Koramangala start-ups break myth of IIT entrepreneur

A survey found that 70 per cent of the start-up founders had experience working at multinational companies before starting on their own.

About 84 per cent of startup founders in Koramangala, India's first technology startup cluster, has degrees from lesser known colleges and not from elite institutions such as Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) or Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), according to a survey by Niti Aayog, the policy think tank of the Narendra Modi government.

"What seems to count here is talent, skill and experience, rather than a degree from a national institute of importance," said the survey. "While all entrepreneurs were highly educated with graduate or post-graduate degrees, they came from a mix of engineering and non-engineering backgrounds and only 16 per cent came from institutions of national repute."

The online survey of around 900 start-ups covered clusters located in Bangalore.

The above finding is relevant given the fact that the degrees offered by most institutes in India are not valued as highly as say the top twenty or so national institutes of importance.

This leaves out a large talent pool from the mainstream, partly because the logistics and expenses involved in recruiting talent from these vastly spread out institutes outweigh the benefits for employers, said the survey in the report of the expert committee on innovation and entrepreneurship, led by Harvard Business School professor Tarun Khanna.

Interestingly, the survey found that 70 per cent of the founders had experience working at multinational companies before starting on their own.

Survey results also highlight a trend of entrepreneurs moving back to their home provinces-in the North East or Goa or Orissa-to start ventures, after having worked in urban clusters of Bangalore or Mumbai.

Reasons cited were: desire to cater to their local areas, desire to create a national footprint while being closer to the source of their raw materials, and desire to employ a local workforce, it said.

This type of distributed growth is essential to enable every part of the country to move ahead and prosper. It might even be required for long term stability that the aspirations of youth in every segment of society and in every part of the country are met, the survey said.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com