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“Winter is coming.”
In Westeros, sure. But if you’re not so much a Game of Thrones fan, chances are you are still familiar with that Stark house motto, adapted as a somewhat dire prophecy for the equally exciting world of startups.
Like with all prophecies, this too has split people up in camps. While some investors think the winter threat has been overhyped, others think it not. But no matter what the moneybags think about the degree of threat, truth is, the threat exists. At the Surge conference in Bangalore, India, Shekhar Kirani of Accel Partners, Karthik Reddy of Blume Ventures, and Vani Kola of Kalaari talked about what to expect in 2016.
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Forget 2015
Last year was an aberration. “We need to rub off what happened in 2015, and in 2016 we need to go back to being selective, look for solid companies,” said Shekhar. For a startup, that directly translates into upping their game considerably. Because VCs are being more judicious about who they give their money to, it naturally increases competition.
There are expectations attached to raising that money. You can’t buy a Ferrari and expect to drive slow
The other thing that will change from 2015 is that because VCs will be more selective in giving away money, they will have – rather – they will demand more time from startups and up involvement.
“What has changed is the compression of time in which people are expected to make a decision. For us, I don’t think 2015 and 2016 will be different except for perhaps there was no time to have an actual conversation (last year)”, Vani said.
Stay asset-light
“Anything that is not capital-heavy, is asset-light and has room to play will work in 2016,” Shekhar said. There will be money for a scalable business, but one has to remember that even as startups spring every day, the number of VCs isn’t increasing at the same rate.
“Your ability to see great startups has increased but the amount of investors has not increased, except for angel investors,” Karthik said. That means stay on your toes, be smart, and really know what you are doing.
Photo credit: Subramanya Prasad
No more lah-di-dah
Work on yourself
Do you really need money?
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