Gloomy future for 99% of Indian startups
When will founders learn that it is almost impossible to make a profitable consumer oriented startup in India.
India is NOT USA. In India, people are not easily going to pay for your service.
It is just a matter of time before most of them packs their bag.
They won't learn. Indian youngsters are busy swallowing all that comes from US eyes closed. Like taking pride at 90% start ups fail. No critical thinking skills. It works when your govt can print money like there is no tomorrow and as long as your currency is the reserve currency. What works in India and is sustainable is the conventional wisdom. Start small, borrow from your community when they really have the money, keep growing only while making profits. China grew at the expense of the US while India was sleeping. Now the US is on the downward trajectory in the geopolitical milieu - high risk of loss of reserve currency status, high inflation. India won't get the same free money that China got at one point.
Being devil's advocate here. There was a consumer tech wave in India for 5-7 years starting from 2012. But now more and more startups are coming up in different spaces like SaaS, B2B, agrregation models etc, which have a better shot at profits.
If you look at big consumer tech startups in last 3 years, most of them have been from serial entrepreneur (zepto being an exception). But young folks are moving away from consumer tech as I see.
Saas and B2B cannot be extrapolated beyond a point on Excel so can't get billion dollar valuations. So how can investors get a large exit?
Young folks are moving away from consumer because there is no funding available.
Hmm