From stigma to springboard: Why failure is no longer a taboo word in the Indian startup ecosystem | Today’s News

In 2005, 24-year-old Ashish Kumar made a choice that seemed almost irrational at the time. he quit his job at He joined Microsoft in the US and returned to India to start his own venture. At the time, entrepreneurship was neither celebrated nor widely respected. To many around him, it seemed like he was giving up everything he had worked for: an IIT degree, a coveted global job, and a stable career trajectory.

About 15 years later, that perception began to change.

In 2019, 25-year-old Abhinav Singh experienced a quiet failure. His startup, Colorpur, a platform that allowed graphic designers to upload designs for manufacturing, was shut down. It wasn’t a dramatic collapse. It just couldn’t scale. But as Shin was packing up his office, he felt something unexpected. It’s optimism.

“It’s a lot cooler to be a founder now,” he told Livemint. “Being a startup founder used to be seen as a red flag when it came to getting married. But the key change is that failure no longer defines you.”

Singh’s experience reflects a broader cultural shift in India’s startup ecosystem. For years, failure has carried a huge stigma. Parents, peers, and society at large often saw it as a sign of poor judgment. Today, it is increasingly accepted as part of the journey.

One clear sign of this change is the increased openness of ventures to closure. Today, founders often publicly admit when their ideas don’t work, return capital to investors, and explain what went wrong. This level of transparency would have been rare in the past. More importantly, many people view failure as a learning curve rather than an end point and are motivated to try again.

High-profile examples have helped reshape this narrative. Naveen Tiwari Founder InMobi has seen four ventures fail before growing its fifth to become India’s first unicorn. Stories like his have helped normalize the idea that success often comes with several setbacks.

Almost 49% of India’s unicorn founders are repeat entrepreneurs. More people are re-entering the ecosystem, willing to risk both capital and trust for new ideas.

Some of these two innings are notable. Kunal Shah, who sold FreeCharge for $400 million in 2015, is back with CRED. Similarly, Sachin Bansal started financial services company Navi after exiting Flipkart following its sale to Walmart.

“We have seen over 40 previously successful founders launch new businesses and become successful again,” 247VC’s Yagnesh Sangrajka told Livemint.

Cultural change has been supported by structural change. Improved access to capital and deeper penetration of the internet have made entrepreneurship more viable than ever before. There are currently more than 500,000 startups in India, a sharp increase from about 500 in 2016. According to Tracxn, annual funding has increased from $5.2 billion in 2016 to $12.7 billion in 2025.

The scale of this expansion reflects not only increased capital, but also a maturing ecosystem where ideas are tested more frequently and failures are absorbed as part of the process.

The evolution of capital is not limited to private markets. Public markets have also adapted. For many years, profitability has been considered the ultimate benchmark. Securities and Exchange Board of India (S)ebi) Banned listing of loss-making companies, reflecting a market that prioritizes dividends over growth.

That changed in 2021. Sebi has allowed new-age technology companies, often unprofitable but backed by powerful investors, to go public. The listing of Zomato was a turning point. It drew millions of first-time investors into the startup ecosystem and signaled a shift toward a focus on scale, data, and long-term potential.

Since then, more than a dozen such companies have gone public, reflecting how both regulators and investors are adapting.

Wealth creation within startups has also become more visible. According to TheKredible, over 100 startups have adopted it. The ESOP’s share buyback and liquidity program is worth approximately $1.7 billion from 2020 to 2025.

Employee stock ownership plays an important role in changing perceptions. By giving employees stock in the company, startups have made risk-taking more attractive. Stories of employees who became millionaires after going public or buying back their own stock are helping to change attitudes.

“When companies scaled up or went public, people started hearing stories of employees who became millionaires overnight because of ESOPs. Suddenly, working at a startup didn’t seem risky,” startup industry expert Arun Nehru told Livemint.

Going mainstream

As funding increased and success stories multiplied, entrepreneurship became mainstream in culture.

Television, books and popular media play an important role. shows like Shark Tank India has brought entrepreneurship closer to home, bringing the journeys of founders to every corner of the country.

“When you see a 12-year-old pitching a bicycle idea or a 65-year-old woman selling organic products, you see why business success in India can no longer be defined by age, city or degree,” Kashish Mittal, co-founder of Disha AI, told Livemint.

Entrepreneurs are also becoming part of the entertainment mainstream. Comedians like Kapil Sharma feature founders on their shows, while business leaders like NR Narayana Murthy and Vijay Shekhar Sharma are becoming increasingly visible in public life.

Publishing followed suit. books such as big billion startup and Dogura bread Startup stories often outperform typical non-fiction titles and are in strong demand.

“The moment Flipkart’s book hit the market, the demand was immediate and there was no need for a push,” Anish Chandy of Labyrinth Literary Agency told Livemint. “We pitched it as an Indian version of ‘The Social Network,’ and the screening rights were sold even before it was released.”

This visibility has normalized not only the startup, but also the work we do with it. As a result, mid-level employees are increasingly changing jobs.

Sameer Danrajani, CEO of AIQRATE and 3AI, pointed out the contrast. He says corporate life offers titles, pay and comfort, but startups require you to do it all. The internal push was simple, he added. If he doesn’t try, he may never try.

Another indicator of maturity is the rise of founder networks, or “mafia” groups of former employees who found companies. This concept originated from the US PayPal mafia. India now has its own versions such as ‘Flipkart Mafia’, ‘Zoho Mafia’ and ‘Zomato Mafia’.

population bonus

This change is perhaps most pronounced among young Indians.

For 16-year-old Adithyan T, a Grade 11 student in Bangalore, exams are no longer the only measure of success. His phone has a prototype for an app, a peer-to-peer platform for students to exchange textbooks. Speaks fluently about “user acquisition” and “early traction,” concepts derived from viewers. shark tank india.

“I watched it with my parents and wondered why I didn’t watch it,” he says. “Getting into an IIT is proving yourself in an exam. Starting a business is proving yourself to the world.”

Younger founders are also emerging. Thirteen-year-old Rishaan Sindhwani has already launched his website creation venture, Optimize Site.