Rome Was Not Built in a Day

An article in The Economist, written early in 2020, was somewhat pessimistic about the country's start-up story. This pessimism, while possibly well-meant, was perhaps a little too harsh. India has demonstrated unimaginable resilience in the face of adversity-whether it be in adhering to its cultural moorings through millenniums of migrations and invasions or in surprising a world sceptical of its success as a democracy. There is little doubt that its budding start-up story would be equally, if not more, resilient.

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Rahul Bharadwaj

The author is the founder and principal consultant at Ayvole, a market research-based consulting firm

India's start-up story is new, and there is bound to be birthing pain. Therefore, as its start-up obstetrics develops and matures, it becomes critical to ensure that the start-ups do not die at birth, that is, due to lack of an ecosystem. And, if they do, it is only because they do not survive "natural selection", or the laws of demand and supply in the market.

The Start-Up Success Framework

The model determining the level of success and smoothness of the journey of a start-up can be visualised to be quite like a locomotive engine running on a railway track. The efficiency of this engine can be measured by determining the operational strength of the start-up-its market disruption potential, solution differentiation, technological edge and socio-environmental impact-as well as its maturity, which is determined by its talent pool and its experience. The fuel mix which runs this engine comprises a start-up's funding and valuation (which, in turn, determines continuity of funding, among other factors).

A start-up's financial performance parameters are its gauges, which determine, at any given time, how well the engine is performing. The ecosystem support which the start-up receives, both at macro or state level, and micro, that is, city or cluster level, is like two parallel lines of the railway track. This, in its essence, forms the entire framework of the Outlook Start-Up Outperformers 2023 rankings. It is a simplistic model, of course, to explain highly complex dynamics of start-up success, but once we understand this model, it is not too difficult to recommend what needs to be done for ensuring a smooth journey for a start-up.