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.
Hello Rad:
I am puzzled about your comment. Either you have set up way too many companies or you are a lawyer or an accountant. It is hard to guess since you choose to remain anonymous without publishing your name. I wonder why?
I think there is a lot of education and awareness that needs to be created and many new entrepreneurs constantly struggle with setting up a company. Sometimes that is compounded if you happen to be a “a foreign returned *.*” as you so politely put it. Jingoism simply obfuscates the complexities that are involved in setting up a company. Perhaps, you will be kind enough to spell out the steps and write a post on it since you have such a strong view?
Setting up a company in India is not easy and you would know it if you have been through that complex maze. As one entrepreneur put it the complexity has moved from the babus to the online world. Try getting a PIN number, a DIN number and countless other numbers to get your paperwork completed before you can hang a board outside your office.
But, more than anything else I am really curious on why you would make such a strong statement? Lashing out really does not solve any problems. But, engaging in meaningful dialogs surely does result in better understanding. I hope you can engage in a dialog.
Thanks!
Kamla
Such a lame explanation Kamla…you still don’ know enough about the paper work and bureaucracy? How many stories you wan to hear? And isn’t it the typical Indian mentality of kissing every foreign returned ass, as if someone is returning home to liberate an emancipated nation…
Anup: Thanks for that. The “public portfolios” is an opt-in – by default all portfolios are private, and you have to check and make it public manually.
Community features such as “follow this user” will then be dependent on whether users make their portfolios public or not. Of course this bit isn’t ready yet!
Nicely done interviews. I like the homework you do before the interview.
your website still needs some work.
Hello Vyas:
Knowing them wss definitely not a criteria 🙂 If I use that as a criteria then I’d have to interview a lot more people.
Deepak and his co-founder are doing something v. different..it is in the financial space, which is something that you don’t come across v. often. In India, you typically you only hear of people in the tech space, at least that is the case in Bangalore. Everybody seems to be in mobile space there.
Girish is also an interesting entrepreneur..he is a US-returned academician turned entrepreneur. I was curios to hear his story since there is still a fair bit of opaqueness and bureaucracy is setting up a startup in India. The paperwork is mind-boggling at times! For instance, I can register a new company in the US online and can have my paperwork within a couple of days. That is not the case in India. How did Girish deal with that? I was curious to know and plus he was doing something very different too…it was not a mobile vas company or an IT services company.
Hope this give you a better idea on why these two entrepreneurs were selected.
Thanks for asking that question.
Kamla Bhatt