‘Now you hear my rant’: Startup founder fires back at Piyush Goyal’s swipe, blames system for stifling deep-tech innovation

“Piyush, I heard that you ranted that no one is doing semiconductors. Well I am, now you hear my rant!” the founder wrote in a Reddit post.

Recounting his journey, the founder said: “After decades of experience designing some of the most complex chips, I left Intel, and started a semiconductor company in 2018. We are profitable. We design chips for clients in US and EU. One of our client is known as ‘The father of AI’. That's as deeptech as you can get!”

His remarks follow Goyal’s comments at the Startup Maha Kumbh, where the minister had criticised startups for prioritising delivery services and gaming apps over core technologies. “Do we have to make ice cream or chips? Dukaandari hi karna hai,” Goyal had said, expressing concern that India has only about 1,000 deep-tech startups.

‘It’s not the startups, it’s the system’

The founder argued that it’s not for lack of ambition or ideas, but the roadblocks within the system that stifle innovation.

"We have stopped wasting our time trying to get Indian clients (Pvt sector, Govt, Defense),” he wrote. On engagements with MeitY, he added, “I either got a ‘you build it then we will decide’ or ‘we won’t buy, you go and find whether there is a market for this’! No startup is going to burn 2 years and 10-20 crores on a product which has no buyer and no market.”

Defence sector dismissive, says founder

Sharing an incident from a defence conference, the founder wrote: “At one of the meetings organized for startups by the defense sector, a speaker from govt spoke for over an hour on how they are facing difficulty with a particular tech. At the end of his speech I met him and informed him that 'we have solved some of his pain points for our clients, what would be the best way to engage with his department?'

“From your defense genius I got a long rant on how they are not dumb...and will eventually solve it on their own! If your people are not open for help why waste our time holding a 2 days conference for PPP?”

Bureaucracy, bribery and broken portals

The founder didn’t hold back while describing bureaucratic inefficiencies. “Your department sat on my application for over 2 years and returned it...asking for ‘Additional documents’ with a note that after submitting the documents my application will again go to the back of the queue (i.e. another 2 years)!”

He added, “Within a few hours of your rejection I got a call from a ‘facilitator’ who promised me quick and guaranteed results if I use their service for ‘preparing my documents’!”

Tax burden and compliance chaos

He said startups face an unequal playing field due to high taxes and rigid regulations. “Due to your tax laws, I end up paying 2X the amount (compared to my competitors outside India) for importing compute resources, EDA Licenses, equipment and raw material! If I need to import a 10$ wireless device for my lab, I need to pay INR 10,000 to WPC to get approval to import it!”

He also flagged the heavy compliance load: “I need to weed through a compliance calendar with over 300 items and identify compliance that are applicable to me and follow them! Sala entrepreneur sal bhar kam karega ya tera faltu form bharega? Some of your faulty portals have eaten up tens of thousands of my company's money and until I go and meet your babu they will not initiate a refund!”

‘Focus on governance, not blame’

Signing off, the founder urged Goyal to reflect: “Buddy instead of blaming others, focused on your job (Good governance) and got out of our way, we entrepreneurs have the capability to build world class products.”

Goyal announces grievance redressal helpline

In response to feedback from the startup community, Goyal on Saturday said the government will soon launch a helpline desk under the ‘Startup India’ initiative.

“If any officer troubles you or if you want to make any suggestion regarding any changes in laws or flag a product or technology that may not fall under India's legal ambit, you can reach out to that helpline,” the minister said.