Top Accelerators for Entrepreneurs Interested in Building Real Unicorns in Ahmedabad

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for entrepreneurs interested in building real unicorns in Ahmedabad, and compares them to 1Mby1M across key dimensions. 

Guest Authors Kaushank Khandwala and Snigdha Rani Sahoo | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Why ‘Real Unicorns’ Matter in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad entrepreneurial scene is growing fast — but too many so-called “unicorns” are built on shaky ground. Sky-high valuations, zero profits, and endless cash burn are celebrated, while the founders building durable, customer-funded companies are often ignored. This piece is for the latter group — the ones who want to scale to $1B+ valuations the hard way: through profitability, substance, and sustained market impact. Real unicorns don’t need to fake their worth — their numbers speak for themselves.

AI Investor Forum: Gus Tai on AI in Healthcare (Part 1)

Gus Tai, Investor, Board Member and Retired General Partner at Trinity Ventures, discusses AI in Healthcare startups. Fascinating, comprehensive discussion with concrete pointers.

How to Build and Monetize a Technology Entrepreneurship Blog: Introduction

I started blogging on Technology Entrepreneurship in April 2005. The Internet was different then. There was no Smartphone. Social Media was just starting. Facebook and LinkedIn were new concepts.

Today, in 2021, building and monetizing a Technology Entrepreneurship Blog requires a very different strategy than the one I started with.

In this multi-part series, I will lay out a fully fleshed out roadmap of how to do so with contemporary tools.

8 Validated Enterprise Software Startup Ideas for the DataStax-1Mby1M Challenge

The DataStax-1Mby1M Fall 2021 Startup Challenge launched on September 9th. Here is the kick-off video with Chet Kapoor, CEO of DataStax, Ed Anuff, Chief Product Officer of DataStax discussing the program with me.

DataStax has significant enterprise customers that are using their Apache Cassandra-based database products to solve real world problems. They are putting these use cases out in the public domain for startups to build companies around. DataStax would be helping the startups on the technical and customer acquisition side, and 1Mby1M would be helping the startups on the positioning, mentoring, and financing side. $10,000 of grant money is also included in this challenge.

Let’s look at some of the use cases. They’re all related to the increasingly digital nature of most businesses. The ever-growing use of IoT is a good example. Verticals that manage many assets need real-time access to data for visibility and decision purposes. Organizations interacting directly with customers need to ensure they are engaged with the right customer, and they have a digital twin of the customer to drive services and experiences. These experiences and services are entirely digital and depend on real-time data access. Finally, organizations drive their intelligence and decisions by understanding and leveraging the increasingly vast amount of data they manage. Here are more details.

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How Do You Come Up With a SaaS Startup Idea?

Two principles apply to all ideation processes:

1. You need to find a gap in the market. It’s extremely crowded.

2. You need to have an unfair advantage in that domain. That depends on your expertise and domain knowledge.

I strongly recommend that you build on top of an existing platform. It would be much cheaper. However, you can only do so in a domain where there’s a gap, and where you have expertise. If you want to build on top of the Shopify platform, you need an e-commerce idea that addresses a white space.

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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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8 Startup Ideas for the Post COVID World

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumer behavior in a major way. As we move through the virus-era, much more will likely change. With this realization, we ran a poll in June asking which topics readers would like me to cover and discuss. The overwhelming winner was startup ideas. So, after much thought, here are eight of my most recent startup ideas. My hope is to stimulate and help my fellow entrepreneurs catalyze these ideas into profitable businesses.

1. Artists and Collectors Shift Online

As you may know, I have a special interest in Art, and have observed its dynamics for many years. I have concluded that the time has come for Artists and Collectors to move online and interact in a fluid marketplace. The idea that I discuss here is a Unicorn idea with the potential to become a highly valued company that would achieve a billion dollar plus valuation.

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Startup Ideas for the Post Covid World: Managing Philanthropy

In a world economy devastated by Covid, threatened by climate change, ravaged by simultaneous natural disasters like tropical cyclone Amphan, the need for philanthropy has never been higher.

This is also a world in which at least a quarter million people have a net worth above $25 million. At least 50,000 people have a net worth above $100 million.

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