What Startups Need to Scale Their Business

It is now established that India is at the point in its history of giving rise to innumerable young entrepreneurs and various futuristic solutions that can forever transform the IT industry. That said, these contemporary startups need to survive this momentum and scale further to achieve the status of a large company. Official figures state that 2 to 3 technology startups are being born every day in India, fueled by investments from large enterprises as well as government support in terms of funding and supportive policies.

In addition to that, Vikas Bhonsle, CEO of Crayon Software Experts, believes that startups need to be prudent in the early days to sustain themselves. "My experience tells me that it is always better to be a little conservative in the early days of your startup. Fiscal prudence needs to be exercised in the sense that if startups need to spend, it must be first on acquiring the right kind of talent and second on customer acquisition. Typically, it would be best if you are allowed about 18 to 20 months for your product to be viable in the marketplace and then look at a four to five-year window to have a stable and sustainable business. So, I would say patience is a virtue," said Vikas.

Vikas added that as far as investments in infrastructure are concerned, startups should focus on an open pay-as-you-go model rather than on-prem infrastructure. "Startups need not look at building an on-prem infrastructure because everything they want today is available on the cloud in an open pay-as-you-go model. Therefore, they can avoid the upfront cost of buying and investing in people to manage the infrastructure. These things are now completely managed by the cloud provider. I would also like to add that startups can utilize all the facilities being made available to them by the Government of India, such as SAMRIDH, Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), and Multiplier Grant Scheme (MSG). In addition, initiatives such as Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM), NexGen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Single-Point Registration Scheme, and The Venture Capital Assistance Scheme (VCA) are also helping the budding entrepreneurs," he said.

Scalability is the DNA for any Startup to Survive

Commenting on the scalability of startups, Ankur Singh, CEO, and Founder, of Witzeal Technologies, said: "Scalability is the DNA for any startup to survive and grow without any incremental costs. Investors highly rely on a defined blueprint of scalability plans of the company, even if it is in phases. Given the rapid growth of startups across sectors in India today, it becomes vital to sustain and grow, and for this, it is imperative to decode consumer needs and requirements. Many companies today attribute scalability to the net margin they make. I think today, and ever before, there is a need for growth and scalability to be measured through the net margin because it enables the startup to grow fundamentally and thus creates robustness in design. In addition, this move builds stakeholders' trust, which goes a long way in building an institution."

"While globally we have survived a pandemic, interestingly, it has spurred the nuances of digitization which has further given start-ups new opportunities to scale up and grow. However, for young businesses to keep up with the momentum, an organized team structure working towards the same goal goes a long way apart from innovations. There is also a need for startups to be open to changes and keep dynamism at their core." Singh added further.

It All Boils Down to Execution

Ram Kewalramani, Co-founder, and Managing Director, CredAble, believes that the pivotal factor that sets aside successful startups from others is how an idea is executed. "Ideas are many; however, what separates the successful startups from the others is execution! The most important element to enable execution to scale is to build a team that not only buys into the vision but also harnesses a culture that emphasizes humility and innovation and questions the status quo with an attitude to set the benchmark for excellence in everything they do," noted Kewalramani.

Startups Need a Clear Vision Coupled by 3Ts

While the future for the startup ecosystem certainly looks promising, there is still a long way to go for India to become the startup hub of the world. Debarshi Dutta, Co-founder, and CEO, Ayekart believes that to scale a startup business successfully, it is essential to have a clear vision coupled with 3Ts (Team, Technology, and Trade Connects). "One needs the right combination of people in the founding team with vision, great skills, resilience, and a never say die attitude. Understanding and addressing the consumer's needs and challenges are essential. The team should be open to feedback, creative, aware of core values, and should have an eye for attracting, developing, and retaining talents. Keeping up the momentum by responding to market changes and challenges helps deliver value to customers. This generates a recall value and customer stickiness, which leads to the startup's success," stated Dutta.