4 Things First-Generation Entrepreneurs Should Do to Build a Billion-Dollar Startup Amit Jain, CEO and co-founder, CarDekho tells us what helped him and his brother Anurag build a massive business

For many years, entrepreneurship was a privilege enjoyed predominantly by the rich. This is because starting a business venture requires a huge amount of capital and only children from rich families could afford it. However, today the tables have turned. Anybody with a disruptive idea and a knowledge of tech can become an entrepreneur. And, the presence of more than 93,000 startups in India currently is a testimony to it.

"Education gave us all a level playing ground and tech became the forefront of everything we do. This has democratized entrepreneurship," said Amit Jain, CEO and co-founder, CarDekho.

He also shared his experience and knowledge on running a large business with the audience at Entrepreneur India's recently concluded event, Entrepreneur 2023. Here are the four most important things any first-generation entrepreneur should do in order to build a billion-dollar company, according to the CarDekho CEO and co-founder.

Develop a risk-taking ability and attitude

Just like most Indians coming from middle-class families, Jain also grew up thinking he would go to a good college and take up a high-salaried job. And, he did exactly that after graduating from IIT. However, he later realized that we are in the era of startups and took a plunge and started CarDekho in 2008 along with his brother Anurag. "I feel most of us are not inclined towards risk-taking. This is also a problem with our education system that tells us to settle for a safe job. I believe that the only thing that differentiates entrepreneurs from others is their risk-taking ability. There is a lot of talent in this room and in this country, but many don't want to take that risk. Entrepreneurship requires many skills besides education and risk-taking is one of the biggest skills to possess," he said.

Keep it as lean and frugal as possible

When the Jain brothers decided to dive into entrepreneurship, the first thing they agreed upon was to have a lean cost at all ends. Interestingly, living in a joint family also helped them reduce costs at a personal level. Professionally, they made some very smart moves. For instance, the first hiring they did were for interns. The founders used to train the interns to code. This gave the interns massive exposure. "They were growing exponentially and not linearly," he said. He also believes that if an entrepreneur can tap into the talent in small towns, they will be the sticky talent. They will stay not for the money but for the experience and exposure. "Employees who joined us 15 years ago are still with us. India is full of talent, some get the exposure, and some don't. Tapping into those who don't will be a win-win for all," he said.

Value your equity more than anything

CarDekho was a bootstrapped company for seven years and the first round raised was for $15Mn, a huge amount for that time. From the 7th to the 13th year, the company was run profitably. Jain believes that one should postpone raising funding as long as they can. "Save your equity. Value it more than anything else. Fundraising is not a glory," he said. Some of the profitable bootstrapped companies in India include Zoho, Zerodha and InMobi. Jain believes that even if you can't stay bootstrapped forever, you should postpone it as much as you can, maybe till you find the product-market fit and go for a bigger round.

Dream big, don't settle for a small business

Jain and his brother were always sure of building a billion-dollar business. They were in it for long and for a bigger play. "We didn't want to settle for something small. Even when we were working from a garage, we had it put it up on LinkedIn that we are building a billion-dollar business because we believed it would happen," he said. The Jain brothers also kept pivoting from one business to another and tried out many things before settling for the winning business model.