Vision India 2020: MIT India

Twelve years ago, in 2008, it was clear that the labor arbitrage–based IT services industry that had made India a player in the global technology market was facing a threat. The key issue was supply-demand equilibrium. India’s engineering education system simply could not keep up with the demand for talent.

Building Tech Startups in India: Observations

In my conversations, I focused on the interaction between entrepreneurs and the external environment. i.e., primarily around the activities of reaching customers, hiring employees, seeking advice and raising funds. Accordingly, the key issues center on the following four factors: Market Money Mentors Manpower

Indian Entrepreneurship Blogs

Here are some of the blogs that report or reflect on the Indian entrepreneurship phenomenon. I tend to keep an eye on these (and others), along with numerous offline conversations, to stay on top of the trends developing in the business. Venture Woods: India’s leading VC and Entrepreneurship blog with a vast host of experienced

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Turning Around LeapFrog: CEO Jeff Katz (Part 3)

SM: Was Saber under American Airlines or on its own? JK: Saber, by that time, was a public company. It was not controlled by American Airlines anymore. The Chief Financial officer at United had the idea that the airline industry needed to form its own competitor to Travelocity and Saber, otherwise the industry would be

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Cash Salary vs. Options

If you think Bangalore is the only place where talent is migrating to larger companies and bigger cash salaries, think again. Ann Winblad says not. In Silicon Valley, Google, Apple, Yahoo, VMWare are pulling talent away from startups. So what are VCs and entrepreneurs going to do for their employees? The simple answer is probably

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VC Compensation & Returns

As part of the VC-Entrepreneur Compensation disbalance discussion, my friend Sunil Bhargava of Tandem Entrepreneurs (check out what they do) sent me the following chart, showing some concrete data on VC compensation, and Private Equity industry performance: VC Compensations: Rising

“Protect Your Dilution” – Justin Floyd

The phone rang this morning, just as I put the last piece of peach in my mouth. It was a scheduled call with Justin Floyd, Founder of SmartFundit. Rene Bonvanie mentioned the company during our recent interview. What followed was a hilarious conversation that started with a very “British” guy, introducing himself, and my saying,

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