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Comment by revorad | Hacker News Reader

Is anyone here applying? What are living expenses like in Bangalore? 5 lakh (500,000 Indian rupees or ~$10,000) is a lot of money, isn't it? It sounds like they have literally copied YC, forgetting the difference in living costs!

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5L is not a lot of money in Bangalore but for 5 to 10% equity, good feedback and support I would be very much interested. Sadly their application deadline was September 12. :(

Approx burn per person in Bangalore: Initial: Relocating+ house deposit+ registration+ CA + desktop + table + chair + net connection setup + office stationary: About 1L. Monthly: Rent + utilities + food + net + cheap vps: 12-15k, Phone + travel: 5k. Extra: 15k.

So, we are looking at about 60k monthly and 1.5-2L initial burn for 2 non-Bangaloreans to go and do a start up there.

I think that is painfully high. What is the "extra" 15K? What kind of phone do you use that costs you 5K, travel included? My very expensive phone plan costs me less than 1000/mo because 75% of my calls are made roaming. I spend over 5K a month traveling, yes, but my commute is 55km each way. If I worked in the city, say, 15km from where I lived (which is high), phone+travel would be under 1500mo.

Disclaimer: I live in Mumbai.

Err yes... I too am in Mumbai. My phone bill comes to 1000/mo and traveling to about 2k but you got to budget for the occasional flight to meet potential investors or for a family emergency back home. So I think a net 5k a month average is reasonable. One could certainly get rid of the 15k a month but that would probably amount to getting rid of insurance and the national savings scheme and stuff like that. That's probably a personal call though...

No, May be in other towns in India 5 Lakhs is lot of money, in bangalore its good enough for 2 founders to live for 6 months. Nothing more, nothing less

Rs.40,000 per person per month is way more than good enough. Surely, we are not talking Infosys salaries here. If cheapness is a predictor of success at all, these guys have no hope. Unless they are starting hardware or biotech companies.

I think Manish's estimate is right on the mark if you are an internet startup. Things like good bandwidth or hosting or servers are way more or at least as much costly here as in Silicon Valley. Compare the rates for a 10 mbps unlimited internet connection and rented physical server space in Bangalore and silicon valley. You would probably not even make 2 3 months in Bangalore on 5L if your start up required those while 5k usd will more than cover 10 months of both in the silicon valley. Please correct me if I am wrong.

iAccelerator is in Ahmedabad (at least that's what the faq says). 500,000 is enough to lead a comfortable life. It is about 1.5 to 2 times the yearly salary of a fresh C.S. engineering grad in Ahmedabad. But remember this is 500K for a team of 2-3 people.

Edit: I stand corrected, this round seems to be happening in Bangalore where 500K is closer to 1.5 times than 2 times the starting salary of a new CS grad.

I agree that $10k seems to be a very decent amount for a startup in India. I am hoping that they have success so that more will come up.

That is almost same as what Indian MNCs would pay their employees with 2-3 years of experience in India.

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