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Pay attention to the Indian startup scene
- 0x6A75616E 6y agodeleted
- ackbar03 6y agoI know right! Outsourcing must be really picking up, I get tons of helpful calls from Microsoft support telling me how to use TeamViewer
- dang 6y ago"Don't be snarky." "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- umeshunni 6y agoSomething interesting about the startup scene in India is how the center of gravity has shifted over the last 10 years from Bangalore / Hyderabad to New Delhi. Elad Gil's recent post mentions this: http://blog.eladgil.com/2020/10/unicorn-market-cap-industry-towns-2020.html http://blog.eladgil.com/2020/10/unicorn-market-cap-industry-... with Bangalore having 8 unicorns vs Delhi's 11. "While Bangalore continues to thrive, some point to bad governance locally (traffic, high rents, passive government) as one of the reasons it is not the only center. There are undoubtedly other reasons, but it is worth thinking about relative to San Francisco longer term."
- Jedd 6y ago> ... Bangalore having 8 unicorns vs Delhi's 11. How much of that is related to government influence (the effectiveness of pushing Bangalore & Hydrabad to be tech centers)? I note that Bangalore's population is 8m, while Delhi is 21m. If it was 'unicorns per population' then you'd naively expect a ratio of 8:21, not 8:11.
- mav3rick 6y agoDelhi has 4 really good engineering schools as well (IIT and IIIT-Delhi are world class, DCE/DTU and NSIT / NSUT have equally smart kids). In my experience they aren't going for big company jobs now but are more geared towards joining smaller firms or starting something of their own. Co-working space is also a big thing there. Transport isn't as bad as Bangalore. Hope the air is better and women's safety increases as well. The food is the best in India - my biased take :)
- RhodoYolo 6y agoHoly crap - I forget sometimes how many people are in India. Compare those two numbers to LA's 4M people and you start to remember how small America is population wise. With the way that tech is going AKA Eyeballs/ads/consumerism equals money, the tech scene in India is going to be much bigger than the US in the future.
- phendrenad2 6y agoAs someone who's never been to India, when someone says "Bangalore" I think "tech hub" and when someone says "New Delhi" I think "Bollywood". Do people feel a pull toward New Delhi the way people feel a pull toward NYC here in the US?
- mlboss 6y agoBollywood == Mumbai
- vm 6y agoWhile I can't speak for Delhi, Mumbai is closer to the "NY of India" and attracts young people in the same way
- HJain13 6y agoIf we are going to compare cities Mumbai == LA (Film Industries) Delhi == NY (Not much to support this but the Rude people stereotype)
- niyaven 6y agoNot really, the financial center of India is Mumbai. Bombay Stock Exchance is in Mumbai, as its name implies. You could say the Wall Street of India is in Mumbai. Anyway, I'm not sure it would make sense to make these comparisons.
- jogjayr 6y agoNah. Mumbai has stock exchanges (BSE and NSE), banks and financial institutions, ports, the TV, music, and fashion industries. It's far more similar to NYC than New Delhi is.
- akchin 6y agoDelhi is DC - capital of the country, lots of politicians and bureaucrats. Also spread out quite a bit and with lots of impressive historical and government buildings. Mumbai is LA and NYC sort of combined - entertainment capital (Bollywood) and financial capital (main stock exchange, banks, Dalal street (equivalent of Wall Street). Also like NYC, cramped with lots of skyscrapers.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y agoI've been to both Delhi (more accurately, Gurgaon) and Bangalore on business assignments. I don't mean to sound unfairly harsh, but it's difficult for me to imagine a city that basically feels like it's constantly trying to kill you become a center of startup activity, for the simple reason that once one becomes wealthy enough to invest in startups one would want to leave the city for a better quality of life. The air quality and pollution problems in Delhi are like nothing I have ever experienced. When I was there (granted, it was exceptionally poor air quality even for Delhi at that time) I could not see the sun at midday due to the smog - I couldn't see more than 100 feet due to the smog. I felt like Blade Runner could have been filmed in Gurgaon - a post apocalyptic world with giant buildings but a dire lack of accessible green space. Even if there were much green space, I couldn't spend much time outside because every breath tasted like acrid metal. I'm not saying San Francisco and Silicon Valley are some utopias either - they obviously have a slew of social ills (often debated on HN). But I have never realized how much I have taken for granted being able to breath clean air, and I really hope Delhi is able to clean up its pollution problems, but until it does I can't see it becoming a truly globally competitive startup center.
- umeshunni 6y agoI think Elad's point wasn't that Delhi will become a global startup center, but that it became India's startup center from behind since the original leader (Bangalore) suffered from poor governance over the last 15 years. The parallel to the US could be that, over the next 10-20 years, NYC (or some other new hub) overtakes the Bay Area / SF for similar reasons.
- radicaldreamer 6y agoBased on covid mortality, it’s arguable that Silicon Valley is better governed than people give it credit for. Not only has mass death been avoided so far in the Bay Area (compared to the situation in New York metro area earlier this year), California has been battling multiple emergencies during at the same time (see the extraordinary fire season this year)
- deleted 6y ago
- kartickv 6y ago8 vs 11 is too small a sample size to say either way. It may very well be that a couple of these startups succeeded due to their business model / luck / sector / whatever which wouldn't apply to the next startup. If it were 0 vs 11, that would mean something, but 8 vs 11 is too close. Instead of counting unicorns, we should count the number of successful exits, such as acquisitions. Or, second best, the number of companies that reached (say) series C funding.
- srtjstjsj 6y agoI believe it. There's some really slick Indian stuff in the Arduino/Scratch space, and it overcomes the usual English-to-English linguistic pitfalls that tend to make Indian less products unappealing to USA users.
- patja 6y agoAs an Arduino enthusiast who has taught kids using Scratch, I'm interested in this. Can you list some examples?
- thrwoe234343 6y agoWhat saar ? India bad English-ah ? English is our Mather tongue saar. Hindi ? No, no saar. Hindi is for chapprasi kids; we are proud Aryans and send kids to English Medium only saar. OR Tamil ah ? No, no saar. Tamil is for those chapprasi kids; we are proud Dravidians and send kids to English Medium only saar. After all, St. Thomas graced this land with God's language and all... who wants this useless India language and all. /s
- choonway 6y agoNumbers mean nothing. I give you a million road sweepers and you won't end up with any product at all. Talent is gravitating towards US - that's an undeniable fact.
- xwdv 6y agoI tend to agree, the business climate in India holds back any serious startups with global aspirations. Eventually they come to find ground in the US.
- arthtyagi 6y agoI'd have to disagree. Only partly though. You mentioned a well established phenomenon, brain drain and it's true that the Indian talent gravitates towards the Silicon Valley or for the most part at least tries to but this is the point of the article as well, this phenomenon is slowing down a bit, not as much Indians gravitate with their startups to the US as they did say, a decade ago. This shows progress and this is what the whole point is, progress. With the extreme H1B conditions at the moment, it's unlikely people will take extra steps to just get to the US when they can try setting it up in India.
- cmdshiftf4 6y ago>With the extreme H1B conditions at the moment, it's unlikely people will take extra steps to just get to the US when they can try setting it up in India. Would those interested in H1Bs but who are struggling to get one not simply go to Canada instead?
- Polylactic_acid 6y agoOr Europe.
- crossroadsguy 6y agoI don't know how many would face this issue but I personally can't live in a place where winters are too cold and too gloomy and too indoor. We are a warm country in general. Even the winters in the plains are pretty open and outdoorsy during daytime.
- dragonsh 6y agoI hope investors put more money in India in medtech, biotech, Pharma and Agritech instead of this current trend of investing in worthless consumer startups. India is much more stronger in biotech and Pharma than IT which is primarily a outsourcing work based on human labour cost arbitrage. Indian eco-system is very complex and many of the figures are made up for investment by startups without any means of verification. Given cost of acquiring users in India is very very low, getting large users to show traction even for a mediocre or fake product is easy. India leads the IT outsourcing industry which offer manpower as a product to support a legacy system or software on which most developers in developed nations don’t want to work as there isn’t a big future in it. Most famous Indian IT companies are mostly Human Resource Management company optimised for cost arbitrage between the salary in India vs US (and other developed places). Most IT firms processes are made around mandays (already a gender biased term), to make sure salary paid is 1/5th to 1/6th of the overall revenue this person generates from customer. Except few, most startups are get rich quick schemes in India in which founder takes the money and there isn’t any recourse for investors given the rule of law takes ages to have results examples like Oyo and BYJU are everywhere.
- segfaultbuserr 6y ago> India is much more stronger in biotech and Pharma than IT Interesting. I'd like to see a citation.
- pstrateman 6y agoIndia ignores other countries patents on medical things. Not sure what the legal justification is, but the actual justification is obvious.
- segfaultbuserr 6y agoYes, we all know it, but this is the only thing I know about biotech and Pharma in India. It doesn't really tell how "much more stronger" the industry is than IT, which is why I asked for a citation.
- 6y ago
- 0df8dkdf 6y agoYeah India tech is awesome and often over looked. They launched 20 some satellite in 2 weeks with very little money. NASA and Elan you can learn some from the Indians!
- 0df8dkdf 6y agohttps://tribune.com.pk/story/1128048/india-launches-record-20-satellites-single-mission https://tribune.com.pk/story/1128048/india-launches-record-2...
- 0df8dkdf 6y agoYeah why the down vote? It is interesting to see US/West centric view on stuff like this on hacker news. Fact is other countries are doing stuff better and cheaper in high tech like space tech.
- dunefox 6y agoBetter and cheaper than NASA and ESA? I highly doubt that.
- HeadsUpHigh 6y agoAt this point, anyone is cheaper than Nasa.
- HJain13 6y ago104 Nano Satellites in one go https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/science/isro-sends-104-satellites-in-one-go-breaks-russias-record/articleshow/57159365.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/science/isro-sends...
- oyebenny 6y agoEw. No thanks. USD is NOT safe in India.
- sg47 6y agoWhy ew?
- dpacmittal 6y agoProbably a racist and a xenophobe
- arthtyagi 6y agoYour submission is a dupe. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24884059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24884059
- arthtyagi 6y agoThe submission is in fact a duplicate, check the source I added. You could just acknowledge it at the very least or ignore it but downvoting for no apparent reason isn't the best way.
- kaushikt 6y agoConsidering the number of outsourcing companies in India, I believe we are very far from reaching the peak of product based India.
- nine_zeros 6y agoThe current cohort of 20 year olds are educated, smart and building companies or working in startups. If they manage to find good exits in a couple of years, they can become angel investors after that. Thus teenagers of today will be founders of Ant financial of the next decade of India. India today looks like China from 2000-2007. From an EU perspective, it's mind numbing to see so much growth. If they only followed traffic/parking and had a slightly better electricity and water infrastructure, they would be as good as some countries in EU but with better companies and constantly producing new jobs. Why wouldn't you just call your representatives and force them to enforce traffic laws in your neighborhoods? You are this close.
- puranjay 6y agoI don't know if I can agree. The early startup scene is far less energetic and exciting than it used to be 7-8 years ago. Most of the funding is cornered by mature startups that had their start a decade ago, and are still seeking their first exit. The good part is that more and more startups are tackling tough industries like insurance. But it does feel like we're past the crest of the wave.
- rehman 6y agoFew SAAS companies like Whatfix has grown tons as well.
- kpowerinfinity 6y agoWhat is fascinating is that the Indian economy as a whole hasn't been doing too well lately. Verdict is out and you'll read both interpretations but here's one from a Nobel Laureate: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/india-among-worst-performing-economies-in-world-stimulus-inadequate-abhijit-banerjee/articleshow/78389453.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/ind... The startup activity in India is the bright side of the story. We are still riding the boom that came due to Jio and mass adoption of "data" - but I worry that the overall slowdown in the economy will catch up with the startup ecosystem at some point.
- blueblisters 6y agoThere are signs that India's early consumer/b2b startup ecosystem is heating up like China's. I am not sure the YC playbook of Team, Idea, Product and Execution work too well at this stage - in fact it might put startups at a disadvantage if they're too focused on processes early on, it just slows you down. If your idea gains traction, you can expect multiple competitors in your space in a matter of weeks, nearly identical perhaps. This has happened for video conferencing software, recruitment software, shopify-like website builders and more. In such situations, it might be worth learning how successful Chinese startups set themselves apart from the pack.
- smdz 6y agoDon't get fooled by India's startup hype. India has one of the world's "best" anti-business systems that will create hurdles all along the way to the top. If you do get to the top, the same systems will become your ally (as you would have learned to grease those). Apart from the regular business troubles and risks, the unease of doing (not just starting) business in India is a huge growth barrier. And it is worsening. The bureaucracy is just horrible and spiced with corruption all over from taxation to approvals. The leaders have little control on that. And it may not visible for first 1-3 years of business growth time, it consistently hits and threatens you as you grow further. Having said that - Any economy focused strong leader in India could flip that view in a matter of 6 months or a year. It might require reducing the bureaucracy resources by 70-75%. Otherwise the country might be selling the same hopes & dreams for next 50 years or more. India has talented resources and is potentially a talent goldmine, but they are mostly hidden, misused, abused, suppressed, unaware or just moved out. I guess this will attract a lot of downvotes
- known 6y agoTo succeed in India you need to be a member of either of these 3 mafia BRAHMIN mafia https://archive.is/BFZlJ BANIA mafia https://archive.is/1iser KSHATRIYA Mafia https://archive.is/imIlk
- known 6y agoIndia is unique; It has Producers, Consumers and Leeches https://archive.is/pOmij https://archive.is/pOmij