Young entrepreneur finding Mysuru most for their startups

After Bengaluru, Mysuru is the second fastest growing city in the State providing ample opportunities for entrepreneurs to start new ventures. Over the past two years the city has witnessed quite a good number of youngsters who are coming out with innovative startups ideas.

Young enterprenuers from different parts of the State, are finding Mysuru most attractive for their startups. In the last few years, many who had planned to launch their startups in metro cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad, had eventually shifted to Mysuru.

Good road connectivity, completion of double line railway track between the city and Bengaluru, high scope for innovation with Bengaluru already saturated, good infrastructure and marketing facility, affordable rental charges, tourist destination, environmental factors, quality of life,starting up cost is less, low traffic density, and several other reasons has made many newcomers to choose Mysuru for their new ventures.

24-year-old Sumanth Prabhu and Nikhil Shetty, a native of Shivamogga they did not had any links with Mysuru, but still decided to establish their business in Mysuru as there was not much competition. The duo are founders of VESTO, an education technology company that develops activity based learning products, fun and experiential for the students and enable them to innovate while in Schools.

They say starting up cost is less than Rs 10,000 per month in Mysuru, which considerably reduced their monthly expenses while bootstrapping. “Bengaluru was saturated with too many competitors and high operational costs. Though our product was very unique we didn’t want to get into Bengaluru at the initial stages due to high investment costs in startup. As market potential was not that huge in Shivamogga, we finalised Mysuru. Now we are happy there is good demand for our product.”

25-year-old Prathiba Nayak, a Managing partner of Nakhsha builders and a native of Mengaluru says: 'Being in Mysuru, I realised the city has tremendous opportunities and there is a great scope. Bengaluru is saturated and the scope for innovations is less. The heritage city also has the advantage of being a well planned city like that of Chandigarh. We intend to keep Mysuru as our head office as we keep expanding business.'

'Earlier had plans to startup in Bengaluru. While, starting in Mysuru was a strategic decision. Mysuru is a value based city where businesses are still done the traditional way, which gives us an immense opportunity to test our business. Bengaluru is very much crowded with startsup, and having genuine business is quite challenging. There is a great boost of morale for startups to go to next level in Mysuru. Low cost living and marketing is a major advantage,' adds 31-year-old Vaibhav of Ipopi, an ads India's first restroom branding company.

BC Nanjappa, an Agri graduate and Chaitra Narayan who have jointly founded Codagu Agritech said: 'We chose Mysuru and Kushalnagar to start our industry as we primarily deal on plantation and horticulture related products. We plan to expand our market to other crops. Also, we would like to set an example by encouraging rural science graduates to take up jobs locally and promote a scientific temperament among rural youth. All our employees are graduated from remote villages in Coorg.'

Pragnya, Chair of Yi Emerge, a youth wing of CII says: 'Mysuru can become number one startupcapital in tier 2 cities soon. Funding, government support, mentorship are some of the challenges. We collect inputs from the startups on what challenges they were facing, and what support they needed to emerge. By conducting workshops, seminars, we are motivating youngsters to take up businesses.'

What industrialist say:

Confederation of Indian Industry Chairman N Muthukumar, over the past year and a half, most startups in the MSME sector have shown keen interest towards Mysuru as apart good infrastructure the city also offers good net connectivity.

Small Scale Industries Association President Jayanth said; 'Several government schemes has promoted youngsters to take up the business. Presently State Government is offering a low rate of interest to encourage entrepreneurs and increasing number of youngsters, including women entrepreneurs are coming forward to set up businesses. If the amount is increased to Rs 2 crore, we can see rapid growth in industrial sector.'

Industrialist Sudhakar Shetty said that government should reduce the lease value of the land for 90 years, or introduce 'lease cum sale' option, then the industry can grow much more rapidly in Mysuru.