Twenty two-year old Akshay Gunteti is on a 30-city Indian Startup tour across the country to help emerging firms
Akshay Gunteti, a 22-year-old Khammam-based entrepreneur and curator of the Indian Startup Tour, is all set to cycle his way across 30 cities in the country, from Raheja Mindspace in Hyderabad to Jammu over the next one year.
He’s doing this to document the challenges being faced by Indian startups, to talk to them, make them more aware of the ecosystem they’re surrounded by, taking several parameters into consideration including the region's cost-of-living, the legal framework, and the governmental schemes that can come to their aid.
“This is a country that has policies favouring the MNCs more than the startups. Many entrepreneurs have an interesting idea, make mistakes and give up rather easily. I want them to speak up, so that others can learn from their experience. Most companies don’t know the legalities that exist, the terms they need to maintain with the investors, the documentation aspects with respect to agreements too. I’ll also be conducting workshops in all the places I travel and organise ideation programs,” says the ambitious youngster, full of energy.
“Israel, a country booming with startups, boasts of a greater GDP than ours. We score better in the number of startups, then why are we falling short?” he asks, as if to explain another reason for this tour.
Every place that Akshay travels, he emphasises the need for the communities to get involved rather than depending on government support. On the back-end, he’s also receiving help from his co-curator Nidhiya V Raj, who’ll be providing him crucial connections and readying schedules from time to time. “I’m planning to write blogs and ask people to share the data with those who can help. There’s no political colour to this,” he assures and is thinking of visiting villages that are close to the city too.
The time he plans to stay in each place, depends on the number of startups in the area. He’ll prepare weekly reports and has ideas to start a Youtube channel to record his live experiences. Akshay plans to make this a ready-reckoner guide before entrepreneurs can make their idea a reality.
Akshay is well aware of the challenges ahead. On an average he needs to cycle 100 km a day to stick to his schedule, and intends to spend Rs 150-200 from his pocket, a day.
“I also need to pay my staff who’ll be working through the year. I’m expecting people to join, volunteer and help me through this. I'll rely on them for accommodation. I have received several funding offers but I’m not doing this for commercial interests. I’m living my entrepreneurial dream well but I wanted to do something to better the startup atmosphere ,” he says.
Akshay was shocked to face a lot of detractors, who had suspected his capabilities to take on the initiative. Besides strong support from his parents who were only concerned about his health, one incident provided him the impetus for the tour.
“A physically challenged person mentioned that I was living his dream of travelling across cities and making a difference. Just that his impairment didn’t give him a chance to do so. He wanted me to just go ahead. Out of the thousands I’m about to meet, I hope to motivate at least a few hundreds.”
Source : The Hindu , 25th Feb 2016
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