Top 10 Indian Startups That Bootstrapped Their Way to Success

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Correction: Media.net was sold for $900 million, not $9 million.

[@balajiparthasarathy7714]

I think you have consider ,urban clap.

[@shetkariOP]

This is actually well researched content. Great work!

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thank you Omkar! 🙂 We're glad you're finding and enjoying some of our older videos. -Caleb

[@success6244]

I'm watching this video in Jan, 2022. In 2021 Indian startups raised around $45 bn. I'm absolutely thrilled to see this growth in just 2 years.

[@amitmahajan8989]

This is the channel I wanted....Listening to stories of millions...This really gives hope to creating something on your own and earn from it...Really appreciate the content...Great job...Please keep it up...It is creating value for youngsters like me

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Amit, big thanks for the feedback and support! Even though times are difficult right now, with enough hard work and a bit of luck everyone can start up. And even if you fail, you will learn from that failure so that you can do better next time. -Caleb

[@Sammy58328]

Another day, another great video. Good job Team BwM. Keep growing!

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thank you Black King! 😁 We _will_ keep growing, and we're thankful to you for being a part of that journey. -Caleb

[@abhishekdev258]

This video is like a wake up call for so many of Indians who hesitate before venturing out into something new.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Yes, and also for those who think that raising funds (from local or foreign investors) is necessary! The stories of those who start in their teenage years are especially inspiring to me, because it shows that as long as you have the passion and desire to succeed, you can, even without funds or a degree. -Caleb

[@abhishekdev258]

@@backstagewithmillionaires and...if you are in the world of bits and bytes it should be much easier than those who are in the world of atoms

[@shashankkothari8066]

@@abhishekdev258 We'll be in the world of qubits in the future.

[@touhidvhi3683]

This is one of the awesome channels!! How hard and demanding it would be, if I checked the definitions when I was watching series at the same time!!! Thank you for helping us a lot!!!

[@payasgokhale3464]

Loved the Chicken and Egg analogy. I think it's because 90% startups fail, investors are reluctant to invest in them and not the other way round. Because success of startup largely depends on the innovation and management skills of the founders rather than funding. "Bada business paiso se nahi, ek bade idea se bada hota hai"😄

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Payas, thanks! 🐔🥚 I am leaning towards your point of view. There are many entrepreneurs, but very few skilled entrepreneurs, and even fewer lucky entrepreneurs. My guess is that even if the amount of money that VCs were investing doubled or tripled overnight, the number of failing startups would stay at 90% because like you said, the success of a startup depends far more on the competency and skill of the person at its helm, and I would add also on quite a bit of luck, than on how much money the startup has at its disposal. ₹10,000 and ₹1 lakh are worth the same in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they are doing and doesn't have luck on their side. -Caleb

[@payasgokhale3464]

@@backstagewithmillionaires Well said.

[@rishib3097]

Still People think Money is needed for business, what do you think bro

[@shreyanshsingh999]

Thanks for bringing this out. Your content has motivated me to keep working on what I like to do !! Thanks

[@prateek4279]

I am Indian and unfortunately I did not know about a single one of these.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hey Prateek, the whole purpose of these videos is to make the youngsters aware of India's startup ecosystem and we are so glad that you found it useful. :) -Varun

[@ankur4140]

Same, but I knew about, Quick heal, Zerodha, Directi and Zoho

[@owen_nx]

This makes me want to call my brother and ask him if he wants to start a business with me

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Wow, that is awesome Owen. Do let us know, if it materializes into something. Or better yet, you can join our Discord community and engage with other BwM members to figure out your startup plan. Here is the link to our community: discord.gg/XySGGhXKep -Varun

[@sai-codes]

All the best brother

[@Rex-zm7xb]

Even though india is 3rd in unicorn start up, the number difference between us and india is quite stark to say the least.

[@harshjain3122]

They both are giants. However, china is an inspiration story

[@azeemshah7991]

Great video. Recently started following this channel. Love it's content.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Azeem, we're happy to have you here, and are thrilled to know that you're enjoying our content 😃. -Caleb

[@naman2481]

For a startup, all you need is a BROTHER😂😂

[@Anubhav_Dey_]

Underrated guy really. Keep working bro

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hey Anubhav, Hopefully we won't be underrated for too long 🤞 And you can expect a lot more awesome content from us on the coming weeks. -Varun

[@stoppingtobaccousinghabits2751]

Well presented by the host...lots of takeaways...quite inspiring!

[@sung4ji3]

(Appreciate the stories.) Non-indian person here, being interested in startups, but haven't gotten up my arse right now. I'm learning Mandarin right now for potential business with Singapore, HK, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, etc. But, I might be interested in India, as it seems less dubious than China, for obvious reasons. Since bootstrapping is probably the last option for me, I'll see how I can make international relationships in Asia.

[@siddhjain3107]

What exactly is your startup?

[@a2g108]

There's a lot of people who speak English in India, so I guess communication won't be a problem if you hit the bigger cities. Best place to promote startups atm in India is Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and to some extent Maharashtra and Delhi.

[@sonaljaiswal6592]

What's your startup plan? I'm Indian. 😇

[@rahulyadav-yn6qs]

Catch me up on my instagram, I'm from the financial sector, we can work together.

[@musicforsoul9922]

So This Is What Real Sucess Looks Like...

[@touhidvhi3683]

This was the best I've seen so far. You took your time and explained it step by step, not super fast as if we all know what you're talking about and its very helpful =. Thank you

[@gsujithkumar1417]

One of the best researched video ever watched...thanks man for the valuable information...

[@maninageswarvakapalli6279]

I think this is the best channel I have ever subscribed to on KZbin and I am looking forward for new vedious

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Wow, that's high praise Maninageswar, thank you so much! Looking forward to making more videos for you and the rest of our audience 🙂. -Caleb

[@the_curious_philosopher]

Great content Man, Keep That Going You are Doing Great........

[@shriyamjha7556]

I totally love u bro.... Grt content😌

[@parantappunia2126]

All the videos on Channel are great

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Parantap, thank you for saying that! 🙂

[@leonardoronaldo2386]

Its a very good vedio.. Many things to learn.

[@touhidvhi3683]

'Im a beginner and this was very informative ,Beautifully explained and you've managed to keep it simple! Thank you so much!

[@marufmondal5047]

This is actually well researched content video

[@chandranshpandey1929]

Now the number is double. the pace at which indian unicorns are growing is incredible

[@zoldyck_uwu]

Hey Caleb, Thanks for all the quality information about the Indian startup ecosystem. Love your channel. Not a lot of youTube channels cover such a quality content, especially not in English. Your channel is a god-sent for a non-hindi speakers like me. A couple of my like-minded friends are already your subscribers just for this particular reason :) I have a constructive feedback though - A lot of your contents lately are mostly on weekly news & Top 10 lists, I would love to see more specific content though - something like your older videos on Flipkart, Oyo. I understand it might involve a lot of time for such high quality videos but may be making a specific, in-depth explainer video ( maybe on one of other India's unicorns, to begin with ) without any infographic could be a lot easier to make and more enjoyable for the viewers at the same time.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Anand, I'm so happy to hear that you and your friends are enjoying these videos! Thank you for being subscribed for the last two months, and for your valuable feedback. The OYO video did extremely well and the Flipkart video was no slouch either; we were very happy with how it performed. But you hit the nail on the head with your guess: the amount of time required for those scripts and for the visuals is significantly longer. That being said, we do plan on releasing more videos in this style in the future, they're just taking us a bit longer to get to, so stay tuned and again, thank you for supporting our channel with your views, likes, and comments 😄 it's great to have you here. -Caleb

[@RS-di1wf]

Hi😀. Your videos are really nice👍.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thank you R S! 🙂 -Caleb

[@maali-media]

Startup always struggle in the early stage but with a great strategies and dedication they make it in the final as we have learnt from many startups here in Canada

[@arponperfectmoney5468]

Great work!

[@anuruddhalogin]

Educative !

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Big thanks Anuruddha 😁 this was a fun video to make, so I'm glad that you enjoyed it. -Caleb

[@sleepyeinstein]

Awesome content.. learnt a lot

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

So glad to hear that sleepy einstein, thank you! -Caleb

[@elmakabir606]

Informative video

[@mrvk699]

Well researched

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thank you Vishal 🙂. -Caleb

[@healthguru2179]

Its really awesome

[@healthguru2179]

wow its really amazing

[@shobhaahirrao1866]

Very imformative🙏👍

[@mdasifkhan1410]

Great video

[@totalconceptclear9762]

Very informative

[@prithviraj6529]

Appriciate the findings.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thank you so much Prithvi! -Varun

[@prithviraj6529]

@@backstagewithmillionaires how much do u guys pay the narrator? Just curious. And what's the total cost of running the channel per week? Thanks. Good job. Do more interviews.

[@shahriarislam4768]

Awesome 👍 video

[@MBWealth]

nice video bro thanks for it

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi MB Wealth, thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. -Caleb

[@DebabrataDB]

Super info

[@Mbbsdoctorjobs]

Nice video thanks caleb

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

My pleasure Anshuman! 🙂 -Caleb

[@AmitKumarAlphaX]

Great video 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Amit, thank you so much! 😁 -Caleb

[@harishdeivanayagam]

Great video :)

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thanks Harish! 🙂 -Caleb

[@harishdeivanayagam]

Backstage With Millionaires Zoho always remains as a big motivation for me. Especially my friend who works at zoho used to tell me how Zoho has transformed India’s IT work environment from mundane to cool, like how google and fb did in the U.S

[@mdmamunali2892]

Very helpful

[@md.razaul276]

Nice video 👍

[@indianbdbacarhackar7594]

balance BD has good job Sapna bhai

[@leonardoronaldo2386]

Nice positive video...

[@divijsharma2094]

Love from India 🇮🇳

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thank you Divij! -Caleb

[@raselhossan438]

Great content

[@productgreeks3307]

In case of Direct I founded by divyanks, Is it correct timing that contributes More to thier sucess.

[@debasishraychawdhuri]

I work for a company that was bootstrapped 15 years ago. It's a nice company to work for.

[@dipeshnarkar6887]

And what is the name of that company Zerodha ??

[@rushijoshi1848]

Awesome.

[@rajk.9098]

Can you explain what is SAAS?

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Raj, Caleb here. Of course, happy to explain! SaaS is an acronym for software as a service. In the past, software was sold as a standalone product, initially on floppy disks but then later on CD-ROMs and then online. As an example, a new version of Photoshop used to be sold by Adobe every couple of years: you had Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2, CS3, all the way until CS6. If you owned CS2 and you wanted to upgrade to CS3, you would need to pay in full for CS3. Adobe didn't care that you already payed for CS2, just like Apple doesn't care if you already own an iPhone 10 and you want to upgrade to an iPhone 11. You must pay fully for the iPhone 11 because both the iPhone 10 and iPhone 11 are standalone products. Then, in 2013, Adobe switched over to a SaaS model, where you pay a monthly subscription fee in exchange for access to their software. If you stop paying, you lose access to the software. As a result, Adobe's software went from being a very expensive product which you had to pay for each new version of, to being a service which you only needed to pay a small subscription fee to access! I hope that that made sense and was helpful. If you want to watch our video on the Top 10 SaaS Startups in India, you can go check it out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXOpYpZnrr5nfbs

[@monishkumar8788]

Good vedio.

[@varuns00]

I love it that you can now legally include a "CNBC Awaaz" clip in a youtube video nowadays. The startup and tech shows at Awaaz, CNN and CNBC were pushed along by me and Abhimanyu Radhakrishan at Network 18. And almost zero evidence of that survives today on youtube.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Varun, this actually isn't a decision we would make today - CNBC Awaaz, if they cared, could probably copyright claim this video and get it taken down. So I wouldn't describe our usage of the clip as 100% lawful. We were taking more risks back when we uploaded this video (we were also earning significantly less per video than we are now, so there was less at stake, financially), but after actually getting a copyright strike once from someone who wasn't happy that we had used their video, we decided to avoid using copyrighted videos unless absolutely necessary, and also with proper on-screen sourcing. -Caleb

[@ANKURAGENGG]

Hey Caleb, Thank you for creating awesome content week on week. I look forward to your videos every week. Because of Covid Healthcare & Health Tech sectors have also become important just like EduTech. Please see if you could create some content around. Cheers!!

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Ankur, thank you so much for this comment. When I'm alone in front of the camera filming, I sometimes wonder why I'm doing all of this. But it's comments like yours that remind me that our videos are being watched and enjoyed by people like yourself, and that realization makes it worthwhile for me. I will definitely add healthtech to our list of potential future videos because you're right, it's a very relevant space at the moment! Thank you for the suggestion. -Caleb

[@bkmarksuser]

This was an excellent episode 👍 Please can you guys do the backstage interviews with the founders? Particularly fusion charts and actually most of the lot!

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thank you bkmarksuser! We've actually interview the founder of FusionCharts! Do check it out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5jVqaycoK2Bqdk The rest will be interviewed with time, as our channel grows and we establish ourselves more firmly in the ecosystem 🙂 -Caleb

[@bkmarksuser]

Thanks for the link Caleb. That was a great interview as well. You guys are awesome and the interviews are interesting till the last minute. Keep it going 👍

[@abhinav0]

Great video 👍👍

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Thanks Abhinav. Hope you like our other videos as well. - Vansh, video editor at BWM.

[@biplopreza4611]

Best video

[@subijoyacharya3189]

Please make a second part of 10 bootstrapped companies

[@sobujblancebd9379]

very good

[@aadarsh8306]

Very good channel

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Tuanis Aadarsh! -Caleb

[@biplopreza4611]

Nice video

[@rayhanislam8882]

Nice..

[@sachchoislam5921]

Thank you

[@md.alaminhossain4274]

inspire video

[@koushikvarma]

hey caleb, I am currently writing my thesis on comparision of startup ecosystems of india, usa, and germany to find success factors. I would be really happy if you can help me in any way possible. please let me know your thoughts. And finally your content is always good. i appreciate your team very much. thank you.

[@lingkonhasan9567]

nice video

[@ProgressiveLeader]

it’s a good video.

[@kwatz9]

Easemytrip also deserves to be in this list.

[@TrendTek_Products]

I know only Zerodha, because I'm a trader and I'm using Zerodha

[@PragyaTGupta]

So glad to see such well researched with sources of data. Feel so inspired. But no women. Pls make video on women entrepreneurs in recent times especially in last ten years.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Hi Pragya, we actually made a video on India's Top 10 Women Startup Entrepreneurs 🙂 please do check it out, it for very less views: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5zbnKeEbd5rfJI -Caleb

[@PragyaTGupta]

@@backstagewithmillionaires thanks so much ..wonderful insights and I wish to utilise the video for academic purpose.Will you object ?

[@ProgressiveLeader]

it’s a good video

[@biplopreza4611]

Wow video

[@ahamedlalen8546]

Nice

[@soudipsanyal]

Service based start up companies can do bootstraping, and most of the time they have to. India's most of the start ups are service based where someone who is experienced in the market with good network starts his/her own company and delivers the same service at a cheaper cost than an MNC. Now these start ups as they are B2B and developing no product, it's very difficult to find heavy investment immediately and profit generated from the clients does propel the company forward.

[@mdsobuzahmed3677]

India is good country do the business nice position

[@tanmayagrawal7256]

Best startup in 2023 us bult on the business

[@chaitanyasawai2382]

Thanks

[@mirishtiaque9110]

Bangladesh e Hotel(Accommodation) er Market Size koto?

[@rubelnasir2438]

will try

[@pranavgupta3791]

I watch these videos and think, " Saare jahaan se aachaa hindustaan humara"

[@belalhossen6313]

nice

[@chandranshpandey1929]

directi is a world class company attracting best talent in india

[@MuthuKumar-ej3fz]

Watching this video today and today Zoho founder Sridhar has been awarded Padma Shri by Indian Govt.

[@lingkonhasan9567]

Best sit

[@abhishekdev258]

Who knows someday..BwM can also feature in this very list. 😊

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Fingers crossed! 😁

[@rishib3097]

Really luck matters, and if yes then how can anyone analyse there lucky side. Please team, I want your reply

[@saiprasadc3111]

Will brother from another mother work?😂😂 Cause i have a sister!

[@Sammy58328]

Top 10 Drone Making startups in India.

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Great suggestion Black King, I think that that's a great video idea. We've actually had it on our list of future videos for some time now, but haven't gotten around to writing the script yet. But we will someday! 🙂 -Caleb

[@aadarsh8306]

Bro can u also make case studies

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Yes, we've been meaning to make a case study for a long time now Aadarsh! -Caleb

[@frozenfire72]

You can add BrowserStack to this list. Bootstrapped to 50 million ARR.

[@jayaadithyahsenthilkumar162]

Hacker earth is also an example.

[@DevKulkarni]

I think Zerodha is the biggest startup that is entirely bootstrapped. Funnily enough now they raise funds for others through rainmatter.

[@abhishekdev258]

With states rushing to give 75% reservations to the local population in private sector jobs I wonder what effect will it have??

[@backstagewithmillionaires]

Yes, I guess it will depend on how this law impacts locals, companies, and outsiders. If there is a substantial negative effect on any one of these three groups, I'm sure there will be an outcry. As someone who has never been overly loyal to any one country, state, or city in my life, I see such a law as a blow to diversity. But then again, diversity seems to be the cause of a lot of friction in India lately. -Caleb

[@abhishekdev258]

@@backstagewithmillionaires I think it will simply increase the barriers of entry. The established business can have a sigh of relief....for now. Andhra Pradesh has already passed this law. There was a small bit of outcry but things normalised. 😔 That is why Haryana and Karnataka are all hellbent on passing this law. Sad

[@abhishekdev258]

@Haters toh jalte rahege local businesses..? Small business can only grow if they are competitive. They are competitive if they get a choice in hiring labour.

[@abhishekdev258]

@Haters toh jalte rahege If your business needs state support to begin with then you have a crappy business model to begin with. It won't survive in a free market. It is you who needs to learn China Model. DIDI works because China Bullied Uber out. Baidu works because China bullied Google out and so on. India MUST NOT follow China model. We are not an autocratic state we want to be a part of global economy.