SINE’s start-ups going global – Indian Express Nov 10th 2007

Our Take: For Vegayan the immediate and foremost goal is to have a good footing in the Indian Market first. Going global is the next logical step.

Indian start-ups find angel funding elusive – Mint Dec 4th, 2007

Our take: We certainly sympathize with the grand scheme of raising awareness about the startup plight in India as brought out by this article. However, we do not consider ourselves among the struggling bunch who are hitting the wall. Just to clarify few points in the article:

1) We started in late Nov 2005 and not 2003. Where as, in 2003 Dr. Saraph filed for US Patent on our routing technology and received patent grant in June, 2007.

2) We are well past angel rounds of $50-$75k (Rs. 20-30 lacs) . We won the TiE-DFJ India Venture Challenge in Feb, 2006 and received $75k in seed funding as award. We also won TiE-Canaan Entrepreneurship Challenge in Dec, 2006. Recently, we raised a significant chunk from our angel round (from Rakesh Mathur). The next stop is only going to be bigger and better.

3) Currently, our priority is on the customer front and do well in the on-going trials. That should open many promising options for us.

Some times, One Year seems to be very big, but some times, I feel, its OK. Here, are two sides of working in a startup company.

Pros

1. Scope to learn/work (as much as you can – there is no question that, you are not given any work, especially in product development companies)

2. Chance to learn about Resource Management. Team will be small, so you see how they are handled.

3. Growth factor - Here also, willing to learn plays major role.

4. Ownership of module – You are given a module, You are sole proprietor of module. You are free to design in whichever way you like, as long as you are good enough to make people to buy your design.

5. You develop more than one skill in a start up and you become master in your specialization.

6. Better rapport with team members as team is small.

Cons

1. Getting a Leave every now and then is Tough.

2. Have to Google for many things. ( Train yourself )

3. Some times, get bugged with work.

I am both In (70%) and Out (30%) for working for a start up.

Relevant to the above is this blog post by Kamla bhatt. Make sure you do read the comments too.

I question them what is the advantage of working in a MNC which is not in a start-up. They told me that when you are swicthing from one job to other job, there will be less risk and you need not to advertize about your company, you carry a brand name, if you work in a MNC. My reasoning to them is, Why should I think of swicthing my job before joining in that? If I am not satisfied with the work I am doing or If I am not fit into the team , then only I think of swicthing job. So doing work is my priority, which I certainly get in a start-up. I am not sure whether I’ll be assigned work from Day 1, if I join in a MNC. I am not against working in MNCs, they have their own headaches. Its true that Resource Management is the toughest thing. The reason, I opted for start-up is if I work for some time, then I can get job in MNC at any time. But if join in a MNC and happened to be on bench (or member of Freepool), then it would be tough.

Working in a start-up gives you the next best chance to see how a company shapes up.(Best chance to see is to start a company). Working in a start-up has other advantage, you can watch the building process of a company very closely,you know ups and downs in making it Big. More importantly, every one’s voice is heard in a start-up, so u can raise your voice, you can take part in design discussions, brain storming sessions. This is all happens in MNCs also, but you need to gain some experience, before raising your voice.