
The focus of newer companies has quickly shifted from service based to product based - a sector that is fast evolving. It is both high risk and high reward. There are on an average seven to nine new start-up companies being set up in Bangalore each month, most in the information technology, e commerce and gaming sectors. Nasscom recently set up a platform to welcome nearly 10,000 start-up companies over a period of one year from January 2014 to January 2015.
28-yr-old Narayan Babu, for example, with his friends who also happen to be his colleagues, is just back from Google's meeting in San Francisco where their latest creation has got a standing ovation. After creating 'Iris' for Android phones, a direct competition to Apple's innovation 'Siri' in 2011, his thee-year-old start-up in Bangalore is ready for more. Their famous apps like 'Friday', 'Dialap', 'Knock' are among the top sellers with over a million users. The engineer chose an 'upgrade' on his resume from an employee to a CEO.
"The first question investors used to ask us is "were you working with Google, do you have a degree from MIT, IIT, how do we validate you? So initially we were always having to answers these questions. Everytime we tried to do a partnership or raise investment, it was tough as a start-up. Until Iris changed everything for us," said Narayan, CEO of Dexetra.
29-year-old Cherian, another CEO of a million dollar company quit his high-profile job in the valley in the US to start his own company. He works out of a room in his home cum office with three others. Cherian Thomas is the founder of a social media site for cooks across the world to view and put up their own recipes. Within 2 years, there are 100,000 active users and the passive ones are five times that figure.
Young entrepreneurs like Cherian say the cost to set up a company was a lot more expensive about 10 years ago. Now they could be doing away with steps of hiring an administration person, legal advisor, accountant and even a commercial space to work out of. All you need is a bright brilliant idea.