Social upbringing, lack of funding barriers to entrepreneurship
KATHMANDU, APR 28 -
Social upbringing and lack of funding have been the major barriers to entrepreneurship in the country, stakeholders have said.
Most of the panelists at the World Startup Report Event in Kathmandu on Saturday said social upbringing of Nepali youth does not encourage them to take risks.
The World Startup Report is a social mission to document and connect the global startup communities. Founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Bowei Gai, the project offers a global network of startup ambassadors and insights into the market trend, cultural challenges and opportunities for new ventures outside the valley. The man behind the startup report, Gai is a successful entrepreneur who founded of Snapture Labs and CardMunch which were acquired by LinkedIn in 2011. “Lack of confidence is a major problem among Nepali youngsters who aim to become an entrepreneur,” said Bishwas Dhakal, chief executive officer of F1 Soft. “We need to set an example so that our community accepts entrepreneurs.”
He added even the situation of established entrepreneurs is same as domestic financial institutions still hesitate to fund.
Thamel.com CEO Bal Joshi said the traditional ways of doing business have affected the upbringing of entrepreneurial zeal among the Nepali youth. “Most of the Nepali business families have a background of trading. Hence, they choose trading, in which investment is safer,” Joshi said.
Another problem, according to Joshi, is the tradition of accumulating property for children. “If the younger generation already has more than what they need, why do they work hard or do something different?” Joshi questioned.
Karmath Dangol, vice president - engineering at Cloud Factory, said another factor preventing the growth of entrepreneurs in Nepal is the lack of risk-taking ability among the “wannabe’ entrepreneurs. “Everyone here wants to be the second,” Dangol said, adding once an idea gets the right push, everyone gets into the same business eventually demolishing the market for all.
Beed Management Director Puja Tandon said most of the “wannabe” entrepreneurs in Nepal have a tendency of losing confidence very soon. “We see a lot of ideas brought up to us. But if you see their conversion into business es, the ratio is very low,” Tandon said, adding this has made venture capitalist skeptic about investing.
Vidhan Rana, founding partner of Biruwa Ventures, said the over-dependency of the country in foreign aid too has changed the mindset of the people. “Most of the budding entrepreneurs look for charity or grant so that they can go ahead with their plans, but they opt out from the same if the situation becomes unfavorable,” said Rana.
He, however, expressed hope that the typical mindset will change in the future, with the influx of remittance. “If people put this money in entrepreneurship, this mindset of people might change soon,” he said.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
