Google recently announced the launch of Startup School India (SSI) as part of the Google for Startups Initiative. This is a platform under which Google will bring together investors, successful entrepreneurs, and programmers that startups from the smaller cities can do to tap into and learn from the best.
The idea of creating the Startup School India is to reach out to more and more startups in India. Google aims to reach out to at least 10,000 startups with this programme. The SSI will be a nine-week program, delivered virtually, and will feature fireside chats between Google leaders and trailblazing collaborators from across the startup ecosystem spanning fintech, D2C, B2B, and B2C e-commerce, language, social media and networking, job search and many more.
With close to 70,000 startups, India is the third-largest birthing ground for startups in the world. And as more Indian founders lead their companies successfully to IPOs or unicorn status, it has set off a virtuous cycle wherein their success has ignited aspirations among young Indians across the length and breadth of the country.
Startups are no longer restricted to Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, or Hyderabad. We have multitudes of fast-growing startups headquartered in centers such as Jaipur, Indore, Gorakhpur, and more. Nearly they account for 50% of recognized startups in India today. Almost 90% of all startups fail within the first five years of their journey- mostly for the same key reasons- unmanaged cash burn, flawed demand assessment, ineffective feedback loops or lack of leadership.
The programme is aimed at startups that come from smaller cities and are looking for some knowledge sharing that will help them in their next stage. As startups come up in farther corners of the country, there is a need for programs which can organize this knowledge into a structured curriculum and deliver it across holistically. The Manager of the Google Developer Relations program has also asserted that access to such knowledge is of utmost importance. The curriculum will feature instructional modules on subjects like shaping an effective product strategy or road mapping and so on and so forth. There will also be opportunities for founders to gain orthogonal insights from discussions around. The inclusion of a viable curriculum shall help them to choose the modules they would like to go for.
Google has always believed in giving back to the startup ecosystem and this initiative lives the spirit of that. They truly understand the need gaps which the Startup School initiative should aim to bridge.
Startup enterprises in India have been known to be innovative in responding to business challenges. The combination of intellectual power, original thinking, creative application, and technology as well as a fertile economic ground to experiment in a market full of problems and opportunities has resulted in considerable growth of businesses. The Google Startup School will provide an avenue for entrepreneurs to come out of their closets and look for opportunities. It is an excellent initiative to reach founders at scale in India.
'Startup School India, a Google for Startups Initiative is designed to do precisely that as we align our efforts to support this expansion.'
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