1. Introduction: The Dream That Was Never Dreamt

We’ve built code for Google, scaled teams for Amazon, and designed systems for global banks. But we’ve never built a single product the world chooses to use. Not out of necessity. But out of love.

India is a country of builders. Over the past 25 years, we’ve created global IT systems, scaled engineering teams, processed trillions of transactions, and written code that powers everything from banks in New York to satellites in space. We’ve done this with skill, scale, and undeniable talent.

And yet, we’ve never created a single global product brand—not a social platform, not a design tool, not a digital payment solution that’s loved across continents. This isn’t about capability or funding. It’s about something more foundational: the absence of a deeper ambition to build for the world.

Most Indian startups were designed to dominate local markets, win investor confidence, and scale across cities. But few began with the intention to create something so universally valuable that someone in Berlin, Nairobi, or São Paulo would use it without ever knowing it was made in India.

Over the past decade, India saw a surge in unicorns—startups valued at over a billion dollars. They solved domestic challenges at scale and attracted enormous capital. Yet, while their global peers with similar resources—like Zoom, Canva, and TikTok—became household names worldwide, Indian unicorns remained mostly confined to local relevance.

This blog is a reflection on that missed opportunity. It explores how India’s startup story became one of scale without reach, what role intent played in shaping that outcome, and what could change if the next generation of founders chooses to dream beyond borders.

2. The Golden Age of Indian Startups

Between 2015 and 2022, India experienced a once-in-a-generation startup boom. A mix of affordable data, rising smartphone adoption, digital-first consumers, and global investor appetite turned India into the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem—just behind the US and China. India saw 118 unicorns by early 2023, with a total valuation exceeding $350 billion. In 2021 alone, 44 unicorns were born—almost one every week—making it one of the most explosive years in global startup history.

This momentum was driven by companies across sectors—FinTech, EdTech, e-commerce, mobility, logistics, and D2C. Brands like OYO, Swiggy, Zomato, Ola, and Nykaa became everyday names, not just for their services but for the valuations they commanded. OYO was once valued close to $10 billion despite margin and model concerns. Swiggy and Zomato grew rapidly through discount-heavy tactics, each topping $10 billion in valuation before turning a profit. Nykaa launched its IPO at a $13 billion market cap, driven largely by branding and influencer partnerships.

Ola expanded to international markets like the UK and Australia, but struggled to compete with Uber’s product ecosystem and exited quietly. Dream11 scaled through India’s obsession with cricket, capitalizing on regulatory gray areas to build an $8 billion business with no clear roadmap beyond Indian borders. Consumer electronics brand boAt hit unicorn status by mastering affordability and branding, but its product innovation remained derivative and its appeal, largely India-specific.

What many of these companies had in common was not just speed, but focus—on local optimization. They grew on the back of India-specific conditions: cheap labor, low customer acquisition costs, a mobile-first population, and investor tailwinds. Their models, while effective locally, lacked the design thinking, product depth, and universality needed to scale globally.

Valuations often outpaced real value. Profit-to-valuation ratios ballooned. Founders were celebrated more for the money they raised than the products they shipped. Growth was fueled by incentives, not innovation. And for all the noise, very few built something the world needed, or even noticed.

This isn’t to say all Indian startups lacked ambition. Zerodha revolutionized retail investing with its zero-commission model, earning organic global admiration. Postman, an API platform born in Bengaluru, became a default tool for 25 million developers worldwide without raising a dollar for years. But these remain outliers in a sea of domestically focused ventures. It was India’s golden age of startups. But too often, it was gold-plated on the surface—with little global resonance underneath.

3. Built Big, Dreamt Small

India’s startup ecosystem had the talent, the funding, and a rapidly growing market. But somewhere along the way, the goal quietly shifted—from building enduring, innovative products to chasing valuations and headline-grabbing funding rounds. Founders began optimizing for what investors wanted to see, not what users actually needed. The result was an environment where growth was measured in GMV (gross merchandise value) and user acquisition charts, while product depth and long-term value took a back seat.

At its peak, Byju’s was valued at over $22 billion—more than many global edtech platforms combined. But beneath the valuation, there was no scalable learning model or unified product vision. It was powered by aggressive sales tactics, fueled by India’s anxious education culture, and expanded through a string of acquisitions that were poorly integrated. Eventually, the cracks showed: mass layoffs, financial opacity, investor distrust, and a brand in free fall. Paytm followed a similar pattern. Valued at over $20 billion before its IPO, Paytm’s shares plunged over 70% within the first year of listing, wiping out billions in investor wealth and raising concerns about inflated private valuations disconnected from product traction. The layers of half-baked features, regulatory challenges, and lack of product clarity unraveled. It became clear that valuation was driven more by narrative than by product strength.

Many unicorns in India followed this path—raising fast, scaling fast, and building wide, but not deep. Innovation often took a back seat to operational hacks that only worked within India’s unique structure. The 10-minute delivery model, for instance, was made possible by overhiring cheap labor and placing hyperlocal dark stores in dense cities. It wasn’t about solving a real, global logistics challenge; it was about riding the wave of instant gratification, enabled by local cost advantages. Similarly, some brands leaned heavily into emotional triggers like “Make in India” without delivering true innovation or differentiation. These tactics might work in the short term, but they don’t translate into global relevance.

Startups became businesses. Not missions.

The focus shifted from solving meaningful problems to scaling fast and appearing successful. And when companies prioritize visibility over value, or valuations over vision, they end up building products that are too fragile to survive outside the ecosystem that gave them life. In the absence of a global mindset and a product-first approach, even billions in funding can’t take a company beyond its borders.

To be fair, India’s infrastructure gaps and regulatory complexity make global scaling daunting. Unlike China’s state-backed tech giants or Silicon Valley’s risk-tolerant capital, Indian founders often battle fragmented logistics, shifting compliance rules, and investors prioritizing quick returns over moonshots. These constraints force startups to ‘hack’ growth locally rather than build for global universality.

4. What Real Intent Looks Like

Intent isn’t a tagline. It’s not a tweet about mission or a flashy valuation milestone. Intent is how a company thinks when no one is watching—how it designs, hires, ships, and evolves. It shows in the details. In whether a product is built to solve a problem deeply, or to raise the next round. Whether it’s crafted for people, or just pushed to users. And in whether the founder is chasing a valuation, or chasing a vision.

Let’s look at what this intent looks like in action.

In China, companies like ByteDance and DJI were not just building for the local market—they were designing to compete globally. TikTok wasn’t just a video app; it was a new way of consuming culture. It understood global behavior patterns and optimized its algorithm to respond in milliseconds. It didn’t launch with the goal of capturing India or China alone—it aimed for LA, London, Lagos, and everywhere in between. Similarly, DJI built drones that were both technologically advanced and beautifully designed. It didn’t market itself on nationalism or discounts—it became the default tool for filmmakers, hobbyists, and creators around the world. Shein, in fast fashion, understood Gen Z buying psychology better than many Western brands. It built a data-driven supply chain so efficient, it could go from idea to product in a matter of days—then scaled that model globally with aggressive digital marketing, trend analysis, and shipping precision. These companies weren’t louder—they were clearer. Their intent was to be world-class, not just world-known.

In Australia, Canva was built quietly with a simple but powerful mission: democratize design. It didn’t try to be flashy or overpromise—it just made something so easy and beautiful that anyone could use it. Canva didn’t have a celebrity founder. It didn’t need one. Its growth came from product love, not funding hype. Today, it’s used in nearly every country, by teachers, students, marketers, and professionals—all because it was designed with real users in mind from the start.

In the United States, Zoom was created by Eric Yuan, not to be the next big unicorn, but to fix what was broken in video communication. For years, it was just a better alternative to clunky enterprise tools like WebEx and Skype. When the pandemic hit, the world turned to Zoom—not because it had the best PR, but because it simply worked. That reliability was the product of years of careful engineering, not marketing.

In Sweden, Spotify took on the impossible task of reimagining the global music industry. It wasn’t trying to be the next big tech IPO out of Europe. It was trying to solve music piracy, rewire distribution, and deliver seamless listening to users across platforms and borders. It didn’t ride a trend; it became the trend—by building patiently and relentlessly.

Even in India, founders like Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath prioritized product depth over valuation. By refusing VC funding and focusing on solving a universal problem—democratizing investing—they built a profitable, globally respected platform. Similarly, Razorpay’s seamless payment APIs now power businesses in Southeast Asia, proving Indian products can transcend borders with engineering rigor, not just discounts.

These companies didn’t just scale; they served users deeply. Their success wasn’t engineered in pitch decks. It was earned in product feedback loops. What ties them together is not just scale—it’s the intent to build something useful, universal, and lasting, backed by quiet focus and product craft. They were built to serve users, not to impress investors. They focused on design, not celebrity. They scaled with engineering, not emotions. And they let the product do the talking.

5. Conclusion: Time to Ask a New Question

What would it take for someone in Mexico City, Nairobi, or Milan to fall in love with an Indian product?

To be fair, India’s infrastructure gaps and regulatory complexity make global scaling daunting. Unlike China’s state-backed tech giants or Silicon Valley’s risk-tolerant capital, Indian founders often battle fragmented logistics, shifting compliance rules, and investors prioritizing quick returns over moonshots. These constraints force startups to ‘hack’ growth locally rather than build for global universality. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison with more mature markets. And yet, within these constraints, the one thing we can control is intent.

There are founders and companies today that are doing it right. Quietly building, patiently refining, focusing on global-ready ideas with a clear sense of mission. But they are the exception, not the rule.

If India’s startup ecosystem is to take the next leap, it must shift focus: stop chasing valuations, start chasing missions. Stop building for noise, start building for depth. Scale may come later. But if we get intent right, the impact will follow.