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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.
- pg 16y agoNever been, but I'd like to go one day.
- skbohra123 16y agoand we would love to welcome you here.
- petervandijck 16y agoI have been a few times, and it's a truly fascinating country. Well worth a visit / vacation.
- edanm 16y agoWhile we're on the subject, have you ever been to Israel? Great startup scene here too.
- shachar 16y agoseconded
- rick_2047 16y agoThere is an even inspired by startup school in India. Its by IIM-A called CIIE. And they do not concentrate just on web startups. Maybe you can visit that sometime
- bosky101 16y agoi'm trying to get ryan carson (FOWA) and geeks on a plane (GOAP) to visit india in '11. will love to have you here as well. on another note, the first seedcamp 'india' edition is happening in mumbai dec '10.
- neilxdsouza 16y agoHey - thanks for this news. We were not selected for the YCombinator round, but I just sent in an application for the seedcamp 'india' edition. Im from Mumbai :D
- arnorhs 16y agoI was there for 5 months last winter. I'd like to live there. Crazy country but so nice.
- rbyrne 16y agoI know I'm not Paul Graham, but since we're on the subject... 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?
- SingAlong 16y agoIf you are coming to bangalore, lets meet :)
- skbohra123 16y agoyeah, that would be awesome.
- lappet 16y agoIf your are going to Mumbai, don't miss the street food. Especially the vada pavs. And you must absolutely take a ride in the local trains! Save the touristy stuff for later.
- devasiajoseph 16y agoI would recommend Kerala also. Its in the far south
- timruffles 16y agoI'm heading out there in January, couldn't be more excited :) Any HN folks out there? Edit: Just found out there's a BarCamp there - http://groups.google.com/group/barcampkerala?pli=1 http://groups.google.com/group/barcampkerala?pli=1 - maybe I'll head along!
- kingsidharth 16y agoYou should attend Startup Saturday in Delhi http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/ http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/
- indraneel24 16y ago
- lusis 16y agoHaven't been in about 10 years but it was an awesome trip. I would love to go back some day after the kids are grown. I spent a month there interviewing H1B candidates.
- rikthevik 16y agoI've very excited to see India from a tourist perspective. 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.
- enry_straker 16y agoTake things with a pinch of salt.There's a local saying here which, loosly translated, is as follows: 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.
- zoomzoom 16y agoyou will probably get more offers of hospitality on this post than ever before.
- eriksank 16y agoMy experience with Indians is fantastically good, but I am wary of India itself. 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 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" :-)
- ankeshk 16y agoThis is true. You absolutely need to know the art of bribing to get things done in India. Because people who pay Rs50-100 ($1-2) to the right person will jump way ahead in the line. So if you don't bribe - or don't know how to bribe - things will take very very long for you. This goes for everything from getting a new internet connection to filing papers for a new company incorporation. 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 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 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.
- jarsj 16y agoYou are talking about the India before 1991. "Licence Raj, also the Permit Raj, refers to the elaborate licenses, regulations and accompanying red tape that were required to set up and run businesses in India between 1947 and 1990.[1]" 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.
- flacon 16y agoIndia is great. I spent 6 weeks there. Not really a good place to just wander around though....I will eat you up....assault all your sense at once. I recommend getting a few contacts before heading over there and then work from there. Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad seem to be the big centers of tech over there. Have fun!
- jganetsk 16y agoI am going to Mumbai and Goa for 2 weeks in December, would love to meet up with some hackers.
- ankeshk 16y agoBuzz me when you'll be in Mumbai. My email is in my profile.
- aberkowitz 16y agoIt is unclear what you are trying to accomplish with this post. If you want to talk to PG, perhaps an email would have been better; if you wanted to start a discussion about startups in India, the title could have been rephrased. As you might have guessed, this is my personal opinion - so feel free to take it, or leave it.
- writetoalok 16y agoIts an innocent, curious question. Don't see why it has to accomplish anything. That said I would be interested in PG and other peoples response on this question.
- endtime 16y ago>Its an innocent, curious question. Don't see why it has to accomplish anything. Because if you post something on HN that doesn't accomplish anything, you are lowering its signal:noise ratio.
- skbohra123 16y agoI don't know why this post is getting so many upvotes and got onto front page. May be more people are interested in this topic? I thought sending a private email asking this question would be awkward, whereas here he can choose to answer or just ignore it.
- jason_kelly 16y agoI will be staying in Hyderabad for 6 weeks in Jan and Feb. It will be my second time there, and I'm definitely interested in plugging into the hacker scene there. Any events/tips to know about?
- gauravgupta 16y agoThere's probably no big "startup scene" here worth talking about (except may be in Bangalore) but if you are in Delhi, it'll be great to to meet you :)
- panbhatt 16y agomost welcome skbohra,, hope to see forward to your visit. please contact, if required help in Delhi, NCR.. my contact id is in my profile...