Shark Tank India & its effects on Startups

Resuming after an year feels pretty nostalgic! I wanted to write about this topic for quite some time now. As part of my #businessconsulting , I tend to meet quite a few startups from all over the country. What struck me was, that Shark Tank has inspired many to get into #startups. A good thing actually. But there are side effects too. While #SharkTank India is quite well executed with pretty sorted opinions, views, observations, #Startups have this wierd misconception. And it is, Startup is a better option than employment, because, startups do get funded and its easy money!

So much so, that my first statement to startups is, "We do not raise seed funding, we do not do angel funding, we do not raise any investments".

I also do #careercounseling as a #passion. I have been noticing that students as young as 10th grade with good academics, have this aspiration of "I want to become a startup"

Then it falls on me to explain that there is no career called "startup" . I had a very funny incident the other day with a 10th grade student. I kept on asking her what does she want to do in life, her most favorite subject, her hobbies etc. She kept smiling! I knew she had something for me. She blurted out. "I want to be in a startup with equity"

Shocking. Then I asked her, why should a startup give her equity. What does she have to offer? Funds or skills or network or business intelligence ?? No answer to that.

Make no mistake, what Shark Tank is doing in India is admirable. Its just that when the youth misunderstand this beautiful show as some kind of an apex career and decide to abandon their track on academics and switch to "becoming a startup", it becomes important that the makers do convey some very fundamental messages to the youth of this country.

Through this platform, I am doing my bit by explaining something as fundamental as why will startup get funded:

a. Startups on a generic level will not get funded unless the founders have funded it themselves. Called as bootstrapped

b. Startups will not get funded if there is no track record of them achieving a certain volume of sales

c. Startups will not get funded if a innovation is thoroughly vetted for their innovativeness , especially on the compliance level

d. Startups is certainly not easy money

e. Startup is a lonely, ardrous jouney, where everyday is a learning

f. Startup does not gurantee success just because a company has been registered and a card has been printed with the word "Founder/Cofounder"

g. Like employement or any ambition where you want success, you need to toil and work hard to succeed in startups too

I hope I have done my bit.