Why the Indian Market Continues to Disappoint

Indian B-to-C startups started off with huge promise and were constantly compared with China’s Alibaba. But the reality has been consistently sobering. The Economist offers some excellent analysis on the phenomenon in two articles: India’s missing middle class and India has a hole where its middle class should be.

Some notable points:

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11 Podcasts with VCs Interested in Indian Startups

Indian entrepreneurs should listen to this set of podcasts to get into the minds of investors who offer invaluable insights.

Naren Gupta, Nexus Ventures – As a co-founder of a firm with an excellent track record of investing in the Silicon Valley – India corridor, but with a global market point of view, Naren shares his insights, nuggets, and interesting wisdom.

Ashish Gupta, Helion Ventures – Co-Founder of one of the key players in India’s venture capital eco-system, Ashish shares his valuable perspectives throughout this crisp and insightful conversation.
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The Imminent Death of Indian Outsourcing

On February 29, 2008, Forbes published my column that remains a highlight in my career in tech journalism: The Coming Death of Indian Outsourcing. I found myself on the receiving end of a deluge of hate mail on a scale that I have never encountered before or after. I am known as a relatively balanced, objective, and fair commentator on the state of the industry. I don’t sensationalize issues unnecessarily. This article, that I thought was sound in its logical analysis, triggered an immense defensive reaction.
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The Future: India Will Take AI on the Chin

India’s development over the last two decades owes a lot to globalization and IT outsourcing from the West.

Today, the Indian IT-BPO industry employs 3.7 million people.

A large portion of this is relatively low skilled, or at least mid-range skilled positions.

Artificial Intelligence, it seems, will deliver on its promise on many vectors. Low-skilled tasks that can be automated WILL be automated. This will start showing impact relatively soon. Some analysts like HfS research have projected a job loss of 640,000 by 2021.
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Kolkata Event, October 22 – Rendezvous with Sramana Mitra

Sramana Mitra is inviting Kolkata area entrepreneurs to join her for an informal evening of conversation and camaraderie at her family home on Saturday, October 22, from 6pm to 9pm. Unique opportunity to make connections, exchange ideas, and interact with fellow entrepreneurs in a welcoming setting. REGISTER HERE

Kolkata Event, October 17 – Sramana Mitra on The Future of Capitalism

While India continues to follow the path of Silicon Valley Capitalism, Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur Sramana Mitra will be speaking about The Future of Capitalism on Monday, October 17, from 6pm to 7:30pm, at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park, Kolkata – the largest NGO in India. Great chance to learn, discuss, and clarify your own ideas about capitalism with a top thought leader, influencer and writer on the topic. REGISTER HERE

Startup Ideas Combining Italian Design and Indian Craftsmanship in Fashion

If you’ve read Vision India 2020, you may recall a project called Urja. In it, I explored the idea of creating a fusion brand with Italian designers working with Indian artisans and craftsmen specializing in different domains such as Chikkan from Lucknow, Tasar from Bengal, etc. This project, like all the Vision India 2020 projects, was designed to be a very large company, and hence the distribution and financing strategy was accordingly different.

Now I have a different lens on. I am thinking of small-scale ideas that will stimulate a thousand new brands, each focused on a specific craft, a specific style of customer, and sell through channels that are easily accessible and not very expensive.
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1M/1M Premium Company Freshdesk Raises $31 Million From Tiger Global and Google Ventures

We just did a roundup of the CloudCRM space, covering Zendesk’s successful IPO and predicting that the space is heating up, and more acquisitions will follow. Our premium company Freshdesk is definitely a key target!

Today, Freshdesk announces its new round of funding of $31 million led by Tiger Global, with Google Ventures and their original investors, Accel Partners, following. This brings their net funding to $44 million. The latest round is priced at $250 million. The company currently has 23,000 customers.

As always, big funding news creates big media coverage. Here’s what they’ve got so far: NYT, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, and quite a few others. I cannot emphasize how important this company is to underscore and celebrate India’s quest to build global software companies.

Here’s our prior coverage of the company:

The Million Dollar Club: Freshdesk

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