Degree has a value but not always. There are many highly successful start-ups with no IIT or IIM founders in the panel and are doing far better than the ones which are founded by IITians or IIMians.
Let us try to understand a situation with the help of an example, a scenario which we find ourselves into quite often!
“Arjun it really doesn’t make sense; Why all of a sudden, just why?”
“Because I want to and that should be enough. You never stopped Manish then why are you stopping me?”
“You don’t compare yourself with Manish, he went to IIT.”
“So?”
The answer to this ‘So’ is usually silence that means to express the fictitious notion that only start-ups with IIT and IIM founders can be successful.
Arjun is a man with dreams and aspirations. Like his cousin Manish who is an IIT graduate he too wants to build his own start-up but is met with doubts and uncertainties of his sister Mona. Mona personifies the obstacles that probably every non-IIT entrepreneur had and still has to face. It is a general perception that IIT/IIM graduates are always successful as entrepreneurs and research shows that such entrepreneurs get funds much more easily that a non-IIT/IIM. But figures suggest that only 60% of them are successful. Not a huge blow to the general perception but still something.
We have complied a list of top ten highly successful start-ups with no IIT or IIM founders:
1. BookMyShow
The most common name that comes to mind when movie plans are made. BookMyShow is a customer obsessed venture founded by Ashish HemRajani in the year 2007. BookMyShow gets approximately 500 million page views per month.in addition to that in the year 2014, BookMyShow entered the 1000 Cr valuation club. Needless to say, BMS made its mark with no IIT or IIM founder.
2. CarTrade
CarTrade.com is an online auto classifieds platform serving as a marketplace for users interested in buying and selling new and used vehicles. Founded by Vinay Sanghi in the year 2009, this website connects customers and dealers where both the categories cherish win-win situations. CarTrade has 250+ employees. So definitely a win-win situation for cartrade as well. With over 4 million monthly visitors, CarTrade seems to flash and flash hard.
3. Directi
Yes, it was a start-up. People, especially students know Directi because of Codechef- a common name in the world of competitive programming. Directi is a global web products enterprise with over a thousand employees working. Bhavin Turakhia, the founder and CEO of Directi has done a commendable job making a company whose value stands is estimated to be over $300 million. With over 50,000 channel partners and 1,000,000 customers, Directi is all set to a phenomenal global journey. A start-up that any IITian or IIMian would covet.
Also Read: Top 10 Harvard Dropouts who made it big
4. Pinstorm
With headquarters in Mumbai, Pinstorm is a digital advertising firm founded by Mahesh Murthy with several regional offices in Indian cities of New Delhi and Bangalore. It all started in 2004and now Pinstorm leads the list of leading digital advertising firms in the world. Indeed a highly successful start-up.
5. Twist Mobile
Something the gamers were wishing happens and ta-da there is Virat Khutal who is neither an IITian nor IIMian. Twist Mobile is an Indore based startup founded in 2009 by him. Twist Mobile is a mobile gaming company with ‘Mass offline mobile gaming’ as its USP. Users can compete with one another at a common venue and enjoy the gaming experiences. The best part for gamers? He is planning to expand! Yipee ?
When the success of a start-up gives you happiness, nothing can measure the success of the start-up.
6. Freecharge
Founded in 2010, FreeCharge is a leading Digital Payments platform in India. Founder Kunal Shah says persistence may help you but entrepreneurs need more than persistence. As by news reports, he sold it Snapdeal for a whopping $400 million, the largest deal to date in India’s consumer internet space. Enough said.
7. PayTm
With absolutely no connection with the IITs or IIMs, founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma made his way to the top with PayTm reaching everyone in the digital world. The journey from one97 to PayTm whose current value is a little over $3 billion in the market in 2016. Vijay redefined success with a dream, a dream to be the top, to be everywhere. You can make an estimate of how successful PayTm is from this picture. Even Panwaalas have the label-“PayTm Accepted Here”.
8. Oyo
Oyo has a dream success story with the passionate and ambitious founder Ritesh Agarwal. They are making profit on every room sold. Currently, the average booking rates of the rooms range from Rs 1,400 to 1,800. Ritesh Agarwal says that their team has delivered a 15x YoY growth with 2.3 million booked room-night transactions in the first quarter of 2016. Way to go! Read the full story of how Ritesh Agarwal made Oyo from scratch to the zenith here.
9. Freshdesk
“When I started the company I told my wife that I am not starting a company for me to buy a BMW, I am starting a company so that all my employees can buy BMWs.” – Girish Mathrubootham, Freshdesk. That is what the founder has to say. Freshdesk is now in the unicorn club of startups with a billion-dollar valuation
10. Games2win
An online gaming company based out of Mumbai, Games2win is one of the top 20 online gaming businesses in the world according to ComScore. Games2win has had three successful financing round in addition to a secondary sale of its shares to new investors last year. This is what making a start-up and building it means. Despite no IIT or IIM tag, it is indeed get funds, that too huge ones.
So all the Arjuns out there, instead of letting any Mona or Manish demoralize you get inspired from these top stories of startups which had no IIT or IIM founders to boast about. They just had a dream and passion to make it big anyhow. If your idea is good, if you are passionate enough, nobody in the world can stop you.
Keep dreaming, they do come true.
