Seems like we are not the only set of folks who are wanting to fix the problems we see around us and build a “sustainable” atmosphere around us. There is a post by Ryan who runs FOWA taking a stance against the Web Mission effort that is getting organized by the UK Government and quite a fair list of heavy weights, including Techcrunch. I think this post is important to observe for a couple of reasons.
The striking similarities that we hear from folks around us in:
1. Thinking that the Silicon valley for some reason offers more opportunities.
2. Europe just like India, in most cases, seems to think that you only get funded if you hit the valley. Atleast we aren’t that bad. We have much more easier access to capital.
3. There are folks like FOWA (Future of Web Apps) who are trying to build a vibrant community of users, developers and startups in Europe, very much like how we are working on the same – with arguments that they have “everything that they require right there”
4. There are also people, most of them, who seem to think that the UK companies should be looking into the valley for users and potential exit strategies.
I’ve been working on a post that shows a snapshot of interaction between startups, venture capitals and the markets from across the globe – the valley, Canada, Australia, Europe and India. You’d be surprised how similar most conversations are. Trust me, things are not so hard because we are in India, neither too easy because we are here. We are just facing the same harsh realities as anywhere else. Perhaps the world is flatterning. Huh! who thought I’d agree to that, so easily!
I’ll leave you with this comment by Phil Bradley in that post, which just gets the message home without any explanations:
“The equity gap between seed and series A that plagues the UK will not be resolved if we can’t demonstrate maturity and ability to build profitable businesses.”
That just eerily sounds like the issue we face here.
PS: I haven’t thought through this yet, but I believe this only applies to Internet/Media related startups.
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It was tough for startups in India, but things are better now. There are 2 – 4 seed level sources. Yes there needs to be more, but I think these 4 seed level investors are not fully deployed due to lack of high growth startups.
India is a large market and is growing fast, I don’t think it’s a write off by any standard, just slower, so one must keep the burn low initially !
Jaspreet: Our education and society is not that bad either. That’s a post for another day 🙂
I would say EU is still much better than India, because –
1. Look at number of exits German startups had last year.
2. Web penetration and startup product adoption is much better. (Ironically, while we were trying to hit APAC market, we had more EU hits and buys than APAC.)
3. Education system is much better and society is a lot more free.
– J
Yep 🙂
And you dont have anything smart to say, oh boy! 😛
Misery loves company 🙂