 "Image via Tech in Asia")
A year ago we had a long thin space in South Delhi, a network of mentors and a clutch of willing start-ups. Today we have a budding incubator and four successful start-ups who’ve gone on to seed-round funding.
Most start-ups fail
Between December 2014 and February 2015 we interviewed 220 start-ups, and made 14 offers of incubation. Twelve start-ups accepted and began working with us. In April 2015, we graduated just five. Four of those are now closing term sheets at valuations between $6 million and $25 million.
What of the rest? I’ve seen teams working together for nine months just up and give in.
What’s in the pitch has to be in the product
Pitch and product have to hang together, else the start-up will sputter and fail. That translation will only really happen if the founders have great clarity around their product vision as well as the ability to actually execute. Unfortunately, there is often no way to know if that conversion will actually happen until it happens, and that’s why an incubator is always a live experiment.
There are just too many teams trying to take over smaller pieces of the on-demand economy and a big rush to get in and try and command that small market.
After you’ve seen party apps, event discovery apps, and dating apps fill up your pitch slate, you really want to bite your teeth into something meaningful. You want to see start-up pitches that will really change things for people, even if they’re hard to achieve.
