Startup Hurdles in India

A year in nurturing a tech startup in India, provides a challenging struggle to achieve the goal.

$)  TALENT Acquisition: Any knowledge dependent startup requires a team in which every single member is constantly in sync with the company goal, is self driven to solve technical problems, committed to their own development, takes responsibility, fit in the culture & most importantly has faith to reap the benefits along with the company’s growth & accepting temporary financial hardships

Current Scenrio

1. India lacks viable startup environment. Parent comparison,  peer pressure, short term thinking leads every graduate to seek work in well established firm for a good paycheck. Financial well being is the responsibility of any firm, but the notion of startup itself means the financial hardship. But what a startup does give, which depends a lot upon the one who leads the startup, is the fighting mindset, fearless risk taking capability & a “Must-Do” attitude. A “Can-Do” attitude is not sufficient to propel a startup into a big league.
2.  The Indian attitude of “will-do” simply shows the procrastination in one’s action. There is a lack of “Sense of Urgency”  which one finds in Silicon Valley.
3. There is a gross misunderstanding in the notion of job. For people a job is the place where one gets a salary for attending the office for a fixed time duration. But for a knowledgeable talent a job should be his/her own work which can be enjoyed & develop oneself. Unfortunately people seek job & not work
4. How long can one keep on doing same thing in their life? Its unfortunate that people have to trade a good salary job for a low profile work. Not all get best of both world. But if one really want to make a career then should the preference in the initial years of development be given to salary or what skillset one can develop? Its the difference between simply coding job vs development work
5. For any startup each day is an investment of blood, sweat & hard earned money. Every single day of delay in the execution takes the startup at the brinks of disaster. Ironically it is in the hands of the team to ensure whether a startup grows quickly or sinks miserably slowly.

$)  Culture: Its hard to explain this most important factor that acts as a propellant of growth of a startup. Its the DNA of thinking & execution process in a startup. Startup as a definition means learning & executing at a rapid speed. Sense of urgency is the ultimate quality that can lead to more & advance product development

Current Scenrio

1. Indian by its very nature are individualistic. Hence they rarely work efficiently in a team.
2. Graduates are taught zero sum game thinking were one’s lose is someone else’s gain.
3. Knowledge sharing is considered as a lose of power & control
4.  9-5 job attitude & working in accordance to the salary paid are the most devastating qualities for any startup.
5. Experimental & questioning mindset is thoroughly lacking due to the roting culture in colleges.
6. Quantity of work & not Quality is given importance.
7. Superficial & partial knowledge is accepted as better than no knowledge
8. Working for 8 hours sharp is a marathon that one runs everyday. And only so much can one give in this so called mandatory 8 hours.

$)  Stress?: Any human being is capable of exceeding & excelling at higher level of consistency as long as what it does he/she loves to do. Thereafter its only his/her will against the avenues available or created

Current Scenrio

1. The comfortable lifestyle of college has deteriorated the thinking & working capacity of young minds.
2. The longevity is a hard earned quality.
3. Indian’s mindset is well trained to shout out excuses & explanation for things when they don’t happen. But this is the quality which hinders the progress.

$)  Is it Loyalty?: Well due to lack of better word I am sticking to Loyalty since this is what is understood in job market. Its very critical for every individual to understand the amount of investment in terms of efforts, money & time being put on him/her. Imagine the scenario were one nurtures a tree & somebody else bears the fruit of labour. Startup doesn’t ask for obligation but simple consideration.

Current Scenrio

1. Indian mindset is to start switching jobs the moment they have one in their hand.
2. Its the bargaining of salary & designation that drives one’s career.
3. Engagement level with the firm is abseymally low

Startup cannot grow by compromising. The very fundamental of taking the risk of starting a startup is based on 2 simple premises:

1. An avenue to become a catalyst of human evolution. A startup seeks to solve a fundamental problem & in the course of achieving it needs to raise its capability at a rapid pace.
2. Financially a startup is motivated to earn in few years what one can in its entire work duration. This leads to a possibility of achieving comfortable & higher standard of living as well as time to pursue more evolutionary work.