DailyPost 910
PRODUCTIFICATION OF THE INDIAN START UPs
It would be sad if the the startups also goes the NGO way, after showing immense promise, they are already showing signs of getting routinised by way of ideas, structures, funding and the like. There is a world of a difference between starting a business / trade and becoming an entrepreneur and that is where the hype is; their capability to redefine the world, they live in. Necessarily so, only technical innovation can be the prime driver, which is more conspicuous by its absence in the Indian IT startup ecosystem. India struggles with its own brand of logistics, e-commerce, food / technology start ups.
Productification is a process by which the non-believer entrepreneur is transformed into a product enthusiast making this as his sole reason for the startup creation. Product creation is the life line of a startup, even if we leave that aside nearly 42% exist where is not market need whatsoever. Seth Godin says, ”Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” The blood bath is already on. 90% of Indian startups fail within 5 years of its inception.
A company is a product or many products and a product is at least a company has been the validated history of entrepreneurship and startups the world over. This fact cannot be rewritten, it has to be used as a historical business learning and used in the current ecosystem to their advantage. Business truism as they say. Some entrepreneurs epitomise their product. The products are the extension of their persona and so are the startup enterprises, which finally gain iconic proportions, over a period of time; Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Richard Branson to name a few.
The general Indian startup trajectory does not follow the Silicon Valley route. Lack of technical innovation in India has restricted venture capitalist funding, leading to a decay in quantum primarily and also quality of entrepreneurship. There is a need to take a fresh view of what ails the Indian startup ecosystem even with best of the support systems and time remaining it has to be rectified. Product with passion can be the only mantra. Time to call a spade a spade.
PRODUCTIFICATION OF INDIAN STARTUPs CAN BE THEIR ONLY SAVIOUR.
Sanjay Sahay