On National Startup Day, founders reflect on resilience, trust and responsibility as India’s startup ecosystem enters a more sober, consequential phase.
Publication: People Matters / Link: https://reurl.cc/eV4Vax
As India marks National Startup Day on January 16, the tone across its startup ecosystem is noticeably more reflective than triumphant. A decade after the launch of the Startup India initiative, founders are less focused on disruption for its own sake and more concerned with what it takes to build companies that endure — financially, technologically and ethically.
This year’s observance comes amid heightened attention on artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and national capability building, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing founders in New Delhi and reiterating startups’ role in India’s long-term economic vision. Yet, away from policy stages and funding headlines, founders are grappling with a harder set of questions: how to build responsibly, how to earn trust, and how to create value that lasts.
Several startup leaders shared their views with People Matters, offering a candid snapshot of what matters most to founders building in deep tech, cybersecurity, manufacturing platforms and consumer services today.
From disruption to durability
For Krishna Rangasayee, founder and CEO of SiMa.ai, the reality of building meaningful technology is grounded in persistence rather than speed.
“Building something that truly matters in tech is hard. You need resilience to keep going when things do not work, a strong network that supports risk-taking, and the discipline to use capital wisely.” Drawing on nearly seven years of building SiMa.ai with a team of close to 200 people, Rangasayee emphasised that progress is collective, not individual. “It is never about one individual, but about people who show up every day and push through challenges together.”
That belief is embedded in the company’s internal motto, “Bharat All In”, reflecting a deliberate commitment to building from India. Rangasayee pointed to strengthening partnerships, exploring manufacturing potential and supporting open-source ecosystems as critical as AI moves closer to real-world deployment.
“As AI moves closer to the real world and runs directly on devices with low power and built-in privacy, we are at an important turning point.” For him, the founders who lead the next phase will be those who “act early, stay focused, and build with purpose”, even as he acknowledged the difficulty of the journey.
Security, trust and nation-building
If resilience defines one strand of the startup story, trust defines another. Gopi Sirineni, founder and CEO of Axiado Corporation, framed National Startup Day as inseparable from India’s digital and cybersecurity trajectory.
“India’s entrepreneurial story is now tightly linked to its digital and cybersecurity story.” With the rapid expansion of AI, 5G, fintech and digital public infrastructure, Sirineni warned that opportunity and risk are scaling together.
“Breaches today are just as likely to originate from compromised firmware, hardware backdoors, or cloud platforms as they are from application-level weaknesses.” In that context, he said policy conversations around data protection, critical infrastructure and trusted supply chains are no longer peripheral for startups — they are foundational.
Looking ahead, Sirineni argued that influence will increasingly belong to startups that treat security as a core responsibility rather than an afterthought. “For the next decade, India’s most influential startups will be the ones that treat security and reliability as part of nation-building.” Designing products that align with regulation and embed security from the silicon level upward, he said, strengthens India’s position as a trusted global technology provider.
Purpose, responsibility and real-world value
A broader shift toward responsibility and intent was echoed by Srinivas Shekar, CEO and co-founder of Pantherun Technologies, who described the current ecosystem as combining agility with purpose.
“Startups are evolving beyond disruption to become solution-builders addressing complex, real-world challenges with scale, speed, and precision.” He pointed to a growing focus on building technology that delivers tangible value across healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and governance.
Shekar also highlighted a notable change in mindset around responsible innovation. “Data protection, digital trust, and cybersecurity are now seen as essentials rather than add-ons.” As systems grow more interconnected, startups are increasingly designing for resilience and safety from the outset — a shift he sees as critical to building a secure and inclusive digital future.
That emphasis on structural impact resonated with Kshitij Tiwari, founder and CEO of ideazmeet, who said India’s startup ecosystem has entered a phase where “impact matters as much as innovation”. As manufacturing matures, he noted, attention is moving from rapid disruption to solving long-standing issues such as fragmented supply chains, limited visibility and trust deficits.
For consumer-facing startups, Debidutt Acharya, co-founder and COO at One800, stressed that the most effective ideas remain rooted in everyday problems. He described One800’s focus on transparent smartphone repairs as a response to a pervasive gap in India’s after-sales ecosystem, rather than an attempt to chase novelty. “When purposefully created, transparency may be a potent source of trust.”
Acharya also linked sustainability to value creation, arguing that a “Repair, Don’t Replace” mindset not only reduces e-waste but creates skilled employment — outcomes he said matter as much as scale or valuation.
Ten years after Startup India, founders are navigating a more complex landscape — one where AI, security, sustainability and accountability intersect with growth ambitions.
National Startup Day 2026 may celebrate progress, but the voices of founders point to something more restrained and arguably more important: a recognition that the next chapter of India’s startup story will be defined less by how fast companies grow, and more by how responsibly they are built — and how long they last.
Publication: CEO Insight / Link: https://reurl.cc/nljxv8
About Pantherun:
Pantherun is a cyber security innovator with a patent pending approach to data protection, that transforms security by making encryption possible in real-time, while making breach of security 10X harder compared to existing global solutions, at better performance and price.
