“Our monthly chat is one of the most uplifting conversations, while everyone around seems to be a doubter,” messaged a founder friend
India’s startup ecosystem appears to be on the verge of collapse. 0 unicorns this year, likely entering negative unicorn creation territory. Funding is down 85% from last year. 30,000+ layoffs across the ecosystem. Down rounds are coming as fast as unicorns in 2021.
If you had to define a startup apocalypse, we live in it today.
Hard times reveal true friends. The collapse has shown those who were simply along for the ride. Countless have jumped on the bandwagon celebrating the crash. Most have never seen a startup journey up close.
They made founders heroes, only to bring them down as villains.
The existence of bad actors has only given more fuel. Cases of fraud, misreporting and misgovernance paint the entire ecosystem in one brushstroke. The bad actors will get what they deserve.
But that doesn’t mean the majority of founders are bad actors.
For the real ones: the struggle is real, the anxiety is real, the self-doubt is real. To start a company is like wilfully signing up for pain. For a few, the reward is outsized. For most, it’s just battle scars and learning.
It isn’t like those who are running unprofitable startups enjoy the unprofitability
It is downright scary to run a business with limited runway. Scary because you are trading off the certainty of slow profitability for the uncertainty of painful growth. The hope is that your company becomes wildly profitable, and a giant in record time.
Not everyone’s hopes come true, but many create immense value
In the last 10 years, we have downloaded apps to get food, groceries, apparel, cabs, hotels, payments, stocks, insurance, dating, entertainment, jobs at one click. None of this innovation has come outside “unprofitable” startups.
They have built what India needs, and yet we keep making it hard
We question why real “innovation” doesn’t come from India. Innovation is building what India needs, not what the US needs. We may not need to build an LLM, but we built Mastercard disrupting UPI apps when required.
Entrepreneurship is what moves us forward
This is the end of a cycle. As in all slowdowns, India’s ecosystem will clean up. What feels like 2021’s peak of the past, will be crossed again in 6-7 years. India’s march forward is relentless, and entrepreneurs of all types will help move us forward. It is both a scary and opportune time to start a company.
It’s time to build for India.