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Global report hails B’luru start ups and new age entrepreneurs

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Bengaluru: The 2015 Global Startup Ecosystem Report published by San Francisco-based Compass (formerly Startup Genome which has its tagline ‘cracking the code of innovation’) says that Namma Bengaluru is a key city for startups in the world. Bengaluru has moved up 4 positions to rank 15 among the top 20 start up ecosystems in the world. The last survey was conducted in 2012 at which time Bengaluru ranked 19.

ecoIn August of last year, MIT Technology Review, a magazine put out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had placed Bangalore among the eight largest technology innovation clusters around the world, driven among other things by its entrepreneurial culture.

More significantly, the compass report says that at an average age of 28.5 yrs, Bengaluru has youngest entrepreneurs in world. By contrast, Silicon Valley’s start up entrepreneurial ages is 36.2 years.

Kuala Lumpur follows close on the heels of Bengaluru, at 30.5 years, and is trailed by Sao Paulo, 31.7 years, and Berlin, 31.8%. Sydney has the highest average age among startup founders, at 40.3 years.

For some years now India has had a young demographic profile and this combined with new age tools and opportunities that technology, the internet and social media has created are reflecting in entrepreneurship.

Mohan Kumar, executive director at venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners India, says, “This industry itself is only five years old and a person with 15 or more years of experience or knowledge will not add value. Youngsters will understand them better. Venture capitalists also prefer younger entrepreneurs, those who are around 30 years of age,” he said.

While Bengaluru has moved up the ladder in terms of its start up eco system and in the age of its entrepreneurial talent, Silcon valley retains the top spot in terms of performance, funding, market reach, talent, and startup experience, a few of an entrepreneur’s favorite things, which Bengaluru needs to work on. However, according to the report, which was compiled with the help of global startup database CrunchBase, Bengaluru has done well in the funding parameter with a rank of 6, just below Chicago.

Another key to a start up is office space. Here Bengaluru scores. Startups can find very affordable spaces even in city centre locations like Indiranagar and Koramangala. “You can’t imagine that in a place like Mumbai,” says Manish Sabharwal, founder of staffing solutions firm Team Lease.

However talent is still scarce, and while India and Bengaluru itself churn out a lot of Post graduates, employability is still a limited commodity. Capillary’s Reddy says good product managers and marketing/sales guys are still difficult to find in Bangalore.

Starting numbers

Getting accurate data of startups is difficult per se. However Nasscom is a good place to begin for tech start ups. Of the 4,000 applications that Nasscom received recently from startups for angel funding and acceleration under its 10,000 Startups initiative, the highest (23%) was from Bangalore, followed by NCRDelhi (20%).

But places like NCR are better known for ventures in the internet space. “If you look at hardcore product companies (which require strong engineering talent), Bangalore is way on top,” says Arun Natarajan , founder of Venture Intelligence , which provides information and analysis on private equity and venture capital funding.

A survey last year by YourStory.in, a startup research firm, found that Bangalore was perceived as the best city to start up in by over 34% of 400 respondents, followed by Mumbai (20%) and NCR (9%). Startup networking forums Open Coffee Club, Bar-Camps, Startup Saturday and Mobile Monday have played a key role in providing mentorship and encouragement to startups.

Entrepreneurship picks up in Bengaluru

The Times of India too reported that Entrepreneurship is alive and kicking in Bengaluru, and in recent years has picked up on account of its young go getting population, that came in from Tier II and Tier III cities looking to improve their lot. It’s probably a combination of four things – Bangalore’s IT services pedigree, diverse talent, linkages with the Silicon Valley and entrepreneurial culture.

Pallav Nadhani, who founded the charting company FusionCharts in Kolkata in 2002, shifted to Bangalore in June 2011. He found the work ethic in Kolkata poor: people were not aggressive; at the stroke of 5 employees would leave work; very few took initiatives; most had to be told what to do. In contrast, in Bangalore people learn things on their own,” says Nadhani, whose solutions are used by 21,000 customers — including Google, HP, Dell, Nasa, Intel, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM and Disney — and 4,50,000 developers across 118 countries.

He says Bangalore is easily the intellectual capital of India: “The weather’s good. As an entrepreneur, I get nice vibes, and don’t feel isolated as there are so many other entrepreneurs to interact with.”

Mukund Mohan, CEOin-residence at Microsoft Ventures, notes that three key elements go into creating a great entrepreneurial ecosystem: access to a great talent pool, access to investment capital, and access to a large pool of early adopters. “Bangalore has all three in good numbers.

A new trend: Youth chuck 9 to 6 jobs to become cabbies!

The entrepreneurship bug has hit techies too, and they find no loss of dignity in entering professions that previously might have been viewed as taboo for qualified, degree holding youngsters. How times have changed. Previously an IT job after an engineering degree would have meant the world to some, with a monthly salary of Rs 50,000 and long weekends… But Depak Shanmugam, 33, a resident of Halasuru, felt he could do more, and opportunity stared him in the face. He is now a driver-partner with cab company TaxiForSure.

“My neighbours and friends were shocked when I decided to buy a car in February and work as a cabbie for half the salary I was earning as an engineer. I found nothing menial about the job. I am happy and I understand the feeling of serving people’s need to travel. It is okay to start with a lower salary. Business is growing fast and money will flow in,” Deepak says.

Yuvaraj K, 31, is another case in point. He was working as an assistant manager in a company for eight years, when he chucked up his job and started driving for Ola with the idea of owning a fleet of cars soon. “I have the freedom to log in and out of the mobile app whenever I want to. I do not have a quirky boss. I am the boss here,” he says.

Renuka Devi, 35, of Jalahalli, formerly a laid back housewife, is now a cab entrepreneur. She bought a car, hired a driver and registered with Ola. “Business is booming,” she says. That was two years ago. Today, Renuka Devi owns 13 cars attached to Ola and is a 24/7 hands on full fledged entrepreneur. She employs many drivers to run her business 24/7. She has fulfilled her dream of becoming self reliant.

Clearly times are changing, and Bengaluru is offering the right kind of culture, environment and people – all part of the startup ecosystem, however, without any help from the government. It’s time the government woke up, took notice and supplemented the talent and efforts of individuals in their quest for a better life with systemic improvements.

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