Startup Steps Explained by Nipun Jain: From Idea to Private Limited Registration

What's the first step to building a startup? Nipun Jain, in a recent episode of Accompany Akki, argues it isn't the product, the funding, or even the registration paperwork.

It's clarity of purpose.

He breaks the founder journey into four practical stages: getting clear on why you want to start and what problem you're solving, finding co-founders who bring complementary skills rather than duplicate ones, putting a shareholder agreement in writing early to prevent future conflict, and registering as a private limited company once the team and structure are ready.

Nipun points out that 30-40% of startups he's encountered originated from founders spotting a broken process inside their own previous workplace.

 He also stresses that founding teams should be diversified across technology, business, and finance rather than clustered around a single skill set,

and that shareholder agreements should exist well before a company becomes serious or starts generating revenue, since money and differing opinions are common sources of conflict even among close relationships.

On registration, he's direct: private limited is the only structure recognized for raising VC funding, applying for Startup India or DPIIT recognition, and operating as a legitimate entity with India's Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

He also flags a commonly missed step, moving any trademarks or IP held by individual founders into the company's name once it's formally registered.

Watch the full conversation