In an attempt to identify the challenges faced by the entrepreneurial community and to find possible solutions for them, Akshay Gunteti, a 22-year old energetic and passionate being, began a rather ambitious expedition across the country. The Indian Startup Ecosystem is still emerging and the Indian entrepreneurs face a lot of problems while starting up. As a result, the probability of failing amongst the Indian Startups is considerably high, he says.
So he, along with co-founder Nidhiya V Raj , who is a Young Indian Fellow, founded an initiative called “The Indian Startup Tour” to meet dynamic group of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, policy makers and government officials, to research on startups, incubators, accelerators, educational institutions and co-working spaces across the country. Beginning in October 2015, Akshay has now covered over 20 cities and met over hundreds of Entrepreneurs.
In each one of his meetings, he understands the problems faced by these entrepreneurs and curates reports about the Startup Ecosystem same while on the back-end, his co-curator Nidhiya provides him with crucial connections and designs his schedules from time to time. Their aim is to document the challenges being faced by Indian startups, to talk to them, make them more aware of the ecosystem they”re surrounded by, taking several parameters into consideration including the region’s cost-of-living, the legal framework, and the governmental schemes that can come to their aid.
This is a country that has policies favouring MNCs more than startups. Many entrepreneurs have an interesting idea but when they make mistakes, they give up rather easily. I want them to speak up, so that others can learn from their experience, he believes.
Towards the end of the tour, they intend to ready a report on the entire Indian Startup Ecosystem and to create solutions to make businesses easier which will be submitted to the Government of India. This would also be helpful for the entrepreneurs to analyze the Indian Startup Ecosystem and identify the most suitable places to establish their startups.
Akshay analysed that in every city he visited, all entrepreneurs faced one common problem- the lack of a proper support system or network to reach out to experts. To solve this, he is building Startupp, a location-based networking platform for the entrepreneurial community.
Map Discovery , we launching it in August .
Initially, Akshay began his “yatra” in October 2015 by backpacking and hitchhiking, but later on he decided to pedal his way around, with a burn rate of just Rs. 150/- a day, bootstrapping and staying at Entrepreneurs” houses, Startup Offices, Coworking spaces & Incubators. Exhausting as it may seem, Akshay chose this mode as he was very passionate about cycling. Unfortunately, a road accident forced him to move to public transports.
In his journey, by spending time with investors and joining parties, he befriended them and received lot of knowledge, gained insight into their work, learnt their perspectives and challenges of being investors. As his network expanded and impacted more and more professionals who had just started up, The Indian Startup Tour attracted the attention of few NRIs who decided to invest in this most unique and thoughtful initiative which proved to be a big boost up.
In addition to his one-of-a-kind tour which is remarkable in itself, he has branded himself with a signature pose called AAA where he and whoever he meets pose with their mouth wide open for a picture. The AAA pose earned a reputation for itself that Akshay went on to create the AAA community for Aaawesome people with Craaazy ideas.
Upon completion of his tour in September 2016, Akshay will proceed to setup an incubation centre in Bangalore where creative people can work, live and share a common journey to innovation and societal good. As an icing on this already delicious cake, Akshay claims that at this space, they will also get paid a small stipend to meet their daily expenses.
While we may wonder how this would benefit him or gain profits, Akshay simply claimed, I want to see people with potential achieve something. Face it, Israel, a country now booming with startups, boasts of a greater GDP than ours. But we actually score better in the number of startups and yet we are falling short. My goal is to empower these entrepreneurs and the startup ecosystem in India and therefore, contribute to our country”s development
A humbly ambitious and charismatic college dropout from a middle class Andhra family who is living his dream life describes Akshay in a single line but his life is not always as merry as it may seem. On road by himself, miles and miles away from his family, battling with time and health while he very efficiently juggles time between work and his loved ones, Akshay certainly does not have an easy life. He doesn”t travel in business class or stay in fancy hotels and his work hours are not fixed.
Startup life! he exclaims with a tired joy. The people I meet are kind enough to accommodate and feed me. Isn”t that the point? Building trust and making new friends?
In spite of all the struggles, the many sleepless nights, being bombarded with endless questions everyday and not to mention, dealing with cynics and ill-intentioned critics, Akshay”s goal remains one- to empower the country”s startup ecosystem. My parents strongly support me and I have wonderful friends and great many people who believe in me. What more do I need? I won”t stop. I will continue with my mission and even if I can inspire just a few people, my vision will be fulfilled, he affirms.
Destinations that are going to cover in Indian Startup Tour Season – 2
Indore – Udaipur -Ajmer -Jaipur -Agra – Gwalior – Jhansi – Delhi Ludhiana -Jalandhar – Amritsar – Srinagar – Shimla Dehradun -Rishikesh – Kanpur – Lucknow – Allahabad
Varanasi – Patna – Sikkim – Guwahati – Nagaland – Manipur- Silchar – Mizoram – Tripura – Kolkata – Ranchi Rourkela- Bhubaneswar -Raipur – Nagpur.
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