UpGrad Co-founder wants entrepreneurs to pick 'boring' sectors to build

At TechSparks 2024, entrepreneur and investor Ronnie Screwvala suggested entrepreneurs build in the ‘boring’ sectors. 

“Serious businesses—solar energy and all those who work in the environmental space—are being built for the long-term. They need equal amounts of respect…Start (up) in these sectors, and nobody will be able to beat you after 15 years,” said the co-founder of edtech unicorn UpGrad and Swades Foundation.

During a fireside chat at the 15th edition of YourStory’s flagship startup-tech summit, Screwvala shared his thoughts on the ‘big opportunities’, and what the investor in him is betting on. 

Speaking about AI, he said, “The next four to five years will be a work-in-progress…We have to make a business out of AI.” 

“The first 20 to 30 companies in the sector will struggle. And this is one sector where being second or third is absolutely fine,” he added. If he were to build an AI startup today, the entrepreneur revealed, he would either plan for the long-term or be fine with not being the industry leader.

He added that while everyone views the AI space as a tectonic or a technological shift, the focus is shifting away from the fact that building a successful AI company will require much more creativity, innovation, and consumer understanding versus just the output.

“I am looking for people who are on the journey for the means of what AI can do…Those are the ones who are building a 360-degree company for the long term. Otherwise, entrepreneurs tend to feel that when things are moving fast, they need to move fast too,” he said. 

He emphasised that while AI has been the talk of the town, there are plenty of opportunities beyond it too. “We are a very entitled lot, and we are in the privileged segment…But there is so much being built here at the very basic level in India. The small and medium scale industries are not really small and medium scale industries,” he added, mentioning that he has lived through this experience. 

Screwvala started by building a toothbrush manufacturing business, “At that time, it was in the small scale industry segment, and everyone said it was boring. But at that particular point in time, it was an impossible task to scale the business… I realised I either have to get out of it or scale it.” 

And, he did step away from it to later start up in the media industry. He pioneered cable television and built UTV Software Communications, a Mumbai-based media and entertainment conglomerate. Eventually, in 2012, he sold the company to Disney for a whopping valuation of $1.4 billion. 

“You have to find your crevice or your niche,” he said.