Daily Post 1445
PRISTINE START UP ECOSYSTEM
The Indian start up ecosystem given its age, diversity and numbers should have been produced its own treatises, guides to the Indian model of entrepreneurship. Not that entrepreneurship cannot survive without scholarly documentation of the journey, the lessons and some common matrix that come out of it, may cut down the pain, anguish and the stress of the ones who are now setting out on this journey. What is the big fun in reinventing the wheel? What is not documented, as it happens, would at some point in time can conveniently be forgotten. This might be an offshoot of the non documented growth of the famed IT industry in India, but for few memoir type of writings.
What becomes pristine is also in a small measure a handiwork of the writings of those who have made it happen. This is the magic of the Silicon Valley Ecosystem. When the start up is a purely hands on experience, life and journey, those who have the iconic green hands will have the capability to elevate the journey of those who succeed them. Few need to be mentioned out of the plethora of very worthwhile literature, if one may call so, otherwise all these can safely be termed as textbooks of tech entrepreneurship. Making the cut is Zero of One written by Peter Thiel of PayPal and not Palantir, the road to a creating a billion dollar enterprise in the shortest time gets unfolded by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler in Bold.
Not that we don’t have our own version of the journey most popular being YourStory of Shradha Sharma. It is a commendable effort to bring the stories of entrepreneurial success to the wider public domain. But how can it match the depth and the command of the proven practitioners of the game writing themselves with one of its kind elan. They have not only been great entrepreneurs but equally great writers and public speakers and thus in the process brilliant teachers of the experiential learning school. A scientific model, laboratory, guide and someone to support you financially became the magic of the valley, which gave technology to the world. Not that bootstrapped did not succeed, they also did, but learnings helped.
The ultimate playbook came through the pen of Guy Kawasaki in the book titled The Art Of The Start and equally commendable is The Lean Start Up written by Eric Ries. How constant innovation creates radically successful businesses. The references are right there to take a cue from. All these writings also play a role in the creation of the pristine ecosystem, in maintaining the aura and charisma and facilitate successes to roll out at a breathtaking regularity. Whether we had no story to tell or we did not have a story teller is a million dollar question. We sell whatever little success we create and keep groping in the dark once again. Don’t we have appetite for Googles, Apples and Facebooks? We are far from pristine.
THE RECENT SHARE OF THE START UP ECOSYSTEM IN THE ECONOMY DECIDES ITS STATURE.