

Ask YC: Thoughts on remotely cofounding a startup (in India)? - ajju

A friend has asked me to start a startup with him and a third friend. They plan to do this in India and I can't join them for at least a year. The are o.k. with me working remotely (albeit full time) on it. It seems to me that doing this could be equivalent to accepting all the pain and frustration without being able to fully participate in the good parts. I don't know if this is accurate.<p>I have two questions for news.yc:<p>What is your take on working remotely on a startup? (Especially if you've done it yourself)<p>Has any of you started a startup in India? What have been some of your good and bad experiences? Is there any aspect of doing this in India that seems especially harder than elsewhere? (I am from India but in the US now)<p>Here are the reasons I am even considering this:<p>- I really really really want to do this
- My cofounders are awesome. One of them is one of my best friends and independently, the first person I would think of hiring even if he wasn't a friend.
- The problem space we would be working on is very promising (I know the idea can/will change)
- We have got some really encouraging responses from experienced entrepreneurs about need to solve the problem we are trying to solve.<p>The cons:<p>- My cofounders are committed to doing this in India for personal reasons. I am not in a place in my life where I can move (back) to India for another year.
- I would be working alone, full time.
- The time difference between EDT and IST is 9.30 hours which means we would have at most 6 hours and realistically 3 hours of overlapping time every day unless I sleep during the day and work at night.
- Bangalore is going down the drain in terms of infrastructure (roads, traffic, real estate prices) and there is hardly any startup ecosystem in any other city (correct me if I am wrong here)
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usaccounts
Where's your market ? And what kind of product is it ?

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ideas101
you have asked many questions ... startup scene is not bad in india - the VC
fundings are also available there ... apart from that you need to decide by
yourself whether you can commit time and energy that can add value to your
friend's dream. also if you are in US then you can also take advantage of all
the startup programs and apply for it to see whether you can get launching
pad. you may also explore about incorporating your company in USA to leverage
benefits (if any). Also communication with your partners will be the key ...
all 3 of you will be required to be on the same page as far as vision of your
product/service is concerned. Lots of time will be invested in tele-
conference, also make sure how you are going to get your partner equity, keep
everything on paper and legal so that you dont face any problem in the future.

EDIT: it also depends what role you're going to play from here, will you be a
main hacker? if yes, then you will be busy in communicating to your partners -
if you are going to handle online sales, marketing and PR from here then it
could be easy and fast due to broadband connection and other infrastructure.

All the Best !!!

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ideas101
by the way - if you are going to work full-time (from here) then how are you
going to survive? do you have enough savings? i think you must have plan-b
ready just in case if things go wrong ...

