Businessman, brand guru, and columnist Suhel Seth has defended Union Commerce minister Piyush Goyal’s criticism of the startups in India and accused a majority of founders of filling their own pockets while their companies ran into losses worth thousands of crores. “I am in total agreement with Piyush Goyal. India, if it has to make a meaningful contribution, has to be innovative. Where are our innovations?” Seth, the founder and managing partner of the consultancy firm Counselage India, said. “We keep talking about our software prowess… have we produced a Facebook? No. Have we produced a Google? No. Have we produced anything that is innovative which is a global brand? The answer is no. So you can keep defending ‘Oh, but we’re doing great stuff,’ make statues of yourselves. Startups are not changing the world.” “Are startups an employment exchange? No. We need the incremental value that startups will provide. And this is all a game of valuation. Which person in the world starts a business with a view to get out of it? That’s what most of our startup founders do. They want to make money fast and get out of the business,” Seth said.
