Startup Indi-Yeah
The host of the program looked into the camera pointing at him and asked, ‘Let’s have a show of hands. How many here want to start-up?’. Many a hand went up, including mine. The host quickly searched the crowd and then pointing his hand at me and asked, ‘You. In the dark blue shirt. What do you think the government should do to help start-ups?’. The TV camera along with the gaze of the audience turned towards me. I could hear my heart thumping and my mind voice saying, ‘say something intelligent’. A brief moment later, which seemed like ages to my mind, a torrent of words came out. I said something to the effect of ‘Why does the process needed to start a venture takes at least 3 months of paperwork in India? Compare that to Singapore where you can start-up in 15 minutes by filling out details online.’ The cameras panned back to the host who then turned towards Mohandas Pai, one of the panellist of the event, for an answer.
This was in January 2013. News channels were holding panel talks asking corporate about their ‘Indian Government’ budget asks. The setting was open air amphitheatre at IIM Bangalore campus. I was, am (or will be) no student of IIM Bangalore but was assisting my then boss who also happened to be invited as a panellist for the Bloomberg UTV show hosted by Vikram Oza. Mohandas Pai was a co-panellists for the show. Mr. Pai answered my question in his usual way of garnishing it with statistics. He seemed optimistic that process for startups can only get better from thereon. Did it?
A few weeks back (January 2016), I found myself queuing up in front of Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on a cold foggy winter morning. The who’s who of start-up world had descended at the venue on the invite of the Government of India. A couple of meters ahead was Mr. Mohandas Pai in his simple kurta attire standing with the rest of entrepreneurs to get into the venue. Only this time, both of us were on the same side seeking answers for our respective entrepreneurial ventures. Excitement was quite visible in the air despite Delhi’s smog. Everyone waited with bated breath to listen to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi to announce a new policy for start-ups (details are here). It was a long and eventful day peppered with lot of motivational talks from ‘been there done that’ (unicorns), ‘Doing that’ (babycorn) & some less known ‘new kid in block’ (popcorn). Finally it was time for this Scrat (squirrel character in Ice Age movie) to see and listen to the acorn who was to adorn the packed room with his words.
Narendra started off saying, ‘This is not the first time that Vigyan Bhavan is full! But it’s the first time its brimming full with energy’ drawing a loud claps and cheers. As usual, his talk had loads of promises (which everyone is hoping that the government will keep), played to the gallery with lot of punch lines and some cleverly veiled jibes which would be sound bites for the media for a week. For a change, a government has been dreaming of making its country, the startup capital of the world. And it has the right demography (people in their 20’s and 30's), each of them impatient, restless and wanting change in everything around them. The very same attributes coupled with hard work would unleash new innovations to this world.
I wouldn’t deliberate what the policy stands for? Or how will it be implemented? It’s not an entrepreneurs hallmark to depend on a system to make her/his dent in this world. For me, The StartupIndia event amplified the awareness in our society about startups. After the event, common folks now know, heard or have read about it. As a result of the call there will be many who will take the entrepreneurial plunge. We will see a plethora of problems being solved (or at least attempted). Some would succeed in making their ventures financially sustainable, others would probably stop persisting after a couple of attempts and few others will take forward that others stopped persisting at. It’s a marathon relay race where every entrepreneur is a participant helping to move the baton forward. In the end there is only one winner. India.
So the next time, you approach a landlord for some office space for your venture, don’t be too surprised if the landlord welcomes you with a reply, ‘Modi’s Startup India?’
P.S:
1> For me, personally attending the event was checking an item off my checklist, to listen to Narendra live and in-person. I admire his hustler mentality, work ethic and oratorical skills. Another one in my check list could have been easily fulfilled if I had dared to brave the crowd mobbing Ms. Shereen Bhan of CNBC TV 18 (click a selfie with Shereen still on my checklist). But that will have to wait for another day (may be if Shereen one day decides to start Old Turks and I get invited to the show:-).
2> To roundup the 2013 story, I started carrying the baton (started my entrepreneurial journey) in July 2015. It’s a cool utility app for every home in India called Whenda ( www.whenda.com ). People around me said “startup ‘Venda’ ” (translates to ‘don’t startup’ in Tamil/Malayalam) and the name stuck. Wonder if they would have said ‘Venda’ if I had started up after Jan 16 2016 :). And, by the way, it took about a month’s time to do the paperwork for Whenda.
