🚀2025 feels like a turning point for the Indian startup ecosystem.
In this special year-end episode of the Prime Venture Partners podcast, we take a step back and look at the journey from the early days of 2010 to where we are today and what lies ahead.
We talk about:
• The wild early years when founders were figuring things out as they went
• How Aadhaar, UPI and cheap data quietly changed everything
• What COVID revealed about founder resilience
• How AI is being used inside real companies today
• Why India’s startup ecosystem took longer to take off, but is now scaling bigger than expected
This is a candid, experience-led conversation from the Prime partners, shaped by nearly two decades of building and investing in Indian startups.
🎙 Episode Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
03:17 The Three Phases of the Indian Startup Ecosystem
05:16 Early Founder Reality (2010–2015)
08:09 What It Was Like to Be an Investor in Early 2010
11:36 When No One Even Talked About Exits
12:49 Early Unicorns and the First Belief Shift
15:05 Founders We Underestimated and Why It Changed Our Thinking
19:07 Backing People Over Plans
23:29 India’s “Too Operational” Companies That Scaled Big
27:46 Jio and the Moment the Internet Became Affordable
29:33 When the Internet Truly Reached Bharat
31:43 Aadhaar, India Stack, and Building at Population Scale
35:16 COVID: Revenue to Zero and Zero-Based Accounting
39:00 Crisis Decisions, Calm Leadership, and Founder Resilience
43:20 The Crypto Wave: Knowing What Not to Chase
46:34 Practical AI Use Cases Inside Real Companies
54:07 Lessons From 15 Years of Venture Investing
58:59 India’s Startup Ecosystem in One Minute
If you care about startups, founders, or the future of technology in India, this episode will resonate.
