A few weeks ago, this column laid out how Jammu & Kashmir built the foundation of a startup ecosystem: an institution in JKEDI that evolved from a training body into a full-spectrum enabler, a Startup Policy that moved from notification to real operational delivery in under a year, more than twenty-five venture capital funds engaging directly with local founders, university incubators taking root at IIT Jammu, SMVDU Katra, IUST Pulwama and SKUAST Kashmir, and more than 5,000 students walking into entrepreneurship boot camps across all 20 districts. Building that foundation was the necessary first act. What comes next is harder and more important. The honest reckoning we owe ourselves, and the investors and stakeholders we are asking to engage seriously with this ecosystem, is that the next phase will be measured very differently from the last. Participation numbers built the case that entrepreneurship was possible here. What must now be demonstrated is that it is sustainable, scalable and competitive. That means survival rates, not registration counts. Revenue trajectories, not pitch counts. Quality jobs created, not training sessions delivered. These are harder metrics to move, and we are not yet where we need to be on any of them. The market access challenge is perhaps the most consequential. J&K carries genuine competitive strengths in high-value agriculture, handicrafts, wellness, tourism and technology-enabled services, strengths rooted in geography, culture and craft that cannot be easily replicated elsewhere. But strengths do not translate into markets without organised, sustained effort. Too many of our best founders are still selling locally when they should be selling nationally, and selling nationally when they should have international ambition. Opening those pathways, through market linkage programmes, trade facilitation, e-commerce integration and strategic partnerships, is work we have begun but must significantly accelerate. Seed funding opens a door; what lies on the other side of that door determines whether a venture survives or stalls. Of the roughly 1,400 startups registered under the current policy, the uncomfortable question is how many will still be operating in three years. We do not yet have a strong enough answer. Strengthening angel networks, standardising due diligence practices and actively creating the conditions for Series A conversations are priorities for the near term, not aspirations for a future phase. A major two-day investor summit is being planned to bring together investors, mentors, incubators and stakeholders from across the country, alongside work with partner incubators to institutionalise the less glamorous but essential infrastructure of investment readiness: governance standards, data room practices, and performance metrics. Geography remains a structural challenge that good intentions alone cannot solve. The quality of mentorship, market connections and institutional support available to a founder
