5 ms·

A YC Clone in India

24 points by aneesh 19y ago

ideas101 19y ago
i'm extremely delighted to know this ... BRAVO ! Now i'm waiting for waiting for a clone in Canada ...
tuukkah 19y ago
Although they want to be a YC clone, it seems they haven't read their PG to understand the point of YC. "We provide RescueTime (www.rescuetime.com) and 8aweek (www.8aweek.com) on your systems to keep an eye on what you are doing." "We provide each one of you (individually) with a stipend of Rs 8k p.m." "Microsoft would be the Technology and Mentorship Partners for the iAccelerator Program."
- theoutlander 19y ago
  Seriously, I hope they are kidding with the rescuetime thing! Have they given birth to a new form of slavery??
  - kunalupadhyay 19y ago
    Including Rescuetime and 8aweek in our content for promotion of the program was our attempt to highlight successful YC innovations. Believe me in India very few people (including VCs) know about YC - we'd hope more people get to know about YC. Not the clones, but the original YC.
    - plinkplonk 19y ago
      "Including Rescuetime and 8aweek in our content for promotion of the program was our attempt to highlight successful YC innovations" - (A) Hmm. The original sentence was "We provide RescueTime (www.rescuetime.com) and 8aweek (www.8aweek.com) on your systems to keep an eye on what you are doing." (B) How are the applicants supposed to infer A from B ? Is this another attempt at "humor on the internet"?
      - checkout 19y ago
        Proves my point. Failed to crack CAT uh? Trying another attempt at inference problems - alas! For someone who doesn't know what rescuetime is - he would have Googled and figured out that its a product from YC. I didn't know about YC till I came across this program in India.
davidw 19y ago
> We don't want you to go to your accommodation before 12 midnight - so we provide you mattresses near your workspace for resting. There's anyways a security guard outside your work-area - so you don't get to leave the office before 12 midnight and you don't get to sleep in the office. Attendance happens at 9:30 am every morning. Sundays are off if you have met your weekly goals! Uh... nice try but no cigar, guys.
- attack 19y ago
  This whole thing must be some kind of joke.
  - tuukkah 19y ago
    Let's just say their culture is not your culture or my culture.
- umjames 19y ago
  Wow. If I want that kind of treatment, I'll keep my current day job in IT. Seriously, would this sort of arrangement be acceptable for most people in India? I don't think anyone could put up with that, but for so long.
  - ashu 19y ago
    (I am from India.) No, I think that's just bizarre. As a people, we aren't as much averse to structure as US people are, but this is taking things a bit too far. And I honestly hope that these people are only kidding when they talk about all these "we will watch you" kind of things.
    - theoutlander 19y ago
      I think the problem is that we are notorious for slacking off!
- byrneseyeview 19y ago
  Does anyone know if this kind of thing is still practiced? I can think of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (factory doors were locked to keep people from misbehaving; the fire was disastrous), De Beers (built concentration camps for workers so they couldn't fence diamonds), and the drug trade -- does anyone else work under actual guards?
theoutlander 19y ago
puke
- theoutlander 19y ago
  Oh come on...enough with the negative points :( ... I just hate the idea of third grade programs! YC is one of a kind and it should stay that way!!
  - aneesh 19y ago
    Yeah, you shouldn't be able to downmod below -1. That's enough to send the signal. Otherwise people will just keep downmodding and go in for the kill. I heartily disagree about you wanting YC to stay one of a kind though. The beauty of our capitalist society is that if anyone wants to try to do it better, they can give it a shot. It's to YC's credit that so many people want to copy it. And I think they welcome that.
  - ashu 19y ago
    i think people wouldn't have downmodded you to this extent if you had said the above instead of "puke". it's the "what do i make of that response" irritation which causes people to do that.
prakash 19y ago
I think the most important couple of things a YC Clone needs is strong mentorship from someone who's been there, done that and a strong hacker community. Both of which seem to be missing at a cursory glance, and from the way they have worded it, seems like a prison of sorts :-)
- ptm 19y ago
  MBA schools in India seem to be taking a lead in incubation. Of course, you are not likely to find hackers, mentors (in a startup sense), or entrepreneurs there.
  - sachindev 19y ago
    yes for sure....a lot of techies do end up doing their MBAs but rarely follow the tech-path post that...interestingly thou i've been reading about iim grads doing tech start-ups (not to mention the biggest successes of indian web 1.0 ventures - rediff, naukri n makemytrip were iim grad ventures and not iitians)....incubation is beginning to happen in India even at engineering colleges...i am from an NIT (comparable to some of the better IITs) and they've taken a leaf from IIMs to implement the placement holiday...i dont have to take the risk of not finding a good job in case my start-up fails...my college lets me sit in the placements over next 3 years
- sonink 19y ago
  not really ..check this out .."Once the prototype is ready, IIM Ahmedabad students shall work closely with the teams to develop a sound business plan and get traction for the product."..so finally the business guys will get in and teach a thing or two to the hacker group ;)...sounds like a plan.
pg 19y ago
Wow, the first YC clone to actually admit they're one. An encouraging sign of honesty; I voted them up.
- ajju 19y ago
  Since they actually name yc, it is my opinion that you should write a post about how their adaptation of it is (horribly) wrong. In addition to everything that is morally wrong with their rules, they make little business sense. If you don't trust the founders to manage their own time how can you trust them to be major share-holders and leaders of the company you are investing in?
  - pg 19y ago
    Oops, didn't mean to seem to be endorsing them. In fact I haven't read the site.
byrneseyeview 19y ago
"What better than Microsoft, for valuable insights on IT to our enthusiastic Participants" ...
- theoutlander 19y ago
  Must be April fools?
- sachindev 19y ago
  i know sun and microsystem do promote a lot of startups in india...does google do a similar program?
msft_hater 19y ago
What are these people. 8K rupees a month = $200. Security guard - are you kidding me ? the culture in india is risk averse. i grew up there, went to undergrad there and then come to an engineering school here. i had no trouble getting job offers, but declined them so I can do a startup, and my mom still feels so insecure that she asks me to take up a job with microsoft every time i talk to her.
- umjames 19y ago
  I think you're doing the right thing by doing a startup. Keep fighting the good fight. You have to do what makes you happy, which may not be what makes your mom happy. Remember, it's you who will have to live with your choices in life, not your mom.
- theoutlander 19y ago
  Why do you hate MSFT? It makes sense to pursue your dream! What does that have to do with taking a job at MSFT vs any other company?
  - msft_hater 19y ago
    microsoft represents the old guard, the place where nobody gets fired and no superstar survives; the 'mediocre'. it represents security, 'the known'
    - aniketh 19y ago
      i guess that is how it is. a lot of people trade the joy of work for job security.
      - theoutlander 19y ago
        I think it is the company as a whole and the benefits that they provide make ppl very comfortable with where they are. Plus, a lot of them don't won't to take chances like us!
    - 19y ago
ajju 19y ago
For a second I was afraid (and happy) that they beat me to this. Then I looked at the details. Its a scary hybrid of archaic school rules and a lack of repsect for latent business abilities of hackers with the yc concept. I hope someone beats me to it because my plan is to first start a startup, learn how to do it right, make money to invest and THEN instantiate an object of a subclass of yc.
- ashu 19y ago
  Right on! You've got some competitors :)
okeumeni 19y ago
No doubt that YC is a great idea, I don’t think it is in anyway an 'internship' or 'sabbatical' . Am I missing something here?
- checkout 19y ago
  Hmmm, maybe. But it does provide we students a similar platform for launching our innovative ideas into the market.
zaidf 19y ago
Attendance at 9:30am? LOL. I love my birth country but some things we just gotta learn, like trusting entrepreneurs to work when they like(DOH).
- theoutlander 19y ago
  I agree! Seems more like a scout camp :D ... sundays off if you are on schedule?? It's a startup....you're never done!
plinkplonk 19y ago
(I am Indian and I have friends in the IIMs). Scarily enough these guys are serious. They think they are actually doing something "cool". The whole idea seems to be that "real hackers" (note the quotes) would feel "challenged" by such an environment and buy into it. After all why else would they want to attend a google interview? (ignoring the fact that Google India is no where near as cool - in terms of work done or quality of people hired - as Google California). In short this is just managers living in their own fantasy world. No real hacker would take these guys seriously.
- checkout 19y ago
  Read some of your posts. You seem to be a good for nothing migrant who can't appreciate a novel attempt to promote startups in India. More so, you must be one of those guys who couldn't make it to Google, couldn't make it to IIMs and now massages your ego criticizing everything good that happens in your motherland. Ridiculous !! We are a bunch of IIT CS grads all set to apply to this program at IIMA and take our ideas to fruition. Look forward to your more of your criticism once we are successful.
  - sachindev 19y ago
    control dude...lets not make it personal...plinkplonk does have a point but he cannot understand our requirements...it seems iima does....see you at iima hopefully...:)
startingup 19y ago
It is foolish to make any very general statements about "India" (just as it would be to make very general statements about "America"). Too large an entity to make generalizations.
morbidkk 19y ago
RescueTime/8aweek why? Let founders manage what they want to do. Am I applying to bschool or job; just checkout the application form. project plan;milestones,timelines: Are we getting MS Project and free Manager there? I would teach something to security guard and let him do some interestring work rather than keeping watch on us. I hope it turns out well. I wish PG starts YC India chapter.
- sachindev 19y ago
  who is pg?....will be gud to have a yc in india
  - ptm 19y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham
kunalupadhyay 19y ago
Apologies for having done a bad cloning. I represent CIIE - group which is doing the iAccelerator. We definitely can't match what YC has done. We are still open to ideas and would love to get your advise and restructure the program. However, we would like you guys to understand the Indian innovation scenario before any suggestions. In a space where there is limited innovation happening, very few university start-ups happening, very few "IT-expert students" creating anything world-class or anywhere closer (other than doing some outsourced software services) - we feel this is a step to try something new to push people into starting-up an innovative company. Our aim is to change the statistics of number of kids starting up out of college. And believe us, if we can't make a huge difference and end up creating 3 start-ups out of this process - we would have succeeded. For those who understand this space better, we would love to have your feedbacks and how we can use this model better. Apologies PG and YC fans (believe me I am one of them), we are just trying to bring some disruption in our innovation system. Look forward to your inputs. Best, Kunal
- morbidkk 19y ago
  If aim is for tech startups; you must spread this message in enginnering colleges/IITs across India.
  - kunalupadhyay 19y ago
    yes doing that...
- rms 19y ago
  The main criticism was that you enforce draconian working standards. In YC, people work hard because they want to. You say you have a guard to prevent people from leaving. It sounds bizarre.
  - kunalupadhyay 19y ago
    Yes, I understand. We were actually kidding. But I guess the message wasn't put across in the right manner. Have changed the text anyways. I thought people would understand that we can't be so cruel and must have been kidding. Apologies for the assumption. Yes, we do provide people mattress next to their workplace - give them the luxury of resting as and when they want. We are trying to be as friendly as possible. Thanks for your feedback. It's not gonna be a jail believe me.

24 points by aneesh 19y ago

i'm extremely delighted to know this ... BRAVO ! Now i'm waiting for waiting for a clone in Canada ...

Although they want to be a YC clone, it seems they haven't read their PG to understand the point of YC. "We provide RescueTime (www.rescuetime.com) and 8aweek (www.8aweek.com) on your systems to keep an eye on what you are doing." "We provide each one of you (individually) with a stipend of Rs 8k p.m." "Microsoft would be the Technology and Mentorship Partners for the iAccelerator Program."

theoutlander 19y ago
Seriously, I hope they are kidding with the rescuetime thing! Have they given birth to a new form of slavery??
- kunalupadhyay 19y ago
  Including Rescuetime and 8aweek in our content for promotion of the program was our attempt to highlight successful YC innovations. Believe me in India very few people (including VCs) know about YC - we'd hope more people get to know about YC. Not the clones, but the original YC.
  - plinkplonk 19y ago
    "Including Rescuetime and 8aweek in our content for promotion of the program was our attempt to highlight successful YC innovations" - (A) Hmm. The original sentence was "We provide RescueTime (www.rescuetime.com) and 8aweek (www.8aweek.com) on your systems to keep an eye on what you are doing." (B) How are the applicants supposed to infer A from B ? Is this another attempt at "humor on the internet"?
    - checkout 19y ago
      Proves my point. Failed to crack CAT uh? Trying another attempt at inference problems - alas! For someone who doesn't know what rescuetime is - he would have Googled and figured out that its a product from YC. I didn't know about YC till I came across this program in India.

davidw 19y ago

> We don't want you to go to your accommodation before 12 midnight - so we provide you mattresses near your workspace for resting. There's anyways a security guard outside your work-area - so you don't get to leave the office before 12 midnight and you don't get to sleep in the office. Attendance happens at 9:30 am every morning. Sundays are off if you have met your weekly goals! Uh... nice try but no cigar, guys.

attack 19y ago
This whole thing must be some kind of joke.
- tuukkah 19y ago
  Let's just say their culture is not your culture or my culture.
umjames 19y ago
Wow. If I want that kind of treatment, I'll keep my current day job in IT. Seriously, would this sort of arrangement be acceptable for most people in India? I don't think anyone could put up with that, but for so long.
- ashu 19y ago
  (I am from India.) No, I think that's just bizarre. As a people, we aren't as much averse to structure as US people are, but this is taking things a bit too far. And I honestly hope that these people are only kidding when they talk about all these "we will watch you" kind of things.
  - theoutlander 19y ago
    I think the problem is that we are notorious for slacking off!
byrneseyeview 19y ago
Does anyone know if this kind of thing is still practiced? I can think of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (factory doors were locked to keep people from misbehaving; the fire was disastrous), De Beers (built concentration camps for workers so they couldn't fence diamonds), and the drug trade -- does anyone else work under actual guards?

theoutlander 19y ago

puke

theoutlander 19y ago
Oh come on...enough with the negative points :( ... I just hate the idea of third grade programs! YC is one of a kind and it should stay that way!!
- aneesh 19y ago
  Yeah, you shouldn't be able to downmod below -1. That's enough to send the signal. Otherwise people will just keep downmodding and go in for the kill. I heartily disagree about you wanting YC to stay one of a kind though. The beauty of our capitalist society is that if anyone wants to try to do it better, they can give it a shot. It's to YC's credit that so many people want to copy it. And I think they welcome that.
- ashu 19y ago
  i think people wouldn't have downmodded you to this extent if you had said the above instead of "puke". it's the "what do i make of that response" irritation which causes people to do that.

prakash 19y ago

I think the most important couple of things a YC Clone needs is strong mentorship from someone who's been there, done that and a strong hacker community. Both of which seem to be missing at a cursory glance, and from the way they have worded it, seems like a prison of sorts :-)

ptm 19y ago
MBA schools in India seem to be taking a lead in incubation. Of course, you are not likely to find hackers, mentors (in a startup sense), or entrepreneurs there.
- sachindev 19y ago
  yes for sure....a lot of techies do end up doing their MBAs but rarely follow the tech-path post that...interestingly thou i've been reading about iim grads doing tech start-ups (not to mention the biggest successes of indian web 1.0 ventures - rediff, naukri n makemytrip were iim grad ventures and not iitians)....incubation is beginning to happen in India even at engineering colleges...i am from an NIT (comparable to some of the better IITs) and they've taken a leaf from IIMs to implement the placement holiday...i dont have to take the risk of not finding a good job in case my start-up fails...my college lets me sit in the placements over next 3 years
sonink 19y ago
not really ..check this out .."Once the prototype is ready, IIM Ahmedabad students shall work closely with the teams to develop a sound business plan and get traction for the product."..so finally the business guys will get in and teach a thing or two to the hacker group ;)...sounds like a plan.

pg 19y ago

Wow, the first YC clone to actually admit they're one. An encouraging sign of honesty; I voted them up.

ajju 19y ago
Since they actually name yc, it is my opinion that you should write a post about how their adaptation of it is (horribly) wrong. In addition to everything that is morally wrong with their rules, they make little business sense. If you don't trust the founders to manage their own time how can you trust them to be major share-holders and leaders of the company you are investing in?
- pg 19y ago
  Oops, didn't mean to seem to be endorsing them. In fact I haven't read the site.

byrneseyeview 19y ago

"What better than Microsoft, for valuable insights on IT to our enthusiastic Participants" ...

theoutlander 19y ago
Must be April fools?
sachindev 19y ago
i know sun and microsystem do promote a lot of startups in india...does google do a similar program?

msft_hater 19y ago

What are these people. 8K rupees a month = $200. Security guard - are you kidding me ? the culture in india is risk averse. i grew up there, went to undergrad there and then come to an engineering school here. i had no trouble getting job offers, but declined them so I can do a startup, and my mom still feels so insecure that she asks me to take up a job with microsoft every time i talk to her.

umjames 19y ago
I think you're doing the right thing by doing a startup. Keep fighting the good fight. You have to do what makes you happy, which may not be what makes your mom happy. Remember, it's you who will have to live with your choices in life, not your mom.
theoutlander 19y ago
Why do you hate MSFT? It makes sense to pursue your dream! What does that have to do with taking a job at MSFT vs any other company?
- msft_hater 19y ago
  microsoft represents the old guard, the place where nobody gets fired and no superstar survives; the 'mediocre'. it represents security, 'the known'
  - aniketh 19y ago
    i guess that is how it is. a lot of people trade the joy of work for job security.
    - theoutlander 19y ago
      I think it is the company as a whole and the benefits that they provide make ppl very comfortable with where they are. Plus, a lot of them don't won't to take chances like us!
  - 19y ago

ajju 19y ago

For a second I was afraid (and happy) that they beat me to this. Then I looked at the details. Its a scary hybrid of archaic school rules and a lack of repsect for latent business abilities of hackers with the yc concept. I hope someone beats me to it because my plan is to first start a startup, learn how to do it right, make money to invest and THEN instantiate an object of a subclass of yc.

ashu 19y ago
Right on! You've got some competitors :)

okeumeni 19y ago

No doubt that YC is a great idea, I don’t think it is in anyway an 'internship' or 'sabbatical' . Am I missing something here?

checkout 19y ago
Hmmm, maybe. But it does provide we students a similar platform for launching our innovative ideas into the market.

zaidf 19y ago

Attendance at 9:30am? LOL. I love my birth country but some things we just gotta learn, like trusting entrepreneurs to work when they like(DOH).

theoutlander 19y ago
I agree! Seems more like a scout camp :D ... sundays off if you are on schedule?? It's a startup....you're never done!

plinkplonk 19y ago

(I am Indian and I have friends in the IIMs). Scarily enough these guys are serious. They think they are actually doing something "cool". The whole idea seems to be that "real hackers" (note the quotes) would feel "challenged" by such an environment and buy into it. After all why else would they want to attend a google interview? (ignoring the fact that Google India is no where near as cool - in terms of work done or quality of people hired - as Google California). In short this is just managers living in their own fantasy world. No real hacker would take these guys seriously.

checkout 19y ago
Read some of your posts. You seem to be a good for nothing migrant who can't appreciate a novel attempt to promote startups in India. More so, you must be one of those guys who couldn't make it to Google, couldn't make it to IIMs and now massages your ego criticizing everything good that happens in your motherland. Ridiculous !! We are a bunch of IIT CS grads all set to apply to this program at IIMA and take our ideas to fruition. Look forward to your more of your criticism once we are successful.
- sachindev 19y ago
  control dude...lets not make it personal...plinkplonk does have a point but he cannot understand our requirements...it seems iima does....see you at iima hopefully...:)

startingup 19y ago

It is foolish to make any very general statements about "India" (just as it would be to make very general statements about "America"). Too large an entity to make generalizations.

morbidkk 19y ago

RescueTime/8aweek why? Let founders manage what they want to do. Am I applying to bschool or job; just checkout the application form. project plan;milestones,timelines: Are we getting MS Project and free Manager there? I would teach something to security guard and let him do some interestring work rather than keeping watch on us. I hope it turns out well. I wish PG starts YC India chapter.

sachindev 19y ago
who is pg?....will be gud to have a yc in india
- ptm 19y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham

kunalupadhyay 19y ago

Apologies for having done a bad cloning. I represent CIIE - group which is doing the iAccelerator. We definitely can't match what YC has done. We are still open to ideas and would love to get your advise and restructure the program. However, we would like you guys to understand the Indian innovation scenario before any suggestions. In a space where there is limited innovation happening, very few university start-ups happening, very few "IT-expert students" creating anything world-class or anywhere closer (other than doing some outsourced software services) - we feel this is a step to try something new to push people into starting-up an innovative company. Our aim is to change the statistics of number of kids starting up out of college. And believe us, if we can't make a huge difference and end up creating 3 start-ups out of this process - we would have succeeded. For those who understand this space better, we would love to have your feedbacks and how we can use this model better. Apologies PG and YC fans (believe me I am one of them), we are just trying to bring some disruption in our innovation system. Look forward to your inputs. Best, Kunal

morbidkk 19y ago
If aim is for tech startups; you must spread this message in enginnering colleges/IITs across India.
- kunalupadhyay 19y ago
  yes doing that...
rms 19y ago
The main criticism was that you enforce draconian working standards. In YC, people work hard because they want to. You say you have a guard to prevent people from leaving. It sounds bizarre.
- kunalupadhyay 19y ago
  Yes, I understand. We were actually kidding. But I guess the message wasn't put across in the right manner. Have changed the text anyways. I thought people would understand that we can't be so cruel and must have been kidding. Apologies for the assumption. Yes, we do provide people mattress next to their workplace - give them the luxury of resting as and when they want. We are trying to be as friendly as possible. Thanks for your feedback. It's not gonna be a jail believe me.