The Japan Times - Book examines five forces driving the next phase of Indian startups

A review of The Lift-Off Nation argues that experienced founders, broader sectors, global ambition, deeper capital and government-backed infrastructure are reshaping India’s startup ecosystem.

In The Lift-Off Nation: Why We Are Entering the Golden Age of Indian Startups, Rajan Anandan and Saurabh Srivastava make a compelling case that the answer could well be yes. Their argument is not simply that India has more entrepreneurs or investors than ever before. It is that several forces are coming together to create an opportunity that the country has never quite experienced before.

There could hardly have been two better people to write this book. Saurabh Srivastava helped build the institutional foundations of Indian entrepreneurship through NASSCOM, TiE and the Indian Angel Network. Rajan Anandan, having led Google, Microsoft and Dell in India and subsequently backed startups as an investor, has seen the ecosystem from the perspectives of both large technology companies and young founders. Both have been integral to this journey, yet bring enough distance to observe its evolution with perspective. They are insiders, but not merely cheerleaders.

Five forces behind the lift-off

The central thesis rests on five developments: better-trained entrepreneurs, opportunities across new sectors, growing global ambition, greater access to capital, and a government that has helped create a more supportive environment.

The first is significant - India’s early startup founders often had to learn everything from scratch. Today’s entrepreneurs can learn from people who have already built and scaled companies such as Flipkart, InMobi and Freshworks. These businesses have done more than create shareholder value. They have trained talent, developed managerial capabilities and produced a generation of people who understand what it takes to build a company.

In other words, India’s startup ecosystem is beginning to reproduce its own talent and experience. That is a far more sustainable advantage than a temporary surge in venture capital.

The second shift is the widening range of opportunities. India’s startup story was once dominated by consumer internet businesses, online marketplaces and digital payments. Today, the possibilities extend to healthcare, financial services, artificial intelligence, space, semiconductors, defence and advanced manufacturing.

This matters because the next generation of valuable companies may not necessarily be familiar consumer brands. Some could be solving complex industrial problems, developing critical technologies or building products for markets far beyond India.

The third change is ambition. Indian founders are increasingly thinking globally from the outset rather than treating international expansion as a future aspiration. The authors cite evidence that around 40% of new seed-funded startups in 2025 were targeting global markets from day one. The implication is important: India need not merely be a large market in which entrepreneurs build businesses. It can also be a base from which they build global companies.

The other two forces complete the picture. Venture funding has grown substantially, while public markets increasingly offer a potential exit route for investors and founders. Meanwhile, digital public infrastructure such as Aadhaar and UPI has reduced friction and enabled businesses to reach customers at a scale that would once have been difficult to imagine.

Together, these developments suggest that India’s advantage is no longer just its large domestic market. It is the combination of talent, technology, capital and infrastructure that makes new business models possible.

One of the book’s strengths is that it looks beyond individual success stories to examine what makes an ecosystem work. Three lessons stand out.

First, successful startups create the foundations for the next generation. The value of companies such as Flipkart and Freshworks extends beyond their own businesses. They produce experienced founders, managers and employees who can go on to build new ventures. An ecosystem becomes powerful when entrepreneurial experience compounds across generations.

Second, capital is necessary, but capability is what sustains growth. Funding can help a promising business scale, but it cannot substitute for sound execution, a strong product or a genuine customer need. The real test is whether Indian startups can build enduring businesses rather than chase valuations.

Third, India must become a producer of innovation, not merely a consumer of technology. The opportunity in deep tech, AI and advanced manufacturing is especially important. Building intellectual property and globally competitive products will determine whether India captures a larger share of the value created by the technology revolution.

My one reservation is that the book could have gone deeper into the question of what might prevent this golden age from becoming a lasting reality.

The authors acknowledge India’s shortcomings in research and development, regulatory predictability and the ease of doing business. But these challenges deserve even greater attention. India’s R&D spending remains low by the standards of leading innovation economies. Access to risk capital is also uneven, particularly for companies pursuing deep technology, where development cycles are long and returns uncertain.

Equally, a thriving startup ecosystem must create opportunities beyond a relatively small circle of well-funded founders and major metropolitan centres. How do we encourage more entrepreneurs from smaller cities? How do we make failure less financially and socially punishing? And how do we ensure that innovation creates productive employment and economic value, rather than simply producing a handful of spectacular wealth-creation stories?

A sharper exploration of these questions would have made an already persuasive book even more useful to policymakers, investors and aspiring entrepreneurs.

The Lift-Off Nation is ultimately an optimistic book, and its optimism is grounded in the structural changes taking place around us. India has the talent, market opportunity, digital infrastructure and growing pool of experienced founders to build globally significant businesses. The next challenge is to convert these advantages into sustained innovation, stronger institutions and companies that can compete with the best in the world.

The golden age of Indian startups will not be defined by how many unicorns we create; how much venture capital we attract or how many successful IPOs we celebrate. It will be defined by how many enduring companies we build, how much original technology we develop and how meaningfully entrepreneurship contributes to India’s economic progress.

Anandan and Srivastava have given us a compelling account of why this moment matters. The opportunity is real. Whether we seize it will depend on what founders, investors, businesses and policymakers do next.

The reviewer is an Angel Investor and an Independent Director

H.Hayashi--JT