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Not Every Big Idea Needs to Be a SaaS Some of the smartest money made in the last 18 months in India wasn’t from building another tool. It was from fixing businesses that were already built. In 2025, Indian startups raised roughly 10.5 to 11 billion dollars. Lower than the peak years. Louder headlines called it a slowdown. But what actually happened was more interesting. Investors became stricter. Capital didn’t disappear. It became selective. Margins, retention and governance mattered. Then 2026 opened with a signal. January 2025 saw about 712 million dollars in funding. January 2026 came in at roughly 927 million dollars. Close to a 30 percent year on year jump in the first month. Money is moving again. But it’s moving toward strength. And here’s what most people miss. When funding tightened in 2025, startups didn’t respond by building more SaaS products. They cut burn and restructured teams. They fixed pricing and cleaned up data rooms, which helped them improve unit economics. That value wasn’t created by new software. It was created by sharp operators and good consultants. In a maturing ecosystem, clarity scales. Execution and strategic thinking scales. A strong consulting idea that improves revenue, reduces waste, or makes a company fundable can generate serious income without ever becoming a SaaS product. It can build leverage without heavy tech burn. It can grow because results compound. Yes, funding is picking up in 2026. But the market has grown up. And in grown up markets...competence wins over code.