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Now’s a good time to start-up: Pandiarajan
“A great entrepreneur is a rebel,” entrepreneur and former Minister Ma Foi Pandiarajan said while delivering the keynote address at Jumpstart 2017 startup conclave here, on Saturday. Talking about having fun in entrepreneurship, he pressed for value and a business model that would attract venture capital to jumpstart a business. He said that now is a great phase to be an entrepreneur.
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Coimbatore
Pandiarajan said now one need not be rich to have a business model that can jumpstart. Stating that a springboard funding to jumpstart a business is possible now, he said this was not possible 15 years ago. He said funding became more dominant before 2004, adding that entrepreneurs of these days need not undergo the pain that his generation of entrepreneurs had undergone.
Recalling the hardships he underwent, Pandiarajan said it took him nine years for his company to jumpstart. He said the company started with an initial investment of Rs 60,000 crossed the Rs 1 crore turnover mark in the fourth year and Rs 10 crore mark in the eighth year. “In the ninth year it could jumpstart to Rs 100 crore,” he said.
Learning that almost twothird of the participants were college students, the entrepreneur-turned-politician said youth should venture into entrepreneurship during their days in college. He said in the US five per cent of businesses began in the campuses and added that it need not be a big business.
Addressing reporters later that day he hoped that the Rs 200 crore ‘Amma Venture Capital Fund’ becomes operational soon. The former minister said the Centre has set aside several thousand crore rupees to give a boost for Startup India. It is the duty of the State Government to get its rightful share to benefit entrepreneurs here, he added.
Earlier, ICCIC president Vanitha Mohan said India is a hub for innovation, design and startups. Though the number of startups in India is almost equal to the numbers of startups globally, she felt they are facing constraints in getting funds.
President of TiE Coimbatore, G Karthikeyan, said they are trying to create an entrepreneurial eco-system for Coimbatore.
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