ET Startup Awards 2017: Winning attributes like job creation, perseverance were top of mind for the jury

Ability to create a lasting impact and grit were some of the defining qualities that the jury was looking for in the winners of The Economic Times Startup Awards 2017. No surprise therefore that winners in four of the eight categories had also been nominated in the previous edition, a testament to their perseverance.

The meeting began with the ten member jury unanimously electing Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the chairperson of Biocon, to lead the proceedings. They also agreed that those amongst them with an interest in any of the shortlisted candidates would recuse themselves from voting. The shortlist of five candidates in each category was trimmed to two after initial discussions, after which detailed deliberations ensued.

Jury members were well prepared for the deliberations having perused the blackbook with detailed profiles of contenders shared by ET, a week ahead of the meeting. “The document which we got, outlined what the companies had done, their background, the kind of revenues and their business model. We were very well informed before we came to the jury,” said Rishikesha T Krishnan, director, IIM, Indore.

To begin with, there was a discussion of the criteria that would be used to determine winners, with qualities such as the ability to create jobs, persevere and build scale regarded as must-have attributes. While decisions in a few categories like Best on Campus and Bootstrap Champ were quick and unanimous, all other categories saw intense discussions.



In pic (From Left) Rajan Anandan, Bhavish Aggarwal, Aruna Sundararajan, Avnish Bajaj, Binny Bansal

The debate was most spirited and keenly contested in the top award for Startup of the Year, with discussions lasting an hour. It took three rounds of voting before food-delivery app Swiggy came through as the winner on a narrow margin. Besides financial and usage metrics, key elements which turned the decision in favour of the Bengaluru-based company was the ability to create jobs and the speed at which it had scaled the business since inception in 2014.






“The Startup of the Year was, as usual, the most contentious award. It was very interesting to see the candidates, it doesn’t matter who won,” said Amit Agarwal, senior vice-president at Amazon. The other highly debated category was Top Innovator, where after multiple rounds of discussions the jury decided to hand out the award to two companies. “Both the winners were really good. One is looking at a very urgent global need — next gen anti-microbial for superbugs, (the other) is looking at 3D printing,” said Mazumdar-Shaw.





“Most categories had seven votes out of eight in favour of the winner. Almost every jury member had a point to make and we gave time and consideration to everyone,” said Rajan Anandan, vice-president, India and Southeast Asia at Google.