Page 25 - Digital Indial

225

STARTUP ECOSYSTEM

UDAY BIRJE
Co-Founder & Director, ThinkStreet
Technologies
INNOVATION TO

DRIVE STARTUPS

In India the biggest challenge continues to be

“Startup Culture” or “Entrepreneurial Spirit” that

need to be inculcated among the youth

Uday Birje develops go-to-market
strategies for startups in India,
US, APAC & MEA Regions. He
ndia’s Startup revolution start- ent to build companies and uni- has over 25 years of experience in
ed way back in the 1990 when corns. Many governments too have the ICT industry and has worked
some of the best known entre- setup incubators and signed JVs to in senior level positions in HCL-
preneurs started to build suc- develop the startup ecosystem in Hewlett Packard, Digital Equipment
I cessful and global multi-billion India, prominent among them are Corporation (DEC), Cabletron
dollar companies. However, the Israel, France, Germany and Sin- Systems, NetDevices Networks
early startups focused mainly on gapore. and Hewlett Packard India.
India’s strength of using low cost Uday Birje is involved with the New
skilled workforce to tap the global STARTUP ECOSYSTEM Age Incubation Network (NAIN),
services markets. Startup ecosystem consists of in- an initiative of the Government of
The second revolution began a dustry experts; investors; custom- Karnataka - IT&BT in evaluating
decade later when Silicon Valley ers & partners, universities, men- and mentoring startups across
startup setup R&D centres, inno- tors, incubators & accelerators and Karnataka An alumni of Harvard
vation labs to tap the India’s en- government. For startups to thrive, Business School, USA, Uday holds
gineering workforce to build and the ecosystem needs to thrive. In a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical
innovate products for global con- India, we are seeing governments Engineering from Bangalore
sumption, many of these compa- and other organisations taking the University.
nies were founded by Indians from initiative to develop “Startup Eco- Hot areas that
the large Startup ecosystem in the sytems” rather than just focus on are getting
maximum
US. The biggest challenge how- entrepreneurs/founders of start- attention in
ever was there was no real “Star- ups. The initiatives by the Govern- the startup
tup Ecosystem” created. Investors ment of India has led to mush- ecosystem
were varied, prospective employees rooming of startups across every are: Solutions launch. Launch fast
did not want to take the risk of join- state in the country today focus- for smart l Let the idea evolve in the eco-
ing startups, customers preferred ing on Digital India, Make In India, cities; AgriTech system
for smart
products and services from estab- Startup India and Skill India. These farming; Smart l Understand your customers
lished companies and not startups. initiatives have led to the ecosys- technologies l Focus on satisfying few custom-
Since early 2014 the startup tem getting energised and leading for healthcare; ers rather than lots of them
landscape in India has leapfrogged to over 6,000 startups across the Smart l Remember “Customer Is King”
and green
and dramatically changed. Many country. transportation; even for startups and offer incred-
Indian and global investors have and EduTech ible customer service
come forward to support the eco- SUCCESS FORMULA OF STARTUPS for rural and l Don’t be a “Spend Thrift” and
system in India to tap enormous l Having co-founders is a must urban burn cash
market potential for offering world (minimum 1 and maximum 3) l Focus on Margins & Profitability
class services and engage the tal- l Don’t wait for a perfect day to l It is easy to get distracted so