India’s startup and tech leaders mourn VG Siddhartha’s sudden demise

Startup entrepreneurs and business leaders have expressed their shock and condolences at the sudden demise of Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha and took to social media to recollect their relationship or raise concerns on various difficulties faced by the country’s businessmen
“I had known VG Siddhartha personally and was always amazed at his energy and positivity. Distressed by his disappearance. He has been an inspiring entrepreneur and investor” said Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal on Twitter.

“So heartbreaking. .. How can someone get pushed so far to the edge in business,that they decide to take a fall themselves. I will always see his legacy as a very successful entrepreneur who brought coffee in our lives,” said Snapdeal cofounder Kunal Bahl.

SlideShare cofounder Amit Ranjan termed it as a black letter day for startups and entrepreneurship in India, adding that new age startups are lucky to be (largely) funded by equity, since debt driven businesses are far more harsh and stressful

Cred founder Kunal Shah noted that the boundaries between startup founders and their companies often cease to exist, due to which they often feel the downfall of their companies “Can’t take away this wild passion from a founder to live and die for their creation and is often why they win against big CEOs.”

Biocon managing director Kiran Mazumdar said it was a shocking and sad end to a quiet and unassuming pioneer who started the coffee cafes business in India

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said he was saddened beyond words as “one more starry-eyed messiah meets a violent farewell”

Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra said that entrepreneurs must not allow business failure to destroy their self-esteem, since that will bring about the death of entrepreneurship.

Instamojo co-founder Sampad Swain said that we need to take a clear stance in criminalization of a business failure “A venture can fail, but an entrepreneur shouldn’t – time & again we aren’t learning from the past”

Entrepreneurship is one terrible, frustrating & lonely journey, noted Pravin Jadhav, whole-time director at Paytm Money.

In a series of tweets, CommonFloor cofounder Sumit Jain asked entrepreneurs not to be hard on themselves, especially when their company is sinking “Sometime under pressure of expectations of others or our own expectations, we forget or underestimate our contribution or just don’t see a way out. That does not mean that there is no way out.”