Loading ...I recently did two interviews with two very different but passionate entrepreneurs: Deepak Shenoy, co-founder of Moneyoga and Dr. Girish Saraph of Vegayan Systems. Over the past year or so I have spent a fair amount of time talking to both of them and have followed their journey as entrepreneurs.
Deepak and I have spoken at length about entrepreneurship, startup environment, Bangalore, etc over the phone, but never got around to meeting over that cup of filter coffee in Bangalore. Blame it on the messy traffic congestion in Bangalore that precluded me from going to his part of town! Deepak is a passionate and seasoned entrepreneur and it was great fun interviewing him. In the interview Deepak made some great points about entrepreneurship in India.
Girish is an academician turned entrepreneur that I met at the TiE Mumbai conference in 2006, where I interviewed him the first time around. He was very excited at having won the TiE_Canaan Challenge for that year and was looking forward to going to INSEAD Singapore to spend 6 weeks there. I remember how Girish patiently and methodically answered all my questions about the software his company was building and gave me the big picture overview that also helped me in getting a better grasp of his company. Methodical is the word that comes to mind when I think of Girish since that trait or character is reflected in the manner in which he has plotted the course for his startup and in the way he did this interview that I did earlier this week.
Dear Freind,
I understand that starting a company makes pass through lot of legal process and registration . But i hope u will appreciate that it is part of governance process. And dont u think if not instantly on net but smothly next Door CA can get it all done in a months time. Fair enough I think. Though it should be furthe stremlined . We are lot better than what we were few years back.
Clarification: What I shared about setting up of comapanies was gathered from talking extensively to entrepreneurs and from my own experience. I tried setting up a company a couple of years ago, and I know of numerous people who have set up companies and know the issues they faced while through the process. One entrepreneur had to wait 6 months to get his paperwork done before he could get VC funding…but he was diligent and thorough and did not any loose ends. The process is still opaque and that leads to quite a few problems and there is nothing wrong in higlighting that. Do talk to entrepreneurs who have set up companies and received funding and they will tell you the unexpected delays and problems they run into when they have allocate share certificates or take care of other paperwork.
I remember what it was like to set up a company in 1992…anyone remember that time? So, yes compared to 1992 the process has changed quite a bit, but it is not at a point where you can go to one place online, register your company, receive the company seal and tax number and get going all within 48 hours. I wish Rad they had vending machines in the US to dispense all those various tax id numbers etc, it would be so much fun
It was both educational and interesting to read the various comments on this thread because it gave me a pretty good insight into how people think
and how as Amartya Sen pointed out we do love to argue. My, don’t we all love to jump to conclusions, and I am certainly not deleting myself from that group!
Best of luck to all those who have companies or are looking to set up companies.
Thanks,
Kamla
Kamla,
I too returned from abroad and started a company.
To register a company and start selling there are a set of procedures. Knowing that you have to obtain a PIN,DIN, PAN, TAN, Sales Tax No, professional tax No etc. took me time. There are also rules to register with RBI etc for receiving and sending money.
Once you know what is to be done, you have to follow a set of procedures whether in India or abroad it is the same.
What I agree is these rules are not clearly laid in one place in India. You probably have to meet another entreprenuer and you’ll get all the insights.
Sometimes we have a slow process, like the server at mca, or getting a corporate credit card (atleast for me).
But then, you are an entrepenuer, so you have to be extremely patient. Patience and Perseverance are 2 good virtues which I am trying to improve upon.
Rgds
Vyaas
Vikas
Just to clarify, I never tried to register a new company
with the MCA site.
My experience was with analysing some companies which I
did for another project. Also, my experience has been
with turning a provisional DIN into a permanent one;
this is not to do with the site per se, but dealing with
the MCA people.
Having said that, I dont think anyone has a pre-conceived
mindset about govt. We just go by experience, in fact, we
give huge benefit of the doubt to the govt.
For instance, I have very good experience with the Bangalore One bill payment service. I dont complain about
it at all.
I have also dealt extensively with the govt. and know
that when a certain minister wants to pay you, it can
happen instantly. There is no bureucracy involved at all
or all delays disappear.
But I fail to understand why we have to judge govt. by
a different standard than we judge private companies.
If I recall right, we have had discussions on this very
board where we have discussed how Indian private company
websites have had bad UIs or something to that effect.
Why dont we judge the MCA website by that standard then,
but instead there are huge number of guys trying to defend
eseentially a very pathetic site/UI by all standards of
the term.
regards,
Samir
PS: I agree with you again on the point that speed of
registration does not have anything to do with the
success of the venture. Sometimes however, you want to
register a company fast to beat some other deadline. In
such a case, these things matter.
though the discussion is not mca.gov.in site, let me add my experience.
setting up companies is not a very difficult job at all. though there will be many people like samir who will tell you horror stories about it. i do not point it as his fault. the services and interface could have been better and maybe he has really had some bad experiences with the site.
however, we need to get out of our mindset of ‘everything indian and sarkari has to be pathetic/unworkable/silly’. maybe kamala should try and register a company and see for herself rather than quote anonymous people making sweeping statements.
moreover i agree with the view that the speed of setting up a company has nothing to do with the venture being successful.
yeah, talking about mca.gov.in site, one cannot imagine that one can
have such a slow site for the company affairs division of a country which is supposed to be an IT super power.
It is an ideal example of how the UI shouldnt be.
Try analysing a company out there, and you have to figure out some
numbers of a company, for which there is just no instructions. One has to be a genius to make guesses and figure out things. The error
messages wont tell you anything.
Also, if you dont do things in the right order, you have to do things
all over again. And of course, there are no instructions as to
what is the right order.
I pity my CA. To get my DIN turned from a provisional one to a
proper one, the poor guy had to send my form a
number of times. They will confuse first name and last name and what not. But CAs of course in India are epitomes of patience. They will do all
the dirty work that is required including perhaps standing in queues outside the Babus’ offices and what not.
I tell you one needs to have ultimate in patience to get through this electronic maze. After you register a company, doing business is
much easier! No wonder after one has gone through this test of
fire, Indian entreprenuers could prosper in any other system.
But then, I figure those of Indians who have never been outside
India — for them, this system is like heaven compared to the
hell it was previously. For those who have been abroad, this
is no good.
And btw, after shifting the system to an electronic one, uploading
of every form is charged like Rs. 400/-. I dont know where the
money goes, if they cant use it to increase the server speed.
At least in the manual case, these forms such as one for change
of directors, one could turn them in without paying a fee.
regards,
samir
Kamala,
I think when people abroad and “foreign returns” take a fresh look at India, they want to see things complicated.
India is just another different system. While online and vending machines works well in US, hiring or buying people for money works equally well here.
Think like a entrepreneur to get things done and make money out of it, not like an idealist or educationalist.
- J
Dear Kamla
I have set up a company in India in recent past. And though it took some time, it was not a difficult process at all. Of course you will never get DINs and PINs at vending machines.
Go to mca.gov.in You can apply for the DIN and PIN there as well as search for the availability of company names. You will immediately get provisional numbers. It hardly takes more than two weeks after that. I made some mistakes filling the forms and got an email from the registrar office explaining it.
It is not that difficult to get in touch with a good CA who will help you with all this. It doesn’t cost a lot either.
Btw, I was also foreign returned at that time.
I apologize for my strong statements, but sometimes I just can’t take it.
Kamla,
It isn’t “that” difficult to register a company. Find a good CA and she/he will do the stuff for you. I did face some problem ( while trying to get the name, TCS system software went down) but it isn’t nerve jangling.
I don’t think any new venture fails/succeeds due to the speed/complexity of registering the company. Ofcourse, processes can always be made better. And they are getting better.