Many of you may well remember me from my emails five years ago asking you to subscribe to this new magazine: siliconindia. I was part of the founding team and the publisher for the first two years. I left the day-to-day involvement to start a B2B startup, a hot trend in the heydays of the dot-com boom. I too went through whole gamut of the entrepreneurs’ highs and nightmares — picked by biggest IT publication in the U.S. as one of 10 e-commerce companies most likely to succeed in 2000, getting funded, moving to Silicon Valley, getting Fortune 1000 companies as clients for our enterprise software, making presentations to uninterested VC’s on Sands Hill Road, letting go of employees who gave 200 percent to the company, selling off equipment, shutting the company down and last but certainly not the least, losing investors’ money. When people fight off cancer, they develop a new attitude, a new appreciation, a new zest for life. Entrepreneurs who start companies and don’t succeed develop similar feelings towards entrepreneurship. In my new role as the editor-in-chief, I seek your help in continuing to provide a platform for entrepreneurs, technologists, professionals and business owners — both here and in India — to share their experiences, views and knowledge that others may benefit from.
“U.S. Experience holders need not apply”
This was a recent job advertisement in a leading English daily in Hyderabad. According to the employer, returnees have been spoilt by the good money and easy life in the U.S. I am sure many of you will join me in differing. The life of a newly-arrived H1B employee is not easy by any measure — even if you have a good offer. And the work pressures here are tremendous. What this particular employer fails to realize is that the U.S. returnee brings with him or her a wealth of technical skills, professionalism and dedication that working in the U.S instills. This is a good time for Indian companies to take advantage of the great human talent that is coming back to the homeland. Despite stock markets and the economy possibly looking up, job prospects for H1B visa holders are not improving. It isn’t uncommon to hear families leaving behind their cars with the keys in them, in the parking lot at the San Francisco Airport. In the long run, this may be the best thing for both returnees and India.
TiEcon-2002: Khumb Mela in Silicon Valley
I was the co-founder of TiE NY in 1997 and we ran TiE from siliconindia’s offices on Broad Street for the first two years. There was much trepidation, as we were not sure if many of highly paid IT consultants and professionals from the Tri-state area would bother to show up for the entrepreneurship meetings. What a change! Now, even in my hometown, Kanpur, about 200 people show up for the local TiE chapter meetings. And the biggest of all is the annual TiEcon in Silicon Valley, to be held this year, during June 14-15. More than just a conference, the TiE event is a great time to reconnect with alumni and ex-colleagues, to share notes and hopefully build some contacts. Like the sadhus back home who ritually show up for Khumb Mela every 12 years, ganga-dipping or no ganga-dipping, Indians outside Silicon Valley mark it on their calendars to be at the TiEcon — company funded or not funded. See you there!
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