Trend of entrepreneurship in early twenties catching up in India [An overview]

Ecosystem for entrepreneurship has come a long way in India. Over past two years and so more young people have been taking route of entrepreneurship. Right from ecommerce to various technology startups are getting launched by budding entrepreneurs, and importantly these entrepreneurs are in early 20’s (age bracket 19-24). Startups like Oravel, Vidoofy, BetaGlide and Bluegape have been founded by guys, who are in their early twenties. So what motivated them to hatch their own startup rather than going for usual way - job.

“I always wanted to built a product which did better than academic programs. I was very inspired from the young leaders and entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Mark P, Zynga etc and felt I could build something and solve problems in India,” said Ritesh Agarwal, founder Oravel . Oravel was founded in 2011 by 17 year old Ritesh Agarwal. The company joined VentureNursery’s acceleration program in July, 2012 and later raised angel investment from the accelerator. Oravel is focused on the short and midterm rentals space and is an aggregator of Bed and Breakfast, Private Rooms and Serviced Apartments which enables travellers to book clean, comfortable, affordable spaces.

BetaGlide, a web console that will help developers analyse their app's usage on the clients end, was launched by Amritanshu Anand and Anshul Singhle immediately after their graduation. Starting up early surely has certain advantages as cash burn is low, fear of failure is not there as you don’t have a name or reputation to lose, and have more appetite for risk.

Starting up has nothing to do with age. Internet and mobile allow young blood to take entrepreneurship as these domains are less capital prone, said Alok Kejriwal, founder GAMES2WIN.

Starting up early gives you lots of time to experiment and iterate the business model. “Our initial business model failed drastically then we went on to make BetaGlide,” added Anand. Though starting up early gives you time to experiment, succeed or fail fast but how Indian parents, who typically frown on their children's decision for starting up. Most of Indian parents oppose to their children's decision for starting up over opting out from placements or job. “For me both cases happened. But as i have had burn my hands in previous startups, so this time i am taking calculative risks to support my parents and my sustainability,” said Subrat Kar, founder Vidoofy. Vidoofy helps marketers to make YouTube videos viral.

While starting up early has certain advantages, it also has some grey side - inexperience can be very expensive and it might take a lot of time and chances of being successful not very high. I have seen many startups launched by guys in early twenties choking out fast. “Managing academics with start-ups was always difficult. You either have small or no professional experience, so majority of decisions are taken on a gut feeling rather than a calculative approach,” added Anand. Also, initially it takes some time to understand the market. Lack of funds also slow your production speed.

Though, in the past two years appetite of investors in startups launched by entrepreneurs in early twenties have improved. Angel investors have been exhibiting faith in startups like BetaGlide, Oravel, Bluegape with several others. “The current ecosystem is still not supporting entrepreneurs who are in early 20's. I have seen most of investors in India invest in team who are well experienced and successful in their past life, so now things should be changed and investors should not miss this opportunity to invest in early 20's” concluded Kar.