With its latest initiative, Google is planning on helping startups based in smaller cities. “Startup School India” will help in forming a structured curriculum and dismantle this knowledge in overcoming various obstacles that pre-seed startups face. 

The nine-week programme will cover topics including fintech, language, social media & networking, job search, and business-to-business & business to customer e-commerce. It will also include fireside chats between Google leaders and collaborators from across the startup world.  Additionally to that, the program will also include instructional modules on topics like shaping an effective product strategy, deep dives on product user value, building applications, driving user acquisition and a lot more.

According to a Google blog post, the Startup School initiative will help founders on an initial ladder with a minimum viable product. The programme also provides the flexibility of a virtual curriculum and allows attendees to pick and choose from the modules that they would want to attend. Important aspects such as what makes a successful founder and formalising recruiting will also find a place in the training module.

Aditya Swamy, Director of Play Partnerships Google said, “Startups are no longer restricted to Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai or Hyderabad. We have multitudes of fast-growing startups headquartered in centres such as Jaipur, Indore, Gorakhpur and more. In fact, these account for nearly 50 per cent of all recognized startups in India today,”.

Arguably 90%  of startups stall within 5 years or even less. Of many, the most common reasons for such a debacle are unmanaged cash burn, flawed demand assessment, ineffective feedback loops or lack of leadership, said Swamy.

However, India is home to almost 70,000 startups of which many have been successful in rolling out their IPOs and achieving unicorn status, thus the initiative plans on widening the footprint of entrepreneurship and startup culture in India by making the knowledge accessible to all.

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