The Amazing Start-up Scene in India

My trip to Bangalore, India had its fair share of ups and downs. I got conned several times by cab drivers but I’m thankful to have met some very helpful people along the way too. My thoughts on the Indian Internet scene? Simply amazing. The trip was a very fruitful one. I want to express my thanks to Wolfgang from YourStory.in who was an amazing host during my time there.

The TechSpark event was great and its quality was comparable to other tech events I’ve attended in China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore (Kudos to Shradha and team). The start-up pitches were pretty sharp too. Some of the start-ups, in my opinion, are seriously worth investing in (if only I had the money to invest myself!).

As for start-up quality, what I have seen in India seems to be a notch higher than the ones in Southeast Asia so far. How am I judging that? I’m just basing it on my qualitative judgement. Let me elaborate on it a little bit:

• Solving real problems: I didn’t see many copycat products presented in Bangalore. Many good ideas are targeted to solve specific problems in India. In other words, they create real value in society. There aren’t any bullshit products created just for the sake of being cool or just for the sake of riding popular technologies. In fact, I noticed that prior to my trip to India.
• Experience, communication: Many of these folks are very technically gifted, showing that there is a reason why Bangalore is called the Silicon Valley of India. They can communicate well in English and the pitches are clear and concise. This also means that their products can easily scale to other major markets including U.S and Europe.

Of course, take my opinion with a grain of salt. It was after all the final round at TechSparks and the start-ups had gone through a series of filtrations. The ones presented are supposed to be the brightest and the best.

Nonetheless, I came away with a lot of faith in the India tech start-up scene. They have the brains and a huge market to tap into, with a whopping population of 1.15 billion people. What I have seen is the total opposite of what I’ve heard from skeptical investors in Southeast Asia though.

So keep an eye out for India because the best is yet to come.