A Tale of Two Worlds: How My Summer at a Startup in Bengaluru Changed My Mindset About India
I left India in Fall 2013 to pursue my undergraduate engineering education in the United States.
While I kept track of all the developments and visited India in my semester breaks during my education, I felt the heat of the crazy on-ground disruption first-hand just very recently in Summer 2018 while working at a logistics-tech startup in Bengaluru.
With the developments I saw on the ground, there is no doubt about the economic prowess India will achieve in the next few years.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers’ Mary Meeker was very right in 2017 when she called India one of the “most fascinating markets for the internet on the planet” in her widely popular Annual Internet Trends Report.
The masses in India across various economic strata remain hooked to the Internet, whether it is because of instant messaging, online shopping or free video content.
Much of the credit goes to the revolution brought by Chinese handset manufacturers and Jio in the smartphone and telecom market respectively.
The cost of smartphones has fallen and the adoption rates have hit an all-time high. Similarly, in the last three years, mobile internet rates have plunged 93% in India. The average data usage per user has surged by over 25 times. These are, by any definition, not normal events.
Going to office in the morning? Get a bicycle using ZoomCar.
Hungry at lunch? Order from Swiggy*.
Evening out with friends? Try Zomato Gold.
Splitting the bill? Use Paytm.
Groceries ? Amazon Now* delivers them before you get home for the day.
Soccer with friends? Book a turf field on Playo.
*Shadowfax, the startup I worked at, delivered food for Swiggy and groceries for Amazon Now.
Not only this, now you can also enjoy the delicacies from local artisanal bakeries at your doorstep at the touch of a button. This internet revolution is not only generating positive returns for the big established players but also empowering local small and medium business to reach far-away customers.
I came to India to explore a summer stint in the Corporate Development team of a late-stage logistics-tech startup in Bangalore. I was hoping to go back to United States to pursue graduate studies after completion.
But this mind-boggling disruption that I witnessed at work, and in small parts of everyday life otherwise, made me step back. I thought through my career strategy again and made a bold decision to stay back in India because this is where future is being built everyday by companies like Shadowfax.
India is growing crazy fast, with humongous growth in consumer consumption across categories.
This is fuelling entrepreneurs in the country who are using technology to simplify everything. They are working on next-generation of ideas and leveraging technology to solve problems in traditional industries from logistics to agriculture.
I want to spend more time seeing these ventures play out and carve my own space in this vibrant Indian ecosystem. This is where I belong.
Shaurya will be joining the Class of 2019 of the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University, a liberal arts-leadership program aimed at grooming future Indian leaders that will lead through the twenty-first century. He previously received an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, with Eta Kappa Nu Honors, from the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
