With more than half the population under the age of 35 and phenomenal growth in the smartphone industry, India is turning out to be one of the largest countries for entrepreneurship and innovation. Many young Indian entrepreneurs have come a long way now despite all odds. Their unflinching leadership quality coupled with a never-ending quest for knowledge and execution will remain in modern Indian History, as a source of inspiration for millennials. We have contoured a list of a few people whose success will inspire you. Read on.

1) Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart)

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal’s Flipkart recently stroked a jaw-dropping 16 Bn deal with one of the world's largest retailers, Walmart. Before starting their entrepreneurial journey, the Bansal boys and their start-up Flipkart had a long history of downs — from selling just 20 books in the first year to investing their ₹10k monthly pocket money into the growth of the business. In 2007, credit cards, internet penetration, and the start-up ecosystem in India were unheard and e-commerce was a wild ambition to pursue. However, the Bansal boys did not give up. In 11 years, they bought over 130,000 third-party sellers, 80 million products, inspired a generation of entrepreneurs, and kicked off a start-up revolution. <strong>2. Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm)</strong> Life tested Vijay Shekhar Sharma from the beginning of his journey. As a young boy, he walked 14km to save ₹14. The boss of Paytm experienced a lot of hardship and suffering before being successful. In his early days, he struggled to learn English and survived the rigorous engineering college. However, Vijay was meant for something else. He built an e-commerce payment system and digital wallet company Paytm that is valued at over3 billion in 2010. He dreamt to be successful when he was struggling to manage his livelihood with ₹10 in the pocket.

3. Bhavish Agarwal (OlaCabs)

The 32-year-old IIT-B graduate Bhavish Agarwal is the CEO and founder of India’s largest cabs facilitator OlaCabs. In Spanish, Hola means ‘Hello’, hence, Ola shows that their service is as friendly and easy as saying a ‘Hello’. It is one of India’s largest ride-hailing apps with about a 60% market share. Before graduating with BTech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay, Bhavesh worked at Microsoft Research. Sensing a change in the way of transportation, he started Ola in 2010. Currently, it is worth 5 billion and Bhavish was featured in Forbes India list of under 30 entrepreneurs in the country. <strong>4. Deepinder Goyal (Zomato)</strong> Deepinder Goyal co-founded a restaurant search app with Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. He got the idea of an online restaurant information service when he noticed his colleagues searching paper menu cards at a management firm. As of 2016, Zomato was ranked as the top 2 start-ups in StartupRanking. It runs in more than 20 countries including Australia, India, United States, and valued at over2.5 billion. Additionally, Zomato is planning to expand its business into Online Ordering, Whitelabel Platform, and a Point-of-Sale system to connect restaurants and customers.

5. P C Mustafa (ID Fresh Food)

Son of a daily wage worker, PC Mustafa grew up in a small village in Kerala which had neither roads nor electricity. With sheer determination and hard work, PC Mustafa turned his venture ID Fresh Food into a billion rupees business. He graduated from NIT, Calicut, and worked with Motorola and Citibank before stepping into IIM-Bangalore. In 2006, he started IDF to prepare ready-made Idli batters and other food products. They serve 1 million Idli batters a day and plan to increase numbers in the next three years. P C Mustafa was also invited to speak at prestigious institutes such as Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Aren’t these entrepreneurial stories inspirational? Well, the beginning is the most important part of the work. Proceed as if success is inevitable.