Never been a better time to be an entrepreneur: Rahul Khanna, MD, Canaan Partners

For wannabe entrepreneurs and those already in the game, a happy thought on the Independence Day, is this from Rahul Khanna, MD, Canaan Partners: “There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.”

Why does he think so? Because of two dynamics, as Rahul explains. Tune in…

First dynamic: Seed and angel ecosystem

For many, many years, as entrepreneurs, the first step was the hardest, because you had to convince friends, family, and other well-wishers, to give you that capital, to take that big leap of faith. What we have seen over the last couple of years is the emergence of a seed and angel ecosystem that really makes taking the first step a lot easier.

I think what it also does for investors is that it allows us to have, in some ways, a pre-screened population of companies, where we are able to quickly make an assessment of how we want to get involved in, and whether we want to back those companies.

Second dynamic: A growing digital market

The second dynamic is that we are dealing with a market, growing up digital. When we grew up, the Internet was a novelty, television was the primary consumption medium of content, and payments were in cash. So, all of the foundation layer of high-growth consumer Internet market didn’t exist.

Today’s youth is growing up on the phone, they are likely to have access to plastic, and they are growing up as digital natives. That is allowing us to build, from scratch, consumer Internet businesses, which we would never have dreamed about building ten years ago.

So, I am actually very excited about the fact that India is the mobile-first country, and there is generation of digital natives, including my children. They are shunning old-world technologies, and completely embracing the consumer Internet as you and I have it.