In the previous article, we looked at how Indian entrepreneurs are natively capital efficient and work well with change. As more of them build global businesses—especially in the US—this strength becomes both an opportunity and a challenge. Of course, there are always exceptions.

Let’s start with capital efficiency and what it leads to or avoids.

  • Hardware startups traditionally have required a longer build-out period, large capital investment, and take time to generate revenue. Indian entrepreneurs and investors have therefore leaned more toward software startups. This is different from Chinese entrepreneurs, for example, who are more familiar and comfortable with manufacturing and so pursue more hardware-driven startups.
  • Even within software, Indian founders tend to focus on applications and middleware. These are closer to business use cases and are a natural next step from service automation, where many Indian founders have prior experience. DevOps and infrastructure are newer areas, but now more monetizable thanks to available building blocks, so founders are entering these as well.
  • In the current AI wave, especially with our investment lens, we see many vertical B2B AI opportunities. Sectorally, we see activity in financial services, legal, healthcare, retail, and logistics. Functionally, we’re seeing agentic software products for HR, finance, payroll, and sales. Even before this wave, Gartner had already projected that Indian-origin SaaS companies would grow disproportionately. I believe the same trend will follow in the Agentic AI companies.

The style of building: more lines, more speed

  • The propensity to change leads to Indian startups adding more product lines early in their life cycle. Compared to their US counterparts, which often go deeper on fewer products, Indian companies find themselves catering to a more diverse set of customers —small, mid-market, and enterprise—sooner. This often happens when they cross $50M in revenue.
  • They also navigate technological changes well and pivot faster. Because of their comfort with change, these founders react faster to market signals.

This same adaptability can make Indian startups appear unfocused or reactive. As an investor one has to peel the onion a bit to see what the true core is.

Of course, there are plenty of exceptions. How much time the founder has spent abroad, for example, can shape the style of company-building. But over time, a pattern is emerging—and it works.

There’s a reason why a company like Zoho, built from India, never raised venture capital and still crossed $1B in revenue in an intensely competitive CRM market and has literally every offering under the sun!