“Ours is a very small start-up. This has come as a big confidence booster,” says R. Sushant Singh about the invite he has received for the Startup India event scheduled to be held on January 16 in New Delhi.
The excitement in his voice is quite justified as invite to the day-long programme of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion is something many start-up founders can only aspire. The clamour to be there is also not without reason as people who matter to the eco-system from policy makers, leaders of successful start-ups, venture capitalists, besides industry body heads, are set to address it.
The highlight of the event, however, will be address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and much anticipated unveiling of the policy framework for the start-ups. In itself, the programme is also a pointer to the growing importance attached to start-ups. The list of Union Ministers scheduled to speak at Startup India include Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of Finance Jayant Sinha.
“It is very encouraging… an amazing invitation,” says Mr.Singh, the co-founder of Shopeyard.com, a Hyderabad start-up focussed on sourcing and supply of books for competitive State-level examinations. Speaking to The Hindu , on the way to Delhi, his immediate concern is to impress upon the authorities to permit his friend and business partner Hazari Shravan Kumar to the programme.
Starting from a small portion of Mr.Singh’s house, the start-up has since graduated to the T-Hub technology incubator set by the Telangana government at the IIIT-Hyderabad campus.
Shopeyard.com, he adds, is in talks with some investors and is also being advised by a Mumbai firm to raise its first round of investment. But that’s later. For now he is looking forward to learning from the event.