The Startup sector is on the rise these days, so it’s not surprising to find startups receiving funding every so often in the News section concerning business. In addition to funding, there are some fascinating stories about boot-strapped startups that were started in India.
Despite India having the World’s 3rd largest startup ecosystem, with 38 Unicorns, it is surprising to know that less than 8% of its
80,000 startups receive venture funding; this means 92% are bootstrapped or have other sources of funding.
Building a business from scratch may be the best way to build a long-term enterprise. You don’t have much overhead except your computer, and you can start part-time even if you are still working.
Bootstrapped startups are an ideal source of inspiration, given that over 90% of startups fail within the first five years of operation. Let alone startups without funding, which seems impossible as they are starting from scratch.
Nonetheless, the following five bootstrapped companies have proven that they are independent, and in some cases even went on to become unicorns.
The company, founded by Sridhar Vembu in 1996, originally known as Advantnet [renamed in 2009], is the leader in Cloud computing. As a bootstrapped startup, this company generated revenues of $10 million by 2000. In 2001, the dot-com crash, however, took away most of its clients.
In 2005, it entered the cloud business with its CRM product, Zoho, and hasn’t looked back since. Currently, this bootstrapped company offers over 3 lakh customers more than 40 products, which include productivity, IT support, and sales. During FY20, Zoho reported a profit increase of over 55%.
The Bengaluru-based company was set up in 2010 by brothers, Nikhil and Nithin Kamath, and remains one of the only bootstrapped companies to achieve Unicorn status recently. It has almost one million active users on its platform worldwide, supported by a 30-member tech team, which is why Zerodha can exist as a company without any outside funding.
Nithin Kamath began targeting clients who were young and tech-savvy so that they could contribute to the market. He desired a Google-like platform with simple navigation rather than a Yahoo-like site.
Zerodha’s earnings grew by more than 15% to Rs 1,093.64 crore in FY20.
One more Bengaluru-based startup, Kaleyra is a multi-channel communications platform that connects businesses with their customers, headed up by Aniketh Jain and Ashish Agarwal.
The idea was conceived in college, and the company, Solutions Infini, was founded with a capital investment of 4 lakh rupees to sell their college management software in 2009. Unfortunately, this dream never came true.
As a last resort, the company’s founders turned to making software for other companies. Eventually, their bootstrapped startup became a SaaS company. Kaleyra was later merged with Italy-based Uniquity in 2016 to become Kaleyra.
Its revenue has exceeded Rs 693.6 crore, and the company’s clients include Amazon, Ola, Flipkart, AirAsia, Zomato, Cure.fit, and Practo, among others.
Founded in 2010, this Delhi-based company helps customers understand their customers better by providing insights into their potential customer behaviour, testing new features, and automating marketing campaigns to boost sales and revenue.
The company’s founder and sole owner, Paras Chopra, obtained his biotechnology degree from Delhi College of Engineering and applied his knowledge of neural networks and psychoanalysis to the field of digital marketing.
As Paras points out, bootstrapping is a result of inaction rather than a choice.
The bootstrapped company has been doing well, having recorded recurring revenues in the millions, along with blue-chip clients like Microsoft, General Electric, and Walt Disney Co.
Varun Shoor, a 17-year-old programming genius, founded the company in 2001 when he was only 17 years old. He skipped college to pursue his dream of developing advanced helpdesk management software, which would be every young entrepreneur’s dream.
Varun’s brainchild was the result of combining modern, consumer-focused design with stuffy business helpdesk software.
ESW Capital acquired Varun’s successful bootstrapped startup in 2018. Kayako has more than one lakh customers worldwide today.
Startups need funding to prosper, but bootstrapping allows the entrepreneur to make his or her own choices without being bothered by pesky investors. The risk is well worth it though since the founders have a majority share of companies’ profits.
