

Indian version of Y Combinator... - prabodh
http://iaccelerator.org/

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plinkplonk
"Indian version of Y Combinator"

Yeah Right!

From the FAQ

"When the company is formed we set up a bank account. When the bank account is
set up we deposit a check for the full amount of our commitment ie. 5 Lakh
directly into it. A company secretary is brought in to distribute funds from
the company checking account as per the budget instructions. Adjustments to
the budget can be made at board meetings. Founders _do not_ have direct check
writing control of the bank account."

You need to buy an extra laptop, wait for the next board meeting and/or get
approval from the "Company Secretary".

"Founders _do not_ have direct check writing control of the bank account!"

Sounds like a great way to run a startup!

And they have the audacity to call it "The Indian version of YC".

I doubt PG and co sit around approving line items and writing checks every
other day! AFAIK they hand over the money at the beginning and that's that.

~~~
known
Perhaps to prevent rampant Collusion, Corruption and Casteism in India.
[http://business.rediff.com/report/2009/sep/24/indians-
among-...](http://business.rediff.com/report/2009/sep/24/indians-among-most-
corrupt-while-doing-business-abroad.htm)

~~~
plinkplonk
"Perhaps to prevent rampant Collusion, Corruption and Casteism in India."

(If you were being sarcastic, I couldn't detect it in your sentence, so I will
respond to it as written. Apologies if I didn't catch the tone right.)

yeah sure. When a seed funder decides to spend 10,000 $ on a company _after_
extensive interactions with the team, his first concern is to avoid "collusion
corruption and casteism" and so he has to have line item veto ;-)

I wonder if PG and co lose their 17,000 $ occasionally to people who just take
the money and blow it gambling in Las Vegas? After all they just hand over the
money, with no "guarantee" that the team will _actually_ start coding/running
a company.

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sundae79
Sorry to be all negative about this. I am guessing this would be another
IIT/IIM circle jerk. Everyone else will be filtered out. I will change my
mindset when I see the proof. Till then, cynical.

~~~
hiteshiitk
What is so wrong about IIT circle?

No doubt, they are top brains of India. PERIOD

~~~
keeptrying
Actually most IIT-ians are amazingly persistent in a way that, I think,
overshadows their "genius". It takes a heckuva lot of studying to get through
that test. Years and years of studying. To be able to do that you have to be
amazingly persistent.

That kind of dogged persistence helps when doing a startup.

The IIT-ian you need to watch out for is the one that keeps reminding you that
he's from IIT. This kind of guy has usually not done anything else with his
life.

Sridhar Vembu of Zoho went to IIT-Madras. He aint doing too bad!

So IIT helps but you certainly dont have to be an IIT-ian to succeed. Some day
I hope to prove that :P ...

The only negative "opinion" that I have about IIT-ians (from the ones that I
have met) is that they are very good at solving clearly defined problems but
they have a hard time defining the problem itself. Ie they have a hard time
figuring what the problem is in the first place. If you can give them the
problem, clearly defined, they will solve it for you.

(Again this could just be my prejudice :) ...

~~~
ajju
You should look up Sridhar Vembu's posts on anti-credentialism. In fact he
prefers hiring kids out of highschool and teaching them programming rather
than hiring engineers (let alone engineers from the IIT).

I love the IITs. Of the 5 enlightened professors I met in India, 3 were at an
IIT. I had some of my best times at events at IITs. But using those as a
filter is stupid and as you point out, in the case of those who brag about
having gone to an IIT, its invariably counterproductive in my experience.

~~~
keeptrying
Thats only because he cant afford IIT-ians.

Seriously if theres one credential which you ever do respect its IIT
(pre-2000) graduated. At one point of time they were either very very bright
or very very hardworking. Of course this might have changed in the years after
graduating from IIT.

(Note: After 2000, they rebranded a lot of the state level colleges to "IIT"
status.)

~~~
heuristix
There's a huge difference between respecting credentials and filtering based
on them. The former is not binary. I am simply arguing that an IIT degree is
neither necessary nor sufficient to be a successful entrepreneur.

~~~
keeptrying
Absolutely.

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coderdude
I tried <http://news.iaccelerator.org/> and was disappointed.

~~~
pibefision
If needed, I could help on bring up a site like news.ycombinator.com using
Reddit opensource code. (like <http://www.123emprender.com>). Let me know!

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revorad
Is anyone here applying? What are living expenses like in Bangalore? 5 lakh
(500,000 Indian rupees or ~$10,000) is a lot of money, isn't it? It sounds
like they have literally copied YC, forgetting the difference in living costs!

~~~
kniwor
5L is not a lot of money in Bangalore but for 5 to 10% equity, good feedback
and support I would be very much interested. Sadly their application deadline
was September 12. :(

Approx burn per person in Bangalore: Initial: Relocating+ house deposit+
registration+ CA + desktop + table + chair + net connection setup + office
stationary: About 1L. Monthly: Rent + utilities + food + net + cheap vps:
12-15k, Phone + travel: 5k. Extra: 15k.

So, we are looking at about 60k monthly and 1.5-2L initial burn for 2 non-
Bangaloreans to go and do a start up there.

~~~
avinashv
I think that is painfully high. What is the "extra" 15K? What kind of phone do
you use that costs you 5K, travel included? My very expensive phone plan costs
me less than 1000/mo because 75% of my calls are made roaming. I spend over 5K
a month traveling, yes, but my commute is 55km each way. If I worked in the
city, say, 15km from where I lived (which is high), phone+travel would be
under 1500mo.

Disclaimer: I live in Mumbai.

~~~
kniwor
Err yes... I too am in Mumbai. My phone bill comes to 1000/mo and traveling to
about 2k but you got to budget for the occasional flight to meet potential
investors or for a family emergency back home. So I think a net 5k a month
average is reasonable. One could certainly get rid of the 15k a month but that
would probably amount to getting rid of insurance and the national savings
scheme and stuff like that. That's probably a personal call though...

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chaosprophet
You want 10pc equity for 5 Lakhs and all you are going to do is setup a bank
account, which cannot be directly operated by the founders??? Top it all of
with a Wordpress blog for a website, and you're not really instilling much
confidence.

Comparisons to YCombinator is highly unfair to YC.

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jnaut
Not comparable to YC.

Having said that, I think the initiative is good, though its not mature yet.
They are evolving over time, they have come from saying something like "we
will put in a big place and give you a bed, table, pc and Internet connection
so that you can work whenever you wake up" [treating as kids or just coders,
2008] to saying something like "we will give 5L and open an account for the
company" [treated as entrepreneurs, 2009]. Still, a long way to go.

The 2008 archives with some photos
<http://www.ciieindia.org/blog/category/iaccelerator/> . I do agree that they
have a bad choice of photos on the blog, it does effect PR.

Moreover they will need someone like PG to make it like YC, that ain't
happenin' that easy. :-)

Still, I wish them luck! We do need "worthy" YC clones in many countries.

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ajju
Freeman Murray seems like a cool guy. iAccelerator doesn't seem to be
bureaucratic like the other incubator type things I have seen in India. The
best part is iAccelerator is also in my hometown of Ahmedabad. Go
iAccelerator, I am rooting for you.

~~~
freemanindia
Thanks for the plug. iAccelerator is moving to Bangalore for this year's
winter season.

~~~
subbu
Its a bit late now. The last date was Sep 12 :(

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greml1n
Is the guy on the right wiping his nose on his shirt or sniffing his arm pit?
Not to be picky but that immediately shot out at me when the page came up.

In any event, the world needs more of these.

~~~
baguasquirrel
You should probably do them a favor and fire off an email if you think it's
bad PR.

~~~
mahmud
I liked it. Bunch of good ole desi boys hanging out. I am tired of the faux-
posh bollywood look.

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arithmetic
It'll be very interesting to see the kidn of start-ups that come out of this
venture, even if its not useful to compare it against what Y Combinator has
produced.

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ashishk
I would consider moving to India for a top-tier incubator program. It seems
like a nice long-term bet to place.

~~~
netsp
An interesting question is what sort of bets are better placed in India.

Presumably, business models that require labour more or less linear to scale
would be the right kind to base in India. That is the opposite of what startup
generally gets thought of as otherwise. I see no reason why a services
'startup' is a bad idea. There is plenty of improvement to be made there.

