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(2) Entrepreneurship in India: Why are there are very few/no Indian startups in the manufacturing/ hardware(not just computers) engineering field? - Qu

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Why are there are very few/no Indian startups in the manufacturing/ hardware(not just computers) engineering field? Edit
India has a increasingly growing rate of eCommerce and service sector startups. However, why is there very little innovation in the manufacturing sector? Eventually, that is what generates money and makes a stronger economy. I mean, not just that, we do have a lot of need there. I have one such startup. I dont have mentors for that. Any particular reason besides the demand-supply gap (which I do not much believe in since there was never a demand for even Quora. It got generated.) Edit
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Nishad Shah, Good at free advices. Votes by Sanchay Saxena, Gaurav Dadhich, and Devanshi Shah. Excellent question. I too was bothered by this some time ago and what I realised was: 1) Capital investments are huge (in general) in manufacturing fields. So people generally dread away from them because even most VCs aren't passionate about improving the Indian manufacturing startups. 2) Highly intensive studies are required. It is a field dreaded for a reason and so people tend to GIVE UP after a while. 3) You cant just work from home. E-commerce startups allow you to be lazy. 4) E-commerce as a whole requires just some coding knowledge (focusing on the technical part and not managerial part) to create a product which is fairly straightforward where as high technical knowledge (unless a shortcut ;) )is most likely required in manufacturing. 5) Startups are most likely thriving on innovation or a change. So overall software or e-commerce industries are more likely to experience changes ( or mammoth changes,) where as manufacturing will not ( 99% ). But people are realising this as a potential startup field and one example is right here: Welcome to Covacsis Comment Share Thank Report 30 Mar Bhavesh Gupta, Founder, CEO at Silicon Art Votes by Siddharth Das, Rohit Shinde, Pratik Puppal, Aditya Kashyap, and 4 more. Yes there are very strong reasons. Stay with me.... Through a first hand experience, I can tell you one thing that it's a long run for an Indian Hardware startup to even break-even let aside make $$$ fast. Apart from and including all the challenges and problems that a pure software startup face and solve, a hardware startup's equation introduces some new set of problems to be solved. The challenges/problems you'd have to solve are: 1. Finding good design engineer/team. (Lack of experienced hardware designers willing to work with you. And you alone can't manage it all.) 2. Setting up a good vendor network - supply chain (Digikey, Mouser, Element14 are not an option for production units because of their high cost). 3. Worry about PCB, enclosure, keypad, spring, nut, bolt, screw, gaskets, etc, etc. And their quality checks at input. 4. Designing for EMI/EMC, Manufacturability, Testability, etc. 5. Certifications like FCC, CE, UL, IPXX, NEMA, etc. 6. Manufacturing, Production testing, Packaging and delivering and related

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10/19/13

(2) Entrepreneurship in India: Why are there are very few/no Indian startups in the manufacturing/ hardware(not just computers) engineering field? - Qu
logistics (Have to find a good EMS). 7. Distribution (this one is the killer). For a web based products, distribution is through a computer with a browser. Here you need a physical distributor, dealer, reseller. Platforms like Kickstarter and e-commerce mediums helps a little but only for consumer electronics products. If you are targeting B2B, you are doomed. 8. Service/Support (this one is killer too). A pure software company only needs to release a patch online to service their product. Whereas, if you notice almost all the electronics product companies would either have a Service Center in all major cities or a person physically running to Install and Service the systems for them. Points 7 & 8 mainly makes it very tough for a hardware company to scale-up fast. Also because of point 8, a company can't release a half-cooked/half tested products. Even beta is tough to manage and support, so they have to be geographically nearer. Unlike software issue solving, hardware issues take a complete new cycle of PCB layout, fabrication, assembly and then testing to see if the issue is now resolved. EDA simulation tools (like SPICE) and breadboards helps to some extent, but is not really enough. Because of all of the above points a hardware startup becomes a capital intensive affair. And as an icing on the already awesome cake, because of slow scaling/growth ability not many investors would be interested in your company, except if you've created something mindbogglingly innovative and useful. And more so because India's real estate and gold investments gives a better and secure returns. All this might be sounding a little discouraging, but that's the hard reality. Things are starting to change a bit, mainly in silicon valley, where they now have Clubs with small membership fees, which gives access to 3D printers, Laser Cutting machines, Open Source Hardware, Mentorship & Guidance. That helps you move a little faster. Though that doesn't solve all the problems. And still that kind of thing would take long time to come to India (Hope I'm wrong here). Having said that, all hope is not lost though, as you could see many traditional Indian companies like Videocon (Consumer Electronics), Sukam (Inverters), TVS Electronics (Printers & Peripherals), IFB (Consumer Electronics), Dynalog (Industrial Automation) have started up as an electronics hardware companies in India and have succeeded. The irony is none of them is perceived as a technology companies as compared to the new age technology startups like Flipkart, Makemytrip or Redbus which in reality are selling stuff online. So the short answer is 'Yes, it is viable..... but you have to be ready for a long battle (alone initially, maybe) and that too without much ammunition ($$$). So lot's of bruises on the way :-). Only, but very important suggestion I'd give is to use whatever is available off-theshelf first, like Open Source Hardware/Software and Evaluation boards from companies to churn prototypes out fast. Because interestingly, though there is less competition in this space, your fight is against time. I could share all this 'coz I run a hardware startup and I'm still alive.. ;-). You can find it here Silicon Art Pvt. Ltd. And I do that for the love of it... trying to create something awesome and of great value. As they say: Falak ne thaani hai jahan bijliyaan girane ki Hume bhi zid hai wahin aashiyan banane ki..

Wishing you all the luck and a very understanding wife and parents.. :-) Comment Share Thank Report 13 Apr Yuvraj Wadhwani 1
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I'm not sure about the exact reasons, but these come to mind. 1. Capital Investments 2. High costs of borrowing 3. Competition from China (especially in electronics) Comment Share Thank Report 30 Mar

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