Wish to become an entrepreneur in India? Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl says the best time is now

“There is no better time to be an entrepreneur in India (than now),” thinks Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl. He voiced this thought at this year’s MeitY Startup Summit, which is an initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and Information

“I started my company more than ten years ago. And in the last 10 years, I have seen the tectonic plates of entrepreneurship change almost every year or two,” Bahl said. He attributes these rapid changes in the startup ecosystem to four key reasons.

- The explosion of data because of 4G: A number of businesses that he had seen or entrepreneurs he had met pursuing those businesses pre-2016 were not seeing traction despite their best efforts. “Entrepreneurs were working very hard but it was just not showing any progress. The same entrepreneurs, same business models has started working in the past two - three years. That goes to show the compounding effects of connectivity,” Bahl said.


- Payments: “It has significantly increased the access to various types of software products and services for consumers across the country because now payments have become cheaper,” he said.

- Availability of capital: The fact that aspiring entrepreneurs can raise large amounts of money in lieu of a small amount of equity is helping. It’s helping to fuel the ecosystem.

- And lastly, the talent is focused on building businesses like never before. “Doing a startup is the preferred option for the top talent of the country,” Bahl said. And for this, he gave credit to the Modi government for promoting startups and giving them plenty visibility.