India’s startup scene needs to celebrate the right role models

Photo credit: Reuters, Navesh Chitrakar

If you’re anywhere close to India’s capital New Delhi, or watching a mainstream Indian news channel, chances are that you’re already witnessing a startup carnival of sorts.

Some of the world’s most high profile investors and entrepreneurs, including Softbank’s Nikesh Arora and Masayoshi Son, apart from Uber’s maverick founder Travis, are among those being roped in by the Indian government to be part of the Startup India, Standup India initiative on January 16. These icons are offering mentorships and sharing advice on how best to get funded and build new businesses.

The government is vowing to improve the regulatory environment to ensure the country’s biggest startups do not flee overseas.

Snapdeal cofounder Kunal Bahl and Oyo Room’s Ritesh Agarwal are sharing lessons from their entrepreneurial journeys that could inspire the next generation of founders.

Overall, quite a show is being orchestrated right at the beginning of a year where both investors and founders are in for a reality check.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong in celebrating entrepreneurship.

It’s actually heartening to see entrepreneurship go mainstream in India, achieve the celebrity status that rivals the stardom enjoyed by Bollywood and cricket stars.

But is this celebration a little too early? And are we celebrating the right role models?

You only have to read this Economist story and this really insightful piece by Haresh Chawla to get an idea of what’s really going on.

In his piece, Haresh Chawla uses the recent crisis of food tech startups in India to highlight the mindless and blind cloning of business models from elsewhere to build unsustainable companies in the country. The Economist put it bluntly that the investors will become impatient with the Unicorns in 2016, and warned there will be more startup failures this year.

Sumanth Raghavendra too, relentlessly questions the hype in the country’s startup ecosystem through his tweets and posts.

Celebrating Real Heroes