3.2.

4 THE ADVENT OF STARTUPS

Think of a business in the first stages of operations, which is started by one or more entrepreneurs (risk taking
individuals/teams), who want to develop a product or service for which they believe there is demand. These
companies generally start with high costs and limited revenue, hich is why they look for capital from a variety
of sources. Generally speaking, these businesses focus on disrupting status quo with advanced technology and
digitisation of existing business models. Such new, innovative businesses are called start-ups.

sources of finance include government initiatives (like Start-up India), angel investors, focussed investors,
Theirnet
high worth individuals and privatebanks.
Some of the big names in India in this arena are Flipkart (discussed later in chapter), Oyo Rooms, CRED,
Udaan, Zerodha, Groww, Byju's, Vedantu, to name a few.

Entrepreneur; the risk taker, the believers develop, and validate a scalable business model. While
entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to
become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the
beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be
Successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns (privately held startup companies valued at over
USD 1 billion).
The startup ecosystem consists of theindividuals (entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, mentors,
advisors); institutions and organizations (top research universities and institutes, business schools and
entrepreneurship programs and centres operated by universities and colleges, non-profit entrepreneurship
support organizations, government entrepreneurship programs and services, Chambers of commerce) business
incubators and business accelerators and top-performing entrepreneurial firms and startups. A region with all of
these elements is considered to be a strong startup ecosystem. In India Bengaluru is one of the most infiuential
places for start-ups with all major start-ups budding and growing in the region.
With the technology advancement and availability of good talent and support, a lot of smart and dedicated
individuals have setup start-ups and compete in an open market to win maximum customers for their respective
industries and attract funds for growth.
In India it is still in initial stages, unlike western cOuntries where it has reached a stable stage. Nonetheless, in
Asia the potential is huge and highly competitive, thus, the space is exciting to study and be a part of.