The year 2020 was unprecedented, and one that taught us to think on our feet while all else was changing around us due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we compile snippets from the Indian startup ecosystem who had valuable lessons to share.
At 8 pm on March 24, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a landmark announcement - a nationwide lockdown for 21 days to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. The lockdown continued in some form or the other for the next few months, but businesses were never the same.
For many industries, this was a transformative year. In a sink or swim situation, the entrepreneurial spirit truly came through - with many small, medium, and big industries finding their own way to pivot and carve a niche.Healthtech, edtech, fintech, OTT, and food tech are some of the core sectors to grow at an accelerated pace in the digital startup ecosystem. Whereas travel, tourism, hospitality and related sectors took a direct hit from the chaos that was unleashed globally.Changes aside, what we did notice was a 360-degree shift in the way entrepreneurs perceived success. From achieving greater maturity and better business models, Indian startups also streamlined revenues and innovations, and as they continue to deal with challenges, Indian startups are playing the role of a catalyst in reviving the country’s economy.According to YourStory Research’s 2020 Funding Report, Indian startups raised $9.4 billion across 881 deals from around 1,476 active investors in the ecosystem. We have also come across many success stories under YourStory Media’s series Pivot and Persist.As we approach the first anniversary of the unprecedented lockdown, we reached out to entrepreneurs to learn how the year unfolded for them and understand their key learnings from the days gone by for the day ahead.
Gayathri Vivekanandan, CEO, Ideas2IT:
We’ve always placed a premium on our culture, but the pandemic highlighted its importance. In 2020, we achieved a 68 percent revenue jump, and 33 percent growth in people strength. I credit this to our people and the homogeneous work culture that unites them. Though we were working from home last year, we seamlessly collaborated and delivered prestigious projects for clients like Facebook, Medtronic Labs, and Oportun. In the future, we will invest more to filter for culture fit and scale-up without diluting it.Read this article online here.
