Must focus on wealth creation, says Anand Lunia of India Quotient

CNBC-TV18's special series of Young Turks, Unicorn Healthcheck, aims to create a report card of our most valued startups, delving deep into what's working and what's not.

Resilience has always been the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur and as they march towards a greener balance sheet in an uncertain economic environment — what will be their playbook to achieve profitability?

To discuss this, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures, Anand Lunia, Founding Partner, India Quotient.

The startup landscape in India is unique in today's business history. One of the key challenges facing Indian startups is the lack of role models who have established responsible and sustainable businesses.

Lunia spoke about the challenges facing Indian startups. He believes that there are some businesses that cannot be expected to be profitable in the early years, such as Swiggy and Ola. Lunia acknowledges that the problem is that we don't have role models, only case studies of failures. He wishes that companies like Zoho or Zerodha had raised some VC rounds so that they could be models.

Lunia emphasised the importance of wealth creation, and that IPOs should be viewed as a way to create wealth rather than just an exit. He hopes that a few of the listed companies will emerge as role models and show the path to everybody.

Reddy believes that everyone has been trapped in a liquidity trap and that depending on global liquidity to build a good business is a risky proposition.

He emphasises the importance of sizing the risk one can take relative to the reward with respect to the revenue and market potential of a geographical market.