Policy must help a firm start up fast & scale faster: Karl Mehta

Interview with Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur

Hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Startup India Policy would remove the obstacles faced by budding entrepreneurs, Silicon Valley-based serial entrepreneur Karl Mehta has landed in New Delhi to be part of Saturday’s mega event. Mehta, who was also part of US President Barack Obama’s administration and the founder of EdCast, a professional knowledge sharing network, spoke to Karan Choudhury. Edited excerpts:

What are your expectations from the Startup India event on Saturday? What sort of changes are likely in the Indian start-up ecosystem?

We hope to see the government remove a lot of hassles and hurdles, which would motivate Indian start-ups to start businesses in the country and not abroad. The policy should help entrepreneurs start a company fast and scale it even faster. We hope the policy is conducive and supportive so that more people are willing to take risks.

Do you expect any change in the taxation policies?

The first thing we need in taxation is simplification because, as a start-up, one does not have the time or the manpower to deal with complex and complicated tax structures. Also, a small company does not want to be bothered by it. Therefore, it should be simplified in such a way that in the initial years of a start-up, companies are not bothered with taxation norms.

What about the demand of more favourable policies around starting and winding down of business in India?

In the US, almost 90 per cent of the start-up companies fail. The percentage might vary in India, but what venture capitalists and investors want is that when a company does not work, they should be allowed to shut it down and get out of it quickly. Policies around shutting down of company in India are very draconian and discourage foreign investors. We do not want a liability as an investor.

What should the government do in a policy for start-ups?

I do not know what the Prime Minister would be announcing tomorrow (on Saturday). I hope it would be a comprehensive plan and not just a drop-down policy, which would have a bottom-up approach and provide an enabling ecosystem. The government should invest in long-term research and development (R&D), which would facilitate start-ups. More investments should be made in university R&D facilities where technology developed can be commercialised fast. The government can also do a fund of funds, just like the Singapore government, which runs one of the largest venture capital funds.

What would be your contribution to the Startup India initiative?

Personally, I would be bringing entrepreneurship education from the Silicon Valley as part of the initiative, where we will train one million people in entrepreneurship in the next three years. We would be getting into tie-ups with IITs (Institutes of Technology), IIMs (Institutes of Management) as well as other educational institutions in India.

In all, we would be partnering with around 500 educational institutions in India.

Which all sectors would have more start-ups coming up in 2016?

In general, the technology sector would have more start-ups coming up. Also, more manufacturing start-ups would be adopting technology. So, they, in a way, would be part of the tech start-up genre.