AAP, the latest start-up in news

There are striking similarities between a hotshot startup and the new political party

This article has been modified. Please read the clarification at the end

We may have only looked at Flipkart, Snapdeal, Zomato, Paytm and the like as the ideal model for startups so far, but perhaps there’s more. While pundits are still wondering how Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got the number of seats that it did in Delhi Assembly polls, let’s count the striking similarities between a hotshot startup and AAP. There are many.

Kejriwal, 46, is from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the most important ingredient in most cases to bring out the best entrepreneur in a person. So, while Kejriwal can be equated with any founder and chief executive of a startup, he has a co-founder along with him—Manish Sisodia—who stuck by him through the many years of activism and then when he plunged into active politics. The only difference is that Sisodia, tipped to become the deputy chief minister of Delhi, is not from IIT, while most startup co-founders are IITians too .  

The party was launched in November 2012, just 26 months ago. No Indian startup has made a success story of itself so quick as this one. Flipkart has been around more than seven years, Snapdeal five years, for instance. AAP, like many other startup company, happened after many experiments—in this case Kejriwal started at Tata Steel as an engineer, then went into Indian Revenue Services, followed by many pro-people/  anti-industry projects and street agitations.  

Kejriwal, known for his trademark muffler, is similar to any other founder CEO of a startup in terms of informal dressing—whether its Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal in a pullover or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in a hoodie.  

A startup’s revenue potential is often expressed in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV) of products sold. Since AAP cannot have a GMV, it’s showcasing its 49 days of governance in the last stint as a benchmark on which it is to be valued. Just like the real revenue is just a small fraction of a company’s GMV, 49-day rule cannot be the true potential of AAP. Valuation, as we know, is the key to any startup’s growth and prominence. And, we can safely say, for now, AAP has been valued at 67 seats out of 70. The party’s funding, a lot of it from foreign sources, is quite like the startups making headlines. 

If many of the startups have been under the scrutiny of the tax department, AAP too has got a notice of Rs 2 crore over the source of funding.                

Like the typical DNA of an entrepreneur, AAP has been often described as a disruptive force in Indian politics. From his campaigning style to the demands he makes. One can’t be sure if the party has an exit plan too, like in the case of an ambitious startup. Last time, it did make an exit after 49 days, and it has returned with huge profit.

Another point of similarity with some of the successful startups of India is perhaps the surname—Kejriwal, closely identified with the Agarwals and the Bansals, who rule the entrepreneur and e-commerce world in the country.      

Clarification

An earlier version of this article had incorrectly stated that AAP got a notice of Rs 200 crore over source of funding. The correct figure, which has now been inserted, is Rs 2 crore. The error is regretted