IPOs come with tremendous responsibilities, says Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy

BENGALURU: There is a certain pressure on entrepreneurs in our country to succeed as early as possible, said  Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy at the India Global Innovation Connect held in Bengaluru on Friday.

He talked of how this leads to IPOs being launched without enough thought.

Murthy, who is also the founder and chairman of Catamaran Ventures, said an IPO comes with tremendous responsibilities.

"We, in India, have not done a good job of estimating the market size. We have traditionally overestimated the market. We probably do not have good market research companies that can give us an accurate estimate of the market opportunities," he went on to add.

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"With pressure from VCs (venture capitalists), looking at IPOs as next round of financing and finally, the inability to estimate the market size -- invariably your cost go up, but not revenues. Therefore, you make a loss," he observed.

He recalled the day when Infosys made an IPO in February 1993. Last year, 63 companies went public and mopped up Rs 1.2 lakh crore through the IPOs.

Addressing entrepreneurs, Murthy said disclosing bad news (about the company) is transparency and not hiding it. He said it is always best to bring bad news early and proactively.

"If you don't do that you will not be able to sleep well and there is always an anxiety in other parties' minds because they also have sources to get some access to information. So, my view is that always bring bad news early and proactively," he added.

The Infosys co-founder also said that the success of an entrepreneur comes because of market access, the second ingredient is access to talent, and the third ingredient is VC money, which is easily available today.