Build in India
The India-specific playbook: schemes, government, enterprise, and the local market.
5 steps to get you moving, each with a resource worth your time and more waiting underneath
Think of this as a friendly starting line, not the last word. Each step gives you the gist, then a resource worth your time from founders who've been there. There's always more underneath, more questions and more resources, whenever you feel like digging in.
-
1
Grants & non-dilutive funding
Free money: schemes, grants, and competitions.
What exactly is non-dilutive funding, and why should an early founder chase it before raising VC?The gist Non-dilutive funding is money you get without giving up equity or control, grants, government schemes, competitions, R&D subsidies, and revenue. In India this is unusually generous: DPIIT-recognised startups can tap the Startup India Seed Fund, state grants, BIRAC/NIDHI R&D money, and tax holidays. Chase it first because every rupee of grant is a rupee you didn't sell your company for.
Startup India, Government Schemes for Startups Startup India (startupindia.gov.in) This is the single official directory of central and state government schemes for Indian startups, the primary source, not a blog summarising it. If you only bookmark one page for non-dilutive funding, make it this one and filter by your sector, stage, and state. -
2
Incubators, accelerators & competitions
Get in, get funded, get connected.
Should I join an incubator or an accelerator, and which one?The gist They're different tools: an incubator gives you space, mentors and time at the idea/prototype stage (usually no equity), while an accelerator gives you money, a tight cohort and a demo day in exchange for equity, and expects you to already be building. Join an incubator if you need a nudge and a roof; join an accelerator only once you have a team and early traction and are ready to sprint. The single most important variable isn't the tier of the brand, it's the quality of the specific partners, mentors and alumni you'll actually get access to.
Apply to Y Combinator Y Combinator This is the canonical, primary source for how the world's most influential accelerator actually works, deadlines, batch structure, the interview, and what acceptance gets you. If you're seriously considering a top accelerator, read the mechanics straight from the source rather than a second-hand summary. -
3
Selling to government
GeM, tenders, and the public-sector playbook.
How do I actually sell to the government, where do I find the buyers?The gist Two doors: GeM (gem.gov.in) for catalog-style buying of products and services, and the tender portals (eprocure.gov.in for ministries, plus defproc and PSU e-tender sites) for larger contracts. Government buys roughly 20% of India's GDP, so the market is enormous, but you won't find it on LinkedIn; you find it by living inside these portals, tracking the departments that already buy what you sell, and reading their past awards to learn who to call.
Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Official Seller Portal gem.gov.in This is the primary channel for selling products and services to the Indian government, a Section 8 company under the Ministry of Commerce with 50,000+ buyers. Every other guide points back here, so start by registering rather than reading about it. -
4
Selling to enterprises (B2B)
Land your first big logo.
How do I land my first enterprise customer when nobody has heard of us?The gist You don't win the first logo with a brand, you win it with a relationship and a sharply-scoped problem you can prove you solve. Mine your network, your investors, and your advisors for a warm intro to one specific team that is on fire about the exact thing you fix, then over-deliver until they become your reference. Your first enterprise customer is bought on trust and founder credibility, not on your homepage.
Enterprise Sales for Founders Y Combinator Startup School Pete Koomen took Optimizely from zero to $100M+ ARR, and here he breaks the enterprise funnel down for exactly the person who finds it terrifying: the technical founder who has never sold. It is the clearest short primer we know on how a builder starts closing real deals. -
5
IP, licenses & regulatory
Protect your idea, stay legal to sell.
How do I protect my idea when I have to share it to get it built?The gist You mostly can't, and you mostly don't need to. Raw ideas aren't protectable and aren't worth stealing, execution is the moat, and the people who could build it are busy building their own thing. Share the problem and the vision freely; hold back only the specific know-how, data, customer relationships, or code that took real work to create.
Will Somebody Try To Steal My Startup Idea? (Startup Therapy, Ep. 50) Startups.com The most grounded, non-lawyerly take on the fear that keeps first-time founders up at night. Two founders who've tracked hundreds of thousands of startups explain why idea theft is largely a myth, and, crucially, what to share versus hold back, without the alarmism that pushes people into wasteful NDAs.
