India is in the midst
of the start-up revolution and you see every day so many startups flourishing. Indian
PM has provided a slogan in his Independence Day speech “Start-up India,
Stand-up India”
But I just want to ask
them ‘Dear Startups- Are you ‘Making in India’ or ‘Making in ‘Big Cities’ of
India’?
Be it Practo, Grofers,
Hola Chef or any new startup which is launched, the first and foremost beneficiaries
are the residents of Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad etc. And why not, these are the people who are
smart, tech savy, cooool and have deep pockets. I completely understand, with
good mix of sophisticated, English speaking and large population, these cities
serve as the best nest for a start up to grow. Then comes the second, third and
fourth startups within no time in the same city and start catering to all the
areas of the societies. They all do good till demand and supply are balanced
and they provide a healthy competition to each other.
But, then comes the
fifth, sixth and seventh startup which tries to emulate the same idea and the
same city and cater to same society.
Here, I fail to
understand and I feel like asking them ‘Why’?
Are there no other
cities available in India? Whether whole
population of India is based in these cities? Whether all the cool and tech
savy people stay only in these cities? Whether people of other cities do not
deserve such quality services? Whether people of these cities only have deep
pockets?
A startup should aim at
solving a problem of a society. It should act as a pain killer for the ailing
society. Even, if the idea is not new, a society to which a new startup can cater
can be new. They would have new audience, no competition, different kind of
data base and a first mover advantage in such societies.
Startups should start catering
services to Tier II or Tier III Cities of India. If a pain killer is available in one
society, though same, startups should try to distribute the pain killer to
other societies where the same is not available. It’s a win – win for all.
If quality services are
available to Tier II or Tier III cities then why would one think of moving to Tier I cities. The same issue can indirectly also help the issue of migration of
people to few large cities of India. Diversifying to various cities across
India will also generate employment for the people of said areas and the city
would flourish.
Entrepreneur must start
identifying Tier II or Tier III cities which have substantial population or couple of Tier II or Tier III cities which one can cater to. A state like Bihar or Jharkhand may sound very
uninteresting to new breeds of entrepreneur, but I can assure you that once you
are providing good service to them, they will be a good customers to you.
Its my humble request
to the new generation entrepreneur, making money is a must but if you would
earn money while solving a grave problem of the society, you would have a
longer run in your business, value of your company would be more and you will
have super profits with all the blessings of the society!
