Ask PG: Have you ever been to India or planning to?
Would be really, really great to have you here and take a deeper look on the startup scene here. May be I am just being to ambitious.
As you might have guessed, this is my personal opinion - so feel free to take it, or leave it.
That said I would be interested in PG and other peoples response on this question.
Because if you post something on HN that doesn't accomplish anything, you are lowering its signal:noise ratio.
on another note, the first seedcamp 'india' edition is happening in mumbai dec '10.
I'm very excited and am actually going for two weeks in May/June for a class to Delhi, Mumbai, and maybe Jaipur/Agra on the way for a day or so. Any recommendations besides the obvious things everyone does/sees?
Edit: Just found out there's a BarCamp there - http://groups.google.com/group/barcampkerala?pli=1 - maybe I'll head along!
The charm of Mumbai is on the streets. The street food, the markets, walking on Marine Drive etc. If you let me know when you're coming and some way to contact you, I'd love to grab a drink and show you a few interesting places in the city.
If there is one thing I learnt (as a caucasian), it is that anyone who talks to you on the street (who doesn't have an obvious reason to be there like a shop keeper with merchandise) is probably trying to scam you. Trying to buy a train ticket to Agra from Delhi was a nightmare; we ended up organising a taxi through our hotel. It was hard going from being used to trusting directions and advice from strangers at home, but I got over that pretty quick.
Also, carry plenty of small change; anyone who does absolutely anything at all for you will expect a tip.
Have fun :)
It is actually a finance class and we are going to look at some publicly traded companies, but Startup Saturday sounds awesome. I am going to go and talk to my professor and see if we can all attend in either Delhi or Mumbai (depending on our schedule). It would be great to be able to check out some smaller and newer companies as well as the larger and more established ones already scheduled, at least that's the argument I'll make with my professor. And it just looks like a lot of fun.
From a business perspective, I'm a little leery. I've read too many articles on the bureaucracy and corruption that makes running a business tough, even for the locals.
That which you see is false; That which you hear is false, only that which is well researched is true.
As a person who started a software product organization in 1995, i can tell you that pre-conceived notions are just that. Preconceived.
They have a very elaborate system of granting and refusing permission for doing practically anything, called the "license raj" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licence_Raj). The ultimate purpose of that system is to make sure that the designated winners win, and that the designated losers lose; as everybody happens to be born into their designated places.
If the situation accidentally starts working out differently, the "license raj" bureaucrats will keep changing the rules, until the social order desired, has been restored, and the designated winners are winning and the designated losers are losing again.
Nowadays they pretend that they are abolishing that system, but that is not true at all, because they cannot abolish its underlying motivation. As soon as too many designated losers start doing too well -- instead of starving as they are supposed to -- they will urgently reign in that kind of social disorder.
As a foreigner, you cannot expect to be anything else but a designated loser; even though you are probably still considered "touchable" :-)
The reasoning about "everybody happens to be born into their designated places" is not true however. India had the caste system. Not anymore. Sure you'll find a few pockets of exceptions - a few villages that still think they are living in the 16th century. But by and large, this is not true.
If you can hustle, you can succeed in India.
Case in point:
Dhirubhai Ambani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhirubhai_Ambani Made his money in textiles and oil, gas, energy.
Gautam Adani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautam_Adani Made his money in shipping.
Both of them were very poor once. Their stories outshine Horatio Alger stories.
There has never been a more supporting ecosystem for entrepreneurs in India. Shaadi.com/Rediff.com/Naukri.com/JustDial.com and many others are just few of the success stories.
That would be like comparing communist china of Chairman Mao's era to the china of today.
The whole process of dis-mantling the license raj was started by the current Prime Minister in 1991 when he was appointed the finance minister of india. He has continued to push his economic agenda on modern india and the results are plain to see. A GDP growth rate among the highest in the world for the last 15-20 years. Among the world's leaders, i doubt if anyone has half his knowledge of world or indian economy or his educational qualifications.
There is a realization within the entire beurucratic and political framework about the importance of openness and integration with the global economy. Which is one of the reasons why so many IT and BPO organizations have sprung up all over india.