My predictions for #Indian #startups for 2020-21

1. More Indian startups will likely be born during 2020-2021 - Past trends show entrepreneurship thrive following a recession.
Factors driving this:
a. Job losses and lack of job opportunities makes entrepreneurship a necessity

‘Brush with death’. The global death tolls and relatability due to degrees of separation will drive home the realisation of fragile human life. In the #postcovid world ‘Do it now’ will be far more urgent than ‘someday I will’.

The ‘nepotism’ of ‘corporate mercenaries’ during dark times will make entrepreneurship stand out as ‘more respectable’. (In such dark times unscrupulous leaders will use political opportunism to consolidate their power).

Victims of nepotism are usually talented and competent individuals who lack political maneuvering. Such individuals have always been great at starting up because they prefer dignity.

2. Absence of cheap money will reduce startup talent wars substantially. This will bring sensible growth to startups on the talent front (been a challenge in fast growth environments like India).

3. Customer traction will trump price war led growth (again due to absence of cheap growth capital). This will lead to a far more viable exonomic engine at the core of the Biz models.

4. Innovation jumps will be visible across India - Frugality will drive innovation (my fav definition - Innovation is about breaking constraints).

5. Due to lack of scenario modeling earlier, most startups will be forced to pivot. This will lead to far more robust startups sailing through (pivots have been proven to be at the core of resilient startups).

6. No one will mention ‘unicorns’, ‘soonicorns’ or ‘valuations’ for the next 9-12 months :) The best outcome ever. Be prepared to ‘bootstrapping’ become the new mantra.

7. Appification of integrated supplychains - Large interlinked supply chain driven businesses will be disrupted due to #Covid_19 giving rise to new biz models. Think apps competing with ERP kinda concept. Small will become beautiful - SMBs will boom

8. Automation & tech will become ‘vital’ from ‘cool’ due to the lockdown experience - Brace for controls automation, remote manufacturing control towers, virtual work productivity tools etc.

... To be updated when more thoughts emerge