Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped a Technology Product Company from India

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Some of us have worked relentlessly for decades to bring about the change in India from a largely services-driven technology industry to one that today produces credible products sold all over the world.

Ameyo is one of the early examples of this shift, and Co-founder CEO Sachin Bhatia is an early visionary in this journey. Ameyo was acquired by Exotel earlier this year.

Sachin is also a long-term reader of this blog. It is always a great pleasure for me to do the Entrepreneur Journeys of my long time readers who have benefited from these stories and the invaluable lessons shared by so many entrepreneurs since 2006. This is our conversation from December 2020.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

Sachin Bhatia: I was born in New Delhi, India. I graduated from IIT. I’m a computer science graduate. I did my Bachelors in Computer Science in 2001. I have my whole family in India. My father was in the manufacturing business. In our college days, we thought that India should make some more products. That is how the journey started. I started this with a couple of my batchmates at IIT. 

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591st 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Anirudh Damani, Artha Venture Fund

Anirudh Damani is Managing Partner at Artha Venture Fund. We have a terrific discussion on the Indian Startup Ecosystem and its trends.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, Founder of Malpani Ventures (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: You said many times that the ecosystem is still immature. Can you underscore the points where you see the Indian ecosystem needing maturity?

Dr. Aniruddha Malpani: Sometimes, it’s the unrealistic expectation on the part of entrepreneurs partly because they don’t understand the grind that startups need to go through. A lot of the diet they’re fed on is the Silicon Valley success stories or the Indian success stories. They don’t understand the emotional angst they need to go through.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, Founder of Malpani Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: It’s wonderful to exchange notes. There are a couple of things you’ve said that I want to underscore. One is the importance of failure. The Indian ecosystem didn’t accept failures for a long time. It’s a cultural change where it’s okay to fail. You’re not penalized.

A very long time ago when I was a young entrepreneur, I talked to a lot of investors all the time. They would say, “We love entrepreneurs who have failed once and are doing it again.” This is deeply underappreciated.

Somebody who has tried it once and failed has already done a lot of learning on somebody else’s dime. It’s a prized commodity for investors.

Somebody who has tried it once and failed has already done a lot of learning on somebody else’s dime. It’s a prized commodity for investors.

Sramana Mitra

Startup Resources for Indian Entrepreneurs

We help Indian entrepreneurs build tech businesses. Some are based in India. Others are all over the world. Some market their products in India. Others, globally. Neither needs to necessarily move to Silicon Valley. They save capital by building from their location, where resources are more affordable.

Those who want to raise money in Silicon Valley, India or elsewhere can get help to do so. Please check our Investor Introductions page.

Want to discuss your situation? Come to the Free Public Roundtables. We have them weekly. 

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Bootstrapping to $8 Million in 3 Months During the Covid Crisis: Cuver CEO Ammar Amdani (Part 1)

This is a superb story of COVID-era entrepreneurship. Uplifting and thrilling!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rahul Chandra of Unitary Helion Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Do you want to talk about a couple of companies that you’ve invested in that you are particularly excited about? What are they doing? What value proposition are they providing? What are they experiencing in penetrating the market?

Rahul Chandra: We are saving some of the new names from Unitary for a formal announcement. I’ll cover some of them without the names. Of course, the Helion portfolio that I’m managing is also doing well.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rahul Chandra of Unitary Helion Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Geographically, are we talking about non-major metros now?

Rahul Chandra: We are talking about the next 50 towns and cities. Especially if you travel there, you see the change happening. There is certainly a need to change the mindset of a VC while thinking about customers in these parts.