“Look at our neighbour China, which has produced multiple billion-dollar startups and is progressing faster than we can imagine because the VCs out there are risk-takers”

Dear Indian VCs,

Trust you are doing good. I hope I am not disturbing you.

Of late, Google has been aggressively promoting its newly-launched app Neighbourly. I am sure you would have heard about it.

This letter is not about Neighbourly, though, but about an app that we launched a couple of years ago. Our app was called Truple. Remember? No chance. Human memory is too short.

May be, I would help you refresh your memory. I had come to you with a pitch deck for Truple, which was built on the concept of Neighbourly but with more features and better functionalities. We believe Neighbourly is just 30-40 per cent of what we have built.

Our efforts were greatly appreciated by people across the globe, but sadly, not by you. When we came to you seeking capital, you turned us down. You were not ready to risk your money on a concept that was fresh and original.

After all, you are more inclined to support ‘me-too’ startups.

I had literally gone door to door explaining our concept to almost all the top VCs. But most of you rejected our idea, but we were not disappointed because we knew we had built a great product. But I was angry at your negative approach to our idea. Either you didn’t understand our idea, or you were not willing to risk your money and time.

After all, you are more inclined to support ‘me-too’ startups.

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Needless to say, we had to shut down the app exactly 20 months after the launch — of course, due to lack of funds and support from the Indian startup ecosystem.

I don’t mean to say Truple could have become a Facebook, but we could at least have become a Tinder with your support and capital. You should realise that when we have strong belief in our idea and our user responses were so fabulous that we knew we were onto something that people need and give our heart and soul to build it, any negative review based on your limited judgement would be bitter.

We had also built another great product, named GetBlu. We believe it was the only handyman platform with price and vendor discovery, but it didn’t get the attention it deserved because our competitors had raised million of dollars in capital and are still raising funding to sustain.

You know what, only a few vertical/segments of these firms are  cash positive. GetBlu, on the other hand, was profitable on every order from day one. However, we had to wind up operations as GetBlu needed cash for scaling the business. Let me tell you one more thing. Our competitors UrbanClap and Housejoy have a very long way to go; Google is coming up to give them a very tough competition, as its app Neighbourly plans to add handyman services.

Ironical as it may seem, I have seen many of you ‘waxing eloquent’ about the importance of taking risks in life. I have seen you inspire many a startup soul out there with your oratory skills. But when it comes to real life, you fail to walk the talk. I now realise you were just a bunch of dishonest people. You only take calculated risks, and no wonder why India has not produced another Flipkart.

After all, you are more inclined to support ‘me-too’ startups.

Look at our neighbouring China, which has produced multiple billion-dollar startups, This country is progressing faster than we can imagine because the VCs out there are risk-takers. They back fresh and original ideas.

Overall, if you look at the Indian ecosystem, we see more of ‘me-too’ startups getting promoted/funded and there is practically no room to promote new ideas. Also, our ecosystem mostly supports transactional startups, and not the ones like Truple, which are trying to get some user engagement first before thinking of monetisation.

It is true that our government policies have also played their part part in hindering the growth of our startup.

I can point out an incident to show how Indian VCs think. I once met one of the top-most VCs at a Startup Leadership Session, and I pitched my idea to him. After the session, he asked us not to start something just for the sake of starting and asked us to go back to a regular salaried profession and lead a comfortable life. I was angry at his suggestion and disappointed, but I held my nerve. I left the place disheartened.

Years later, when Neighbourly hit the market, I thought to call him but decided against it, as I didn’t want to vent my frustration at him.

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Having said that, I have great respect for some of you, who had asked us to come back later after reviewing our product. I appreciate your time to listen to our idea.

Now, you must be thinking why am I writing this now. I want VCs in our country to think more from a long-term perspective and trust in new ideas rather than invest in just ‘me-too’ ideas, so that the team like us don’t quit mid-way. I really feel proud of our team that we have built something, which a behemoth like Google thought about only two years after we shut the app. We were much ahead of most of you.

Mark my words. We will come back.

With Love,

Madhavendra Kumar, Co-founder of Truple.

(As told to our India Editor Sainul Abudheen K)

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Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Unsplash

The post A founder’s emotional letter to Indian VCs: “You may be the reason why India hasn’t produced another Flipkart” appeared first on e27.