Former Infosys chief Kris Gopalakrishnan said startups and their early investors should ensure that even late investors or acquirers get the benefits of investing in such companies, at a time when retail investors in several listed new-age companies are reeling under losses.
"Startups should see that even the late or latest investors get the benefits and not only the early stage investors... Startup investors should also take care that when they are exiting, they are exiting to somebody," he said.
"Make sure that they also benefit from this. Exit doesn't mean you don't care what happens to the person who buys," he added.
Amid a series of highly funded startups and their blue-chip investors faltering on governance, Gopalakrishnan said that the aim should be to build enduring companies.
The Infosys veteran is also an investor in over 50 startups in various segments such as e-commerce, climate tech, software as a service, and medtech through his venture fund, Axilor Ventures.
"Startups should focus on innovation, they should think about performance and they should also think about governance... to be able to build enduring companies," he said.
At a time when the startup ecosystem is gripped by a funding winter and there have been no unicorn funding rounds in the past 8 months, the former Infosys chief said that he believes Indian startups will continue to attract a large amount of funding and that India is already among the top 3 destinations for investors.
"It may also become the number one in the future. India will always be an attractive destination as we will continue to need a lot of innovation," he remarked at a startup summit organised by CII.
