Abstract:

India, the rising economic power, and the second largest country in the world in terms of population, is new to the startup scene. As of 2018, out of 29 states and 7 Union Territories, 21 have created a startup policy to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem and attract more youngsters to take up entrepreneurship. Kerala, in the southern part of the country, is the first state to create its own startup policy in the year 2014. According to the Kerala startup ecosystem report (2019), the state is home to more than 2200 startups and has raised $ 44 million as funding in the year 2019. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors leading to the success and failure of startups in Kerala, India. A personal interview with the founders of 201 startup companies were adopted to collect required information. Following Lussier Model an exploratory model was introduced. Using logistics regression analysis, it is found that the model (p = 0.000) is a significant predictor of business success and failure. The model accurately predicted 74 per cent of the surveyed firms and explained 47 percent of the variance of contributing factors to business success or failure.