroDollars]

Silicon Valley in the last few years has seen a major boom, due to developing technology and with giants like Facebook/Google/Microsoft buying up startup companies with zero revenues from school kids for billions and billions of dollars, it has given everyone the dream of starting up there own company instead of getting a job.

Im not sure if you can call it a bubble or a boom, but due to technology still in its developing phase and the whole world changing so fast, these startups will continue to be formed as long as there are opportunities and gaps in the market what they can fill.

 

[Syed1]

For every start-up that makes it, thousands go bankrupt or lose funding.

 

[Thivagar]

Every other day I hear of some new startup and talks of how much funding it got. The other day read about some start up which provides home delivery for tea. Read their website, and all say that we are here to disrupt the billion dollar market for blah blah. I don't understand business at all, but wondering what knowledgeable posters think about this phenomena of fresh grads forming a startup and getting millions in funding. Is it all a bubble or are they really adding value?

Nobody wants to work hard for someone else and watch them earn millions and millions. Look at Donald Trump, that guy is an idiot, but look how rich he is. He just hires smart and intelligent people to do his work for him. So people now days want to work for themselves.

98% of the start up fails. Know your strength, know your weakness, know your demand, be intelligent and don't swing for the fence, always learn from your mistake, and have little bit of luck.

 

[Varun]

Every other day I hear of some new startup and talks of how much funding it got. The other day read about some start up which provides home delivery for tea. Read their website, and all say that we are here to disrupt the billion dollar market for blah blah. I don't understand business at all, but wondering what knowledgeable posters think about this phenomena of fresh grads forming a startup and getting millions in funding. Is it all a bubble or are they really adding value?

For every start-up which succeeds, there will be close to five others who don't make it - albeit at little long term loss. But the ones that experience success are here to stay for the medium term at the least.

Even you who hadn't heard of a computer same time last decade have now bitten the poisoned chalice and placed an order with Flipkart, or ridden in an Ola Cab at some point or the other.

What are these companies? Startups. So it's for the greater good that a bubble exists, if it does.

 

[JaDed]

The start-up model in North America these days goes something like this:

1. Come up with a neat idea and begin with a couple of whiz kids from top schools.
2. Prove the prototype with the help of a seeder/angel.
3. Recruit a couple of top MBAs/biz folks to manage the business and raise funds.
4. Get initial customers, raise VC funding, get more customers, raise more funding, market bigger = get more customers, raise more funding, etc.
5. Keep looping through 4 until (A) you burn though all the funds without much customer traction or (B) your customer base grows large enough that it's everyone else who ends up in (A).
6. IPO or sale.

Profits are not an objective in 1 though 5. Sales are. You can even go IPO without profits - as long as you can show your losses are dropping.

Not too sure about Indian startups, but I'd imagine the opportunity set doesn't yet require the whiz kids in 1. Too many traditional business models to 'disrupt' as the US startups did 10-15 years ago.

Don't think in India IPO is possible without showing profit one of the reasons i guess why rediff took the USA route.
There are lot of market gaps easy to fill in India we are hardly a consumer friendly country the problem being electrification and telecom presence in smaller towns which "as per news" is being worked on rapidly.

Also nowadays the major sales and economic activity is more in rural and semi urban areas esp w.r.t cosmetics ,automobiles etc.

 

[Garuda]

My cousin started his start up 5?years back and he is already in profits for last 2 years or so. His was one of the start up that got VC funding after they were profitable.

So yah, if you have a great idea it will be successful but there will be lot that won't.

But we need to encourage this trend as this will create employers instead of just employees.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[srh]

Wet toilet papers. I think that can be a great startup.

 

[PCP_1]

Wet toilet papers. I think that can be a great startup.

I don't see them working in non Asian markets (where people already just use water) as most of the white people I know avoid anything wet on their private regions like the plague, even more so in the winter. Whats even funnier is them making fun of us for using our hands.

 

[CricketCartoons]

I don't see them working in non Asian markets (where people already just use water) as most of the white people I know avoid anything wet on their private regions like the plague, even more so in the winter. Whats even funnier is them making fun of us for using our hands.

I think faucets are the best. No hands, plus water stream with force.

 

[PCP_1]

I think faucets are the best. No hands, plus water stream with force.

Doesn't matter. You need to use your hand (with or without toilet paper) to guarantee 100% results and peace of behind.

 

[CricketCartoons]

I don't like how the Indian media is obsessed with funding and not on what value the business is going to create. Most of the ideas are just aggregation. What about the brick and mortar shops who cannot compete with the ecommerce giants, the brokers whose livelihood is being taken away by the housing websites. Shouldn't something be done to protect them?

 

[Bewal Express]

It's a fad and as always, most will fail but one or two will be successful. I recently met an ex premier league manager and asked him how his job hunting is going and he jokingly said that after the success of Alex O'Neil at Norwich, chairman will look to young Scottish managers and he wished he was a young Scottish manager.

 

[iHammad]

Watch TVF Pitchers, great show

 

[gani999]

Wet toilet papers. I think that can be a great startup.

Those have been around for ages. They are actually not very popular as some people have been known to develop allergies to the solution that is used to make the tissue wet.

Coming back to startups, in my opinion the most important thing is knowing whether the market exists. Those who can find a niche in the market usually survive, whether or not they own any intellectual property.

And where there is a market, even copycats can thrive. A good example is Flipkart, which is just a copy of Amazon.

 

[PCP_1]

Those have been around for ages. They are actually not very popular as some people have been known to develop allergies to the solution that is used to make the tissue wet.
.

Without the allergy developing solution the wet toilet paper would most likely disintegrate.

So, on the hole, I think using the hand is the best option.

 

[gani999]

Without the allergy developing solution the wet toilet paper would most likely disintegrate.

No they won't. The wet toilet papers are actually made of some kind of fibre that is much stronger than the one used in regular paper.

 

[CricketCartoons]

Has the bubble burst? Keep hearing of shutdowns.

 

[anakin]

Has the bubble burst? Keep hearing of shutdowns.

Yes sir! It was exposed after you posted this thread ... and consequently people have learnt their mistakes and have started to shut shop!!

 

[CricketCartoons]

Yes sir! It was exposed after you posted this thread ... and consequently people have learnt their mistakes and have started to shut shop!!

They better shut shop. It was all about how much funding X is getting instead of what value X is bringing. Wasting investors money to give themselves salary hikes and a lavish lifestyle. Good riddance these fly by night operators.

 

[anakin]

They better shut shop. It was all about how much funding X is getting instead of what value X is bringing. Wasting investors money to give themselves salary hikes and a lavish lifestyle. Good riddance these fly by night operators.

The Truth has been spoken!! Prophecy fulfilled . The Chosen **** has delivered his judgement!
Winter is Coming

 

[pillionrider]

They better shut shop. It was all about how much funding X is getting instead of what value X is bringing. Wasting investors money to give themselves salary hikes and a lavish lifestyle. Good riddance these fly by night operators.

True. Except that you would have loved to be one of those who got to throw away some random VC's shady money.

Needed an idea and the ability though

 

[AamchiMumbaikar]

Has the bubble burst? Keep hearing of shutdowns.

Of course when x number of start ups spring in every nook end corner there shall be always y number of shutdowns too because of competition and improper business models. As long as y < x it's good, people need not migrate or be unemployed in the society.

BTW are you a Bangladeshi living in India?

 

[CricketCartoons]

True. Except that you would have loved to be one of those who got to throw away some random VC's shady money.

Needed an idea and the ability though

I spit on job offers by these start ups who were after me to become their director.

 

[pillionrider]

I spit on job offers by these start ups who were after me to become their director.

You salivate over so much, you have a lot of saliva to spit on so many things. And people

 

[Slog]

Of course when x number of start ups spring in every nook end corner there shall be always y number of shutdowns too because of competition and improper business models. As long as y < x it's good, people need not migrate or be unemployed in the society.

BTW are you a Bangladeshi living in India?

x will always be greater than y lol even in worst case scenario

 

[anakin]

You salivate over so much, you have a lot of saliva to spit on so many things. And people

CC might be suffering from some sort of hormonal disorder

 

[JaDed]

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east...oose-india-over-china-startups-2021-tech-boom

Investors choose India over China for startups in 2021 tech boom


———————

Sumit Gupta has had a big year – turning 30, getting married and seeing his startup become one of India’s newest tech unicorns. Hampered by the coronavirus pandemic and too busy expanding and getting funding for his cryptocurrency platform CoinDCX, his team finally grabbed a few days on the beach in Goa to celebrate recently. “That was very delightful to everyone,” Gupta told AFP. “It’s been a very, very exciting journey. I’ve learned a lot... The future of India is very bright.” This year 44 Indian unicorns – privately held startups valued at more than US$1 billion – were minted as investors piled money into a country long overlooked despite its vast potential.


Overseas funds put more than US$35 billion into Indian startups in 2021 – a tripling from 2020, according to data compiled by Tracxn – buying into everything from fintech and health to gaming. Foreign investors have long preferred China, another Asian country with more than a billion people. But Beijing’s clampdown on runaway growth in China’s powerful internet sector, and reining in of big businesses, have spooked investors and wiped billions off giants such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

In the startup space, investors this year sank US$54.5 billion into Chinese firms, down from US$73 billion in 2020, analysis by GlobalData showed. India by contrast became more attractive, with its large pool of well-educated entrepreneurs upending how many businesses work using a fast-developing digital infrastructure

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continued in the link with caution on it..