Start-up ecosystem improving in India, says Vinod Khosla

India provides a lot of opportunities, but not enough role models for entrepreneurs to look up to, says Khosla

Anirban Sen, Aparna Ghosh

Updated6 Sep 2013, 09:50 PM IST

Khosla says he likes to bet on start-ups that follow riskier paths than play safe with their ideas. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint — Khosla says he likes to bet on start-ups that follow riskier paths than play safe with their ideas. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint (Hemant Mishra/Mint)

Bangalore: Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur Vinod Khosla , known for his unconventional investments in new-age start-ups, plans to bet on more disruptive and riskier ideas that aim to solve socioeconomic issues for emerging economies across the world.

add_main_imageKhosla, who last year launched his own technology product incubator, Khosla Labs, with former Unique Identification Authority of India technology head Srikanth Nadhamuni , says India’s start-up ecosystem is gradually improving with each passing year, even though it’s still far from being a mature breeding ground for entrepreneurs like Silicon Valley is, and believes that the area of healthcare will provide immense opportunities for innovation for budding entrepreneurs to tap into.

Khosla said India does not have enough good role models for budding entrepreneurs to look up to, unlike Silicon Valley where the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey are inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs.

“Once a Harvard dropout starts a Facebook and is very successful, ten thousand other students want to do the same thing and they have the courage to do it. And when they want to do it, their parents don’t say, ‘Oh we are not going to support you’, but, say, ‘Mark Zuckerberg was successful and maybe you have a chance,’” said Khosla.

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