Growing in the shadow of larger software services peers, Indian product firms are beginning to make a mark, as they shift focus to finding solutions for the domestic market instead of attempting to ape product ideas in the developed markets of the US.
During a discussion organised by The Economic Times with Nasscom, entrepreneurs such as Sridhar Vembu of online office software maker Zoho, Duke University professor Vivek Wadhwa, Nasscom president Som Mittal and CEO of Zinnov Management Consulting Pari Natarajan said Indian entrepreneurs are learning from their failures and are now scripting the next version of the Indian product story.
The roundtable is part of a series of such discussions being organised to celebrate ET’s 25 years in Bangalore — the Silicon Valley of India.
“India’s IT revolution is about 20 years old right now and you have thousands of people with over 10 years of experience who are tired of working for other people. This entire cadre of people will become entrepreneurs,” says Vivek Wadhwa, director of research, Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialisation, Duke University.
Indian start-ups also have a larger support system to grow new companies. Risk capital flow into the country has been higher over the past year with nearly $6.6 billion of private equity funding across 38 transactions as per data available with Venture Intelligence. Incubation centres and new models of start-up funding, including entrepreneur-in-residence programmes, and a growing number of angel investors are helping to kickstart new models of entrepreneurship.
Nearly a decade after the Indian software services industry moved into the global spotlight, a new wave of innovation is emerging in the country’s technology sector. Software product development in sectors such as education and training, artificial intelligence and automation, recruitment and talent management, mobile and telecom are triggering what industry observers believe will be the third wave in the country’s software revolution.
“I believe we are at the right cusp at this point of time, because we have been through one cycle with the software services group,” says Som Mittal, president of Nasscom who feels India now has a pool of mentors with experience and capital to nurture young companies.
In the last three years, software product exports have grown to reach a revenue level of $ 1.14 billion, according to a report by industry body Nasscom. Over 125 start-up companies have been set up in this period with an eye on businesses emerging from multiple sources such as the launch of the UID project — the world’s largest biometric project that is slated to throw up new business of $4 billion by 2015.
New trends in technology such as cloud computing and the exploding mobile market are also driving software product development by a pool of highly skilled technologists across the country.
The hour-long interaction threw up three key factors that will determine the progress of start-up enterprises in this space — a vibrant ecosystem, right talent to build companies and, most important of all, the risk-taking ability of entrepreneurs.
“In India, you are not meeting a market need, you are creating it. It is not about market share. If you have a really good product you can reach out and really create a market for yourself here,” says Mr Mittal who sees the role of industry bodies today as facilitators.
“We have more than 3,000 people exchanging ideas on the (Nasscom) blog. We intervene when we think we need to provide some thoughts there, we have to find newer models to scale,” he added.
Industry observers also reckon that for Indian entrepreneurs the big test will be to create business models that address the domestic market.
“Indian companies cannot solve American problems whereas the opportunities here are so great, as the economy will grow at 8-12% a year over the next decade, while the American economy is stagnant, at best it will grow at 3%, if lucky,” says Mr Wadhwa.
As the start-up community gathers behind this emerging wave, support from policy and higher risk-taking by entrepreneurs will determine the progress of this tryst with technology.
Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/Indian-cos-now-script-new-version-of-IT-product-story/articleshow/6926965.cms
