The Golden Tap: The Inside Story of Hyper Funded Indian Startups by Kashyap DeorahMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a phenomenal book on the start-up ecosystem in the country. The author is an entrepreneur and tech geek who has summed up his personal experiences into a book.
It is more about his experiences in starting internet-based companies and selling these off to corporates at a profit. However, he has described the world of internet e-commerce companies, private equities and venture capital funds accurately. In-depth research matters in a non-fiction book and you have loads of it in this book for which I need to credit the author, some with exact dates. The footnotes in the book were really helpful. Lots of name-droppings in the books that you actually feel awed by the fact that the author has had the good fortune to meet and be friends with some of the biggest names in the e-commerce industry.
However, the drawback is that, throughout the book, one gets the feeling which we all secretly abhorred that millionaires and successful entrepreneurs are all product of IITs, IIMs, Stanford, Yale et al and there is there is no place for commoners or people with average education from second-tiered institutions. It also pays a tribute to IIT Bombay and its hallowed precincts, the author and most of the people featured in it being its alumni.
It was interesting to read how the author's Indian friends / mentors missed the bus in investing (how someone missed out investing in Facebook during its early days of incubation), rivalry between Snapdeal, Amazon & Flipkart and the detailed investment figures.
However the title needs to be tweaked a bit with the word "Inside" being removed since it appears to be misnomer. There is no inside scoop about the industry or some of the founders of hot internet companies which I expected. Considering that the author had access to people who are considered stars in this corporate world, he could have dwelt some more "gyan" on the more well-known companies and its origins, successes and failures. But still a very interesting read for someone who is curious about the start-up ecosystem and how it works.
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