The power of networking for entreprenuers

Albert Einstein emphasized, "The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it." What are ethics? Ethics are a set of moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour. It is also a branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. Both of these are simple textbook definitions. But, is there a difference between the real world and theory? Should there be definitions in the world of dynamic problems of business? We never have all the answers. But, as we always do, let’s analyze the topic in detail and build towards an agreeable approach. We would love to hear from you in this regard. So, feel free and share your thoughts on what we have to say. Marcus Aurelius advised, "Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one." Remembered as one of the Five Good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor in the 2nd century. He ruled in times of great difficulty including wars and plagues, these words were not meant to be a top-down public sermon but an individual moral code of sorts to help him navigate his difficult reign. He urges himself and by definition, anyone else, who reads the quote toward action based on conviction as opposed to endless discourse. This stems from the school of philosophy called Stoicism, based on telling the truth, being resilient and exercising self-control, and being a person of action. As a lifelong student of philosophy, these were the codes that Marcus Aurelius believed in, whether it was a period of war or famine. The statement was never published during his lifetime but has far outlived the Roman and several other empires in history. A collection of his personal writings, Meditations is a favourite with many highly successful people, including Jerry Seinfeld, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton. Prominent Indian thinkers like J. Krishnamurti and C. Rajagopalachari also recommended it, with the latter having translated it into Tamil. In summary, ethics need to be built upon strong foundations of morality and actions instead of mere virtue signalling. Therein lies the issue. Imagine a case where a public servant signs an oath of duty towards his job, to be able to work without fear or favour, but has his hand forced by a political figure. You might have heard of Ashok Khemka, who was a civil servant for over 30 years and got over 50 transfers during his tenure. He might not have risen to the highest offices but will be remembered more fondly for taking a stance when he did. Taking a stance on matters that don’t align with the powers that be can come at a price. In the world of business, there are innumerable instances when there was widespread corruption and bad practices that have led to the downfalls of many organizations. It often starts small and then the rot extends. Creative accounting, selective reporting, retro and early reporting of sales, and other sleight of hand methods have long been used. How do you cope with such issues if you face them? Think of this situation like driving on the wrong side of the road, a scenario that cuts down transit time by a few minutes. If you do it repeatedly, the sense of your success is going to create a bunch of imitators. Then, those following the rules are put at a disadvantage. So, eventually, the incentive and benefits of having laws is lost. Now, assume that there is a CCTV system installed that is capable of electronic challans. While there will still be the initial set of deviants, once the word starts getting out, this is likely to either slow down or stop. In the world of business, this happens, but only partially as potential defaulters are often enchanted by a confirmation bias of perceived success focusing on those who were able to cut corners and ‘make it’ instead of what lies ahead in such cases. Strong corporate governance, its enforcement, and education is necessary to avoid such scenarios.  India faces over 1.5 lac deaths a year due to road accidents. Most of these are avoidable. Almost 70% come from speeding. There is little realisation of the fact that a fully loaded car carrying four-five people is over a tonne in mass. At high speeds, it's a potential speeding tank with no reinforcement. Both parties are at serious risk in case of accidents. Similarly, businesses are losing out on a lot in funding, revenue, scale and expansion due to lack of ethics, and due diligence. PwC reports suggest that 75% of investors believe compliance to be key as it narrows down the legal and financial risks. Some part of the lack of compliance often stems from trying to hide violations from the organization's actors. As a business owner, siphoning off money to buy an iPhone or a Kia Seltos might not seem like a big deal today, but it is leaving long term income and wealth on the table. It is also going to affect your employees and others who are stakeholders who have bought into your business. It is tempting, the messaging, to aspire to achieve more for yourself. But, if you fight the temptation long enough, you and your team could achieve things beyond your wildest dreams.  Challenges India facesThere have been many issues in India that have taken place due to ethical violations. With every instance, stronger laws and enforcement have come in. However, the stakeholders need to buy in and take a stand on this far and no further. That is a part of the problem. Those who are the perpetrators of economic crimes and violations often seem to think that they have a Midas touch, till they do not. From the 1950s Mundhra scam, to Religare and Ranbaxy’s manipulation, and the infamous Satyam scandal, India has seen stock price manipulation, inflating revenues, and fraudulent loan distribution. There were other instances like PNB-Nirav MNodi and ICICI Videocon that eroded trust and reliability from various household names. Eventually, various enforcement mechanisms were brought into place such as the SEBI and Companies Act of 2013 mandated audit committees, independent directors and auditor rotation every 10 years to curb fraud. The reforms have tried to shift focus from merely compliance to ethical accountability with advisors emerging for shareholder vigilance. Whistleblower ProtectionIndia's Whistle Blowers Protection Act 2014 shields disclosures on corruption or fund misuse, though enforcement remains weak with optional victim redress. Companies Act Section 177(9) requires listed firms to establish vigil mechanisms against retaliation, vital in cases like Satyam where early tips could have prevented losses. Strong protections foster ethical cultures, as seen in SEBI-mandated policies promoting transparency over fear of reprisal.It is important to have whistleblowers with the courage to swim against the tide. We need a set of strong institutions that need to be built on consensus and need to ensure presenting the evidence in a fair and unbiased manner while also ensuring the ones speaking out have a security blanket. Two of the biggest corporate scandals, Enron and Worldcom, both broke to the general public due to internal whistleblowers and investigative journalists. The stronger institutions in America enable speaking out against the system. In countries like India, the power brokers hold too much clout. If we need to progress, we need a system built on transparency, fundamentals and answerability, otherwise we cannot expect individuals to stand their ground for the common good. In sport, there is a lot of mention of ‘Spirit of the game’. While no one can articulate it comprehensively, it seems to entice discussions whenever there is any situation that stirs the pot. The world of business also works similarly. We need to understand that corrupt practices selectively implemented for one will someday lead to damage for everyone else. Sweden brought in corruption charges against a Member of Parliament for a packet of Toblerone chocolates! In principle, that is the level of transparency that should be aspirational. Unlike sport, where the spirit of the game has always been an arbitrary construct, businesses require some standards in financial reporting which keep on changing and evolving with time. ESG ESG–Environmental, Social and Governance frameworks integrate sustainability into business strategy, gaining rapid traction in India as a part of the global investor demands. It is a fast-growing market with a CAGR of over 23% and expected to reach 4 billion by 2030 due to pushes from SEBI. This has been backed by underlying initiatives from SEBI. There is merit in turning these initiatives from merely compliance based to strategy and educating on enforcement. The Triple Bottom Line of People, Planet, Profits Its a new outlook to viewing businesses and the notions of success and failure. Social equity, environmental accountability and sustainable growth can co-exist together. However, the challenges are complex as India needs to balance rapid industrialization, profit primacy and investor expectations. It is a must to ensure fair labour with fair community upliftment and inclusivity. India’s society is spread across a divergent wage gap and informal employment. There are remarakble initiatives like Tata group’s nudge towards education and ITC’s e-Choupal to empower market access for farmers. As a part of the CSR, numerous companies are coming on board to advance this cause. There are several Green practices that have come in due to the Planet sustainability imperative. There is a thrust towards renewables and carbon neutrality, Unilever is looking to reduce water usage via sustainability. Triple Bottom Line is an honest attempt to work toward genuine planetary care instead of greenwashing.  Profits and long-term viabilityProfits mean inclusivity in economic growth. That, the rewards of good economics must be shared with individuals and communities who are participating in the process. However, short-termism tempts cutting-corners. This is where a strong ethical foundation and adherence to it can do wonders. India’s juxtaposition and ethical conundrumAs a heavily MSME based economic system, the costs of adoption, education, implementation and deployment are an obstacle for India. The system needs to be fair to the weaker participants, and ensure compliance and knowledge transfer from the larger participants. This is an ethical practice that needs to be legally enforced, only then will it be able to reach the last set of participants. India’s startup ecosystem make ethics to be more than a compliance check box. Adherence would ensure better talent, capital, loyalty and market sentiment. It has to be guarded by regulators, investors and participants that punish opacity. To follow this in letter and spirit, ensure that these are encoded in shareholder’s agreements, ESOPs, and at every step of the value chain. The lens needs to shift from can I get away with this, to can I or my company even survive this. Setting the table clean should be a mandate that comes from within. Once the market starts getting flooded with inferior quality products, it is the good quality products that will get cornered. Be open in reporting and follow good practices. Strong fundamentals and principles will outlive valuations and excel sheet inflated growth. Ethics are not a stepping stone to saintly status. They exist so that neither the system not the people break.  

The question that’s near impossible to answer. What does it take for someone to build a dream startup? Do you need superstars for every role? Can so many egos co-exist? Do you need the best at each of the roles? How does one read the room? Does it really matter who you get if the leadership is strong?   Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships. -Michael JordanOnline opinions seem to have split on the GOAT, Michael Jordan. His heyday seemed to be one of being a ballhog, a diva, a highly individualist superstar who put his teammates through the grinder. The 2020 mini-series The Last Dance–the miniseries released during Covid, seems to have added more flavour to the MJ buffet humanizing the superhuman. With never before seen footage, and interviews with teammates, it's a sneak peak into what made one of the most successful teams of all time tick. Yes, MJ was the engine. But, there were others as well.  In my opinion, building a team for a business can have similar transferable principles. The nature of the tasks can differ as a sports team plays with a fixed calendar and defined outcomes. A business requires to work over a longer period with goals that are not as rigid and can keep evolving with the times and are dictated by different considerations that are relevant at the time. Sport has similar use cases, especially in cases where in-game substitutions are allowed, but by and large the purpose is defined and consistent. Beat the team on the objective function of the scorecard. A business works differently. The targets can keep changing. Revenue, units sold, market share, cost reduction, efficiency etc are all different targets and often require different levers to be pulled. We don't know what a clear definition of ‘winning’ is. It could change based on where the business stands.    What’s the right way? Much time has been spent on finding the optimal solutions. Ultimately, it's a function of the right approach, and tweaking the recruitment to match your needs at the time. The process needs to be nimble and adaptive. Let’s start with the foundational pillars  1.Self-starters At their inception, businesses require a degree of proactivity. One needs to be able to anticipate problems, and think on their feet in the moment to be able to resolve and move forward. Startups might not have well-defined roles with boundaries, and having empathy and compassion along with the resolve to move forward are highly useful. 2.Specialists v. All-roundersAn age old question, which one is better? To have specialists who do well in niche roles or all-round skilled folks who can multi-hat and solve problems. Assume that you want to hire a digital marketeer, then, at the onset, it's best to have someone who can look at the overall role. Over time, you can incrementally improve the team by adding professionals who can look at social media, SEO, awareness, sales or specialized roles. The costs will also be distributed based on contributions and incremental gains for the business and can be justified accordingly. Look at people with diversity, in views, and education and training. This helps your team become a good sounding board for each other. Encourage a culture of consensus as opposed to one of debating. Consensus ensures a conclusion, with however much disagreement. Debates tend to polarize opinions. Communicate to the team that they can work together, collaborate and achieve something bigger than themselves, or be combative and argumentative. Blind following, dogmatic and cultish behaviour can run many companies to the ground. You need to find a balance that works for your team and double down on it. Be mindful and nimble keeping the market in mindHumans follow herd mentality. Startups are no different. Remember a time when every startup was Web 3.0, followed by the time when everyone was on Blockchain, till they weren't. Avoid being a part of the mob. Hire according to capacity building and requirement and pocket. Your funding won't be infinite, and the bills really add up quickly when things don't seem to work. Team salaries can burn 60-70% of seed funding in 6 months. Remember, that your business is validated when a software engineer is willing to leave their job as a full-stack developer to come work with you on a prototype. This idea may seem utopian, and it probably is, but verifiability to this level can help you navigate rough waters. Disagreements and conflicts Resolve situations that arise amicably. Passions are high, individuals are committed, and with a sense of achievement and pride, it's a matter of time before members in your team are at loggerheads. It might not be a part of your job title to help resolve situations, but someone needs to be THAT person. Have some time for each of your members periodically. Try and discuss things in person, even if its virtual. Have empathy and compassion if your colleagues face difficulty.  Beyond job titles and job descriptionsA lot of job titles are made to sound more impressive than they actually are. While hiring, try and thrash out scenarios with people on where they failed, what makes them succeed, the nature of their job at the time and before, and what they think they are getting into. A generalist is useful up to a particular point, but would require a specialist later on. Avoid the prima donna attitude. Big companies often indulge their employees with workplace snacks, and other services. You need to do the best for them based on the resources available. If you overstretch yourself by providing yoga classes, access to a gym, or a spa, and fail to deliver on the business promises, then the quality of the services will not matter. Measure What MattersThe phrase is the title of a book by John Doerr. Himself, one of the early investors in Google, he borrowed the OKR–Objectives and Key Results framework from Andy Grove at Intel. It works on a top-down and bottom-up approach simultaneously. The leadership defines OKRs, the teams give their own metrics and a consensus is built on what needs to be done in terms of quantifiable targets. Businesses require simplification of complicated tasks. Assume, you are building an IPL team. It's impossible for you to manage hiring the coach, auctioning for the players, hiring specialist coaches, physios, booking hotel rooms, transport, the after parties, the press engagements, negotiating sponsor deals and the works. Instead, you start off with something simpler. Hire a general manager, who is in charge of the business and a sports manager, who could be a mentor, or a coach, and then they bring in the others. It's a network effect of sorts that will build on itself over time, and will look complex after that. Hire for what’s right at the time for your business based on what stage you are at. Top startups retain 80% of the hires past year 1. Diverse backgrounds can improve the decision making ability of a team. Remember, learning from your own mistakes is priceless, but learning from otters’ mistakes is more efficient.  Quantify "strong team" traits. E.g.:Retention: Top startups retain 80% of early hires past Year 1.Diversity: Mixed backgrounds boost decision quality by 20-30% (McKinsey data).Table for quick scan: Your aim is to keep the starting point simple. Remember, that you can't play 11 superstars and win a game of football. But you do need a couple here and there. Others need to play around the team and build a capacity that has the support system, sacrifice and working towards a common goal. When the What is to be done is defined, then comes the How. Break tasks into simpler steps, get individual stakeholders and the team to buy into it. The Why is what the business stands for. This is what the famous author Simon Sinek calls the Golden Circle framework. Hire for the Why, the How and the What will follow.Learn from othersLooking at cases specifically can reinforce some confirmation biases. However, we will still look at some in order to enforce what we feel to be important. Zomato started off with the insight that people liked to read food menus. The founders were generalists (Pankaj Chaddah and Deepinder Goyal). They got the firm to series A and then began to bring in specialists post defining a mission statement for themselves. Byju’s on the other hand looked to hire superstars and heavy hitters leading to culture clashes. Not only did it hamper them in the short-turn, it effectively ran the company into serious troubles. They tried to salvage themselves, which, at the time of writing, seems to be too little, too late. Similar to Michael Jordan’s quote that we started off with, startups often rely on a culture of complimentary skillsets and teamwork. Jordan had the world at his feet and every endorsement deal he could think of by the time he was 27. The championships followed when he learnt to buy into what his coach, Phil Jackson told him to do, and got him the pieces around him that were complimentary. Sachin Tendulkar had to wait for over two decades into his international career before winning his first World Cup.   Checklist: DOs and DON’TsGauge the pulse: Ask questions that are open ended, and make the interviewee think. Situational questions, like what would your response be if the product doesn't generate trials, or what’s the plan if the revenue fails, how do you motivate a team?  Equity v SalaryAnother important trade-off is to keep an ESOP pool. Try and have a vesting period that is tied to milestones. Look to hold on to cash to have a runway that keeps the business above board. Try to have an OKR and mission based onboarding. Have a probation period before the hires are onboarded permanently. There are no definitives in life, and working for a startup is most certainly not one. Both parties need to have skin in the game. Conclusion: Hiring for businesses, especially nascent ones, is similar to building a sports team that can win championships. More often than not, it will go wrong. But when it works out, its totally worth it. Have a tireless workhorse as the founder, aligned roles as the support staff, and relentless buy-in to the work ethic and culture. The mission is the mothership, the rest are all cogs in the wheel to make it run. 

At any given time when both countries are in season, the English county of Yorkshire is likely to host more cricket matches than the entire nation of Australia. The Indian startup ecosystem has developed in a somewhat similar way, witnessing intense activity over the last decade. As per government disclosures, there are now well over 1,50,000 startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), making India the world’s third-largest startup hub after the United States and China. In other words, a lot of water has flowed down the Ganges in the past ten years, and the startup space has seen a corresponding surge in buoyancy and momentum. In biology, an ecosystem is understood as a network in which various organisms interact with each other and their environment in a defined space. These are the various components of the ecosystem, and we will look at the various components, including; the entrepreneurs who build companies, the capital that funds them, the support institutions that nurture them, the policy environment that enables them, and the market forces that ultimately determine their growth trajectory.The EntrepreneursThey are the focal point of this ecosystem bringing in the vision, the insight, the passion, the desire and the can-do attitude. Steve Jobs’s take can summarize entrepreneurship in a somewhat unconventional manner. "It’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy.” — Steve Jobs, co-founder of AppleSince Jobs said this, Silicon valley has been in a spin and obsessed with pirates. Entrepreneurship is this very bug. Whether you would like to be your own master and build something worthwhile, or follow the horde and toe the line. The LPG reforms of 1991 have led to a generation that is not averse to risk taking, partly due to the security blankets. With the internet bridging the gaps in technology and lifestyle, information access enables discussions, remote working, market access for both funds and founders, testing and validating ideas, and being able to go to market. Incubation centres, entrepreneurship cells, founder's funds, institutional funds at the IITs, and the hunger for success has made the game younger. There are numerous first generation and student led startups in India. The DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) had a total of 502 recognized startups in 2016. This number has crossed 1.57 lakhs in 2024. Even with possible underreporting, it is a seismic shift. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2098452&ref=newzchain.com&reg=3&lang=2Beginner’s Luck, or not! A study carried out by PrivateCircle Research analysed the unicorn founders and concluded that about 6% got to their first unicorn in the third attempt, 29 percent took two attempts, and about 60 percent got there with the first company they founded. If you are looking for speed, then second time is a charm, with 1.5 years being the median time taken to build a unicorn. It stands to reason that failure builds character, experience, helps avoid mistakes, also helps with generating insights, experience, and better access to a network, capital, and early stage employees and co-founders. No experience, no worries! The Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students Survey(GUESSS) in its 2023 report chronicles the rise of entrepreneurship in India. About 32% of students are looking to establish entrepreneurial ventures in the coming years. The study is based upon responses from nearly 14,000 students from 1,298 universities. There is also an encouraging finding in the report with 70% of the students looking to start their careers as employees upon graduating. This number drops five years later to over 50% with an increased appetite for entrepreneurship. There is a downside as well, with only 4.8% of businesses currently generating revenue, which is significantly lower than the global average of 11.1%. Increased awareness of entrepreneurship via Shark Tank, TED talks, YouTubers and influencers has created a wave. There is also a bump in this sentiment with the rise of AI and the job market uncertainties. Control over expansion, the new wave over the conventional seems to be the sentiment. At VenturEdu, we have just what you need. You can enroll in either the Bootcamp or the PGP. Our team offers you a wire-to-wire solution including idea validation, financial plans, GTM, fundraising, or pretty much anything else that you can think of. Why capital access holds paramount importance.The world of startups is not for the faint-hearted. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a co-founder, an early-stage employee, or anyone else. New businesses with unproven business models require capital to build, test, validate, and scale. In this section, we will look at the key players when it comes to money.  VC FundsThe money was available easily for the past decade or so due to positive externalities. The US Federal Reserve lowered the interest rates to historical lows post the subprime crisis. This created a conduit for capital to flow seeking higher returns outside traditional fixed-income securities. This included pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and endowments that fuelled these VC funds that invested in the Indian startup ecosystem. The curbing of capital flow was the outcome of tightening interest rates that led to tightened liquidity.  NOTE: Better sourceYearFunding (USD Bn)YoY ChangeKey Notes/Deals2008~0.5-Early VC phase; limited data2009~0.6+20%Post-GFC recovery begins2010~0.8+33%Flipkart, early unicorns emerge20111.0+25%VC funds like Sequoia active20121.05+5%Steady growth20132.0+90%Policy easing starts20142.1+5%Digital India push20154.0+90%Startup India launch; Jio effect buildup20164.5+13%Jio launch boosts digital20178.0+78%Boom begins; 500+ deals201810.7+34%Peak pre-COVID; fintech surge201910.5-2%Steady; 900+ deals202012.0+14%COVID liquidity; low US rates fuel inflows202138.5+221%Record high; $25B+ late-stage202225.0-35%US Fed hikes start (Mar 2022); correction20239.6-62%Global tightening; $2.7B VC raise202413.7+43%Recovery; $9.5B total, seed up 31%2025*~15.0 (proj.)+9%H1: $26.4B PE/VC (593 deals); $1.48B YTD startupsAngel NetworksAngel networks consist of high net-worth individuals who have pooled in their resources, experience, expertise and professional networks to invest in early-stage startups and entrepreneurs. In most cases, this is in the form of equity, or convertible debt. They have their own filters to evaluate pitches and ideas, vetting them, use the members as a sounding board, and collectively assess opportunities. The pooling allows for increasing ticket sizes and reducing the risk and exposure. Numerous angel networks have sprung up in India since 2014. Some of the more prominent ones include Indian Angel Network (IAN), Mumbai Angels, Venture Catalysts, while some others are focused on specific sectors like Yatra Angel Network for fintech. Regulated under SEBI guidelines, including as Category-I AIFs, these networks provide not just capital but mentorship and regional ecosystem growth, with projections for 200+ by 2030.   Family fundsIndian businesses have traditionally been family owned. These entities are spread across a few families and communities. With the rise of India as an economic power, the capital formation has been accelerated at many of these businesses. Eventually, this capital is channeled into growth opportunities for diversification and generating returns. These offices provide patient, long-term capital to startups, contrasting with the shorter horizons of traditional VCs, and have grown from around 45 in 2018 to over 300 by 2024, participating in over 60 deals exceeding $1 billion in recent years.​Some of the heavy hitters in this space include: Premji Invest (backing Lenskart, FirstCry, Flipkart), Catamaran Ventures (Narayan Murthy's office), RNT Associates (Ratan Tata's investments in Ola, Paytm, CureFit), and others like Paipal Ventures, AG Ventures, and JSW Ventures focusing on sectors such as consumer brands, healthtech, sustainability, fintech, chip technology, robotics, and green energy. There has been a decline in FDI inflows in India, and family offices have come in to plug the gap offering not just funding but strategic guidance, industry networks, and IPO expertise, often through direct investments or AIF structures.IncubatorsIncubators are organizations that nurture early-stage startups. This could be as early as the ideation phase, and could include mentorship, prototyping, business plan support, seed funding and grants and even office and admin phase. These are usually over a 1-2 year phase but could also have additional flexibility built in. Incubation centres have come up at IITs, IIMs, also include Atal Incubation Centres (AICs), and they support diverse sectors through infrastructure and linkages. VenturEdu offers several options. You can join any of our courses or come on board with an offering that is tailormade for your needs.  Accelerators Accelerators are intensive, fixed short-term programs (such as 3-6 months) and catch startups at a different stage, usually post MVP and with some initial traction. These offer seed capital in exchange for equity (5-10%), have a structured mentorship program, workshops, and have demo days for investor pitches to accelerate growth. India Accelerator, Startupbootcamp and GHV focusing on rapid scaling in fintech, edtech and healthtech. Schemes such as the Startup India scheme have fostered thousands of ventures by bridging resources and networks, with accelerators emphasizing competitive selection (under 5% acceptance) and equity deals ranging from lakhs to crores. Government policies and regulatory supportThe Government of India launched Startup India in 2016 under the aegis of the Department for Industrial Policy and Promotion (DPIIT). This includes an enhanced infrastructure for incubation centres, enhanced IPR facilitation and paper filing, tax breaks support, simpler and reduced compliance, simplifying company setup, and faster exit mechanisms. This has been supported by an economic stimulus of INR 10,000 crores that is managed by the SIDBI. Apart from this, there is the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, or the SISFS. The government is also focused on improvements in DeepTech with a 1 billion Deep Tech and Startup Fund. A new world beckonsTraditional economic and technological hubs have give way to new and emergent centres. All the action was confined to Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai has now expanded to Pune (AI), Jaipur (edtech) and Ahmedabad (fintech). Nearly half of the DPIIT-recognized startups now emerge from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Setting up a business in these regions is facilitated by lower operational costs, affordable real estate, lower wage demands, digital tools accessibility, and availability of an aspirational workforce. Zoho is a compelling example of the upside of working off the grid, so to speak. The SaaS giant moved its R&D operations from Chennai to Tenkasi, a small town in Tamil Nadu. They have recently onboarded the Government of India proving that world-class software can indeed be built anywhere. Meesho’s growth and expansion are proof that a market exists in these areas that can be accessed with price leadership. The centre employs over 500 today and helps the livelihood for many more. Zoho claims that it has managed to improve the local community by supporting schools, sanitation and healthcare. The D2C brand Minimalist’s operations were based out of Jaipur. The founders built their way to a Rs. 3000 crore exit. The benefits India’s startup initiatives have boosted various sectors including Fintech by democratizing financial inclusion, capital access, facilitating micro-credit and processing, growing from 145 billion in 2023 to 2.1 trillion USD in 2030. This sector has seen a unicorn revolution with over 25 unicorns with valuations over 90 billion reinforcing both the capital supply and market demand tailwinds that exist in this sector.  Outcomes: Government reports claim that over 1.7 million jobs have been created as a result of the startup boom of the last decade. The entrepreneurs have good exit options, including acquisitions, and even IPOs. Several successful entrepreneurs then re-enter with their next business venture. Zomato, PayTM, Nykaa, Lenskart and PolicyBazaar have all had their IPOs. This is both a gift and a problem as the stocks have underperformed in most cases. Challenges:Despite all the positives, there are still some serious issues that exist. Historical tailwinds, such as availability of easy capital through the 2010s led to capital influx. This sped up scalability, customer base, unrealistic valuations and ambitions, and lapses in due diligence have led to a funding winter that seems to be continuing. There is also a perception that Indian startups rely excessively on labour arbitrage. Tech startups can also lead to cannibalisation of jobs from other sectors, e.g. the Quick Commerce boom has been disruptive to the traditional FMCG distribution systems. Labour arbitrage can be advantageous but cannot be the only advantage to build sustainable businesses. To continue the cricket analogy that we started with, India’s startup journey is still at lunch on Day 1 of a timeless test. There is a lot of promise that lies ahead. From being a scrappy, founder-led movement, to having a fairly elaborate ecosystem of entrepreneurs, capital, institutional support, and policy. Startups have grown in number and extend into the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Driven by lower costs, digital rails and aspirational talent, these could very well be the next pillars of India’s growth story. The greenfield sectors have included Fintech, SaaS, D2C and healthtech. The market fed off a high off of global liquidity that now seems to have dried up. While the deep pockets emphasized on scaling, the unit economics remained fragile, governance gaps were overlooked and the models worked on cash burn and labour arbitrage. It is now time to convert breadth into depth and from intent to durability. Capital needs to change its FOMO cloak, to a more disciplined, long-horizon approach and to ensure that regulatory support continues to reduce roadblocks without diluting accountability. This is a delicate equilibrium that needs to be achieved. It is a possible route that India can use to have the Yorkshire like busy calendar of cricket matches, but building up a culture of excellence that is resilient and value-accretive like cricket Australia. 

What is entrepreneurship? Who qualifies as an entrepreneur? If these questions leave you uncertain, you are not alone. There is no universal agreement on how to define entrepreneurship or the people who practice it. Since we are putting on the mantle of start-up analysts, we may as well dissect the concept properly.The term entrepreneur traces its origins—like many slippery, sophisticated words—to French, with its earliest usage dating back roughly five centuries. In today’s information age, it has evolved into a full-blown buzzword. Every idea, side hustle, or app prototype seems to fall under its umbrella. There is a need to have a dispassionate assessment of entrepreneurship and evaluate its impact on society, the economy, and value and wealth creation.  The Oxford English Dictionary calls entrepreneurship “the activity of making money by starting or running businesses, especially when this involves taking financial risks; the ability to do this.” By that yardstick, even a well-built brokerage firm ticks the box. But textbook definitions fall apart in the real world. A more useful way to look at it is this: entrepreneurship is either about building greenfield ventures that create new economic value or forcing major structural shifts in existing businesses. India is at a pivotal stage here. Many of its so-called unicorns are not creating anything fundamentally new; they are repackaging or aggregating existing revenue streams. The value largely stays confined to those plugged directly into the business. FMCG has existed forever, so the real question is whether “quick commerce” is entrepreneurship or just another distribution channel marketed as disruption. E-commerce is the exception. It pulled millions online and cleaned up product and price discovery. That single shift unlocked entire downstream industries—logistics, warehousing, digital payments. Once the pipes were laid, the network effects kicked in, giving new brands the confidence to launch and scale. That ripple spreads to manufacturing, design, quality control, and support services. In other words, it’s one of the few spaces where growth for one player genuinely expands the playing field for everyone else.Entrepreneurship & Economic TheoryEntrepreneurship, in its classical sense, is an economic function—nothing more, nothing less. It is a sharp departure from the personality-driven mythology that dominates today’s start-up culture. Early economic thinkers saw the entrepreneur as a necessary actor in a functioning market. Cantillon framed them as risk-bearers operating under uncertainty, engaging in arbitrage and enabling price discovery. Others viewed them as agents who reallocate resources from lower to higher productivity, pushing the economy toward more efficient outcomes.By the 20th century, the lens shifted. Schumpeter recast the entrepreneur as the force behind “Creative Destruction,” the individual who disrupts the existing equilibrium through innovation. This is not cosmetic tinkering or channel expansion; it is the kind of shift that rewires industries. When looked at through this framework, entrepreneurship becomes the engine that destabilises outdated systems and replaces them with more productive ones.History offers a concrete parallel in the Industrial Revolution. At the time, it was widely criticised as a dangerous experiment destined to trigger mass unemployment and social unrest. The fear was predictable: machines would replace labour, and productivity would come at the cost of livelihoods. Instead, the opposite happened. Entirely new sectors emerged—textile machinery, railways, steel, chemicals—and with them came millions of jobs that previously did not exist. Old roles disappeared, but far more were created across manufacturing, engineering, logistics, accounting, design, and maintenance. This is the kind of transformation economic theory attributes to genuine entrepreneurship: not shifting profits from one pocket to another, but expanding the economic frontier itself.The spurt in opportunities led to a whole new age in Europe that spread on to the rest of the world. Man’s spirit of endeavor, adventure, and greed had led to several explorations, establishments of the traditional trade routes, exchange of cultural and social ideas. The new entrepreneurs that came about as a result of the Industrial Revolution turned science into commerce, building industries and factories that employed workers. At the turn of the 18th century, roughly 2% of the world’s population lived in cities. That number has steadily been increasing since then and is now at 60%. The elaborate businesses required supply chains, distribution, raw materials, record keepers and other professional classes that emerged as a result. The workers employed by these businesses also became customers and helped boost aggregate demand. En masse migration to the cities also expanded the demand for construction workers, construction material and housing. Benefits of Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is driven by innovation, enabling productivity gains, personal wealth creation, and job creation. These facets are often taken as gospel truths on face value. Several other benefits include agency, autonomy,  social impact, satisfaction, and gratification. We can split them into individual, collective, societal and stakeholder benefits. For individuals, it is the ability to build something bigger than themselves, something that they would be remembered for, building personal wealth, for the business or social enterprise started, it is a matter of convenience, growth, progress, efficiency and agency, for the investors, it offers a chance to earn stratospheric multiples on their investments. Societies tend to benefit, at least in theory, from more choices and competition which is generally a net positive in terms of economics. There are also additional sectors and markets that are created as a result.   A great example of this is the difference between the first, second, third and fourth industrial revolutions. The first one was driven primarily by mechanization, and using fossil fuels to make production faster and more efficient. The second industrial revolution brought with it other greenfield sectors like electricity, mass production, standardization, and economies of scale. This created other opportunities in the form of comparative and absolute advantage in their infancy, which would be further punctuated over the course of the 20th century. Post the Second World War, the world saw an unprecedented era of economic growth and progress. Several of the wartime innovations were adopted into civilian sectors. These were spread across the board, with commercial aviation being the biggest beneficiary of wartime innovation in planes, radar leading to the discovery of microwaves, and the production at scale of penicillin that revolutionized medical procedures. Warring armies need to be well fed, and that helped boost the FMCG space with packaged goods, freeze dried products, instant coffee, powdered milk and even packaged meals in the form of TV dinners.   Wars have historically acted as powerful catalysts for entrepreneurial activity and innovation. While this view might spark debate, the urgency and immense challenges posed by wars often compel individuals and societies to innovate and develop new solutions. For instance, medical science—particularly surgery—advanced significantly during the American Civil War in the second half of the 19th century, as the availability of unclaimed corpses enabled detailed anatomical study and practical experimentation. Similarly, the War of 1812 stimulated the growth of American textile manufacturing due to trade barriers, and the Civil War boosted the pig iron industry. World War I accelerated chemical industry advancements, while World War II propelled rapid expansions in electronics and aircraft manufacturing. More recently, wartime entrepreneurship in conflict zones like Ukraine highlights how people start businesses not only for survival but to restore control, support their families and communities, and contribute to national resilience.Additionally, the American Civil War had a significant indirect impact on India’s infrastructure development. The disruption of cotton supplies from the U.S. to Britain during the war increased the demand for Indian cotton, exposing weaknesses in internal transportation. This contributed to the British colonial administration’s push to expand the railway network in India for more efficient export of raw materials. Funded largely by Indian taxpayers under the British Raj, the railways facilitated exploitation but also laid the foundation for modern infrastructure, enabling faster movement of goods and troops. This railway expansion significantly changed India’s economic landscape and was crucial in shaping its colonial and post-colonial development.Despite the destruction wars bring, they have repeatedly ignited entrepreneurial drive that results in lasting economic and technological progress, with both innovative breakthroughs and infrastructure developments like railways serving as enduring legacies.The End of History? The Continuation of the EconomyIn 1992, Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and The Last Man boldly proclaimed that with the Cold War behind us, America stood supreme in a newly unipolar world. Democracy and capitalism had emerged victorious—the so-called "good guys" in a definitive clash of ideologies. These twin pillars, Fukuyama argued, would now form the unshakable foundation of a new global order. Yet, while influential, the book is often criticized for offering an overly simplistic narrative. It glossed over the complex realities of economics, technological innovation, and perhaps most importantly, the relentless human pursuit of wealth and progress—the timeless quest for the proverbial city of gold that propels capitalism forward.The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc created opportunities. Driven by labour arbitrage, liberalisation, outsourcing, and offshoring, a new business class dawned. Whether or not they should be considered entrepreneurs is a matter of academic discussion, what cannot be debated is the creation of income, and subsequently wealth in China, India, Bangladesh, and of late, Philippines. The ability of the internet to aggregate massive volumes of information also led to tech platforms that aggregate demand, and control supply. While they may have started as marketplaces, the overall expansionary nature of these businesses over time has led to rent-seeking, profit shifting and a consolidation of wealth. Thrust SectorsBeing an entrepreneur is easy, being a successful entrepreneur is bloody difficult! The ecosystem of entrepreneurship rewards only the survivors and the climb is hard with a lot of pitfalls. But, never let that bother you. Have a security blanket or a backup plan before you take the plunge, and look to solve the problems of tomorrow, day after and the times to come. There is merit in making businesses more efficient, competitive, and growth is non-compromisable, but keep a lookout for tomorrow. You can make your money either ways, either in building efficiency and aggregators, or expanding into the greenfield sectors. The latter is high uncertainty and requires almost everything to work in your favour. A simplistic way to think about entrepreneurship and brainstorm ideas is to visualize queues and bottlenecks and how to solve them. Here’s a look at some sectors of tomorrow viewed with an Indian lens. Technology and Digital Innovation: Startups in AI, fintech, healthtech, edtech, cybersecurity, and SaaS solutions are thriving, supported by increased digital adoption and venture capital funding. Tech is powering automation and smarter decision-making across industries.Renewable Energy and Clean Tech: With government investments soaring in solar, wind, battery manufacturing, and microgrid solutions, entrepreneurship in clean energy is booming, reflecting India’s ambition for a sustainable future.Healthcare and Wellness: Healthcare startups in telemedicine, diagnostics, mental health, medical supply chains, and fitness tech are expanding rapidly, driven by rising health consciousness and increased healthcare spending.Agritech and Food Supply Chains: Technology-driven agri-solutions such as drones, soil sensors, and direct-to-market platforms are transforming traditional farming and reducing wastage.E-commerce, Logistics, and Manufacturing: The digital backbone supporting e-commerce and logistics enables scalable opportunities, while manufacturing benefits from government schemes like Production Linked Incentives (PLI).Urban and Rural Entrepreneurship: Growth is spreading beyond metros into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and rural areas, promoting inclusive innovation and new business models.Pollution control and waste management have emerged as critical thrust areas for entrepreneurship, especially in India’s rapidly urbanizing environments. Cities face severe challenges with air and water pollution, mounting plastic and electronic waste, and inadequate disposal infrastructure.Entrepreneurs are innovating in smart waste segregation, recycling technologies, biodegradable packaging, clean air solutions, and water purification systems, addressing urgent ecological and health concerns in urban centers.These sectors benefit from supportive government initiatives like Startup India, skill development programs (Skill India), funding access, and economic reforms fostering a nurturing environment for entrepreneurs. The vast and youthful Indian market combined with global investment interest makes entrepreneurship a pivotal engine for India’s economic growth in 2025 and beyond.Defining entrepreneurship is a difficult ask. What is more evident and clear is that the human mind will yearn for more and that will continue to spur new business ventures. Startups come out of competition, which, by and large, is beneficial for the economy. One thing leads to another, and the pie expands. The expanding pie creates new sectors and industries not envisaged before, and thus the wheels of progress keep on spinning. We need to think of entrepreneurship as an outcome of an ecosystem as opposed to standalone miracles. The latter might happen but are deterministic. A probabilistic structural approach will likely deliver better outcomes for our economy, society and country. There is also a need for handholding and keeping everyone on the bandwagon. Economic inequalities will lead to apartheid and uneven access to methods of learning, education, accessing information and knowledge. A clean environment and access to health must be non-negotiables. Climate change, on the balance of probability, is a reality that we have to confront and solve. Small incremental solutions can lead to the next big bang.

"He should have Gonzalez's forehand, Rios's touch, Isner or Sampras's serve and Agassi or Djokovic's backhand. The fighting spirit should be someone like Rafa's. Edberg or Laver's volley and Borg's calmness. I will not put myself.”Roger Federer’s description of the perfect tennis player is a masterpiece in humility. He names the greatest qualities from legends but deliberately excludes himself. This modesty speaks volumes about true greatness: it’s not about self-aggrandizement but recognizing excellence in others.Perfection is a concept we all chase, or at least aspire to. It’s an elusive ideal; a theoretical utopia that promises much but remains out of reach, yet continues to captivate our imagination. In the world of entrepreneurship, this quest for perfection is no different.In this article, we embark on a journey to analyze the top traits of successful entrepreneurs. But rather than generalize, we’ll identify the standouts with those who exemplify the best qualities in each trait. You might say this is our attempt to play the role of Victor Frankenstein, piecing together the perfect entrepreneur from the finest elements. Let’s hope our story ends with greater kindness. CuriosityAn omnipresent over the course of human existence, this is a must have for most walks of life. The what, when, where, how, and why have pushed humans to look for answers. It is a quest to scratch that itch to keep looking for answers that pushes us to ask more questions. Focussing these questions enables discovering need-want gaps, building solutions for them, experimenting, iterating and improving. It is the magic bullet that makes entrepreneurs adaptable, innovative and pick their spots for the right opportunities which is essential for long-term focus. Best in class: In the wake of Lenskart’s IPO, we will give this one to Warby Parker. Born out of frustration of one of the co-founder’s losing their glasses, he was amazed at how much it cost to replace them. They dug deeper and identified a problem. Eyewear was overpriced and the current channels were hard to break into. Warby Parker went D2C and offered a range of services and made themselves into a fun, creative brand. AdaptabilityIf you are working as an entrepreneur, the only certainty is the uncertainty that you will face on a day-to-day basis. Many a time, a startup explores uncharted waters with no guarantees in terms of revenue, customers, growth, the feasibility of business, or anything else. We work in a probabilistic environment in life in most cases. Our brains are wired to build deterministic stories based on the outcome and our biases. At the core of most decisions in life, we rely on informed guesswork and working as an entrepreneur requires us to keep our eyes and ears open and pivot and improvise our decisions based on weak signals. The difference between a startup and a corporation is that startups are nimble, responsive and have shorter signal mechanisms, therefore, they can make changes more efficiently in these spots. Best in class: This one goes to the local restaurants who adopted novel approaches during the Covid-19 pandemic managing supply shocks, turning into take away joints, and going farm to fork with local partners. They brought a much needed spark and hope to many while delivering quality food. DecisivenessBeing able to decide and decide correctly is often make or break for startups and entrepreneurs. A big percentage of those working in this space don't have infinite capital, bankroll or support to make mistakes or procrastinate. One has to live in the moment and be aware of what is coming, allocate resources efficiently, manage to measure up to the competition. The crystal ball world of startups is seldom clear and one of to make decisions dealing with ambiguity, delaying is not useful, as it often piles up, and sometimes piles up beyond redemption. Being decisive is a trait strong leader exhibit, and they are remembered for it. Best in class: The late great Steve Jobs takes this one. His decisiveness include cutting product  lines on his return to the company, being a bellwether in defining what’s cool in design, taking unconventional approach like refusing to install Adobe Flash on the iPhone, and prioritizing his sensibilities over market currents and being right for a lot of his choices. Self-awarenessKnow thyself is a maxim that was inscribed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece. Various similar sayings exist in philosophy and poetry around the world. The crux is simple, before seeking the divine blessings, know what and who you are so the Oracles can guide you effectively and live wisely. The world of entrepreneurship is similar. We are all human beings who are composites of strengths, weaknesses, emotions, motivations. These helps us shape our worldview, take decisions, build relationships, develop intelligence, resilience and learn to adapt. Working with lean resources and nimble teams, self-awareness can help you become an efficient and effective member of the team, if not a superstar. Startups require the workers to don multiple hats, which is a good skill to have, but the flipside is that it creates a bit of a Dunning Kreuger loop where you might have more than you can chew on your plate.   Best in class: Lets put our hands together for Sir Richard Branson for this one. He was charismatic, rolled the dice and used his own brand to build the Virgin brand. One of the standout moments included launching Virgin cola to much fanfare at Times Square, New York knowing fully well that he could not compete with such a brand on resources. Branson, Warby Parker, SpanxInnovative ThinkingInnovative thinking drives problem solving, creativity and the ability to spot markets and openings. Those with an innovative bent of mind can differentiate their businesses, create disruptive models, and are able to plant their flags and claim their space under the sun.Success in the world of entrepreneurship relies on a lot of decision points and is often back constructed based on confirmation biases and building a narrative that fits into the storyline. The real world is fraught with more dangers, requires resilience, strategic foresight, finding the right spots and going all-in when opportunities present themselves. Shackling oneself with finite boundaries and not thinking outside the box can be deterrents and thinking innovatively can help you get past in spots like these.  Best in class: This one is for the boys of AirBnb. They built a greenfield service by reimagining travel and lodging experience turning underutilized personal spaces into a global hospitality brand. It wasnt merely a reflection of the platform’s technology first approach but a signal that the sharing economy had arrived and was here to stay.  PersistencePersistence is a quality that has been a hallmark of mankind since the beginning of time. Albert Einstein claimed that he was successful because he just stuck around with problems longer, Thomas Edison claimed that success is 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was more simplistic, he defined success as being able to stumble from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. Failure and setbacks are foundational to life. It is ironic how our worldview is shaped and biased towards being successful that we miss the woods for the trees. Success is not easy, and failure is the numerous stepping stones in that trail. Entrepreneurs need to be made of stronger stuff as they combat a lot of adversarial circumstances, including business challenges and ambiguity. Persistence builds resilience, improvement and sustained effort that enables scaling businesses and achieving lasting success. Best in class: Seldom do entrepreneurs hit the jackpot when it comes to their first business ideas. They are invariably in for the long haul. Walt Disney was once fired for lacking creativity and faced several failures, yet his name lives on as a behemoth. He persisted for 16 years to be able to adopt Mary Poppins! Accepting failureFailure is an outcome. Outcomes are often random variables, effectively meaning that you don't control the extent of your success. Entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs didn't envisage Apple as a trillion dollar behemoth but to put a personal computer in every home in America. The outcome is that Apple diversified and grew their business into other fields including movie production, music and now an OTT platform. Failure is not a personal shortcoming, but is central to the learning, experimenting, polishing and refining ideas. Learn to fail quickly, and move on, even more quickly. Embrace and accept failure, analyze mistakes, be resilient, and pivot towards new ideas. Rinse, and repeat. The trouble is that many a time failure arrives too early or too late for many and leaves an indelible mark. Building a business is not as easy as getting straight As in a semester exam. The route is long, and difficult. Acceptance of failure builds a mindset where setbacks are learning and opportunities to gain insights. Best in class: If you think you have it rough, consider the curious case of John Dyson. He went through 5,127 prototypes for a bag less vacuum cleaner and viewed each attempt as a vital learning step that brought him closer to a solution. Failure was the education for lasting success. Risk ToleranceThis is an interesting one. Startups and entrepreneurs need to have a probabilistic mindset, as opposed to a deterministic one, Risk tolerance and the prevalent commentary on it seems to be based on two sets, ones that made it and others that do not. India, as a society is risk-averse, possibly due to a resource scarcity mindset. The system is one of grind, hard work, and keeping your head down. And on top of this comes the other problems that businesses face anyway. When you read all this, you would wonder why anyone would put themselves through all this. One of the early expeditions to Mount Everest involved Georges Mallory in the 1920s. Whether he made it to the mountain top or not is not certain beyond reasonable doubt, but he did freeze to death near the summit and his body was discovered nearly a century later, When he was asked on why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, his response simply was, “Because its there”. This statement in a nutshell reflects on why someone would want to try and build a startup. Risk tolerance is a must-have skill in the core team of a startup, either through individual members or collectively. It enables businesses to analyze, mitigate and accept risks and work towards building a sustainable competitive advantage. Best in class: Thinking of a time when Nike struggled to sell a pair of shoes would seem an exercise in futility today. But, this was real. Phil Knight went to Japan borrowing money from his father. He imported shoes before transitioning into becoming a manufacturer. He took on debts and risks beyond his pocket would allow at the time and came out on the other side. His memoir, Shoe Dog, is a riveting read and highly recommended. Long term focusLong term focus is essential for entrepreneurs because it prioritizes sustained growth and resilience over short-term gains. Think of it like competing in a 100m race and an infinite marathon. Business writing focuses on winning and losing without actually defining what these are with clarity. Does winning include one of profits, market share, revenue, efficiency, or none, or all of these? If you lead in market share in one quarter and lose over the next, then have you lost? Management often gets caught up in these short term targets and embraces a transactional approach. Some of the oldest companies in the world are in Japan. While they might not be household names, they are successful, reliable and generationally good in honouring their customers. Japanese corporations do not also embrace the MBA style management approach to businesses. You can build short term profits by inflating the P&L accounts by selling assets, but in the long-run, this is not likely to reap rewards. A long-term vision and outlook aligned with business dynamics should empower entrepreneurs to endure uncertainty, innovate persistently, and build sustainable value. This fosters resilience, disciplined resource allocation and pursuing long-term goals that will lead to lasting success. Best in class: Warren Buffett’s investments describe this virtue the best. His favourite holding period for a stock is forever. His reliance on strong fundamentals and compound interest further punctuate the fact that wealth building and creating follow a long term focus. In terms of companies, CostCo is a great example that relies on a long term focus valuing discipline, customer centric approach and simple operations.  MotivationThis is also foundational to starting businesses and validating business ideas. It is often an individual’s passion for an idea, a desire for personal growth and achievement, having social impact, autonomy and financial and material success that leads to finding meaning and purpose in life and work beyond the money. The money is an outcome. The goal is to build what you set out to. The motivation is what brought you to the table and what was that initial idea. In our series of articles, we have talked about wanting to shorten queues and bring more efficiency to a process. The motivation could be as simple as that. Best in class: Bumble, the dating platform was born out of a motivation. Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder, wanted an app where women make the first move giving them agency. She had gained experience at Tinder and wanted to build a brand in her own image.  EmpathyAn entrepreneur is a person for all seasons and being empathetic is useful in enabling building a successful business. It is important to understand the world from the point of view of customers, employees and other stakeholders. Its not till you wear the proverbial shoes that you understand the issues that they face. This understanding will help you to build trust, sustainable relationships and foster lasting trust along the value chain. As opposed to seeing one compete against the other, create a collaborative work culture, respond to challenges effectively, analyze and incorporate multiple worldviews. If there are issues that you face, try and add more seats to the table. Build a culture of consensus as opposed to one built on confrontation and adversarial behaviour. Best in class: Blake Mycoskie started TOMS with a clear “One for One” approach. While on a trip to Argentina, he saw abject poverty and many who walked without shoes. His compassion and empathy led him to build a mission driven brand that has helped communities around the world. Discipline Focus, time management, resilience, and a structured approach to achieving goals is central to entrepreneurship. Discipline requires commitment, prioritization, face up to challenges with persistence and proceed to running day to day operations. It involves a lot of repetition and might not always reap rewards right off the bat. But, staying the course, setting clear goals, executing correctly to execute them, maintatin and focus on priorities, be diligent and patient while facing recversals, and staying nimble and accountable even in the face of adversity differentiates the best from the rest. There is a fine line between reasons and excuses. Entrepreneurs have to identify it and be reasonable to themselves and their team. The internet has an idea for a minute. It takes a lot of repetition turning them into successful ventures. Discipline is like the bass player in a band, or the intelligence operations in a country. If they make the headlines, there is a fair chance that something is awry. Best in class: David O’Leary, one of the Shark Tank judges, talked about how Steve Jobs extreme discipline was unrelenting. He would just look at small tranches of tasks that he had to complete in the next 18 hours, usually in batches of three to five. Everything else was put on the back burner. He would just focus on the signal and cull out the noise. CreativityChronicling and documenting problems is the first step. Sometimes, people need to take a step further and refine their thoughts beyond conventional solutions and ideas. Businesses are dynamic in nature, customers expectations change, preferences change, and businesses need to keep changing and keep up with the dynamics.  Best in class: The iPhone was truly a product ahead of its time, revolutionizing the smartphone industry by challenging the conventional design of phones with physical keypads. Apple’s team pioneered an out-of-the-box solution by integrating the screen as both a display and a dynamic keypad, creating the first widely successful touchscreen smartphone. This breakthrough innovation didn’t just launch a new product but also sparked an entirely new ecosystem of devices, apps, and user behaviors, generating enormous economic value.By 2023, Apple had sold over 2.5 billion iPhones worldwide, capturing a significant share of the global smartphone market, which is valued at approximately $480 billion annually. The app economy that the iPhone helped spawn is now estimated to be worth over $1.5 trillion globally, including app sales, advertising, and related services. The iPhone's innovation opened the door to a greenfield market, enabling not only new hardware but an entire software and services ecosystem that continues to fuel growth for Apple and countless developers worldwide.While debates about the social and political impacts of smartphones persist, there is no doubt that the iPhone created a fundamentally new market. Apple’s creative vision allowed it to spot untapped potential, develop a novel product, and build a connected digital environment that transformed how people communicate, work, and interact with technologyIntelligenceMany mistake intelligence as merely sharpness and responsiveness to situations. In our worldview, it has many forms. Moving away from the traditional definition, we can look at the various forms of intelligence. Entrepreneurs should exhibit emotional, spatial and mindful intelligence. Emotional intelligence allows entrepreneurs to manage their own emotions, balance empathy, strength and become effective leaders. Mindful intelligence allws entrepreneurs to be aware and thoughtful about their decisions, reduce stress and adopt clarity. Best in class: This one is slightly different. We have tried to include one example of a different type of intelligence. Emotional Intelligence: Satya Nadella revitalized Microsoft by cultivating empathy and understanding within teams and customers.Spatial Intelligence: Architects-turned-entrepreneurs like Zaha Hadid used spatial creativity to build iconic, innovative structures.Mindful Intelligence: Entrepreneurs like Arianna Huffington emphasize mindfulness to maintain focus, creativity, and resilience. Elon Musk and Tesla’s stated intentions to move on from electric cars to robots is another example. Comfortability Being an entrepreneur is stressful, and being comfortable. As the Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling eloquently said, “If you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs” exemplifies calmness, control and comfortability. The same poem has another line, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same" reflects an entrepreneur’s ability to be equally comfortable in success and failure, maintaining equilibrium and perspective. In simpler terms, there is no good news, or bad news, news is what we get, and we work accordingly and adjust.Being able to be at ease in diverse and challenging situations, and being ambivalent to these situations fosters confidence, creates an ecosystem of balancing risk and reward with equal applomb, helping navigate unpredictable markets and complex decisions. If a core team is uncomfortable in their own skin, they are likely to make better decisions than if they are not.  Best in Class: Known for his adventurous spirit, Sir Richard Branson launched Virgin Cola against strong headwinds from the two cola giants, Pepsi and Coca-Cola. He even turned up driving a tank through Times Square in 1998. Though the brand shut down, Branson further strengthened his standing as someone who is comfortable in his skin. He offers the same to Virgin group employees encouraging them to look after themselves. ConclusionWe have tried to articulate the traits that help make an entrepreneur. These are based on our understanding and are in no way, exhaustive. Our attempts at trying to substantiate these traits with examples are to help us and our readers understand what the corresponding individual or the group has to offer. Together, these traits form a composite blueprint for entrepreneurial excellence, rich with lessons on resilience, humility, and innovation.