19 Courses on Building a Startup in India

There are now thousands of entrepreneurs in India, and many more Indians are starting their own businesses as we speak. Even with mistakes, disappointments, and setbacks, all things considered, startup founders continue to want to realize their ambitions, no matter what.

This course shows you some examples of successes both big and small during the early stages of their journeys.

1. Entrepreneurship Case Studies from India 1 with Sramana Mitra

Use this course to study some of the biggest entrepreneurship success stories out of India — how they got their start. Listen to in-depth conversations with several of India’s most successful founders. And also, learn about little-known success stories. There’s much to learn from those too.

India’s greatest achievement in the last decade has been the consistent unleashing of the entrepreneurial movement. The risk tolerance of the Indian population has increased. No longer is it the Holy Grail to lust after fat salaries at multinationals. The dream of building something of your own seduces people in India, even if that implies a built-in risk of failure.

In the first nine months of 2021, India saw a record number of new unicorns, with 66 founded in the country so far, according to NASSCOM. Take this course to see if your startup idea has the potential to become a Unicorn business.

1. How To Build Unicorn Tech Startups with Sramana Mitra

If you want to build a venture-funded company, you should understand what investors look for before approaching VCs. Don’t go prematurely. Pre-seed funding is extremely difficult, rejection rates are very high. Take these courses to learn what investors want and avoid the time and emotional pain of repeated rejections.

1. How Pre-Seed Investors Think About Startups with Sramana Mitra
2. How Seed Investors Think About Startups with Sramana Mitra
3. Post-Seed and Pre-Series A Investors on Startups with Sramana Mitra
4. How Seed Investors Think About Deep Tech with Sramana Mitra
5. Alternatives to Unicorn Chasing Investors with Sramana Mitra

It’s also worth noting that learning to focus on a certain domain is essential. These courses may help you decide on a domain in which you already have an unfair advantage.

1. How to Build E-commerce Startups with Sramana Mitra
2. Building a Two-Sided E-commerce Marketplace w/ Sramana Mitra
3. How To Build AI Startups with Sramana Mitra
4. How to Build Online Education Startups with Sramana
5. How to Build Digital Health Startups with Sramana Mitra

If you’re just getting started, there are various ways to get your business up and running. The following is a comprehensive guide to bootstrapping techniques. You may pick one or a combination of different bootstrapping strategies.

1. Bootstrapping a Startup with Services with Sramana Mitra
2. Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later with Sramana Mitra
3. Bootstrapping a Startup with a Paycheck with Sramana Mitra
4. How to Bootstrap Startups by Piggybacking with Sramana Mitra
5. How to Bootstrap a Startup to Exit with Sramana Mitra
6. How To Succeed As A Solo Entrepreneur with Sramana Mitra

Bottomline, no investor in India would fund you unless you do some amount of bootstrapping to get to validation.

Remember the 1Mby1M mantra: Do NOT go to investors as beggars, go as kings 🙂

And finally, this course may enhance your understanding of Indian startup financing before attempting to obtain external funding. You’ll get knowledge from real-world Indian investors who want to fund viable businesses. You may also see ways to make your startup fundable in the process.

1. How Investors Think About Startups in India with Sramana Mitra

Here you have it. We’ve spent the past three decades immersed in entrepreneurial endeavors both in India, Silicon Valley and around the world. We synthesize thousands of entrepreneurial stories into a few dozens of key courses.

All of the above courses are based on the 1Mby1M Methodology. Take these courses in any order you wish, combine them as needed, but do not skip the learning. Be sure to deeply understand How Investors Think before you go chasing investors.

When you do, don’t do so with a begging bowl. Go with real validation and command the respect that would result in successful funding rounds.

If you have any specific questions, come and see me at a 1Mby1M free roundtable.

P.S. We’re looking to partner with community leaders who write blogs, teach and mentor entrepreneurs, and help support startup ecosystems in every corner of the world, no matter how small or how remote. I have written about my own journey building startup ecosystems around the world, and how you can draw from my lessons from the trenches. If you’re interested in partnering with 1Mby1M, please consider joining our ambassador program.

Photo by Aditya Gupta on Unsplash