Start Cognizance...

1. STARTUP
COGNIZANCE
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3. In recent years, the Indian startup ecosystem has really taken off and
come into its own—driven by factors such as massive funding,
consolidation activities, evolving technology and an burgeoning
domestic market.
The numbers are telling—from 3,100 startups in 2014 to a projection of
more than 11,500 by 2020, this is certainly not a passing trend. It’s a
revolution. And it’s going to change the way the markets are working
today in India.
There are various Central & State government sponsored schemes to
help the entrepreneurs across the sectors. Be it subsidies on loans or
business policies, everything is streamlined and bottlenecks are
removed.

4. NASSCOM 10,000 Startups
NASSCOM has come up with an ambitious initiative called “10,000
Startups”, aiming to scale up the startup ecosystem in India by 10x.
The program is supported by
Microsoft, Google, Intel, Verisign, and Kotak.
10,000 Startups aims to enable
incubation, funding and support for
10,000 startups in India over the next ten years.
The program has been able to successfully impact 150+ technology
startups, aiding in the raising of funds, acceptance into acceleration
programs, found customers, and on-boarded members through the
initiative

5. A lot of startups in India have entered the industry either unearthing an
entirely new market or through gaps in existing markets or product
lines. Although there are many successful startups, here are two, that
are growing rapidly and changing how an existing industry works in the
process…

7. Ritesh Agarwal is an Indian entrepreneur and the founder and CEO
of OYO Rooms. At 21, Agarwal is considered to be one of the youngest
CEOs in India. Agarwal started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of
17. He is, supposedly, the first Indian drop-out entrepreneur to have
had a successful run. He is also the first resident Indian to win the Thiel
Fellowship.
OYO Rooms, currently, is the largest network of branded hotels in
India. The company operates in more than a 100 Indian cities and has
an inventory of more than 20,000 rooms under its umbrella. According
to a research carried out by CB Insights for The New York Times, OYO
Rooms is among the companies that may be the next start-up unicorns.

9. Early Life
After finishing class 12th, he enrolled in a Delhi college. However,
Agarwal didn't continue with his education and dropped out to start his
own company without his family knowing of this move. Agarwal has
often talked to the media about how he was scared of his parents
getting to know that he has dropped out of college.
Agarwal has also talked about how he felt that college education could
come in the way of what he actually wanted to do. In a blog post on The
Huffington Post Agarwal wrote, "I dropped out of college within days of
joining because I felt that attending classes would slow me down from
doing what I really wanted to do - building my own start-up."

10. Agarwal started travelling extensively across India at the age of 17. His
various stay experiences at budget accommodations inspired him to
launch Oravel Stays in 2012. Oravel was modeled after Airbnb. By 2013
Agarwal realized that mere aggregation of bed and breakfasts couldn't
address the problems of budget travelers in India and hence, he pivoted
Oravel Stays into OYO Rooms.

11. The Company “OYO Rooms”
OYO Rooms is India's largest budget hotel chain and is present in over
100 cities across the country with 20,000 rooms under its umbrella. OYO
Rooms is not merely an aggregator of budget hotels, but instead focuses
on the standardization of hotels in the non-branded hospitality sector.
OYO Rooms is considered to be one of the very few start-ups which are
non-copycat. According to Agarwal, OYO Rooms was founded to solve
the problem of the lack of predictability, affordability, accessibility and
availability at budget stays.

14. Varun Agarwal is an Indian first-generation entrepreneur, film maker
and author. Born on December 6, 1987, in Bangalore, India, he did his
schooling from Bishop Cotton Boys' School and started engineering
in CMR Institute of Technology Bangalore, Karnataka. He decided to
drop out of college because he lacked interest in pursuing engineering.
Thereafter he started making short films.
He co-founded Alma Mater and two other
companies —
Reticular and Last Minute Films.
He is also the sole author of a bestseller
book ‘How I Braved Anu Aunty
and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company’.

16. Career
During his engineering college days in Bangalore, he started film-
making. It was at that time that he founded his first business venture
'Last Minute Films' (LMF).
LMF is an indian film production company
with successful music videos, corporate films
and ad films. LMF has got more than
350,000 hits on YouTube. As a film maker,
Varun has directed A. R. Rahman and Preity Zinta,
and also worked with Karan Johar which he considers to be one of the
greatest experiences of his life. Varun's video channel has over
1,050,000 views.

17. Entrepreneur
After dropping his BE (Bachelor of Engineering) graduation in
Telecommunication, at 22 years, he co-founded his second business
venture, Alma Mater, with his friend Rohn Malhotra. Alma Mater has
successfully partnered with educational institutions across India in
being able to make and supply customized sweatshirts to alumni. It is
now India's largest company for providing merchandise to students of
schools and colleges. Besides these two companies he also co-
founded Reticular. Varun has been featured on the cover of India
Today as well as on the CNBC Young Turks Show.

19. Author
In June 2012, after his success with
'Alma Mater', his debut book, the
semi-autobiographical ’How I Braved
Anu Aunty and Co-Founded
A Million Dollar Company’, chronicling
his journey as an entrepreneur was published
by Rupa Publishers and became a best-seller.