Problem solvers, responsible builders of companies, communities and ecosystems are the foundation for progress and growth of any nation. What drives all of them is a sense of challenge, ownership of problems, allegiance to autonomy, demonstration of personal accountability and the thrill of finding a solution. This energy is fueling a growing product movement in India. iSPIRT is proud to be part of this movement.
Every movement sees itself as a moral enterprise. Our moral imperative is to help lift India out of poverty over the next 20 years (see 2016 Annual Letter). Technology platforms are powering this ambition. These technology platforms have a significant role to play in driving innovation everywhere. Where India stands apart is that it has carefully thought about digital colonization and has boldly decided that its core technology platforms will be public goods.
Since our public technology platforms are open-access, we expect both Indian and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to participate in building solutions for India’s hard problems. Thus, Indian entrepreneurs will compete with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs not just in the US market, but in the Indian market as well. This inevitable competition will play out in the context of the maturity of the two ecosystems. Hence, unless we develop the Indian technology ecosystem rapidly, our Indian entrepreneurs will not succeed. iSPIRT brings an intensity to building our technology ecosystem that an entrepreneur displays for building her startup.
Four years on, there has been good progress but there is much more to do. We believe that Silicon Valley does an admirable job of innovating for the first billion. India has the potential to innovate for the next six billion.
