There are now thousands of entrepreneurs in India, and many more Indians are starting their own businesses as we speak. Even with mistakes, disappointments, and setbacks, all things considered, startup founders continue to want to realize their ambitions, no matter what.
This course shares an example of a hugely successful startup, perhaps the biggest entrepreneurship success story out of India – Freshworks.
India’s greatest achievement in the last decade has been the consistent unleashing of the entrepreneurial movement. The risk tolerance of the Indian population has increased. No longer is it the Holy Grail to lust after fat salaries at multinationals. The dream of building something of your own seduces people in India, even if that implies a built-in risk of failure.
In the first nine months of 2021, India saw a record number of new unicorns, with 66 founded in the country so far, according to NASSCOM.
If you want to build a venture-funded company, you should understand what investors look for before approaching VCs. Don’t go prematurely. Pre-seed funding is extremely difficult, rejection rates are very high.
It’s also worth noting that learning to focus on a certain domain is essential.
If you’re just getting started, there are various ways to get your business up and running.
Bottomline, no investor in India would fund you unless you do some amount of bootstrapping to get to validation.
Remember the 1Mby1M mantra: Do NOT go to investors as beggars, go as kings ?
And finally, you will need to enhance your understanding of Indian startup financing before attempting to obtain external funding.
We’ve spent the past three decades immersed in entrepreneurial endeavors both in India, Silicon Valley and around the world. We synthesize thousands of entrepreneurial stories into a few dozens of key courses.
Be sure to deeply understand How Investors Think before you go chasing investors.
When you do, don’t do so with a begging bowl. Go with real validation and command the respect that would result in successful funding rounds.
