India, Dec. 12 -- Prior to the funding winter, raising mind-boggling amounts from private investors was usually considered a surefire path to startup success. But when financing dried up, bootstrapping to build a successful, sustainable business became tricky for cash-guzzlers. Those who survived realised that the quality of holding out and evolving into an enduring business would be the success benchmark in the new normal.

Long before the exuberant funding years triggered by the pandemic-led FOMO and the brutal market corrections that followed, two engineering students proved that a strong product could overcome growth hurdles minus the VC dollars. Tejas Rathod and Kunal Kothari did not attend elite institutions (read IITs and IIMs). Ne...