Evolving startup ecosystem, support from parents fuel under 22-year-old student-entrepreneurs in India

BANGALORE: Rohit Asil works over 12 hours a day, answers mail en route to picking up breakfast and has forgotten the last time he had gone on a holiday — all this while being a student. That’s because the 20-year-old is an entrepreneur. Fracktal Works, which he cofounded within Manipal campus, builds lowcost 3D printers. Asil is just one among a growing number of youth who have realised it is not necessary to complete one’s education before entering the world of entrepreneurship.

Startups set up by these under 22-year-olds (approximately the age at which students graduate from engineering colleges) are working with new-age technology like 3D printing, internet of things and mobile applications. An evolving startup ecosystem, greater awareness about the benefits of starting up and support from parents have made things a tad easier for these student-entrepreneurs.“There is no distinction between weekdays and weekends. It is all the same,” said Asil, whose firm has sold 23 printers till date.

Experts said youngsters are better-positioned to work on newer technologies because they are digital natives.“Youngsters have an advantage because they grew up with social media and understand this,” said Vivek Wadhwa, Indian American technology entrepreneur and an academic. For venture capitalists, the added advantage is that these entrepreneurs come with little or no baggage.

“The obvious advantage of students starting up is that they have the luxury of time. They have better risk appetite, lower sustenance cost, no financial obligations. Those are great luxuries and ideal for bootstrapping at this age,” said Ravi Kiran, cofounder of Venture-Nursery, an angel-backed accelerator for startups, which invested an undisclosed amount in 20-year-old Ritesh Agarwal’s Oravel Stays in 2012.The company is an online marketplace that allows users to book accommodations in budget hotels across the world. Twenty-one-year-old Sidhant Pai, an alumnus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, said he could focus on his startup Protoprint because he had no financial responsibilities.

Pai set up Protoprint, which recycles plastic waste into raw material for 3D printers, during his second year of college. View on entrepreneurship have also changed and parents now back ventures more than ever.“The parents of these student entrepreneurs don’t belong to the 1960s and have much more risk-taking ability,” said Ravi Gururaj, chairman of Nasscom Product Council. Some parents even go as far as to hold the fort when their children-entrepreneurs are away attending classes.


“I feel entrepreneurship should be taught in schools. There is a lot of innovation and creativity that is demanded out of jobs today, and the curriculum should embrace that, at the school level,” said Santhosh Kumar, father of eighth grader Arjun S, who heads Chennaibased Lateralogics, an appmaking company.The 14-yearold, a student of Velammal Vidyashram in Chennai, clinched the first prize in MIT’s App Inventor App Contest for his Android app ‘Ez School Bus Locator’ in January last year. It is now easier for youngsters to monetise their mobile applications, or apps, thanks to app stores such as Google’s Play-Store and iOS’ App Store.

Blackberry said about 20% of its 43,000 app developers in India are below 22.But experts warn that sophisticated technologies demand an understanding of different fields, other than software programming. “Building a business also requires education and ability to manage,” said Wadhwa.