grease    maybe not ... but for someone to become as big as Google, just having the right conditions does not suffice either ... we need startups to look beyond the obvious "markets"

  2 years ago

grease    One could argue that startups might do that only if funding exists for groundbreaking ideas, but that's a circular logic

  2 years ago

grease    The number of internet users in India might be a concern, because startups will have to figure a way to promote/market themselves in the internet rich west while being setup from India

  2 years ago

freeman    once something starts looking like google, it will likely be compelled to move to silicon valley. India could easily remain home to thousands of 37signals type companies tho.

  2 years ago

grease    I agree. Companies that build useful, inexpensive products that someone is ready to pay for can blossom without investment. They're (in some sense) scale independent

  2 years ago

rampr    I think one model that has worked very well in India is companies doing service in parallel with making the product

  2 years ago

sokka    A niche internet startup like cleartrip or redbus are making fair amount of money. What do you mean by US market gives niche startups a better chance?

  2 years ago

grease    Take, for example, a startup like typepad which caters to the higher end of blogging market ... Redbus & cleartrip help people do things online that were already been done offline before .... But for a company like typepad to make money, you would need a sizeable number of serious bloggers - which in turn is a small percentage of the number of *serious* internet consumers

  2 years ago

raghu    Ya I agree with @grease ... I cant recall an internet startup in India catering to the indian market that provides services that are purely online (i.e the service has no counterpart in the offline market) and is making money... Guruji is the only exception to this ...

  2 years ago

raghu    I think most of the internet access in India is thru internet cafe's and dial up connections where the cost of usage is per hour basis. Consequently people do not spend significant amount of time on the internet. Also, this leads to people going to internet with a specific purpose (chatting, social network updates and checking email) ... This can mean that the number of serious internet users is possibly an order of magnitude less than that in the US ...

  2 years ago

grease    So with fewer people who can *try out* newer services, it becomes difficult for companies to get that critical mass of users which will propel them further ....

  2 years ago

raghu    I dont agree with the comment above ... The number of internet users in india must be growing at a high pace which means getting people to try out new things might be easier ... however getting them to pay for the service can be difficult

  2 years ago

grease    Are you saying that since the num. of internet users is increasing, it is easier to get users in India than US?

  2 years ago

raghu    ya new users do not have the fatigue that we have...

  2 years ago

aDeSe    doesn't this depend more on the adoption.. i think the people in India are still not the first adopters of anything new on the internet or anywhere else.. difficult to convince people to use a new product / service in our country..

  2 years ago

rampr    The number of users using the internet via the mobile is growing faster than on the PC

  2 years ago

grease    @emacsian, that is an very interesting statistic - almost counter-intuitive ... internet access via mobiles leaves a lot to be desired, both in quality & price ... I wonder what is driving this growth

  2 years ago

rampr    I think for one reason, mobile devices are cheaper than PCs so lot of people have access to internet. Plus with advertisements on TV, people are becoming aware of the internet and it's power

  2 years ago

raghu    I am not sure it is fair to compare startups in India and US ... the type of startups you will find here in India and US are very different

  2 years ago

grease    yep ... I quoted the US number not for comparison, just some related information

  2 years ago

raghu    you read more than I do on the internet ... given that you havent come across this number I'll assume it is not available ... Ill propose a few reasons why the sucess rate should be much lesser than 10%

  2 years ago

raghu    1. Angel/Seed funding in India is less accessible than in US... I do not have direct exp but many ppl who spent some time in the silicon valley felt the same way

  2 years ago

raghu    2. support infrastructure for very young startups (the ones like ycombinator) are just starting to take shape in India ...

  2 years ago

grease    Since we're comparing Indian startup environment vs its US counterpart, here's an interesting take by Vishal Gondal ... http://www.godinchief.com/entry/4-cultural-differences-between-indian-silicon-valley-startups/

  2 years ago

grease    His points indicate that lower success rates in India is simply a function of the stage of evolution of the startup scene here

  2 years ago

raghu    I strongly agree with Vishal's point that Indian startups do not collaborate with each other today ... Having been part of a few startup related communities, I realized that we still don't see startups helping other startups .... most communities are largely showcase & networking events .... Perhaps, entrepreneurs are better served with very early stage incubators where they can learn from and help other startups

  2 years ago

raghu    I agree ... incremental innovation is not well accepted in the entrepreneur community today, unless you are already operational and seeing some traction

  2 years ago

grease    By acceptance, do you mean acceptance by the investor community?

  2 years ago

raghu    both investors and co entrepreneurs...

  2 years ago

grease    Does this have to do with people not having confidence in the abilities of entrepreneurs (especially, those with their first attempt) to execute a simple product?

  2 years ago

raghu    I am not sure, but a simple concept is not very appealing to people. However, once the idea takes shape as a product, it makes more sense.

  2 years ago

grease    :) in short, people may appreciate simple products, but not so much simple ideas ...

  2 years ago