India becoming a land of entrepreneurs: V Vaidyanathan, IDFC First Bank MD and CEO

From job-seekers to a land of entrepreneurs, India has made a big shift in the last few years, IDFC First Bank MD and CEO V Vaidyanathan said on July 7, shining light on the role played by startups in the transformation.

Delivering the keynote address at Moneycontrol’s Startup Conclave in Bengaluru, Vaidyanathan said that despite the funding winter, India is a land of entrepreneurs.

Traditional businesses do not have the resources needed to transform themselves into the new-age digital companies and that is where the startups come in. They play the role of mediators of transformation and that is how businesses function, Vaidyanathan said.

“Transformation of the ecosystem from a traditional one to a new-age digital ecosystem is heavily backed by startups,” he said, arguing that business-to-business (B2B) startups have a better chance of success than business-to-consumer (B2C) setups.

Talking about the problems entrepreneurs face while starting up, Vaidyanathan said during negotiations and deals, he focuses on a certain responsibility. “People join us, and that responsibility sits very hard on us,” he said.

He suggested keeping the larger ecosystem in play, compromising sometimes and taking a deal that is less than fair and moving on with it to support the company.

Focussing on “making things happen”, Vaidyanathan said if the transformation from traditional to digital businesses comes through, it would be a big moment.

This event was brought to you by our presenting partner IDFC First Bank, powered by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), in association with Reliance Industries, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, PWIP and Span Communications. Our broking partners were Mstock and Mirae Asset, while our gifting partner was WickedGud.

The pages slugged ‘Brand Connect’ are equivalent to advertisements and are not written and produced by Forbes India journalists.