Some Indian start-ups shun funding in bid to retain independence

http://livemint.com/Companies/hZXXOXHl9euEdJMSkvpKMM/Some-startups-shun-funding-in-bid-to-retain-independence.html

by paraschopra • 13 years ago

69 26 13 years ago

kamaal• 13 years ago

Firstly, Congratulations Paras.

One more company that comes to my mind is HasGeek(http://hasgeek.com/). HasGeek is definitely the best thing to have happened to the entire scenario. And they are based on pretty much the same lines, which is they are totally self sufficient.

For all those people with MegaCorp day jobs. You can do a lot of low bandwidth side projects to start up. If you are interested and persist enough then much can be achieved in spare time, both learning and money wise.

kushsolitary• 13 years ago

I would add browserstack too.

kislayverma• 13 years ago

BrowserStack +1!!

paraschopra4• 13 years ago

FusionCharts is another fantastic Indian bootstrapped story! Here's an ebook on their journey: http://www.fusioncharts.com/story/

moha297• 13 years ago

This is a huge paradigm shift....I feel happy that it is happening in India :)

Hitchhiker2• 13 years ago

Live free or die hard ;-).

markdown2• 13 years ago

WTF, every single one of the ~20 links in that article points inwards!

I regret giving them a page view.

Hitchhiker2• 13 years ago

Its actually a rather interesting / cunning behavior in contrast to the given ecosystem. Abstractly, this coupled with a suitable robots.txt could unravel the Google economy. Perhaps even establish a linear relationship between " yahoo, everything is free " people.

paraschopra4• 13 years ago

Yes, we were hoping we would get link back to our product or company. Linking inwards really is a pathetic UX, even at the expense of SEO. I hope Google sees and penalizes such UX.

criley• 13 years ago

I'm a bit surprised that people find this new or interesting.

Many sites have played the "dozens of links inward" game for some time. Almost every business site will provide links for every business or stock mentioned, all heading inward into their site further.

Here's an example: the first article I clicked on on the first page I knew behaved similarly: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100644923

Looks pretty similar.

nnnnni3• 13 years ago

Ugh, yet more startup news? Is this Hacker News or Startup News?!

facorreia2• 13 years ago

Er, I suppose it's Y Combinator's site? The startup funding company?

nnnnni3• 13 years ago

Er, so what? It's called Hacker News, not Startup Funding News.

krmmalik• 13 years ago

Congratulations Paras! I love hearing about boot-strapped stories.

paraschopra4• 13 years ago

Thanks :)

rikacomet3• 13 years ago

Congrats Paras, nice to hear that you share the same urge for independence as myself as well. Can we perhaps arrange a meeting, if you live near Delhi? Add me on skype if so.

My skype: carl.theteuton

neilxdsouza• 13 years ago

Hey, If you are planning an HN meetup in and around Delhi, please let me know too. nxd_in at [[ yahoo dot com ]]

rikacomet3• 13 years ago

Its a good idea, we can do a HN meetup in future, I'm working on making that possible somehow.

paraschopra4• 13 years ago

Yes, I'm based out of Delhi. Shoot me an email: paras {at} wingify {dot} com

rikacomet3• 13 years ago

Email sent.

helloamar• 13 years ago

Yes that's rite, I've turned down two VC, now entered our 11th year with 6 companies.

chiph• 13 years ago

I think if India can get past the "Entrepreneurs are losers because they're not doctors or engineers" social aspect, they'll have a lot of advantages that SV doesn't have. Mainly because they're natural crowd-funders.

What I've observed is that friends in India are very tight -- they'll do almost anything for each other. And if you have a friend with a startup, you'd certainly lend them some money.

So, they may not need VC money, and may not need angels, but they do potentially have a lot of "micro-angels" to raise funds through.

ashray• 13 years ago

I think this is absolutely awesome! Congratulations to all the startups who are pulling this off!

I do however think that when startups have proven themselves, and have a steady cash flow, but want to race to the top, VC funding may be the way to go.

I personally experienced this with a startup with a very healthy balance sheet. The reason for VC funding was pretty straightforward "We need money to expand internationally".

Local market dominance is usually quite possible with bootstrapping however international expansion poses a totally different challenge (first challenge: hire an experienced management team for it..).

VC funding plays a big role when it comes to the big guns. If you want to be the next Mc Donalds or the next Hyatt, it may be important.

Local market dominance is also great while being bootstrapped, if you want to play acquire-me, but that could just as easily be stomp all over me.

I guess that's what makes this business so exciting ;)

Some Indian start-ups shun funding in bid to retain independence

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