Startup and failures are two words which are commonly heard amongst entrepreneurs. While no one can deny the fact that startups are prone to fail, the rate of failure of startups in India in last decade has been on the higher side. While we have seen people getting success after closing one or more ventures, failure of startups in India is very common and one cannot deny it.
We are here discussing about the reasons behind the failure of Indian startups.
Why do Indian Startups Fail?
A startup!!! Yes, that’s what most people working have in mind. Specially those who are working in corporates or preparing to join the working world soon i.e., those who are in colleges (specially those who are into professional courses – technical courses or business schools) dream for.
Hundreds of startups are launched in India every month. Here is english translation of a quote that was recently referred to in TVF Pitcher series :
“In the world of Indian IT Industry, two out of three cubicles have startup founders seating and coding for their bosses”
But the real question is how many of them achieve their goal? A study says over 90% of startups collapse prematurely. So what are the reasons of such huge ratio of failure?
There are many reasons which contributes to the failure of startups in India.
- Lack of Right Attitude and Mindset: Youngsters in India are sometimes victims to bad parenting. I say this because I feel a majority of the middle-class families are inculcating a WRONG ATTITUDE in their kids.
To their daughter – “Becoming a doctor is one of the best professions for women.”
“Engineering and Medical Science are what you should aim at. IITs or AIIMS. You need to make us proud” Most of them are not able to make their parents understand that being successful in life is not about getting into an IIT or for that matter getting high marks in school. Rather, it is more of being able to do what you love doing, impacting the world around you with your work. There are people in this world who did not go to any of the top-notch colleges and are far more successful than those who did! Why so? Simply because they had the right attitude from the start.
- Sole Founders: Most studies reveals that majority of startups who failed had sole founders. Its good to have the guts and take the step forward for starting something of your own but indeed you need someone to play the role of a critique and tell you where you are wrong.
- Undefined Target User : Many startups just launch themselves without vision of targeting specific category of user base. To be successful as a startup You must be clear about the category of users that will be using your services. Different type of users have different aspects of services they need and a founder must know whom to sell their services.
- Poor Market Research: Once you have your target user defined, a thorough research of market is a mandate. How unique your services are which you are offering? In case if other market players are offering similar services, what X-factor you have to attract users to your services.
- Undefined Short and Long Term Goals: Some startup founders start their ventures as side job along with working for corporate and do not have defined short term and long term goals defined. This leads to major fallback. If you do not have growth rate defined and putting efforts to achieve the targets, over the course of time your income becomes constant and rather start falling. Ultimately, it becomes hard to sustain and invest to enhance the quality of services for the customers. You can think it as when you start using services from a vendor, you would certainly wish to receive better and better quality of services. In the fast and dynamic industry you can not just stick to your limited strategies. You have to change the strategies dynamically and of course you would require money to invest to enhance your services.
So, if you are planning to start with your venture, do keep these points in mind. Best of luck!!!
