Startup Scene in India- Healthy, Wealthy or Noisy?
You can’t employ nine women to deliver a kid in one month. – Skip this post, if you think otherwise!
Quite lately, I am witnessing big time noise regarding indian startup ecosystem and how few individuals are trying to make quick buck (and fame) out of it.
From what I see, everybody seems to believe that bringing startups and VCs under a common roof is what makes a successful event.
An open suggestion to all those who think so:
Most of the startups I know, do not need funding. What they really need is mentorship.
Startups can’t afford to spend 1Lakh rupees a month to meet 5 investors (and pay for their lunch! – yeah! I know one VC who wants startups to pay for his five-star parties) – all startups need is insights, mentorship, help in closing partnerships and maybe, some amount of gyaan from relevant individuals.
Nobody needs gyaan on innovation anymore – I think innovation and ecosystem are the two most abused words these days.
Vijay and I have been discussing this for quite some time and looks like the outburst was well timed:
In the name of “Ecosystem” building, there are going to be quite a few companies which will pop up. There will be everyone from media companies, to magazine publishers, to investment firms launching a whole charade of events under that guise. I would not dare judge, nor tell you what you should do. But I will ask you to do one thing. Judge their intentions. Just ask yourself what is in it for them. Why are they doing the things that they do
I do agree with Vijay – infact, I’d rather add that in general, there is whole lot of noise in startup scene – right from media to bloggers, everybody seems to be in the race to milk startups.
My only suggestion to all ye startups – Know why you want to participate in a startup forum. Is it access to VCs? (in that case, mail me your b-plan and I will connect you to few good ones), or creating awareness of your product?
Or..?
What’er it is – know thy reason.
Otherwise your chances of being fooled by all these entities who are attempting to deliver a kid by employing nine women-and-leave-you-with-just-the-diapers, is very very high.
Most importantly, put your head down, cut the noise and build a good product.
And nothing else matters.
tags: indian startups
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About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
Well said.
This is Great Said.
I truly agree with you on this Ashish.
Cheers
Vaibhav
There is no option else good product and passion !
Know why you want to participate in a startup forum ?
-Job related
-Getting word out about product
-Getting Feedback on idea
-collaboration if any
-Day Dream of getting acquired with 6-digit-USD (not all 0) or getting funded [before starting 10 lines of code
] for the “KILLER” idea !
@ashish,
nothing wrong in meeting new people ! but i thing it is not central point.
-Raxit
http://www.mykavita.com/blog
nothing wrong with it. everyone is free to go and do their own event if they wish and create as much noise as they want. its a free country.
the problem is when some start claiming they are the only ones who are doing the hard work of building the ecosystem. others fall into the category of people with “disposable income”
.
I agree – anybody can start a new club for startups, but the weird part is they all seem to approach the problem in a wrong way!
I mean, how many times would you like to hear the same old people talking about the same old shit – i.e. innovation?
I guess, it’s important for startups to focus on what they should..
@ashish. yup.. i agree that innovation is a highly misused word. most of the time people dont even have an idea what they are talking about. but i think people are smart enough to figure that out. entrepreneurs are not that dumb. same goes for ecosystem.
Nice post, The VC and startup scene is probably the same everywhere, VCs & Mentors believe that they know enough about everything that a forum/community should be dominated by their views. The same applies to the guiding principles of building a startup. imho: If you can cosume very little so you dont need much funds, then bootstrap yourself and be as creative or innovative as you want. Just ignore the naysayers..
Hi Ashish Sinha,
I came across a social networking site called Desiji.com.I didnt see any
review about this site on Plugged.I dont write in a review style,so hope I
would be able to see its review here soon….
Note: I am no-way attached to Desiji.com
Thanks
Ashish A
@Girish – I do agree with you and that’s why it’s important for startups to understand whom they are talking to, why they attend some event?
Many a times, I don’t see that happening – its a herd mentality.
@Ashish A – Saw desiji..dunno why they are doing what they are doing. I mean I didnt see any differentiator that can help them take on Google and FaceBook..
Innovation/ Ecosystem etc. are going through a transformation, noise is quite natural. They’ll eventually find their right meaning with time and are quite independent of any individual’s definition/activities (be it anyone!).
What should be the harm in thinking to make quick bucks?
It’s just that people who really do it do not project it that they actually made it without much struggle. In my observation, it’s the desire to change the world and making money are the two biggest reasons behind the startup revolution because general belief is that both leads to highest levels of recognition.
The good advice I find is “Build good product”. Do not agree with “Nothing else matters” because lot many other things matter.
And to add to that, we need to get our definition of “mentorship” right. Of course several entrepreneurs think its overrated and they dont need it, but half the tragedies that happen in the name of building a product could possibly be avoided with an extra set of head thinking and debating out the issue.
I believe when Ashish says mentorship, its a continuous process, not one where they speed date for thirty minutes and think they’ve “mentored”
Thats another much bigger topic.
This discussion thread reminds of my own naive youth when:
[a] I thought printing business cards was the important first step to starting a business and
[b] reading about writing books would actually make you a writer, rather than putting pen down on paper (which I kept postponing)
Sure, a lot of things matter, as the prev commentator states, however I agree with you, that the basics, [a] have clear idea what you want to do [b] pull together a good team and [c] execute and deliver matters heck of a lot more for a startup than darn nearly anything else. The good news is that a whole lot of folks are trying to do just that as you can see here.
Srikrishna,
You still look pretty young in that pic. When did you print your own business cards?
Couldn’t agree with you more.
“Most of the startups I know, do not need funding. What they really need is mentorship. ”
I think good startups are the one who create value for the idea
rather than the value for the VC’s or the money.
May be its funny .. but I have never attended any forum/club/discussions where even a single startup said that they are having trouble in succeeding. I mean if no one ever has any issues or problems to share and learn from, why does almost everyone fail?
I think its time we talk amongst ourselves about what works and does not work. Mentorship is the way to go but before that we need to open up a bit too
Regards
Prateek
@Ashish – Nice post. Its good to take a reality check and I am really happy seeing this post. Having worked in a startup, some of the major problems I faced are
a) Direction and lack of focus
b) Unusual stress on doing things right
c) Lack of good Product direction, marketing, sales
d) Thought leadership
Some of the points above seem positive – but in retrospect are highly detrimental to the product and the people who work at startups.
Having said that, the culture is pretty different in the US and India. The drive and expectations from a startup are also very different. Hence the kind and quality of people one meets at such “conferences” is very different. IMHO it is a waste of time attending most such conferences.
[...] Startup Scene in India- Healthy, Wealthy or Noisy? [...]
start ups who face problems- those guys normally you dont see then in forums, secondly even if they are there they will be silent – will not have the guts to say i am a failure – these guys will open up only after smitten by success, will disclose yes i failed many times before i succeed.
there is no market now for innovations but right time to collaborate and bring in right minded . like minded ideas under one roof