A big challenge Startups are facing, and how they are dealing with it

India has become a hotbed of startups, and even as it's a good time to plunge into the entrepreneurial journey, not everything you may need on the way will be at your disposal.

In clear words, there are pertinent skills gaps this industry is facing, and if you want to be sailing smooth, you either figure out ways to get the talent you need by hook or crook, or you create them if they do not exist.

What led to the skills gap in startups

The answer is the nature of jobs and the complexity of the products being created by most startups. A lot of the problems startups are solving today are meant to help the masses and therefore the kind of technology needed for this is unprecedented.

Rishi Das, founder of Hirepro - a company in the recruitment space, tells Business Insider - "On the tech side, if you want 3 lakh dealers and you want 4 lakh shipments, such massive amounts of complexities have been not handled in India before. The kind of tech platform that you have to build to meet these standards is unprecedented. These are fairly new concepts in the Indian background and India lacks the talent."

Moreover, a lot of startups are B2C, so they have lots of emphasis on end user interfaces. They also want to ramp up real fast.

"You are a startup but you want to reach 4 million shipments. On the logistics side, what does that mean - You will obviously go to a Fedex or a Bluedart. Even though they are the best at what they do, most of these companies still have not handled such big numbers. They must have done for documents but not for perishable items or electronics which startups are delivering at home. The speed at which startups want to go, they don’t have people who can handle it."

For these reasons, talent is being imported because Indians are not prepared to handle such complexities. Only the tech freaks from countries like the US, Rishi says, have the competency to deal with these issues. Talent, therefore, is getting imported in emerging tech areas. Startups who have the money are pulling in crucial talent from companies like Google and Microsoft.

At the same time, a lot of times startups are also creating a lot of new roles. “For example, home delivery is a way of life and it has led to Biking becoming a career. Eight years back, no one would have thought that it will become a huge aspect critical to the functioning of startups. Everyone knew driving, but biking was never considered as a career for blue collared folks as it is now, says Rishi.

Rishi concludes – “The skills gap arose as a result of the nature of jobs and complexities involved. Wherever you needed high end talent, that is imported and wherever you need talent at the bottom of the pyramid, you build it.”