'Failure is not the end of the road,' says Rutvik Doshi

Rutvik Doshi, Director of Inventus (India) Advisors, works closely with entrepreneurs and has his ear to the ground when it comes to the Indian startup ecosystem. In this interaction with YourStory TV on the sidelines of Mobile Sparks 2015 recently, Rutvik says though there is a mushrooming of startups in India with daily funding news bolstering this spread, Indian society is going through some fundamental changes at the grassroots level.

Young graduates, who have grown up with the Internet as a basic need, are no longer satisfied with just taking up a corporate job but are seeing a whole new set of opportunities in front of them. Given this scenario, it is important that the young entrepreneurs give failure a serious thought. Statistics shows that only two out of 10 startups succeed.

Rutivk, who has often lent his shoulders to entrepreneurs struggling to tackle the pressures and demands of running a business, had earlier told YourStory, “Most entrepreneurs go through a roller coaster of highs and lows. They are the captain of their ship and cannot afford to seem weak in front of their crew. They have to maintain a ‘cool’ façade. We understand this.”

Rutvik says he has also experienced failure when his startup did not take off. “Emotionally it is very draining. But entrepreneurs should know that it is not a personal failure.” Which brings us to the question of how entrepreneurs view money, especially when everyone is dreaming the ‘big billion dollar’ dream? Rutvik feels it is important that entrepreneurs keep a balanced head, and not get carried away when the venture funds land in their bank.

Rutivk is an IIT, Kharagpur, alumni, and also holds an MBA degree from INSEAD, France. He has seen the Indian startup ecosystem grow since 2007. He worked with Google earlier where he launched Voice Search, Google Mobile App, SMS Channels, and managed Google News.

Camera: R Raja

Video editor: Anjali V