Yes Vijay, I agree. Startups do Fail

Vijay Anand, key Proto organizer, wonders why Indian tech blogs are creating a fuss about failed startups. In a post over at VentureWoods, he writes:

“I am seeing a flurry of activity among the tech blogs who’ve caught on a interesting topic to latch onto. Failed startups. If you ask me, I am not sure what the big fuss in this is about.

Birds fly. Fishes Swim. Deals Fall through and Startups Fail. This is the natural order of things. The only thing we can do is alleviate the chances of success for a startup by a small degree. We do not, neither can anyone assure anyone of success and failures totally. Heck, the Silicon valley, which is considered to be this rich ecosystem, has its fair share of failures. What are we going to do about that? ”

In my response below, I speak for myself and not other tech bloggers - so please interpret it as such.

Vijay, no one is making a ‘fuss’ about failed startups. As a tech blogger, who reports on new startup launches, I only see it as fair to cover about startup failures as well. After all - failures are part of the ecosystem. Else, we’d end up covering only one end of the spectrum, which would be unfair. Silicon Valley failures dont go unnoticed either (TC deadpool).

Talking about startup failures is also good in a way for young, recent college grads,entrepreneur wannabes. They shouldnt get the impression that entrepreneurship is all hunky dory and sexy. Its a risky, challenging affair, with high probability for failure. Educating them about such failures would help them to make the assessment if entrepreneurship is their cup of tea.

Glorifying failure would be wrong - and I have tried to stay away from it.

Finally, I’d also like to add this - when a company like ByIndia, which made audacious claims like being the fastest growing search engine and SocNet site for Indians & which started the (in)famous $5 million sweepstakes fails, you cant help feeling a devilish pleasure reporting about it. I maybe guilty of that and I’m totally fine with it.

Similar Posts

• Exit strategy and revenue model for Indian startups
• Hiring for Indian startups
• Indian ecosystem needs that one spark

Comments

3 Responses to “Yes Vijay, I agree. Startups do Fail”

1. Rajiv on February 26th, 2008 2:44 pm

   On a lighter side, startup success in Inida are rare. So why not just celebrate failures. That also serves a purpose.

2. Abhishek Nath on February 26th, 2008 6:24 pm

   I think most of the startups are failing in Indian internet arena because of 2 reasons:
   1. Inability to change over time - Most of these startups borrow ideas from international companies but unable to tweak/adapt it for indian consumer needs.
   2. Lack of vision and commitment - They start up nicely but because they have not thought where they actually want to go they end up messed up. Look at Rediff (wrong example as it is successful but still relevant in context) - over the time they have lost their vision. They have added everything right from news, mail, movies, messenger… everything and they are ending up no where. Same with sify, indiatimes etc etc…. the list is endless…

   I think we should learn from Google. Do less things but thorough and with vision.

3. Vijay Anand on March 12th, 2008 2:43 pm

   Oh, I didnt have an issue with it, just a remark that its just business as usual, nothing new

   http://www.vijayanand.name