r/indianstartups

So, yesterday I noticed many brands and new startups which can drew a great attention and their product is great market fit they are lacking behind the market so to fulfill their aim. We Criador Kosmos (Influencer Marketing Agency) Offering free barter collabs from our high end creators with high organic reach and engagement rate . The offers are valid till tmrw only if you are really interested drop your niche with the brand product you are making or startup If that fits us as well we not gonna charge you anything not even a single agency fee.

I live in USA and have exposure to startup environments.

I have crazy idea which already happening here in USA and if we localised and replicate in India would be crazy like Zomato & etc.

Its like gold rush. Ride the wave and print $$

FYI. I already have some business due to lack of time i can be a good source of advisor. Looking someone who has hunger to execute and wave the ride.

Looking forward

Hey guys I'm 22 years old solo dev thinking about building something useful as a startup and I have ideas but not getting that kick and that feeling of a startup builder from those ideas which I have....

I have plenty of ideas but everything I think and build the prototype and plan the whole dev I get demotivated again and again because all the ideas feel like just a normal idea not a startup idea....

I need suggestions from you people and need some better ideas as well...

So please help me in this

Calling out all the D2C online brand founders. What if Indian gvt Bans Meta Tomorrow just like TIKTOK.

How do you all plan to sell products, what could be the possible Plan B or will we all have to start again from scratch.
Google i think works more for discovery of brand rather than bringing direct conversions like Meta.!

Genuinely asking because I feel like I’m missing something obvious.

I built a startup called “inTesters” because I kept seeing Android devs struggling with the same stupid problem over and over again: getting the 12 closed testers required for Google Play release.

People were posting on Reddit every day asking strangers to test apps. Others were spamming Discord servers, Telegram groups, or begging friends/family members to install random apps just to cross the requirement.

So I built something specifically for that.

We guarantee 12 testers within 12 hours, and there’s even a free community testing option for people who don’t want to pay.

But here’s the part that’s messing with my head…

Even after building it, people STILL keep doing the manual grind everywhere else.

Even weirder: sometimes I directly reply to people who are literally asking for testers, tell them about inTesters, and they still don’t try it. They’ll continue searching manually instead.

And I honestly can’t tell why.

Maybe people just stick to habits they already know.

Maybe developers don’t trust new platforms unless everyone else is already using them.

Or maybe I built something that sounds useful in my head but doesn’t actually solve the pain the way I think it does.

As a founder, this stuff genuinely confuses me because logically it feels like the easier solution should spread naturally… but real users don’t behave logically.

I’m trying to understand whether this is a distribution problem, a trust problem, or a “your product actually isn’t compelling” problem.

Would genuinely love brutally honest feedback from other founders/devs here.

Like if you were someone needing Play Store testers, what would stop you from using a platform like this?

Quick context: I built a free Splitwise alternative for India. Started 6 months ago. Sharing the real numbers because every "how I grew my startup" post I read was either fake or missing the painful parts.

The numbers:

- 720+ users (Android + iOS combined)

- Under ₹5k total spend (UAC ads, hosting, domain, tools)

- 4.9 ★ across 32 reviews

- ₹0 revenue (free forever, no plans to monetize yet)

- One Reddit post that hit 104k views — still my single biggest traffic source

The biggest lesson, and the one I wish someone had screamed at me on day one: discovery beats polish, every single time.

I spent weeks on:

- Rewriting the Play Store listing 4 times

- A/B testing app icons

- Tweaking onboarding flow

- Building a landing page with comparison pages for every competitor

None of it moved the needle. Because nobody was finding the app in the first place.

What actually got me users, in order of impact:

1. One Reddit post (144k views)

2. Word of mouth from those early users

3. Direct "Splitwise alternative India" searches (tiny but consistent)

4. UAC ads — and these actively hurt me, more below

The UAC ads disaster:

I ran Google UAC for 6 weeks thinking cheap installs would kickstart things. They did bring cheap installs at ₹8-12 per install. But quality was garbage. People installed, opened once, never came back. Retention tanked. Play Store algorithm noticed and suppressed me organically. I spent ₹15k to actively make my organic visibility worse. Took 2 months to recover.

What I'd do differently:

- Skip ads entirely for the first 1000 users

- Write 1 honest Reddit post per month instead of 1 blog post per week

- Talk to users in week 1, not month 4 (I had 500 users before I'd talked to 30 of them — embarrassing)

- Stop building features users "asked for" — I built 4, less than 3% touched them

The Splitwise moat isn't features, it's verb-status. "Splitwise it" is a verb in Indian friend groups. You don't compete with that by adding features. You compete by being the app the *next* generation of users default to — which means showing up where they're already complaining about Splitwise.

Happy to answer anything — costs, what tools I used, why I'm still doing this for free, etc.

Hello everyone I would like to put some of my observations. I’m not saying this to hate on anyone or disrespect small business owners, because earning honestly is always respectable. But lately, I have been noticing something happening across India that genuinely concerns me.

Everywhere you look, people are starting the exact same kind of “business” roadside chai stalls, coffee counters, protein shake shops, fruit juice stands, cold drink setups, ice tea carts, momo stalls, and similar copy-paste ideas. One person starts it, ten others nearby do the same thing. The streets are becoming crowded with sellers, but nobody stops to ask an important question:

If everyone wants to sell, then who is left to consume?

A real economy needs balance. Not everyone can become a seller of the same low-entry products. We need builders, innovators, engineers, researchers, manufacturers, designers, creators, and people solving actual problems. But instead, many people now think putting up a table, mixing flavored powder with milk, and calling it a “startup” is entrepreneurship.

This isn’t innovation. Most of these businesses have no differentiation, no technology, no scalability, no long-term vision, and no value creation beyond surviving day to day. It feels like we are stuck in an endless loop of chai, coffee, shakes, cafés, and Instagram-style food stalls while countries around the world are building AI products, robotics, semiconductors, biotech, advanced manufacturing, and deep-tech companies.

The problem is not small businesses themselves. Small businesses are important for survival and employment. The real issue is the mindset shift happening where people are becoming afraid to build something difficult, original, or innovative. Everyone wants quick cash flow with the lowest possible risk, even if the market is already overcrowded.

Social media also plays a role. We constantly see videos saying:

Started this business with ₹5,000

Earn ₹10,000 daily from tea

Open a shake shop and become financially free

But very few people talk about sustainability, competition, margins, scalability, or market saturation.

India has incredible talent and one of the youngest populations in the world. Imagine if even a fraction of this energy went into building products, technology, agriculture innovation, healthcare solutions, automation, manufacturing, or global software companies instead of endlessly copying the same roadside business models.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with honest work. But as a country, we should ask ourselves:

Are we creating businesses that truly move society forward, or are we just recycling the same ideas because they feel safe?

I’m 25.

Last year I quietly resigned from my job because I genuinely believed I could build something meaningful. I didn’t even tell my family the truth because I thought I’d figure things out before they noticed.

For months, my life became nothing but code, ideas, redesigns, sleepless nights, product iterations, and trying to understand why people weren’t using what I built.

I learned more in these months than I ever learned at my job.

I learned that:
- building products is only half the battle
- marketing is brutally hard
- having technical skill means nothing if nobody needs what you built
- and reality hits very differently when family depends on you financially

That last part hurts the most.

My parents are getting older and still worrying about money while I’m here chasing uncertain dreams.

When people praise my skills now, I honestly don’t even feel proud anymore. It just reminds me that being “talented” and being “stable” are two completely different things.

Meanwhile all my friends are growing in their careers, switching companies, settling into life… and I feel like I pressed pause on mine.

The hardest part is that I don’t even fully regret it.

This journey broke a lot of illusions I had about success, business, and life itself. In some ways, it made me a much stronger person.

But right now, I feel stuck.

My experience is limited, the market is rough, and mentally I’m exhausted trying to figure out whether to continue building or just restart life from zero again.

I think for now I need to focus on supporting my family first.

Maybe the entrepreneur version of me isn’t dead. Maybe it just needs to survive a little longer before it gets another chance.

I'm from East Champaran, Bihar. Did my undergrad at IIT Patna.

A close family member had a lung condition that went undetected through multiple rounds of routine care. By the time it was caught, it had progressed significantly.

That was the trigger.

I started looking at the numbers:

• 1 doctor for every 11,000 people in rural India • 60% of cancers diagnosed in advanced stages • 70% of primary care decisions need specialist input that never arrives • 3+ months average wait for a specialist in rural areas

It wasn't a shortage of knowledge. It was a system design problem.

I started working on what became SaathiMed — a clinical intelligence platform that works offline, supports voice in Hindi/Bhojpuri, and helps doctors expand their differential diagnosis without replacing their judgment.

One piece we're building is a "30-second specialist bridge" — connecting a rural doctor to specialist input in minutes instead of months.

Still early. Still building. But I know one thing — building for Bharat teaches you more than any MBA ever could.

Anyone else here building for rural India or tier-2/3 markets? What made you start?

Background: Non-technical founder, working on a marketplace idea for the past 3 months. Finally started reaching out to developers and agencies to understand what it would cost to build.

Here's what I got back:

- Freelancer 1 (Upwork, India): ₹3.2L, 8 weeks

- Freelancer 2 (referred by friend): ₹7.5L, 12 weeks

- Agency 1 (Bangalore): ₹14L, 16 weeks

- Agency 2 (Delhi, "startup-friendly"): ₹11L, 20 weeks

- Agency 3 (Mumbai, big portfolio): ₹28L, 24 weeks

- Offshore team (Philippines): ₹4.8L, 10 weeks

Same brief. Same features list. Same mockups.

I'm not sure how to evaluate these. The ₹3L guy might be amazing, or he might disappear after taking the advance. The ₹28L agency may be worth every rupee, or they may be padding the quote.

Has anyone else been through this? How did you figure out who was actually giving you a fair price vs who was exploiting the fact that you don't have a technical background?

I feel like I'm walking into a used car dealership with no idea what anything should cost.

Had an offer to join a big health-tech startup in BLR (yes the one with the Sara Ali Khan ads) at a Senior level in their GLP business. They took ages to confirm the offer (nearly 2-3 weeks after the last interview) and then immediately started applying pressure to accept the offer and join within 4-6 weeks in spite of me having a 2 month notice period at my current co. They weren’t even willing to buy the period out as per my current company’s policy.

Called me one morning a week after I have accepted the offer and said sure we’ll take you after the notice period ends and they will re-issue the offer letter with revised joining date. Get a call in the evening that they have to cancel the offer as the division is being restructured. Funny thing is division doesn’t exist yet!

Very funny, don’t waste your time interviewing with them.

I’ve been experimenting with a simple Chrome extension setup for WhatsApp Web recently, mainly to save time on repetitive replies, follow-ups, reminders, and lead management. Surprisingly, even tiny businesses are now trying lightweight automation instead of full CRMs.

A few things I noticed:

• Most founders don’t want “marketing software” anymore
• They just want faster customer replies
• WhatsApp is becoming the default mini-CRM for many Indian startups
• Chrome extensions are easier for non-technical teams compared to APIs
• People care more about simplicity than advanced dashboards
• Privacy/local processing is becoming a huge factor
• AI replies + WhatsApp workflows seem to be the next wave

At the same time, there’s also concern around spammy automation and account bans, especially with random bulk sender tools floating around.

Curious what everyone here thinks:

• Are WhatsApp-based workflows replacing traditional CRMs for early-stage startups?
• Would you trust a Chrome extension for customer communication?
• What’s the one WhatsApp workflow you wish existed for your business?

Feels like India is building a lot of “micro SaaS” around WhatsApp right now.

Remote work creates a grey area between being busy and productive. The deliverables can indicate what was completed, yet they fail to show anything about the burnout, disengagement, or de-motivation forming beneath the surface.

What non-measurable indicator helped you to know your remote worker started getting disengaged?

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I’m 25 and I’ve been in sales basically my whole life I started at 18 and eventually worked in many companies, I have experience with sales jobs and client management.

Using AI for inbound and outbound calls to handle customers, I thought it was going to be a disaster. I figured customers with real problems would hate it. I was dead wrong. I tested a few AI products in the market, they're developing so fast it feels more like a real human day by day, and this world is going to change soon.

That was the moment I realized this tech was actually ready for the real world, but most local small businesses have no clue how to approach it. I figured I could just sell it to them on the side, collect a fee, and I approached a few clients through my connection. I have more leads and everything ready.

Long story short, it wasn't easy :(((((. Alone, I gave them a demo, and mostly everyone was super excited.

Selling it was actually the easy part - business owners are genuinely curious about this. But when it came to actually delivering a working agent?I need a partner

everything I can't handle alone .

I’m a sales guy, not a developer. I spent 3–4 hours per agent watching YouTube tutorials, using all my ADHD brain, and now I know how to set up everything. I think a smart technical partner would make my life 10 times easier.

Selling AI isn’t the hard part. Demand is everywhere. The real bottleneck is execution. If you aren't technical,...

Btw it's written by AI

posted by me......

Does monitoring create silent competition between teammates when they can see each other's productivity scores?

Let's keep it short.

I am a founder.

- Scaled my previous company (Funded) as a solo founder (pivoted due to scale limitations and limited fund)

-Looking for some co-founder for new google startup -programs backed by VC (I got an invite)

Chance to raise fund and scale (Antlers VC)

What i am looking:

-Someone who can join me I have few ideas

-Do vibecode day and night (same as me)

-AI ML Full Stack Welcome.

What i can offer:

-No salary you can work part-time. I am also doing the same.

-Equity Ownership

-I am experienced so my experience can help us both.

Dm me let's discuss quickly on call.