You need to have a culture of failure when it comes to developing the start-up ecosystem in India, says Jonas Kjellberg, co-founder of Skype. A lecturer, author, and venture investor, Jonas was in Kochi as one of the key speakers at the International Advertising Association World Congress that began on Wednesday. In a chat with The Hindu, he shares his thoughts on a range of topics:
On how to step up the start-up ecosystem in India
It’s not one silver bullet that is going to make the whole change. Ninty eight per cent of the start-ups may fail. You need to have a culture around failure. We need to start a couple of them, you need to fail a couple of times.
That’s more of a cultural perspective of letting the best educated young people not going to large tech corporations and bringing in really good monthly salary, but also leaving it and actually pursuing their dreams. You have entrepreneurship at the heart in India. You can find people fighting to build a great company. But its more about how do you take the best educated people who can start building their own stuff.
Secondly, its about how you provide the ecosystem. If you look at more successful places like London, Stockholm, Berlin, they already have made it, sold their companies, and started investing in smaller companies. It trickles down, one success gives another success. You have to build on that momentum. You have talent. You have such a big domestic market. Whatever you build, you make for India. If you look at China, they made copycat solutions initially for Chinese markets. Today, they make products that address the world from day one. It’s like an evolution.
Trends in Indian market in 2019 and investment options
Healthcare is super interesting, because you see all the technology advancements. There’s a lot of things that you do and you did in the Indian perspective [in healthcare]. I would like to do things that would make healthcare efficient. I am looking at different things around that. I am planning to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and consumer communication.
Growing potential of artificial intelligence
For me it’s more about Maths. I love Maths and Computer Science. And today, we go from simple maths and jump directly to AI.
Data control
I personally don’t like regulations. On the other hand, internet was built by having a very clear set of common rules that everyone can apply. It’s not about regulations, but to having a clear set of rules to build your business around. That’s what every start-up ecosystem needs. If you want to build the best product in the world and compete on a global basis, just trying to protect your own turf and making sub unique products will not work. You have so many examples like the the car industry in the U.S. where you tried to regulate. It will create a market but will live only during a period of time.