It is not easy to incorporate a startup business and keep it going for the long term. Several examples of successful and unsuccessful startups are there that cannot be counted on fingers.
I have seen a lot of people either thinking to start their company or had started but failed to continue it for a longer period as it was either not scalable or incurring a loss.
Here we will see some of them and understand what were the key factors which made one business successful and the other a failure.
What’s in it for me?
Successful Startup Business
We have got a good number of successful startups in India. They had an idea that could disrupt the market and make an impact.
Some left their job to set up their own business, some started it after completing or during their education time and worked hard a lot to create history.
India can see a growth in its startup ecosystem. The startups are making their presence felt both nationally and internationally. Their inspirational stories have built a way for other budding entrepreneurs to work on the ideas and make their dream come true.
Listed below are some of the successfully running startups and their stories which brought in a new stream of energy in the Indian startup ecosystem.
Papers n Parcels
Tilak Mehta, a 13-year-old boy, launched Papers n Parcels in 2018 in Mumbai. The idea behind this startup was to ease the courier services within the city of Mumbai.
It was very big news then because it was just a 13-year-old boy who started the business. He has also been awarded as the youngest entrepreneur by India Maritime Awards.
So how did he come up with the idea of the startup? Let’s see:
He was once stuck in a situation where he was helpless. He forgot his books at Borivali at his uncle’s place when he was in the seventh standard and wanted those to be delivered the same day to his place since his exams were approaching.
Some delivery companies he got in touch with were charging Rs 250-300. This made him wonder how people who don’t have peons or drivers manage to get their stuff delivered within the city.
So, he thought, why not have a startup to facilitate same-day delivery of stuff within the city? When he was looking for delivery partners, he wanted somebody who was experienced and cost-effective. And he could think of no one else but the Dabbawalas. That’s how he started his company.
To help him start his business, Ghanshyam Parekh, his uncle helped him a lot. He was a banker by profession. But after listening to the idea of Tilak, he was so convinced that he quit his job of bank and joined Papers N Parcels as a CEO.
Yourstory
It was founded by Shradha Sharma in the year 2018. This business was started with the motive of telling the stories that matter – that touches the heart of the reader. They write articles on entrepreneurs and startups.
They come up with their inspirational stories and then present it to the world to read their articles so that more people get inspired and come up to make their dream come true.
The stories inspire the budding entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, etc, and make them believe that if they can then why can’t you.
Being a women entrepreneur she has inspired a lot of other women in our society. She started Yourstory as a blog but eventually got converted into one of the most read websites on entrepreneurs and startups.
Shradha Sharma is a former executive at The Times of India and CNBC-TV18, and now she has emerged as one of the well-known faces in the startup ecosystem.
Ola
Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in the year 2011. It is one of the world’s largest ride-sharing companies. We all know very well about this startup as we use it daily for our traveling purpose.
It has built such a large network. They took advantage of the advanced technology and built an app. Now if anybody wants to book any ride, they can easily do it with their mobile phone. The app tracks your location and books a cab which is nearby your location.
They made our ride very easy. We can easily travel anywhere. Also, it employs a large number of people. Those who know to drive, have a car and license, can get themselves registered, and then start to earn for their living.
Its main competitor is Uber. Both these companies have the same business model and are on a tough fight to capture the market.
OYO Rooms
The teenage boy Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, the fastest growing network of branded hotels. OYO rooms do nothing out of the box but provide travelers the coolest yet cheapest, efficient, and standardized budget rooms.
OYO is present in almost every city of India and now it also has its global presence. Whenever we travel anywhere for a trip with our friends or family, we once go for OYO as an option.
They have such a great facility. The rooms are very neat and clean. The same is for the environment. The hotels it ties up with are very cooperative and manage their customers very nicely. OYO provide their sanitary products inside the room.
OYO has built many loyal customers with its best quality services and has huge goodwill in the market. Hence, it has captured a huge market in India and seeking its presence in many other foreign countries.
There are many more companies like this who were successful such as ‘MakeMyTrip’, ‘Jio’, ‘Zomato’, ‘Gaana app’, etc.
Unsuccessful Startup Business
Now besides the successful startup business, there are many unsuccessful startup businesses as well who went wrong in someplace that led them to see the failure.
The reason can be anything such as lack of proper planning or maybe something went wrong with the management of the activities or lack of funding.
Also read: Sources of fund for Startup.
Let us have a look at some of the examples of failed startups and see where they went wrong so that you take a lesson from them and do not repeat it while setting up your own business.
Cardback
Cardbackwas launched by Nidhi Gurnani and Nikhil Wason in the year 2012. It is headquartered in New Delhi and was a fintech company. It was a payment platform that helped credit card, debit card, and prepaid cardholders save money every time they pay.
They made an app that was used to identify suitable cards for payment based on various factors including card features, ongoing offers, cash backs, discounts, earning, redemption, and conversion of reward points using cards.
It was shut down in April 2017. The reason behind it was that they were not able to raise fund and was not able to compete in the market as many payment platforms already existed in the market.
Their idea was not so strong which can beat other companies competing in the same industry.
Stayzilla
Stayzillawas founded by Yogendra Vasupal, Rupal Yogendra, and Sachit Singhi in the year 2005. It was headquartered at Bangalore and competed in the hotel aggregator industry.
They started it as an online travel agency for hotel bookings and named Insara. Then in 2010 they renamed it Stayzilla and shifted to a hotel aggregator model.
The reason they gave for the shutdown is that they lacked local network effort. They were not able to expand quickly as they lacked funding. They had to face a high-cost requirement for doing their activities and were able to generate very low revenues.
Shopo
Shopo was founded by Theyagarajan S. Launch date is not known but it was re-launched in the year 2015. It was headquartered in Chennai and worked as an affiliate marketplace, an online market place where one can find traditional Indian designers, homemade and handcrafted products.
Shopo was re-launched by Snapdeal as a zero commission market place where sellers were allowed to chat, buy, and sell their products on the online platform but was shut down in the year 2017.
The reason behind it was that the Snapdeal was facing loss in its overall business. So, to save money and to cut down the operational cost, they had to announce the shutdown of Shopo.
Splitkart
Splitkart was founded by Sharique Khan and Monajeet Sinha in the year 2015. It was headquartered in Gurugram and is a fintech company. They built a mobile app that helped people splitting their day-to-day bills and plan group outings.
The app also had the service of showcasing the deals and offers of nearby restaurants, pubs, etc. Basically, this startup was launched keeping in mind the young generation, in other words, their target market was mainly youth.
The reason for the shutdown of the company is not clear. A piece of news was circulated that they are busy upgrading their site but did not share any news for restarting the same. Their app is no more available in the Google Play Store or iOS store.
There are many more examples of startups about which you can read and understand where they went wrong and learn from their mistakes.
Conclusion
We have seen some of the successful and unsuccessful companies as an example of startups. Be it a 13-year-old kid, an entrepreneur is within you. You have to identify it.
There are many startups like OYO, Ola, Facebook, Google, which created history and there are many companies like Shopo, Splitkart, Cardback, of which we have not even got the chance to hear their names and the companies came in the verge of closure.
We should learn from their success stories which made them a big giant and their mistakes which made them shut down their company and make sure that you do not repeat the same mistake while planning for a startup business.
