India, Feb. 5 -- From fostering more than 1.5 Lakh DPIIT-recognised startups, close to 120 unicorns and hundreds of soonicorns today to having raised over $158 Bn since 2014, the journey of the world's third-largest startup ecosystem has been no less than explosive, and we (at Inc42) have witnessed it all.

While the expansion of the Indian startup ecosystem has not been without its fair share of challenges, it would be immature to keep dwelling in the past when Indian startups were still learning the ropes, even if it meant burning the investor money for breakneck growth.

Well, good-riddance to the phase when unstable new-age ventures with half-baked business models invited the dawn of an unforgiving funding winter. The funding winter i...