There is a partially VC funded start–up which has had a pilot going on for 2 years in Delhi which caught the personal attention of Bill Gates when he visited Delhi in Nov 2OO8 leading to partial funding by him to keep the fires burning. Bill Gates has a financial inclusion mission which is dear to his heart and to his Melinda Gates Foundation and saw synergy in this companys innovative mobile banking business idea and possibility of a Melinda-Gates led CSR association.
 There is an absolutely committed co-founding team. They have gone through ups and downs financially till Bill came in as a saviour and gave them funds and also put them in touch with VCs with whom they are working on funding to help them scale beyond the pilot. The company also has two prestigious corporates — Indias largest bank and a telecom provider, who are helping them incubate the mobile banking vertical.
 Till now they have worked with an Open source program based software called MIFOS which acts as the bridge between banks and the extended arm reaching out to the mobile customer ..but MIFOS is not suitable for millions of transactions.
 Hence the need to have another co-founding team member as an Architect. 8-1O yrs experience in Architecture and preferably on financial product related programs would be ideal.
 The Company is entreprenurial and ideal only for an entreprenurial person who would grow with them and have wealth creation opportunities.It is not a regular 9 to 5 company or a blue chip MNC. Each co-founder has invested from Rs 1 crore to Rs 4OOOO each, to become a co-founder. They also have ESOPs. The next person coming in –the Architect — is not expected to invest — but could be given ESOPs. Hence pl do not expect cash compensation increases as the driving force for you to look at this position though wealth creation opportunities through ESOPs will be there.
 Apart from an innovative business initiative which has support of people like Bill Gates or rather his Foundation , they are keen to incubate a culture and DNA in the organisation which is unique and like google. Looking urgently for an Architect who fits the bill and keen to be in Delhi with this exciting venture.
If any of you know someone who would want to be the next founder team member when the company is about to scale up and if Delhi, then do let me know on ranjit.jatar@novaedge.in
Ranjit Jatar
9922888599
- Software Architect - November 22, 2009
- THE EXPERIENCE OF STARTING A NEW E RECRUITING PORTAL - April 23, 2008
Getting an architect of this kind seems difficult in India. The other option may be to scale up MIFOS with architects worldwide. I do not know how opensource teams get the right resource though.
To all Architects —
A very anguished and opiniated Santhosh tells Architects –“If and only if, you eat “mobile technology†not food, these kind of jobs are good for you”.
Well, if someone does not eat, drink and breathe financial services /mobile technology, then I guess it is better for the person to find a regular job. Isnt entreprenuership about passion? And exploitation–which Santosh refers to ? I am yet to understand how a second level founding team member coming in with ESOPs and a salary can get exploited if given independent charge of building something in an entreprenurial environment.
But I guess there are some people around who feel the big bad world is exploiting people , using Venturewoods as a platform;and they have a right to feel so. Hence pl do not ignore what Santosh & Krish have said about my post,sweepingly dismissing it as exploitative. I guess if you are the right person, you will apply your own mind and do your own due diligence……
Cheers
Well said Krish!! You have done it again!
Virat,,,your guess may be correct!
Architects
As already said, there are too many exploiters around…be they IIM MBAs or US educated ones. If and only if, you eat “mobile technology” not food, these kind of jobs are good for you. Otherwise, be entrepreneurial and start your own.
Or if you are an open source guy, why do not you join MIFOS at http://www.mifos.org/developers ? see http://www.mifos.org/developers/roadmap too.
Yup looks like this is eko:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/17/bill-gates-wants-to-help-the-third-world-with-cellphone-banking/