The world's third largest startup ecosystem India, is home to nearly 70,000 startups at last count. With the unicorn tally set to hit a century, one could say, the rocketship of Indian startups has truly taken off.

But, let us not get distracted by these heady numbers, according to an IBM institute study, 90 percent of Indian startups fail within the first five years. A lot can go wrong. From running out of cash to a flawed business model, to misreading the market & competition and more often than not disharmony between the team and sometimes its investors are amongst top reasons startups fail.

For instance the Bharat Market, which holds tremendous potential with over half a billion people ready to go online. But, startups with a Bharat focus can't just replicate models of the west or even those that exist in India today. It requires a unique approach, as unique as India is.

Besides funding, promising entrepreneurs who are seeking to build for Bharat, need guidance and a playbook to win in small-town India.

To enable this, over 50 startup founders and senior leaders, who have been there and done that, have bandied together to create the Bharat Founders Fund.

They are seeking to pay it forward, by turning into investors and mentors for the next generation of entrepreneurs in India.

Starting with a corpus of USD 20 million, the Bharat Founders Fund has already made 20 investments and going forward it seeks to invest in 100 companies every year.

To talk about their playbook for next gen entrepreneurs, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Gazal Kalra, Co-Founder of Rivigo; Rahul Chaudhary, Co-Founder of Treebo; Harpreet Singh Grover, Entrepreneur & Investor and Sera Arora, Partner at Bharat Founders Fund.

Watch video for entire discussion.