The world is not as advertised. Everyone in India are constantly hearing western mantras. If you come up with an iPhone,would the US and the EU let you sell it so you beat their companies? No. The world isn’t fair. Chinese knew this, so we make THEIR brands. The West is notorious in putting embargoes and boycotts, sanctions on competition while teaching the world that it is free. Nope. China is one step ahead. You probably know, even India, have thought about boycotting Chinese goods as a way to compete with China. So stop listening to the western mantra that you will be the next Steve Jobs. Of course, those who buy in to this idea, are members of the elite class, who plays with toy robots and drones thinking he is going to beat DJI. More than 90% of entrepreneurs will fail, waste their parent’s money and eventually take a normal job. A Chinese will look around, seeing everyone making everything, will still think, “That guy is making flags, I will make flags too, because not everyone will buy from him”, or let me open up this Swiss watch and see if I can duplicate one and sell it cheaper, meanwhile I learn a skill, maybe I will end up in a watch factory. An Indian must also look at your market. 1.3 billion does not mean 1.3 billion market. You have to see how many are buying the stuff you want to make. Furthermore, where are you going to produce your stuff? China? Or are you going for something simple which can be made locally like a pair of socks. The goal for most people is to try and make a living. Not to be the next Bill Gates. Chinese people think about making a living first. Dreams are for the wealthy kids. Look around India, a lot is missing, why not make the low end stuff that is missing? Look at China, majority of the things are cheap, laughed by the world. But hey, those things are what people can afford. Xiaomi don’t make cheap phones because it's owner never saw a Samsung, nor is it because he has bad taste and do not value quality. He is going for low end to make money. Once, I saw on Chinese e-commerce site, a Chinese guy is selling windshields for Porche 911. He thought,”Some 911 owner will crash his car, go on the internet, and as cheap as he is, try to find a Chinese replacement!” . There are different types of “creativity”. Everyone is telling people to think outside the box, but do you even know what the box is?

(Drums, please)

The box=Western mantra

long story short - we spend the most creative years of our lives acquiring academic degrees rather than real knowledge which saps away our brainpower when it comes to creative thinking coupled with the Indian mindset of playing it safe as 90% of Indian kids are under family pressure from childhood to adulthood to make choices that are 'safe' rather than based on instinct. We are book smart and hard working, but we channelize our energies in finding that elusive safe haven while quietly regretting the things we didn't do somewhere in the recesses of our minds. And then we just hope that someday our kids would do what we couldn't do, and then when we have kids, unknowingly, we press them again on the path to a safe haven rather than free expression.

Also, failure in India is a black spot. There is a stigma attached to it. You just cannot afford to fail. Your failure marks you as the lowest among the low in the social hierarchy no matter how good you are at what you do.

Governance is responsible to an extent yes since there is no social security in India. In the west, the government pays you if you are jobless. And people are honorable enough that they try to avoid taking that route. The stigma in the west is to be on government support and not failure to do well in business. Try implementing that in India and half the country will sit at home and do nothing.

Another important point is that every economy needs to reach a certain critical mass to be able to support the next generation of businesses. In the Indian context, there is more hype than substance. The reason why ticketing sites do well and go to IPO while others simply shutdown or languish in mediocrity is the nature of the Indian consumer. Keep it simple and you will sell! The market has to be ready first for the next big thing. How many of you remember Apple Newton? It was the first PDA and it flopped massively because the market simply wasn't ready for it. Then later came the Palm Pilot and it made history.

Another point is the number of people who actually use the internet for transactions in India as well as the overall consumption in the economy. We are still a nation of savers and not spenders. I live in London and the population of UK is 50 million (Bombay+Delhi+Bangalore+Chennai+Kolkata) and yet the economy is over a trillion USD, simply because of consumption. Even a construction worker in UK carries the latest iPhone and this is not an exaggeration! India has a tax payer base of 31 million and first mover advantage in any category is very important because every other startup in the same space seems like a me-too. Look around you and you will see that trend in online retailing. The sites that do well in online retail are clothing and accessories.

The simple funda behind building any global scale business is this (except IT as the model itself is different) - you need to stoke internal consumption before you can build global scale. If TCS and Infy were purely product companies, then a large part of their success would have depended on the adoption of their products in India.

A very close friend of mine runs a startup in Bangalore and he has no grand illusions about the scale his company will attain in the next five years. He makes a hard core product which is extremely difficult to fabricate and needs a lot of specialized knowledge, not exactly one-night-in-the-dorm-room-with-a-beer kinda stuff. Even then, his focus is on the domestic market first and he knows he will never reach a billion dollars because that is not the size of the market.

The motive for entrepreneurship should not be solely about money which is the most common angle Indians take when they look at this. Entrepreneurship is about happiness. It is one way to achieve happiness - simply because if you are going to spend the majority of your life working, then why not spend it doing something you love? How many happy Indian entrepreneurs have you seen from the previous generation? Entrepreneurship was a compulsion and not an option for the previous generations because lack of good education rendered you unsuitable for a nice government job.

To add to Anon's post below, getting married is not really a problem till you find the right partner who is willing to support you in every way. What bogs down is the burden of family expectations and the bells and whistles attached to a relationship. In India, marriages are not about the couple, ever! There are too many stakeholders and too little accountability for those stakeholders except the 2 protagonists.

Try looking at the matrimonial section of ToI. In the 'Looking for a Groom' section, the only desirable candidates are IIT/IIM/IAS grads. That means everyone else is a fool and if the girl ends up with a dork out of one of these places, she can take solace in the financial security and prestige provided by the acquisition of such coveted qualifications. Then turn to look at the other side in the 'Looking for a Bride' section and you will find a multitude of people shamelessly publicizing the size of their paychecks since it's accepted wisdom in India that plenty of money is the best substitute for lack of everything else required to live a happy life.

Hope this answers the question.

TL;DR: Because its a relatively small market with a young startup ecosystem. In other words, it's a matter of time - the local market for technology products in India is still small, and product adoption growth and ecosystem evolution don't happen all of a sudden. Silicon valley has taken 40 years to get where it is today, while the Chinese Internet/mobile space reached basic scale at least 7 years earlier than India. The future of Indian tech startups is promising.

Long version:
I'll answer this question with respect to technology product startups, since the question refers to leading global technology product companies. This, and several related questions are often overheard in the hallways at conferences and tech events. Something along the lines of "Why haven't we seen a Google or Facebook emerge from India". Or with less hyperbole - Why haven't we see a much larger number of tech product startup successes coming out of India?

Let's segment this into two pieces - 1) Startups that address the Indian market, and 2) Product startups that address the global market

1. Startups that address the Indian market: The local Indian market for technology and technology-enabled products is really, really small relative to the market whose startup ecosystems we are implicitly comparing against. The entire Indian digital advertising market, all said and done, is about $500M this year (after a couple of recent years of break-neck growth). To put this number in perspective, the US digital advertising market this year is $37 Billion, or 75 times larger than the Indian digital ad market. The number for China is $12 Billion, or 25 times larger than India. Similarly, the eCommerce market in India is a tiny fraction of that in US or China. Similar (perhaps more dramatic) analogies extend to the enterprise/software segment.
Are the advertising, commerce or software sectors in India limited by availability of good products or good entrepreneurs that haven't tried hard enough to create a large company? Heck no! In fact these sectors are limited primarily by the spending power and technology adoption rate of our consumers, advertisers and businesses. Given where our country stands with respect to per capita income, this spending power is still relatively very low, though the ratios above indicate significant upside even with our low GDP (e.g. US has ~8X India's GDP, but a digital advertising market that is ~75X larger, indicating significant upside for the Indian digital ad market over time). And this upside will come from higher adoption rates, which build up over time, and not as step functions.
To make the marathon more uphill for Indian startups, in some of these sectors there are prolific global competitors (that have amortized huge product development budgets over a much larger user base, and attract the brightest minds in the world) competing for a slice of the same tiny pie. Many other markets do not face this due to language and regulatory issues, and local startups have more of the market available to themselves. However, this global competition also has significant positive impact on the local ecosystem through inflow of technology, ideas and talent.
The good news on the market side is that the Indian market for tech products and services (i.e. Internet, mobile, software etc) is growing very fast, and in 6-8 years years may be comparable to where China is today, for instance. And digital platforms with reasonable scale now exist (albeit with low monetization) - be it social with ~100M users, mobile with ~700M users or mobile Internet with ~100M users - to create the next generation of startups

2. Product startups that address the global market: Creating a successful new product typically requires deep/unique insights into the customer's needs and pain points, along with a superior ability to distribute and sell to those customers in whatever idiosyncratic way it takes to get to them. Both of these are things that are hard to do from afar - i.e. without being able to get under the skin of those customers, and without having had most of your employees be in their shoes.
Hence we find few examples in the global arena of countries producing massive companies that create things that those countries aren't themselves a huge market for (there are notable exceptions of course - Israel, Switzerland etc; or Indian IT services, if you will).
However, this is an area where I see significant green shoots if the form of Indian product startups that cater to global customers. I expect many large successes to come over the next decade from this segment. Many of these are and will be B2B focused, where product requirements tend to be somewhat more uniform across geographies, number of customers is smaller, and sales is more process than art. These companies benefit significantly from growth in the SaaS model, sales democratization over the Internet, and stronger teams that have seen the B2B system at work at successful global companies.

The second broader factor in my view is the age and maturity of the startup ecosystem itself. The key underlying supply side driver for tech startup success is availability of relevant skills/talent and the quality of the broader startup ecosystem, that includes capital, advisors, legal frameworks, mentors etc. Now, the quality and depth of ecosystems evolve along a continuous curve, rather than in step changes, so there is only so far an ecosystem can get to in a certain number of years, even at a reasonably high growth rate. This curve in India started at low (near zero) levels in late nineties, and stayed fairly nascent till mid 2000's. The Indian startup ecosystem had a key inflexion point in 2005-2006, driven by an influx of foreign capital (VCs) and talent (returning global Indians), along with increasing penetration of platforms (Internet, mobile, credit cards) that reached some minimal viable critical mass then. So we are looking at an enabling ecosystem, most of which is only 7-8 years old as of early 2013, and trying to compare it with ecosystems that are 20, 30 or 40 year old - an unfair comparison in my view. From personal experience, I can attest that the quality of this ecosystem is growing very rapidly. It still has miles to go, but it is moving the right direction, and at a very nice pace.

There is a long list of other irritants which are usually cited in response to this question when it invariably comes up - including poor governance, rickety infrastructure, conservative mindset among middle class, personal reasons etc. Each of these is an irritant, but in my view, these are all irritants that good entrepreneurs can and do get around.

A generally conservative mindset among 'middle class' and risk averse nature are often cited by many as a key root cause. However, much of the same should apply at least in part to Indians who have grown up in India with the same values, but now live overseas. However, Indians living abroad have clearly demonstrated outstanding entrepreneurial capabilities and mindset. There is published research [1] that shows that Indians constitute by far the most prolific entrepreneurial group in the US and Silicon valley, where 16% of all startups were found to be founded/co-founded by an Indian, even though Indians make up just 6% of the Valley’s working population (i.e. >2.5X over-representation). So it has to be something in the surroundings or the market, and not the people themselves.

Poor governance and archaic regulations are a big speed breaker, as any entrepreneur in India would attest. However, these are things that Indian entrepreneurs have proven they can get around. Look no further than sectors such as Banking, Media, Telecom, Infrastructure (sectors much more regulated than Internet/mobile/technology) which have each produced numerous successful new companies in the last 15-20 years. Poor broadband and telecom networks do limit adoption of digital products, but I think there is some correlation there with demand, and not pure one-way causation - i.e. as we see demand pick up, the quality and availability of internet and telecom networks also pick up.

Both of the key factors I listed (market size and ecosystem maturity) are generally moving in the right direction. Moreover, I think that the core focus of tech startups is also generally shifting from pure sales focused, to a much keener focus on product and technology, which bodes well for global success [2]. So in other words, my glass is full, and over the next several years, we should see an increasing pace of startup success from India as both the local market and the enabling ecosystem grow and entrepreneurs continue to weave their magic.

[1] The Face of Success, Part I: How the Indians Conquered Silicon Valley
[2] http://ideacapital.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/revisiting-product-innovation-in-india/

So I have an experience of 4 years out of which I have given 2 years of my career to an MNC and 2 years to two startups.

Both the startups were started by kids. With kids, I really mean to says people with zero experience working under or working with someone. People who have never done any internship under someone. Kids of age 22 to 28.

I found a severe lacking vision, passion, zeal, and discipline in each one of them. They have money(funds) so they think that is the key to run a startup and sometimes I felt they fought among themselves to acquire the fund money.

In one of the startup we were not paid money for consecutively 3 months, yet we worked because we enjoyed working on the product we were building and always thinking that the company will get better soon. We continued for the next 6 months. But it did not work. Eventually, we all landed up in new jobs.

During the days when we were not paid our salaries, I saw both my cofounders enjoying a Europe trip for 15 days. We saw their Instagram post and we all knew how childish it was. Those were the days when paying bills was getting extremely hard.

Now, when I entered the next company I see nobody trust anyone. Let me tell you this is the most rear. But yes, A team of 10 people with such good projects landing in and backed by huge funds but no passion, full of backbiting and politics. It is getting harder to breathe in here. Hired all good people and leaving no stones unturned to treat them like shit. Make them feel bad about themselves. No team spirit. Not taking responsibilities for anything. Fighting among themselves. Partial to a group or one or two people. In short, Nill values.

What should a startup learn today?

1. Treat people well otherwise you will end up losing everyone.
2. Money does not build your projects, its people and their brains.
3. If you lack confidence then try to build it, do not have this assumption that people whom you hired also lack confidence.
4. Plan well, brainstorm before execution.
5. Do not ask for updates and call yourself a leader. Be a part of the team.
6. I have a big list about this. I will always suggest you to join a startup if the head , CTO, VP are experienced and not freshers or an IIT/IIM graduate, and if you are joining make sure you know them personally.

I went to a seminar today... and hence I have just figured it out.. You're in luck! Thanks for asking.
Even though us Indians consider ourselves citizens of 21st Century... Most of us are held back due to our family's or our own 20th Century mentality.
If you look at Americans or pretty much citizens of most countries outside India, you'll find that they have always followed what they love doing. A guy who loves to paint actually becomes an artist, a guy who loves spending time on the Internet becomes a blogger or an Internet personality. Someone who likes to make things becomes an Engineer or a craftsman. I'm not saying there are no cases like this in India or in Pakistan... These cases have a lesser occurence here. Every artistic job is frowned upon here... We proudly show the world that we are stereotypical and archaic in these matters: A boy in the family will be the breadwinner... hence he'll be an Engineer, the girl will be married off.. and if she has to do shit in life, she'd be a doctor.
Now, back to our topic..
The biggest factor I find regarding the failure of Indians starting Businesses or being in a job that they love is, Failure. We Indians are over-meticulous; we think of Failure more than Success. It's universally true that with big risk comes big rewards.We think of the risk before the reward.That is why, if we even start businesses, most of them fail... these failed businesses become examples for our youth, but not in a positive way.. Obviously when you start a job, you start a job with least risks and a "smooth-sailing".. Most of us find a business to NOT be that one job, no matter how much we'd love doing it.
This is an over-used line, but it really goes with the topic:
Japanese Mentality :
If one can do it, you can do it, If no one can do it, You must do it
Indian Mentality:
If one can do it, let him do it, If no one can do it, HOW CAN I DO IT?!

Can't say these lines are not true for today's India.
I feel that once we scrap this mentality and achieve our full potential, there is no country that can even come close to what India would become.

First, I would refrain from generalization. Perhaps you are referring to lack of profitability, fewer number of IPOs as compared to USA and China. In the bigger picture though, we are seeing Zomato, Ola, Oyo, PayTm, Cleartrip, etc even going overseas which signals a positive mindset of growth in Indian ecosystem and well as growing confidence.

But could Indian startups have delivered more? Sure, overseas investors definitely hoped so. I think there are a few reasons for this:

1. Indian market and consumer behaviour is very different from West. We are savings oriented and hence, its not easy for small e-commerce or online transactional businesses to gain traction easily. The same convenience for which an American happily pays $19 is not sellable in India. We value money > time which is not the case in West (spending economies)
2. This then brings me to the second point. We should build ideas organically for Indian mindset. But so far, most of the startups are inspired (some even blatantly copied) from the West. You cannot pick a western idea and apply it to India. You will have to drastically customize it. A famous example being Flipkart starting CoD without which e-commerce may not have picked up in India.
3. Unlike China, our markets are not as regulated against foreign competition which I think is good. In China, they were able to have enough in-house capital to thrive but Indian startups are mostly dependent on foreign capital, so we cannot regulate it like China does. This has its pros and cons but it may be slowing the growth for Indian born startups. The only solution for this, in my opinion, is to rely on our competence, grow slowly and organically, innovate in house and take long term view. We may have to come out of jugaad mindset and create real value as Amazon, Apple, Google, Alibaba have done.

I did get to research Indian startups for my book and I found few ideas very interesting and thriving well in our system - Freshworks (SaaS global clients with cost advantage of India), Unacademy (platform for educators makes sense in India), Aspiring Minds (brilliant hi tech employability solution which targets the core issues of many developing economies), Ather Energy, Zerodha etc. Also, a big shoutout to Dr. Balaji Viswanathan (பாலாஜி விஸ்வநாதன்) for putting Mitra on a global stage.

We will take sometime to mature up as a startup ecosystem. Also, as we get more success stories, it will provide further momentum and inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs.

Another good read on this topic - Golden Tap by Kashyap Deorah.

EDIT - as pointed by Balaji in the comments, adding the following:

‘One thing to be pointed out is that India is extremely short of capital. China, US, UK and almost all startup hotbeds are flush with capital and have very low interest rates. This gets a lot of surplus money into the startups. Interest rate in Israel is 0.25% — in India it is 30 times more. And our banks are also saddled with NPAs limiting access for entrepreneurs.

If banks got back to josh and reduced rates, big startups will tap that pool and that will allow that smaller companies to get more resources.’

The answer to this question depends on how you define a ‘startup’.

There are various definitions that are used for this term, and if you are referring to any new business in its early stages of operations- we do have a lot of success stories.

However, successful technology startups that aim for inorganic (read: 100x) growth and billion dollar valuations after finding a product-market fit are actually few and far between.

Here’s a few reasons behind that:

1. Venture capital is an extremely new phenomenon. The first cheques were signed barely a decade back- which makes startups in India a recent development. In the US, VC funding was already in full swing during the 60s and many of our modern-day tech behemoths like Apple got funded when they started out in the 80s.
   
   Half a century has given their VCs and startups a lot of rich experience. Having barely entered this world, our ecosystem is fledgling at the moment and will need time to understand the market dynamics and figure out what works well.
   
   So why is time a crucial factor? Because success doesn’t come overnight. Yeah, maybe http://Jet.com got to a billion dollar valuation in less than a year; but that’s an exception and not the norm. Regardless of how good the team/product/market is, it always takes decades of blood, sweat and tears to build something that becomes a global success.
2. A lot of the startups that we see failing are consumer focussed businesses based on online transactions. However, the level of digital penetration in the country is yet to come of age. Additionally, even if you say that a small percentage of our ginormous population has access to the internet- the paying capacity is depressingly low! Ultimately, the success of new-age tech enabled models largely hinges on average income levels.
   
   For us to be able to get to the next level, the masses need to get richer. More money has to flow into people’s bank accounts for the spending power (and consequently, the success of these startups) to shoot up.
3. Taking up millions of dollars and focussing on the growth-at-all-costs mantra is not exactly the traditional Indian modus operandi of doing business. Frugality has been the name of the game; most old (and huge) companies have been built through careful, calculated and pragmatic spending.
   
   Enter the startup universe. You need money to build a tech product- that’s understandable. But following the story that has worked in mature markets, Indian founders suddenly found themselves sitting on piles of cash and investors bellowing with agony upon seeing any of their portfolio firms clocking <100x growth YoY.
   
   This is something new- and there are going to be mistakes, of course. In fact, it took the entire ecosystem a few years to conclude that growth-at-all-costs and deep discounting (secret recipes from USA and China) weren’t going to do the magic after all.

In conclusion, startups in India are extremely nascent and the ecosystem needs time to mature, understand the oddities of our peculiar market and then swing for the fences to be able to create definitive success stories!

We Indians have a habit of comparing India with developed countries of the world and then feel frustrated about the state of affairs in India.

The reality is that India is one of the poorest country in the world.

The nominal per capita income of India is only US$1723, while all developed countries, with whom we keep comparing ourselves, have a per capita income of at least $40,000 or more. This means that they are 25 times richer than India. Please see the per capita income of the developed countries.

When you are a developed country, you have a much better infrastructure and you can pay all your employees handsomely. You can also spend more money on law enforcement agencies including judiciaries.

This leads to lower corruption in the country. Hence, the government department’s work is carried out quite efficiently and honestly.

India will take minimum 30-50 years of 8-10% of growth to catch up these developed countries even if we presume zero growth rates in all these countries.

You can’t shortcut the economic growth and improve your efficiencies by rhetoric, idealism and by making political statements.

It would be better that Indians become more practical while comparing themselves with others.

If you compare India with countries with similar level of economic development, you won’t find yourself disappointed.

Footnotes

In India, right from the beginning of school, a child is made to follow orders. We have a very demanding society which expect us to not fail, have a degree and earn good money. We are raised to learn from an education system which is not flexible enough to help us learn decision making. We follow what our parents tell us blindly and don’t develop our own thinking. There is a stigma attached to failure and you just can’t afford to lose or fail. It brings you to the lowest in society howsoever good you may be at the things you do. We become more of a worker than an entrepreneur.

We spend the most creative years of our lives acquiring academic degrees rather than real knowledge. When we are at the peak of our energy and dreaming we are spending time in sleep inducing lectures. We have a culture of playing safe at every step of our life as there is failure associated with risk and failure in Indian society is daunting.

Indians are smart, hardworking and persistent but we spent the most of our energies in getting into the safe haven and regretting things we could have done. The culture is such that people will love to work in a low paying job than in a startup which may pay huge dividends later on because it is too risky. And the startups that most people start are mostly “me-too” startups

Money as an incentive has more value than listening to the heart, what it desires and why most people fail in listening to the heart is because they constantly compare themselves to the people living the stable life. Since there is no match between the levels of satisfaction in those 2 aspects of life, comparing them would make the current life more of a burden. People move towards stabilized life and that prevents them from taking risks. A lot many people want out of their normal lives and they want to be their own boss but just can’t be because they are afraid of getting out of the comfort zone.

Also there are not many Indian entrepreneur whom people can look as ideal or even if there are their stories are not told as profoundly as they should be told. These people are not idealized here which they should be. India is such a big market that every multinational company wants to exploit. It would be better if the Indian market is ruled by startups from India who not only create jobs here but also spread outwards. The thinking should not be bounded and what a person can achieve should not be judged by his degree or the money he owns. A person is more than that. Even the government jobs are said civil “servants”.

Although all of this is slowly changing and I feel India will one day definitely have its own real silicon valley.

India has the third-largest ecosystem for startups, yet 80-90% of Indian startups fail within the first 5 years of their inception. Wondering why startups fail?

I found some of the key reasons behind the same and wanted to share to give you guys a heads up if you are also a budding entrepreneur

• Lack of funds - There are millions of startup ideas floating around. But to turn ideas into reality requires finance. Those that do procure funding need scalable and profitable models to make the startup grow. Lack of funding is one of the key reasons why startups fail.
• Lack of Innovation - Although India is said to have the third-largest startup ecosystem, it doesn’t have meta-level startups such as some of the big names like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Indian startups are also known for replicating global startups, rather than creating their own startup models.
• Product market fit - Is your product aligned with the innovative ideas that your company is based on? A lot of times startups attempt to quickly develop products that have no demand or try to expand the market for a product.
• Lack of focus - Heres an example to understand how focus plays a big role. Grubhub is a food delivery startup. From the beginning, the company decided to focus only on food delivery. There’s a lot of other services that a company like that could offer- pick up of food, catering, and more, but the founders chose to focus on just delivery. The result? They could execute technically and operationally and grow the business successfully.
• Leadership gaps - Lack of vision and strong leadership is another common reason why startups fail. Some entrepreneurs may have leadership qualities, while others may have to develop them over time.
• Lack of agility - Startups can have a number of teething issues. Besides that, they constantly face challenges, to which, they need to find solutions. Change is inevitable and hence, it is most important for startups to remain adaptive and agile in order to progress.
• Business model failure - A good product, an impressive website, and huge ad spends- a number of entrepreneurs assume that these factors are going to be enough to attract customers and business. They ignore the fact that customer acquisition and customer retention come at high costs and the startup needs a foolproof business model to sustain and profit.
• Lack of Talent and competency - Surprising, but 23% of startups fail due to lack of talent and skill. It is one of the most easily solvable issues, one would assume. However, it is not. The reasons?

1. Startups spend a lot of time and effort in recruiting the right candidates. In situations of bad hiring choices, startups may face the challenge of replacing the hire with a better candidate.
2. Most times startups are cash strapped and cannot afford to hire experts or experienced employees who come at a high price.

I attribute the phenomenon to the concept of opportunity cost and maslows hierarchy of needs. Let me explain.

The hierarchy of needs in order is basic needs, security, social needs, self esteem and at the top, self actualization.

Till our parents generation, they struggled to meet the basic and security needs, so they had no option but to go with risk averse career strategies. Government jobs and job security was king.

Enter liberalization. Private companies, both Indian and MNC, through 1994-2008, were willing to pay a king's ransom to all skilled labour. Whether it was finance jobs inside India or on/off shored IT jobs with healthy dollar spikers. The opportunity cost of a startup was too high, and we were still muddling through self esteem and social needs, which are well addressed by a large salary and huge bonuses in an emerging economy.

2008 is when we started seeing a turn around. Jobs in both India and overseas could no longer pay as well. And moreover, a lot of really high quality guys had made enough money to want to aim for self actualization. With opportunity cost (read no bonuses and salary freezes) coming down, a lot of people have decided to venture out to start up. The ethos has percolated down to colleges, and lots of fresh graduates are starting startups rather than jobs.

Its just been four years since then. Not too long a time, and we have already had some interesting startups take stage in the global arena. Think slideshare.

But don't look for isolated success stories, watch the movement that is forming. And I believe, three years hence, nobody will be asking this question any more.

Indians have a mix of zealous entrepreneurs, ambitious service-holders and the usual clerk mentality service class.

The constraints in business lie in the plethora of governmental permissions & redundant regulations that challenge entrepreneurs to open a business anywhere in India! The Licence & inherent inspector Raj since 1947 led to solid foundation of abject Corruption in every government departments. The advent of corrupt political leaderships that demanded mollycoddling grafts were the outcome of the Licence Raj.
A simple grocery shop needs to maintain around 100 licenses & registers and still make provisions to "satisfy" horde of municipal, state and central government inspectors. An uncrossed 't' or an undotted 'i' is deemed as a henious disobedience of the laws of the land! The way-out? The smile on your face, dear reader, shows that you know the answer!!

It is these odds, (never taught at the B-schools that churn out Managers day in day out), that has to be taken for granted as an inherent part of a business in India.

Provide the ease of statutory regulations (present rules made by corrupt administrations are based on nabbing the 5% dishonest ... The outcome is harrassment of 95% compelling them to join hands with the Administration' "Honoured & Respected" 5%!) and change the corruption-motivated attitude of statutory personnels before giving negative comments regarding INDIAN entrepreneurs.

The contention following comparison with Japanese business with India would be complete if the statutory rules applicable & the attitude of the government of both countries towards entrepreneurs were also mentioned.

The success of Indian businessmen outside India is ample proof of his entrepreneurship zeal and abilities.

Compared to what ? There is nothing in absolute terms. It all depends on who you are and what you do. Kites are flown keeping the flow of the wind in mind. India has a big tail wind due to its large English speaking workforce but has many hurdles due to some head winds. Lets try to understand the problem.

A relative started a blockchain based technology business in the US and got 200,000 $ in funding. Valuations of tech businesses are hitting the sky since we are in the Information Age. The largest companies in terms of valuations are in the US which are trillion dollar companies. You have the understand that there is a equity and investment culture apart from a large early adopter customer base in the US. An Indian Billion is 100 Crores while and American billion is 7000 Crores Rupees. Now, you can imagine the scale of a trillion dollar company like Microsoft, Amazon, Saudi Aramco and Alphabet. Wonder if Tesla can rise up again. Note that these companies are from only Tech and Energy sector.

Indian politicians understand the value of religion over economy and focus on gaining the vote bank from the large undereducated population. Most of the wealth goes to large businesses capable of funding elections and retaining the politicians in their chairs. There are plenty of MNCs which are struggling in India. Take Vodafone Idea for that matter. Government licenses and laws can both enable and disable businesses. Many small businesses have gone under due to Demonetization, GST and the pandemic. The rising population has given rise to a large consumer base but it has also created pollution and adulteration of all kinds. Poor health conditions of workers, financial stress and now inflation are silent killers of many a dreams. We do not emphasize on the health much while loads of Indian food produce get rejected when exported to the Middle east.

Small Businesses

1. Today, I was speaking to small business who was complaining of police harassing the small shops and collecting money. Local politicians collect money for all festivals and use muscle power if not paid. Elections cannot be won without money. Period. We need self sacrificing politicians which is unrealistic currently.
2. Laws are not implemented properly for various reasons.
3. Most youngsters are unemployable because the education did not prepare them to think and gain relevant skills. Some of us have gone abroad and learnt on their own and became highly qualified to enter the workforce at lowest cost. An Indian worker is not paid as much as an European or American counterpart.
4. There is lack of interest in youngsters to work for local and small companies. They prefer to work for MNCs. Only well funded startups can afford these employees.
5. Clients do not pay on time and some don’t pay at all.

To survive in an hostile environment, one needs to have the cleverness, agile, resourcefulness, knowledge, network and good common sense to stay out of trouble.

The answer is that doing business in India can be quite tough for locals as well as foreigners. Tough as you think it is and easy if you focus on actions and do not worry about the outcome.

Indians are dreamers. Most Indians are constantly working on improving themselves and think of wealth creation. Our society has always been savers compared to other countries and we are now learning to invest. Bitcoins and gold is largely owned my Indians. Many unicorn startups are created by the young and aspiring Indians. Zomato and Paytm for e.g. Parents are focusing on education and education should only get better. This is forcing politicians to focus on development activities. Indians are early adopters of technology.

If you understand Indian culture and design the business accordingly to the aspirations, culture and market condition, it is easier to do business in India.

Feel free to connect with me. I am interested in any speaking opportunities.

** Time Saver Group - Offering PRACTICAL Solutions to SAVE precious TIME and GROW wealth peacefully. **

Indians have unusual character in our blood and in society.
1) Without a degree you are nothing in the society
2) Without earning a job after your degree, you are a rogue roaming outside.
3) We are not good at taking risks
4) Even if you take the risks and started your own venture, there are very few in India who could invest in Indian startups. Rather they would love to loose money by investing in foreign startups.
5) Yes, we are very very poor at marketing skills
6) Your friend would love to work for infosis rather working with you.

the list will goes on....

It is surprising that we produced the best in every industry and we don't have anything belonged to India. Even David Cameron trolled Manmohan saying that kohinoor is thier's.

‘Startup’ has become a fantasy for people today. Everyone wants to try their hand on creating something and beforehand ready to call it a ‘Startup’. There are many reasons which makes a ‘Startup’ fail.

Here are Some:

1. Lack of Innovation: Startups in India fail to cater the customers problem and solve them with Innovative methods. The lack of Innovation is the major issue in Indian Startups and this is the reason there is no Indian Company to dominate the Global Market.
2. Lack of Focus: Indian’s have a common myth that multitasking can be obliging for them and this is where they go wrong. Doing many things at a time makes us loose focus on the core thing making it sidetracked most of the time.
3. Poor Marketing: Even if your product is of great caliber, if it is not backed by adequate marketing efforts, it is going to be a failure. Marketing doesn't only mean making your product reach to as much possible people out there, It also should make people believe into your product and make them think about it for a significant period of time, because mostly ‘marketing isn't about the stuff that you make, but rather about the stories that you tell’
4. Leadership: A great leader is the most important aspect if the ‘Startup’ has to reach new heights. People buy into the leader before they buy into a vision and that is the reality. If a Startup lacks good leadership it is going to fail however great the product or idea is. Making a team of people work in the direction of the vision is a responsibilty of a good leader.
5. Patience: The problems with most people out there is that they lack patience. Running a Startups is no child's play, there are going to be some time where you will feel like things are not going well and then you decide to quit. But that is the time when you are about to get results that will make your vision into reality. Not having patience to wait till the curve is the most wrong happening things while developing a Startup. The below graph is a great demonstration about how the things really work out.

Thanks For Viewing!

Startups fail all over the works. So it;s kind of a little unfair to point “failure of Indian Startups”.

Anyways, moving forward with the question “why do Indian startups fail”. Here is my analysis based on what i have observed:

• Lack of creativity: Every Indian startup (especially the heavily funded ones) are just trying to ape successful ventures of USA. Be it ola, flipkart, snapdeal or Zomato. They are all the desi versions of yelp, uber, ebay, etc, etc. Now the ones i have mentioned here have survived the storm (courtesy : funding). The less fortunate ones or the bootstrapped ones have tried to ape them or some successful venture of US, only to fall flat on their face.
• The Indian mindset : Get into IIT -> IIM. Join a MNC. Make millions and then retire peacefully. Where the hell does “startup” fit into the whole process? So the problem here is, when the startup starts failing, the whole system including the family looks at you with “I told you so” look. You are the bad apple who decided to not do what others do. Hence, no emotional or financial support. It’s like everyone is waiting for you to fail and get back to job.
• Grow fast without a plan : This factor is very apt for all food startups or grocery startups that grew in a haphazard manner, only to shut shop or scale down sooner than expected. The VCs loaded them with money and they wasted it without a practical plan. I have written in depth on this topic at Why are the startups targeting “the 15 billion” food ordering industry struggling and What went wrong with Indian Startups in last one year?

And then there are common points like lack of funding, unplanned ventures, inexperience, issues in between owners, etc, etc which are consistent all across the world.

I hope the answer helps.

Life as an entrepreneur is authentically tough in India because people here keep judging you all the time. Now Entrepreneurs might be everybody’s favorite heroes in West but in India,the scene is entirely different.
The trepidation of immediate future eradicates the entrepreneurial spirit of most. Reasons for failure apart from this are :

1.Lack of incubation centers even in top tier colleges.
2.Improper Government policy in terms of funding,taxation.
3.Lack of proper mentors and channels to reach them.

You can't have investors funding on-campus startups so there has to be
funds from college administration and Government of the land for accelerating on-campus startups and encouraging campus graduates to work upon ideas and start-ups instead of taking a regular job.

Things that can be done to change the scenario:

Proper Government policy

Creation of Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises is nice step in right direction.Regulation of crowd-funding by SEBI is additionally good decision taken.I am sure the new Government is working upon that area though nothing conclusive can be drawn upon it right now.

Right channels for reaching out to mentors and investor networks

There have been many fellowship programs for start-ups and entrepreneurs recently and this problem is being solved.The rise of venture capital firms and growing angel networks in India are good sign for better future.

An overall culture of inspiriting entrepreneurship is needed

This itself will require decades because the fear of getting out of our comfort zones scares us and our associates. More the number of success stories,more will be the encouragement provided & vice-versa. And then desperate entrepreneurship should be evaded additionally.

We shouldn't be distinguishing the “replicative” entrepreneurs and “innovative” entrepreneurs nor between “small businesses” and “high-growth businesses” cause each one has a cause,role & effect in the economy and on the society.Collective fear stimulates herd instinct.If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.

Follow your passion. Follow your heart.

Be an entrepreneur.

“NEVER forget what you are.The rest of the WORLD will not.Wear it as armor and it can never be used to HURT you"
-Tyrion Lannister.

Image source: Motivational quotes to keep you going.

As a society, we are engrained with ideas about who, what, and how we need to be in order to become “successful”. This includes various levels of intellect, studying habits, personality traits, interests, behavior, etc.

All in all, following these societal expectations will set people up for a lovely life. A stable and decent job, family, a bit of extra money to kick around for vacations or fancy electronics. Putting up with a less than ideal job, an inalterable schedule, commutes, and the other small annoyances are a fair tradeoff for 40 hour weeks, holiday/vacation/sick pay, health insurance, and a typically reliable job.

Entrepreneurs though… they’re cut from a different cloth.

Many of us (most of us?) fantasize about leaving behind the 9–5pm workday, overbearing bosses, difficult co-workers, unfulfilling jobs - just leave it all and become our own bosses! Start our own business! Do what we want, when we want!

The thing is, only a very specific personality is actually cut out to sustain that life and to do so well.

Entrepreneurs are idea people. Visionaries. Future-oriented. They’re always thinking about what the next step is. How to improve what is not doing well and what is already excellent. They aren’t ones to just settle in, get comfortable, and coast when things are going well, nor do they panic and jump ship at times of trouble and uncertainty.

Entrepreneurs are risk-takers. Imagine putting your house up as collateral for a business loan. Many do. Imagine losing your company issued health insurance and knowing you’ll need to make far more money as an untested entrepreneur than you did at your old job just to cover insurance!

Entrepreneurs work all the time. There is no time away from their business. It may seem that there is, but many of them are spending family dinner time around the table silently re-adding the budget numbers because surely something must have been off. Or half watching the movie while pondering the best way to advertise their latest product.

People who are wired with an entrepreneurial mindset may find traditional schooling to be uninspiring and unnecessary as they have a different way about them of obtaining knowledge. They care less about societal norms and fitting in because they *know* that their ideas one day will be great!

And, when viewing them through societal norms, they often appear to be the “least likely” to start a successful business.

Education system in India prepare students for Jobs and not for starting their own venture or entreprenuership. This is the main reason for Indians opting for jobs.

Those who are competent go for Private jobs in India or overseas and those looking for life of luxury without having to do anything and stay without any responsibility go for Govt jobs or take up careers in Politics.

Those who have not had any education or do not have any quota or reservation available open small vendor stalls or ply rickshaws,autos, taxis or take up jobs of carpenter, electrician and other services.

All this is harsh reality however bitter it may sound. Few opt for startups but the Govt puts such conditions and clauses that 99 percent of the startups fail. In this scenarion, who would be interested in startups ?

Satyamev Jayate !

Many startups fail in India when they do not solve an existing market problem. This is one of the main reasons why startups fail in India.

On average, 42% of startups fail because they are not able to solve market needs.

They usually find that they have little or no market for the product they have built.

Wrong business model

One of the common causes, why startups fail in India, is that entrepreneurs are too optimistic about how easy it will be to acquire customers. They just think building an attractive website, or service will open up the doors of success for them.

However, it is not easy to achieve this goal without an effective business model. One wrong business model and you are finished. A business model figures out a scalable way to acquire customers and monetize customers. So, always choose the best business model for your startup.

Ignoring customers

Ignoring your customers is a tried and true way to fail. Many startups do not find the time to get interacted with their users. They do not know the opinions of their customers about their products. This is where they start losing the game & the reason why startups fail in India. They fail to pay attention to their customers and adapt to their needs. So, do not take your customers for granted.

Insufficient funds

As you know that startups need sufficient time and money to operate smoothly. But nobody can tell exactly how much money one needs to spend on the business.

Almost 29% of startups fail in India due to a lack of funding.

Most startups fail because they are not able to manage sufficient funds to run their business. Why do startups fail in India, The failure to raise additional funding also affects a startup's growth.

Challenges with the development team

A common reason that causes startups to fail is the challenges with the development team.

Statistics show that almost 23% of startups fail due to the wrong team.

Good question. There are a lot of factors due to which India has fewer entrepreneurs. Some of these are:
1. The education system: Everyone knows this. We had a great education system in ancient India. Creativity and curiosity were promoted. Practical education was emphasised over theoretical education. But then the British came and changed this. We tried to copy their education system and hence, created the most fucked up education system in the world. Currently, schools don't promote creativity and do not allow kids to freely express themselves, be curious and question things. The only thing they give a shit about are marks. Competition for marks drives kids, not the curiosity to learn something new. This discourages a lot of people who could be great entrepreneurs.
2. Lack of rebels: Rebels are very important for societies. They question the current ways of doing things and they change things they find wrong. India lacks rebels. Forget rebels, we don't even have people who can say, "I don't have passion for engineering, I won't do it" to their parents. Rebels are very important. They challenge the old and replace it with the new. We, however try our best to supress rebels and make them live a life of conformity. Rebellion is hated by everyone from school teachers to parents to any random uncle who lives in your neighbourhood. Everyone wants kids to live the default life. Those who don't want to, are viewed as losers. Very discouraging. But Its these rebels that make great entrepreneurs. If you discourage them, you won't have many entrepreneurs.
3. Mindset of society: Indian society truly hates entrepreneurs (before they succeed). My uncle is currently working on his second start-up after his first one failed. I truly admire him. But many of my relatives? They consider him a loser who couldn't get a job. He will make it big one day and hopefully make everyone shut the fuck up. So mindset of people plays a big role. Why would someone go for entrepreneurship if most of the people he knows are against it? Only true rebels still have the balls to go for it.
4. Fear of failure: This is a big problem too. Indians truly fear failure. My classmates cry when they get 94% instead of 96%. Most of the people I meet just want an engineering degree to get a job. A job is considered a cloud of safety which most people are too scared to leave. They just don't have the guts to take risks because risk = possibility of failure. Has anyone become a successful entrepreneur without taking risks or failing?
5. No passion for anything: I believe that you need to be passionate about something if you want to be an entrepreneur. Make your passion your business. But in India, I barely see people in real life doing something they love. I joined an engineering coaching class (and quit 3 months later) only to find that most of the kids there had no interest in engineering. But they still come to that class and learn and mug and cram so they can get into an IIT and get a "good" job. If people don't have any hobbies or interests, they won't have many ideas. I haven't seen any entrepreneur till date who wasn't passionate about his business. And if we have a bunch of people who aren't passionate about anything, we will never have many entrepreneurs because these people will be busy working in companies of entrepreneurs from other countries (aka the MNCs).

There are a lot more things. But these few are the main factors. Its not that all Indians are like this. But a majority of our population fits in with this. However, thigs are changing slowly and we are seeing more and more start-ups. Hopefully, things will change for better in the next decade. Its these times that create the best entrepreneurs. :)

There are many answers to this questions based on different scenarios. As Rahul Sen above clearly mentioned about "Fear of Failure" as one of most widely known reasons, I totally agree with him. India youth, now thankfully moving toward entrepreneurship mindset as compared to "Government Servant" mentality till late 1990 - early 2000s.

There is one more aspect for this issue - Marriage. Though I found it funny when I first read this the story. I don't know whether it's true or not, but it is a real eye-opener.

This guy is a small business from Mumbai with yearly turnover of 50-75 crore rupees. He sent a marriage proposal to a beautiful girl who happened to be in his family circle. The girl's father declined this proposal, stating he is businessman which can bankrupt him and he might not able to take care of the girl.

Few months, later he received a marriage invitation from one of his manager. He went for marriage and found the same girl married to this manager who was by Indian standards eligible just because of permanent job.

Because of this mentality, Indian youth was not venturing into businesses. However, this scenario has rapidly changed over last decades. More and more Indians are venturing into uncharted territories with bright business ideas.

Startups go through starting troubles before they go through a roller coaster ride to convert into a viable business and generate positive cash flows. The reasons for failures are plenty at various stages of a startup. Good Management can make a lot of difference since most of the reasons related to failure are people related.

• Vision & Mission : Founders and partners need to be on the same page and need to have similar vision and mission apart from values and beliefs. Sometimes, objectives can be divergent. Some Partners might have a short term outlook while others might be thinking of building long term assets. Delaying gratification is not something every partner may be comfortable with.
• Ignorance: Identifying Critical Skills for Success : Entrepreneurs do not identify critical skills needed for success in the business they are into. Much is left desired by the quality of the skill sets co founders bring to the table.
• Taking Decisions in Haste : In the heat of the moment, decisions are taken and these decisions are not durable. Decide in haste and repent in leisure.
• Ego : Running a startup needs a continuous learning attitude and one to keep one’s ego at check. Partners come at various experience levels, capability and backgrounds. The most important thing is to treat the startup as a baby which needs resources of every parent to nourish and grow it.
• Pretension : Founders pretend to know something which they really don’t. This might be a negotiation tactic or just a habit. Transparency and openness in communication is crucial to identify the right partners.
• Individual Interest ahead of Startup Interest : Keeping the Interest of the Startup primary is important for success. When the startup succeeds everyone does. It is better to have a smaller piece of a pie than not to have any pie at all.
• Business Model : The most difficult initial task in a startup is to create a business model and have everyone on the same page. If not, everyone is running around like headless chicken. A Business Model is a living document and needs constant revisit.
• Leadership : Leadership can make or break a startup. There are many intangible skills which are not visible or cannot be measured. These skills are also be hard to understand. A skilled leader can make a difference to the startup. Entrepreneurs need to identify such people and sometimes even allow them to lead.
• Ignoring Competition : Scared of comparing oneself to the competition. The value one creates in the marketplace is always comparative and not in absolute terms. One should not even have a myopic vision and only look at competition for the existing products but look for competition from other industries which are fulfilling the customers need.
• Guarding your business idea and smothering it : Not everyone is your competitor. There are a lot of people who can be mentors, coaches, partners, suppliers and customers. Do not hesitate to share your business ideas with them and take help.
• Managing Money : Mathematics is the language of business. Make sure you budget, forecast, keep room for emergencies.

FAQ 1. Business Management.

FAQ 3. Business Management.

I think it is because a lot of youngsters are preparing only for exams.

They are preparing for IAS, CAT, GATE and several other exams. Every year lakhs of candidates apply for these exams. These exams demand serious dedication, focus and hardwork which doesn't leave any room for other things such as entrepreneurship.

It is not that youngsters are afraid of taking risks. They do not have time for taking risks. It’s just that they are busy in their exams preparation so much that they are not able to experiment with their cool ideas.

Number of entrepreneurs will increase if students take some time free and think about their ideas and opportunities available to them instead of giving exams.

I started a business before I got any education at all and I started some after.
- Before I was more likely to take an action but also more likely to fail
- Now my chances of failure are much lower but I am less likely to take a plunge and pursue an idea

Here are just some rough generalizations based on my observations (if it's too long - just scroll down to Ancient Fortress story):

1. Over-analysis of everything. Unlike in an established business, startups have way too many uncertainties that cannot and should not be analyzed at first (the situation will change 1000s times before those uncertainties get a chance to become relevant ).

2. More ways to confirm the same conclusion that the business will most likely fail.

3. Need to get a return on time and money invested in education. You just spent years getting education and have $100k in debt - why take any more risk to finally see the R of the ROI?

4. Higher opportunity cost. If you immediately can get a high salary for a very comfortable life - then busting your ass at a most-likely-will-fail startup becomes even less appealing

5. Highly educated people may be self-selected risk-averse group. Startups are risky. Those who like that level of risk go for startups right away. Those who choose to spend years getting some advanced degree may already expect to have a long stable career in a chosen field and are ok with that.

P.S. I find MBA programs to be especially anti-entrepreneurial. There are many things to mention, but the key here is the fundamental difference of the approach to strategy and risk:

MBA (rationality beats optimism): start with what you HAVE and then determine WHAT you want to do. Your constraint here is your CURRENT resources. That is, you disregard any strategy that requires something that you don't already have. Safer, but slower innovation (mostly maintaining or slightly improving what you already have). Your strategy is dragged down by the lack of resources and your resources are not increasing that fast because your strategy does not allow it.

Entrepreneurship (optimism beats rationality): Start with WHAT you want to do and then determine what you need to HAVE in order to do that. You constraint here is your ABILITY to get the resources. That is, more strategies will be acceptable to you if you believe you will find the resources. Also, when this works it creates a virtuous cycle: your ABILITY to get resources depends on the strategy you choose. So, if you believe you will be able to get the needed resources you will pick bolder strategies and your bolder strategies may in fact increase your ability to get more resources.

Ancient Fortress Example
Imagine several kids in a playground, each one has 10 bricks.
Kid with an MBA apprach: "I have 10 bricks. What can I build with them?" So, he picks one of the things and builds that. The risk that it won't be built is minimal - he already has all the material.

Kid with entrepreneurial approach: "I want to build a ancient fortress". So, he goes ahead and uses his 10 bricks - but they are only enough to build the foundation. However, now that he built the foundation he explains his vision of an ancient fortress to a kid nearby and that kid gives him 5 of his bricks. Now they built a bit more of the fortress. Other kids notice their massive structure (15 bricks!) and want to join in. The ancient fortress is finally built and it includes 75 bricks! The ancient fortress would never have been built, if the initial number of bricks would have been the constraint for the selected strategy.

Optimism, willingness to take greater risk, ability to share the vision, find the needed resources and pull them together is what's needed to be an entrepreneur. Education does not help here as much.

Following are those that I personally believe cover 99% of the cases :

1. Bubble - Indian love hype! and following others blindly. Many people who have started companies had no idea what it takes to build a company. They came from comfortable jobs, with big hearts and no brains or understanding.
2. Rigidity - A start-up is like a child. The way you operate is different from bigger organizations who are like adults. In India, hierarchy is a big issue. Bosses have egos which may work in bigger setups but in a start-up that is not healthy. Not being able to listen to better ideas from a random source and not being agile enough to adapt, is a start-up killer.
3. Vision - The short term and long term goals, milestones need to be clear and articulated to the whole team. Sometimes, they are not communicated properly and hence, goals and achievements are misaligned.
4. Funding - The market analysis and revenue model are sometimes too weak. They are dependant on funding from the first day itself and most of the time it is unstainable. VCs are also ruthless. You will have to part away with more than the fair share of equity in India if you are looking for funding. Without finding, they simply die.
5. Obsession - Sometimes, Indians get attached to an idea. They are in love with it and are not open to change or let go. It is sometimes, not difficult to change course or take on a new idea, but when the guy in charge is in love with the original idea and has blind belief, it becomes dangerous.

CB Insights reports that no market need and ran out of cash account for nearly 60% of failures.

The testing whether your market needs or does not needs your solutions is not always black and white all the time. Most feedbacks are grey, so you do not know what to follow and what not. You face a lot of paradoxes on your way.

For the money part, I believe there is always a need of more as you can always see options that could be done if you had more.

There are always Wright vs. Langley/NASA vs. Isro cases as well. Innovation and grit are something no amount of money can buy and that's why where entrepreneurship wins

Do you guys agree with CBInsights?