Bengaluru: Values and perseverance, ambition and vision are attributes that entrepreneurs must possess in plenty, according to a galaxy of stalwarts who gathered to celebrate the spirit of enterprise at India’s de facto startup summit in Bengaluru on August 18.
Even as they lauded the role the central government has played in boosting startup activity, top entrepreneurs were emphatic that companies seeking spectacular growth must also prize culture within the workplace.
“Building a company is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Nandan Nilekani, the architect of Aadhaar, India’s unique identification number for citizens.
“People should have a common value system and the same sense of deferred gratification. You must be willing to forgo rewards for many years, if required, to get rewards 10-15 years down the line,” he said.
The brightest stars of the startup firmament, government leaders, investors and senior business executives gathered in the country’s tech capital to pay tribute to the winners of the ET Startup Awards 2017.
About 400 guests were present at the glittering ceremony to applaud winners in 8 categories.
Nilekani, cofounder of Infosys, India’s second largest software services company, was speaking at a panel discussion titled, “Growing Pains: Managing Culture, Scale and Returns.”
Other participants in the discussion were Sachin Bansal, executive chairman of Flipkart; Rajan Anandan, Google’s vice-president for South-East Asia and India; Naveen Tewari, chief executive of InMobi; and Falguni Nayar, CEO of online beauty portal Nykaa.
“I do not think anybody is implying that you sacrifice speed for this (values), they are not opposing things. If they (founders) really have a vision to do something great and transformational that’s the kind of people that I support,” said Nilekani, who has set up a $100 million venture capital fund that will invest in fast-growing startups with proven business model.
Bansal, who has been arguing in recent months for regulation that supports Indian startups, was of the view that in certain areas Indian companies tend to be at a disadvantage compared to global counterparts.
“We need to create a level playing field for them so that they are able to use their best capabilities to make an impact on customers and reap the best advantages of the investments they are getting,” said Bansal whose company attracted a mammoth round of funding from Japanese internet and telecom major SoftBank last week.
Indian startups, which weathered a funding drought in 2016, are once again the object of interest from investors keen to invest in Asia’s third largest economy. Apart from the $2.5 billion round for Flipkart, others to clinch big-ticket deals include payments major Paytm which received $1.4 billion from SoftBank, while the country’s largest ride-hailing app Ola has snagged $400 million from multiple investors in last 9 months.
This shower of capital follows a barren period when cautious investors withheld fresh capital while seeking greater economy and profitability from companies.
Naveen Tewari, chief executive of InMobi, the first Indian startup to be valued at over a billion dollar, said it is during such times of need that entrepreneurs are called upon to adapt the most.
“Drying up of capital has different consequences in different environments… Capital will follow where great talents go,” he said.
GOVT MEASURES
The panelists agreed that the government’s proactive approach, while in its infancy, has begun to take effect. “I do not think any government, anywhere else in the world, has done what this government has done for startups in such a short period of time,” Anandan said.
The panellists also addressed a burning issue in startup circles, both global and local — the need for more women in entrepreneurship.
At a time when Silicon Valley, the Mecca of startups, has been under the scanner for the paucity in female representation in the startup ecosystem, the calls for greater gender diversity have only become louder.
