Strong winds of cyclone Yaas disrupt net connection, causing trouble for startup survival in Indore, Madhya Pradesh

With effects of cyclone Yaas reaching Indore, stormy rains have become a part of evenings since last two days. While the cool rains are great for Indoris to relax with tea and pakoda, these winds have jammed up several wires and connections resulting in not just blackouts, but also internet connectivity issues.

Since the lockdown, most start-ups switched to working from home structure, as it was not feasible for many to even sustain offices. With various teams working in different parts of the city, the only way to coordinate was via virtual meetings and connectivity rooms.

Now, with frequent internet failures and blackouts, many young entrepreneurs are finding it hard to deliver their work in time. With delay in projects delivery, start-ups are now facing a challenge of sailing through and convincing their clients of such problems.

“Our clients are mostly international, so explaining them how and why such frequent internet failures are hampering our work, is kind of tough,” said Dikshant Mahant, co-founder of an IT start-up.

He added that for power backups, most of them use back-up devices and inverters, but sudden WiFi crashes for long is now becoming a major issue. “I lost a client in the two days, because of misunderstandings rising due to net failure,” Mahant said.

Another start-up founder Naval Jain said, “Start-ups have faced a challenging time since covid-19 outbreak, and now, just when we learned to survive by adapting to the new world post the virus, it seems that this world is also crumbling down.” He added that internet challenges, power outages and falling economy is taking over and many start-ups are forced to shut down their operations.