Avoid Startup Traps

Abstract

Beware entrepreneurs, don't get lured into the startup ecosystem. Venture capitals (VCs), accelerators, incubators, universities and governments all promote startups, usually with good intentions, but lack of certain basic qualities of entrepreneurs may lead to devastating effects, which needs to be taken into context while starting and running a startup. Exponential growth in technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and robots have led to a myth that there may be an expected loss of jobs drives many of these stakeholders to rapidly assign resources to copy Silicon Valley's model of startups without clear understanding. The success stories of Google, Tesla and Apple have also prompted many Indian entrepreneurs to start ventures. Entrepreneurship, or the journey of turning a founder's vision into a "sustainable," real venture, is clearly not something new, and has always been ingrained into every human being. It promotes the capacity and willingness to have courage, intuition, emotional intelligence (EI), creativity and networking. These are fundamental traits required of entrepreneurs involved in startups. With almost 98 out of 100 startups failing globally one must analyze why the success rate is not that great.