Humans tend to be inspired easily and love to just follow others without much thought. We are also living in the phase of humanity where we tend to be obsessed with extremely silly concepts. My friend had told me that the year 2015 was ” The Year Of Getting Offended” in our country, just like that we are in the startup phase. I also realised this is going to be really hard for me to format into an acceptable manner.
Let’s talk about the startup trend in India. I want to refer to this because it seems to be one of the few topics which people expect to be serious but is actually just hilarious.
“Everyone wants to have a visiting card which says Founder / Co- Founder “
I had taken that line as a joke until I met quite a few people recently, who actually just want a startup because it’s hip and seems to be the in-thing and also because they are in the possession of too much ££ ( Screw you $). Now the question is how informed were they? The handful I met knew as much as about a startup business as I know about performing a lobotomy. It’s become like a hobby, which is evident from the number of startups that just fail in a few months, both with and without funding.
” Let’s have a startup! “
Believe me, I have been approached with this line. There was no idea or plan, no product. It was just that we should have a startup. About what? Anything, but let’s have a startup. Media talks about the millions of funding which companies get and they portray it in a way that certain idiots in the country believe it’s as easy as walking up to some VC and asking for a few millions. This person who approached me with that line spoke about it like it’s as simple as going to a juice shop and ordering a lime juice.
” Bro, it’s for resume “
Yes, this guy wanted to start a company to put it on his resume, and then sell it after 6-10 months. That’s the idea some of the people I have come across, have in their mind about the new startup culture. So according to these people it’s really simple and once you are bored or fed up with it, it can easily be sold and one ends up with lots of cash. So easy. Heh.
I blame our herd mentality when it comes to this scenario. I have seen a company which calls itself ‘ Bro4U’, which speaks volumes about the team around it. Who is insane enough to fund something called Bro4U? It’s like something that was created during the Hi5 era. Nonetheless, I do hope that they reach somewhere and survives the aggressive times ahead.
I do like how the country is supportive of entrepreneurs recently. This has indeed led to quite a large number of useful products and services(the majority being clones of US Startups/Companies) and made our lives easier and helped us to become lazier. Even those of who might have been unlucky or just bad at the business would have learnt a lot. That would be the good side of the situation. Ideas which wouldn’t have been implemented a few years back because the lack of support and fear of failure, is being made into reality. I am sure that people who have innovative ideas will actually make an effort during these times than just dismissing it. Overall the positive points outweigh the negative in this scenario.
Now, investors and VCs are more sensible and not throwing money at everyone. State governments are encouraging the trend and helping incubators too ( Especially you Kerala). I am really looking forward to seeing some innovative ideas coming into action in the upcoming years which aren’t something just copied from the US startups. Also, that people don’t just jump into the wagon and burn the whole thing down.
