Here’s some positive news for startups looking at hand-holding and initial support. At a time when startups are mushrooming in every direction, some crying themselves hoarse about lack of financing and guidance, the number of incubators in the country is also seeing positive growth.
Growing parallel with startups are incubators looking at offering them mentorship, capital, seed funding, tech and infrastructure support, and every other thing under the sun that is necessary to for them to rise to a certain level. This is welcoming in a city like Bangalore, where roughly 1000-1200 new ideas are born every year, across segments like cloud, clean tech, healthcare, microfinance etc.
“We provide the entire gamut of services needed while starting out including legal, engineering, infrastructure and funding support,” says Akash OP Aurora, chief visionary, IdeaTree, an incubator that started off last year.
IdeaTree has till date incubated about nine startups in various domains including a cricket portal and a travel portal. According to Aurora, their plan is to incubate 50 startups or ideas in a year.
“We usually incubate for a period of 12-18 months, by which time the startup should become independent and able to raise capital by itself,” says Aurora.
Budding entrepreneurs say incubation is one of the chief parameters of success while staring out. Adithya Pasupaleti, an engineer who is planning to start out his own firm, says “without hand-holding, it is near impossible to surge through the initial months when we are trying to put things together.”
According to Aruj Garg, who has started Bhukkad, a food venture supplying primarily to college students, getting the initial capital is also a big hassle. “I worked before starting out, and used Rs 25,000 from my savings.”
A US based incubator, Science Inc, recently set up its India office in Koramangala. The firm has till date incubated about 20 startups in the US. Though the India office mainly deals with providing tech support, the firm could be looking at incubating ideas in India as well, when opportunities come by.
“In the US we focus on developing new businesses, and providing entrepreneurs with operational strategy and capital. The Bangalore office started just six months ago,” says Vinay Agarwal from Science.
The importance of networking
Women comprise nearly 20% of the workforce in the tech sector in India. But women, techies feel, will take another 200 years to reach the 50% mark. At a technology forum, women entrepreneurs and techies felt there do exist biases in the workplace, and to deal with them means “proving your technological competence continuously.” The key factor contributing towards more girls entering software and tech domains is the lucrative job offers and career charts dished out by leading firms. “Specially at the entry level there are exciting jobs that await women,” says Pearl Uppal, founder of 5ideas.in, a seed fund startup. But to climb the corporate ladder means a whole dose of networking. “Women need to network and talk to people around to get ahead,” says Anisha Singh, founder of a couponing company mydala.com.
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