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Why Investors Risked their Capital into these Startups Get inspired knowing what drove investors into funding some famous startups today

By Rustam Singh

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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From an idea to planning, and finally to break-even point, when a large investor also shares your vision and sees potential enough to invest a huge capital into your idea – entrepreneurs face a lot of struggle. Even the largest giants started humbly, with minimal capital and very little resources – because they either had an idea that didn't exist before in the market, or debuted in a department creating a demand for the public. There are several reasons apart from conveniently being the first in the market to do something, but some investors also claim to fund because they see the potential and determination of the CEO's and entrepreneurs.

Here's a compilation of how CEO's of successful startups as we know them today got their first break:

First food menu archiving

Deepinder Goyal, the founder and CEO of Zomato had to walk manually, door to door, collecting restaurant menus. He even had to design the first page of the website himself, convincing restaurants to be featured. That was until the first break, which got a massive funding and set the ball rolling. Investors got attracted seeing the potential of virtual menu and food options archive and not having any such service in India before.

Two wheeler taxi & delivery service

"The fact that we not only offer ride motorcycle taxi services, but also offer delivery services attracted investors. Whether you want your favorite street food vendor that doesn't deliver, or medicines, or a particular package to picked and delivered, we do the job for you. We are also crowd funded."- Vivek Panday Founder CEO of N.O.W. Bikes

Refurbished Store

"My cofounder Alex and I introduced Overcart as a portal for gamers to trade games and electronics. Customers could trade in their old products for credits to help buy new ones—we'd provide all the logistical support including door-step pickup of the old product and delivery of the new. Gradually, we realized early on that we'd need to diversify outside of gaming, and we did that pretty quickly. As we scaled the business, we realized that door-step pickups were quite demanding on our (then) infrastructure. At the same time, e-commerce companies were just starting to get worried about customer returns. So, we began working with them to help build a returns and liquidation process. We realized that a huge proportion of these products were functionally perfect: the trick was to determine which ones could be certified for re-sale. We invested significant time, effort, and money to set up our quality infrastructure to ensure that our customers get the best products for the best price, without compromising on quality. Hence, our unique business model attracted investors." - Saptarshi Nath and Alexander Souter, CEOs, OverCart

Consumer to consumer money transfer app

"I think investors liked the fact that we were a multi-bank platform providing standardized services to the user base irrespective of their personal bank choice. Along with this the ease of using the service and our chosen revenue model made investors see our potential." Sony Joy, CEO & Founder, Chillr app

What do you think did investors look for/ are going to look for in your business? Let us know in the comments below on our official Facebook page Entrepreneur India

Rustam Singh

Sub-Editor- Entrepreneur.com

Tech reporter.

Contact me if you have a truly unique technology related startup looking for a review and coverage, especially a crowd-funded project looking to launch and coverage.

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