Delhi NCR seems to have emerged as one of the strongest startup ecosystems in the country. From internet to mobility and ITES/BPO/KPO, the quality of startups is compelling. However, of late, there has been a view that the tech ecosystem is not keeping pace. I was having a chat with a friend, who pointed out the following “facts”:
- HasGeek is been doing some amazing work in tech events…they are probably the leaders in the tech. events space. They tried NCR couple of times and now have written off. I’m trying to work with them to bring some of their events in NCR.
- In50Hrs has written of Delhi. They did 2 events and now have moved to Trivandrum.
- MobileHackday – a hackathon done recently at one of the companies in gurgaon did not attract many people…they had to close the event and did not even have the jury members to come and look at the prototypes.
- At Startup Weekend Delhi, there are around 12-14 ideas presented…atleast 8 teams present a powerpoint presentation and probably 4 present a prototype…Bangalore is just the opposite.
- Some startups have started moving the tech. base to Bangalore 🙂
I have not checked with respective organizations mentioned above, but will take this at face value given the credibility of the person who mentioned the above. Also, given the spread of events, I am making an assumption that this is not a reflection on quality of individual events. I also do not view this as a notion of delhi versus bangalore, but more an issue around the depth of tech ecosystem in delhi area, and whether it is growing stronger or weaker. I say “tech ecosystem” not in the semiconductor research sense, but typical depth that startups are relying on (application/ systems level).
In fact, the other thread it sparked in my mind was cultural and cutting across the country – are we propagating a culture of startup formation that relies on learning from the community and widespread exchange of ideas? That could be the other reason where founders and their teams might be putting their heads down and building their business, rather than throng events.
Would love to get comments on this. And if this is a real issue, what can we do about it.
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There is no tangible benefit for community building , all the companies and people mentioned who are trying to do so are doing out of there passion and there own time.
i do not know what Alok meant he is trying to work out with Hasgeek to bring there events here ?
Hey Alok,
Interesting posts. I am just curious to know what has been the takeaway for organizers and people who have attended these events? Is the takeaway compelling enough for folks in Delhi versus other locations?
– khandi
Alok,
I can speak for The Startup Centre and In50hrs. I do not think its a case of Delhi not having Tech Talent. It is there, except that all of it is very amply employed already. We could never quite solve the problem of location. There is some talent in Noida, most of it in Gurgaon (but live in Delhi), and the chances of someone coming out to Gurgaon (yet again) for an event is not going to happen.
It will require a local entity to foster this community together and it didnt seem like a task that we can in anyway meaningfully do, sitting out of Chennai, and hence decided to step away from. Efforts like Triggr (that was run by Instablogs) do suggest that there is a tech talent that is there, but the local and cultural undertones and nuances will have to be understood.
I am surprised, that TLabs hasnt build a culture yet. Perhaps we can expect 91springboard to do some of this, work, but with the accelerator business itself being a lean, and fragile one, I wonder how much of it is to be expected.
Hey Alok, One of the tweets that Mukund posted few days back was: Delhi entrepreneur: we will outsource tech. B’lore: outsource sales. Mumbai: outsource everything except finance.
So true..we should look at organising some exchange programs from Delhi – Bangalore & Bangalore to Delhi.
I meet atleast 10-12 (news)startups in NCR every month and most of the teams struggle to get good tech. guys.
Very few companies have put efforts to build the ecosystem out here and
I feel that we are loosing out on good tech guys as most of them are relocating to Bangalore…many founders are unable to find good tech guys and i probably know around 10-12 folks who have moved their tech. base to B’lore.
Some of the large Tech. companies have also put very little effort to build the eco-system…which is quite sad.
Having said this, i’m also putting efforts to work with HasGeek to bring them to NCR and work towards building a better eco-system.
I don’t know what can be done…but will be happy to take a lead here!
Cheers
Alok,
We at HasGeek haven’t written off Delhi. It’s just that we happen to be based in Bangalore, operate with thin margins and depend on a trained crew and efficiencies at scale.
With flights from Bangalore to Delhi at ~8000 one-way, it’s an expensive trip to even bring the crew along (given our margins).
We’ve visited Delhi a few times and realized it’s not feasible to do events in Delhi while being based in Bangalore. We’ll need to establish local presence in Delhi, which our common friend has offered to help with.
That’s it, really.