Profitability key for any company looking to establish itself as a serious player, says Snapdeal co-founder

Kunal Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal, speaking at Unicorn Startup Street event shared his thoughts on various aspects of building and running a successful business. According to him, while fundraising can bring pleasure, it is only a temporary feeling. Instead, profitability should be the ultimate goal for any company looking to establish itself as a serious player in the market.

"Fundraising will give you pleasure but profitability will give you happiness and that is a big learning all founders are realising. Fundraising gives you temporary pleasure, you see your name in the newspaper etc, but then you realise that it is back to work, you still have to build a profitable business," Bahl said.

He added that most founders are aware of the importance of profitability, and many are taking hard measures to reach it faster. There is more sensitivity now around profits and unit economics, he said. However he urged startups to ruthlessly cut out all wasteful variable costs to achieve sustained profitability.

Bahl opined that an IPO is a coming-of-age event for startups, but many companies celebrated valuations when value was not yet built, he warned and further suggested that an IPO is good for modest revenue-making companies with profits and that founders should focus on raising less capital. By doing so, they can build their businesses patiently with less capital and dilution, he added.

Startups should start with what is necessary and then move on to the possible. It's essential for startups to go back to the basics and focus on building a profitable business, Bahl said.

According to him, digitisation of the manufacturing supply chain is a big theme in India, and there is a massive opportunity for Indian manufacturers to go global. He also sees SaaS and healthcare as the next big themes for India and stresses the need for significant investment in preventive healthcare.