Can India be next Y Combinator destination?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30581

by sabhishek • 19 years ago

10 49 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

jsjenkins168• 19 years ago

This is answered in the YC FAQ:

http://ycombinator.org/faq.html

akkartik• 19 years ago

Do you mean the question about YC in your town?

If so, not quite. Moving to a different town to start a startup is just a test of commitment. Moving to a different country, though, dilutes the test with a bunch of bureaucratic stuff.

bluishgreen• 19 years ago

Kartik, Right on the mark! You haven't seen ugly until you have seen buracrazy, but you've got to do what you've got to do! :)

gyro_robo2• 19 years ago

How far does $20k US go in India?

jey3• 19 years ago

A lot, lot further than it would in the US. Your average Indian worker probably earns somewhere between $75 - $150 USD per month.

gyro_robo2• 19 years ago

"We'll give you $600; you give us 6% of your company"?

plinkplonk10• 19 years ago

an average Indian programmer gets significantly more. the average salary for someone just out of school is about 1200 $ /month (in Bangalore, as of today). Companies like Google pay much more.

sharpshoot2• 19 years ago

In between summer and winter funding sessions, when does pg have time to take a break?

pg3• 19 years ago

Exactly what I was thinking...

sabhishek4• 19 years ago

Can you consider persons who could telecommute ?

Thanks a lot for responding.

jey3• 19 years ago

Probably not, but YCombinator could be an Indian's next destination. I don't think India has the startup culture nor tech culture etc that is enjoyed by America. (neither does Europe, apparently)

sabhishek - You should apply to a YC funding cycle. Deal with the visa issues later! (but not too late)

rsdighe3• 19 years ago

i asked the same question to google's chris sacca -- i was wondering what could be done to have a Y combinator sort of a thing in India. he shared a similar opinion to what ur saying, in india the entrepreneurial culture is a little missing + in addition he thought indians were very good at backend stuff and not necessary in aesthetics. it might be debatable you don't need the whole of indian IT engineers god in aesthetics to support y combinator - i was in silicon valley , and currently in UK. but u do see a difference in culture but yet i can tell u there are lot of people who do cool stuff here, in america people the impression i get the english is the only language people worry about here u are dealing with french, germans, italians, spanish and they are very different, no wonder u find clones of US starts ups in europe adapted for european markets.

budu32• 19 years ago

"Entrepreneurial culture" missing in India? I beg to differ. Indians have an entrepreneurial culture that has been cultivated for years due to their unique set of circumstances. Must Indians are self-employed and have a very self reliant attitude. I think what you meant was "Tech-startup culture".

sabhishek4• 19 years ago

Thats true to certain extent Jey, but not entirely. Lots of Indians are coming out with exciting ideas everyday, but we don't have a person like PG here who could give right advice at the right time and this causes more startups to tank :-).

Thanks for the comment.

subhash• 19 years ago

Do you mean YCombinator should come to India? Or have such a phenomenon work in India?

Personally, I think angel funding is not very relevant in India because the startup costs are extremely low. Also, VCs are not as prevalent as in the US (that seems to be changing with proto.in etc) so the VC contacts that YCombinator provides might not apply either. But the advice and ideas of someone like Paul Graham would do wonders, but I can't think of a resident Indian in that place.

sabhishek4• 19 years ago

What I wrote is what I meant .. :-) You are right Subhash unfortunately there's is no PG equivalent in India , and thats the point. Angel funding is not an issue, what PG advices is what that matters most.

sharpshoot2• 19 years ago

Sabeer Bhatia - founder of hotmail?

Keios9• 19 years ago

IMO, YCombinator should fund startups in India. Contrary to popular belief there is significant entrepreneurial and IT activity happening here. I would not take anyone seriously who generalizes a whole nation, especially one as diverse as India, in one fell swoop. I am not saying the startup levels are anywhere on the scale of Silicon Valley, I am saying that there is sufficient talent of all types available in India. Unfortunately, these questions come up for the wrong reasons such as Visa problems. If YCombinator helped with Visas, then I don't think this question or other similar ones would pop up.

In terms of finances, the dollar goes a long mile in India and that is a plus. Perhaps a YC startup will probably run out of India in the future, especially because web startups are allowed 100% foreign ownership and foreign direct investment in India.

I thought it might be interesting to start a google group for all Indians who read Ycombinator and similar stuff and maybe want do a startup - http://groups.google.com/group/TechStartups-India Join in, lets find out how many Indians are around and lets chat/meet up :)

plinkplonk10• 19 years ago

Please name some successful startups that came out of India. Acquisition data would be nice!

Now it is possible that there is a bit of a chicken and egg problem here. But, imho, it is not enough to state baldly that there is significant entrepreneurial and IT activity happening here. IT as in "outsourcing" or "India Development Centres" sure. But the level of talent or software startups available is nowhere near what Silicon Valley offers. The few startups I have seen here in Bangalore are all a bit flaky. Examples :- Guruji.com claims to do "India Specific Search" better than Google. Their search engine is terrible . Minglebox attempts to create an Orkut clone (there was a scandal recently about some incestous connections between the VC and a founder of the company and suspicions about the objectivity of the deal and so on).

The only half decent software startup I know in India is Zoho and it remains to be seen if they can avoid being crushed by the Google Office juggernaut.

Now as to talent. Name 10 Indians who have significantly contributed to Open Source software and are based in India. Any significant languages, frameworks etc that came out of India?

I am not saying there aren't extremely bright people or developers in India . Given the size of the population it is impossible not to have bright people . But there does seem to be a distinct lack of entrepreneurial ability and the people who do seem to be very good developers don't want to take the risks of running their own company. Which is what Google Sacca was talking about. The people who do want to run their own companies are not correlated with high levels of programming skill, who prefer to emigrate to the USA.

Having worked 10 years in Bangalore, I assert that YC will find hypothetical Indian operations massively unsuccessful. This may change in the future. But for now, YC should focus on the US.

And before anyone accuses me of "racism "or something , I am Indian. I just try not to be blinkered.

Keios9• 19 years ago

Chicken and egg indeed. Your perspective seems to be based on a very "US" centric view, which is perhaps one way to look at the issue. Needless to say entrepreneurial activity may not evolve in the same fashion in India as it did in the US. For example there may never be a specific area or city in India which becomes a Silicon Valley^(SV)

In the US specific areas/cities have historically done better in somethings - especially technology. This may never come to pass in India because of the presence of very different dynamics.

Also, you assume that India already has a world of startups - it does not, it merely has an untapped potential. I will not answer your question about programming languages that have come out of India, or Open Source intiatives - I would merely advise you to count how many Indians have contributed to similar goals in Silicon Valley, you could start back from the 1980s - I think oppurtunity called them to the US and they wisely followed. Also please check similar sources for linux, even the ubuntu flavor has Indians contributing. IMO in the future resident Indians will contribute to such projects, historically some non-resident Indians have. This is so because today's infrastructre allows us. (contd..)

rsdighe3• 19 years ago

i do believe that something Y combinator could be the early initiators of change, of course the startups are flaky but I wonder why google can hire top talent in bangalore and something like guruji cannot build a better search engine?? it can't be lack of talent ? zoho is based in pleasanton if i am not wrong its just owned by indian that hardly makes it a Indian startup. anyways it doesn't have to be Y Combinator i think there are pretty smart people will india who will start it sooner or later it just remains to be seen who it will be.

plinkplonk10• 19 years ago

"If YCombinator helped with Visas"

Yeow I hope not! INS's visa rules are a legal and procedural snake pit, with plenty of people abusing and bending the rules to get a chance to come to the USA. IMHO YC should keep to doing what it knows best . It is bad situation but not YC's problem to solve.

I would imagine that YC has (a LOT) more work than it can handle. Why would YC want to add to it by expanding to India (or anywhere else. If India why not China? If China ... )

Keios9• 19 years ago

I am not suggesting they change rules, I am suggesting that they setup a vehicle which can help hackers understand this snakepit better. They don't need to do it themselves they can get someone to aid the shortlisted folks.

udai2• 19 years ago

plinkplonk - find what u're saying pretty interesting, and wanted to bounce some things off you. What's best way to connect? You can email me at udai (at) askme (dot) com

pg3• 19 years ago

I realize there are a lot of talented hackers in India, but our next "destination" is the 99% of hackers in the US who could start startups and instead just go get jobs at big companies. Even in the US, we've just begun.

pageman• 19 years ago

I don't think there's enough visas at the moment (even without YCombinator getting into the fray)

falsestprophet• 19 years ago

I bet you could get creative enough with the law to allow foreigners to work without a proper visa.

I am not a lawyer but I imagine if the team can get a tourist visa for three months, their new company was incorporated off-shore, in Ireland or the British Virgin Islands, and paid them in their home countries in advance for three months work that they could live in the Bay Area and participate fully with the added bonus of lower corporate taxes.

Or everyone could go to jail.

budu32• 19 years ago

The US might be the most favorable environment for tech startups but it is not the only breeding ground for great tech startups. South Africa (Ubuntu Linux), India (Hotmail), Brazil (Orkut), Sweden/Denmark (Skype), China (Maxtheon browser) and the list goes on.

ralph• 19 years ago

The advantage of the US seems to be a large pool of candidates can move freely between states. The other place I can think of like that is the EU where a resident is allowed to work in another country without requiring a visa, etc. The differing cultures of the EU's countries is an extra benefit.

nrohan• 19 years ago

I guess IIT Powai had started KRSIT course for this sort thing. Although, it seems thats not very much successful.

Anyway, the main reason as already stated is that such people land in US rather than in India to become rich!

And even if someone builds such product in India, US is the main market to sell it. Selling the product remotely is not that easy!

juwo• 19 years ago

It is high time India (and Russia, China, Vietnam etc) founded their own angel investors. People willing to risk, willing to believe in their own people.

We rely too much on the generosity of America.

The IT boom in India has been largely, IMHO, as a result of American projects rolling in.

Why cant we generate our own?

All the Valley VCs from India (they are too well known for me to mention) should be ashamed of themselves. The top VC in the world is Indian.

that is why Bill Gates gives $100M and plenty of his time and energy to eradicate diseases in India's children. LN Mittal who is the 3rd or 4th richest man in the world, gives how much to his home country? (no reports of his giving).

Selfishness. that is the bane of India. That is why you have beggars on the streets alongside Mercedes Benzes.

And yet another unpopular post from me. :)

Can India be next Y Combinator destination?

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