You Can Rebel And You Can Be A Rebel! Today, startup entrepreneurship in India is seeing rebellion that is beyond business.
By Ritu Marya
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We can argue about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton turning the US politics into a bad reality show, but are our e-commerce unicorns any better? Both scenarios are melodramatic, crude and shameless,
and they are all riding high for the improbable bid to be #1. Today, startup entrepreneurship in India is seeing rebellion that is beyond business, it can be defined as a mass of resentments, anxieties and frustrations about each other's business style and growth.
The start-up euphoria is however, giving a way to realism both at the top and grass roots, and therefore it promises to be more impactful. The larger prediction is that valuations will become tight and funding will become real. Innovation combined with scalability and sustainability with in-built profitability will become the mainstay of investment in start-ups. This will call for pushing boundaries and making people uncomfortable, challenging the rules and feeling damn good about it. The rule of the jungle, "let the fittest survive," will be the new normal as our cover story spells it out amid the unicorn spats.
Amid re-valuations and tightening of investor purse strings, an Indian entrepreneur changed the course.
The Infibeam Founder Vishal Mehta has walked the true path of Indian entrepreneurship by guiding his growth in a more traditional milieu, pursuing a more conventional, and perhaps a less risky path. The IPO may have not broken world records but surely has achieved what he set out for and while doing so has set precedence for e-commerce and tech start-ups to take a hard look at the public money to build growth. Many new start-ups will now be looking at IPOs more closely. Even unicorn e-commerce companies can do well to heed this path.
It has been a busy financial year for entrepreneurs in India, thanks to the economy that grew by 7.4 percent much ahead of the world's developed economies. It is the period when Indian entrepreneurs should make time to take financial overview of the business, take stock of their assets and debts, and evaluating monthly cash flows to set new financial resolutions. It is especially important for start-ups to
look at financial management during this period as the major part of the year otherwise goes into business model restructuring. Even a less than 100 percent realization of financial resolutions can leave a very healthy impact on the balance sheet rather than having no game plan at all.
"I can sleep when I die." That's the mentality of an entrepreneur, artist and sportsperson. While they have much in common, they can always look at each other to draw energy and inspiration. They are obsessed with their craft and their passion, and they also know that in this uncertain world, they can only depend on themselves, so they invest in themselves. We feature some nonentrepreneurs who have the mindset of an entrepreneur.
