Synopsis
Y Combinator's inaugural Startup School in India drew over 2,000 aspiring founders, eager to learn from established entrepreneurs like Zepto's Aadit Palicha and Emergent’s Mukund Jha. The event highlighted the burgeoning AI-native startup scene in India, with YC encouraging builders to focus on cutting-edge ideas for global impact.Listen to this article in summarized format
Anyone building in India or globally will know the heft of the Silicon Valley accelerator's imprimatur. On a Saturday afternoon, many of the 2,000+ developers and builders who travelled from across the country for YC's first startup school in India had something to take back. Some found potential hires, some were promised summer internships, and some secured new clients.
Jared Friedman, managing partner at YC who flew in from the US, could barely take a few uninterrupted steps before cofounders buttonholed him, pitching their startups between handshakes and hurried introductions.
Friedman told ET on the sidelines of the event that the scale and intensity of the turnout was unlike any he had seen before. “We decided to do Startup School in India for the first time because we believe that we are at the dawn of the second wave of Indian startups, with AI-native companies like Emergent and Giga ML targeting world markets, not just India,” he said.
Sharing a piece of advice for the builder community, he added, “We want more founders in India to be building at the edge of AI. If you are working on ideas that are 3-6 months old then you will not be able to build one of the best companies in the world.”
