Start ups are the heart beat of a thriving economy. Starts ups are normally started by youth in their 20s and early 30s who have great dreams in their eyes. San Francisco became the beating heart of United States economy and earned the moniker , ” Silicon Valley” only because the success rate of start ups ws quite high.
Start ups start with some basic capital till an angel investor investor takes the plunge of faith after being impressed by the zeal and methodology of the group and invests a moderate amount in the start up. The trick of the trade is that an angel investor invests a moderate amount in about 30 to 40 start ups with the hope that at least three to four start ups will succeed like success. Even at ten percent success rate of the start ups the angel investor is sure to earn thousand times the invested money within no time.
In Kashmir we had a few dedicated agencies who provided the basic funding to a group of educated youth. There was a substantial chunk dedicated to the subsidy part which was never to be returned back if the start up owners fulfilled a certain set of metrics. This entrepreneurial funding in the early stages of an entrepreneur was meant to provide employment to the valley of Kashmir riddled with massive unemployment. But the very fact that unemployment still exists dumps the theory that this funding met with 60 to 70 percent success rate. A sixty percent success rate of start ups means not only lakhs of unemployed youth from the union territory would get jobs but also that lakhs of unemployed youth from other states would be milling in and out of state with hopes of jobs in our union territory.
Since unemployment is still there, quite visible, and absolutely in open it is a great indicator that this funding scheme did not meet the desired results. The current establishment needs to think about it on a serious note and come up with a policy of funding promising start up ideas. There are thousands of youth with some of the most brilliant ideas. Youth who can get projects from some of the bigshot IT companies. These youth need encouragement and most importantly they need funding.
