

Bharati Jacob
Bharati JacobCo-founder, Seedfund

How India was shaped from being a risky venture to a startup destination

Aug 16, 2016, 07.18 AM IST

According to historian Ramachandra Guha, no venture capitalist would have funded a startup called India in 1947, as it was then avery risky venture.

But here we are in 2016 — a thriving economy and the world’s most populous democracy. How did the idea of India, that wouldn’t have received venture funding, become the India that we know today?

There are three factors that made this transformation possible and these can also help entrepreneurs who seek to convert ideas into high-growth companies.

The first is to have a vision. The clearly defined vision of the country was that it would pay heed to the “will of the many rather than the needs of the few.”

A well-defined and articulated vision which is based on the needs of the consumers (in the case of India as a start-up–its citizens) is the first step towards creating a valuable enterprise. And equally important is the problem that the company will solve. A clear definition of the problem and the target segment is a critical first step for any startup.

Next is the team. The team that was entrusted with the task of building India consisted of people with different skill sets and ideologies.

From Jawaharlal Nehru, the idealist who approached problems from a theoretical starting point to Vallabhbhai Patel, the pragmatic leader who could be iron-fisted as well, BR Ambedkar, the man who didn’t agree with Mahatma Gandhi or the Congress but had a brilliant legal mind.

And finally, the execution. In the early days of nation building, our founding fathers identified the three pillars that were critical in building a thriving country.

These were — political revolution that came with independence and democracy; social revolution to build a modern India based on law; individual merit and secular foundation; and economic revolution to convert a primarily agrarian economy into a modern economy.

As with a country, the three elements of vision, team and execution need to come together in a jugalbandi for a startup to be a viable and sustainable enterprise. Our nation has made great strides in the political revolution as imagined by our founding fathers and fewer strides in the social and economic revolution.

As we celebrate India’s anniversary of independence, it is the turn of our entrepreneurs to help propel the social and economic revolution as imagined in 1947.


About Bharati Jacob

Bharati Jacob is the co-founder of Seedfund