Wednesday Morning turned up to be very nice one. Some time back when there is a lot of activity happening around startups in Hyderabad, a few people asked me why I am not seen in many of them. At that time I told them in private that still Hyderabad start up ecosystem is struggling with many only talking while these must be people with action orientation. One such action oriented person I see is Ravi Gururaj from Bangalore. Do we have our own Hyderabad Ravi? In my opinion the answer is NO.
I see a bunch of events with out any tangible results. Yesterday morning in a one hour phone conversation with a moderately successful entrepreneur from Bangalore we were discussing why still Bangalore address is prefered address to Hyderabad in VCs mind. It is for obvious reasons. We need mentors, we need people who can spare time with out ego and available. If some one postpones a meeting to talk to you would you call him Mentor? My friend in Bangalore approached a Boston based person to be mentor. The gentleman told him politely "you need to have some one close by so you can run to him at midnight when you need help". Do we have such mentors in Hyderabad? I know a few who are doing fabulous job from TiE. Still we need more such individuals.
Location Location Location is key for any good start ups. A product company that sells solutions to Automobile industry that is well placed in Madras outskirts having a office in Delhi wont help. This is so true when you create solutions, services and products for manufacturing. Are people thinking that way in Hyderabad? I have not seen any such folks. All I see is a lot of copy cat ideas. One of the incubator/accelerator head (call him Mr. X) I was talking to was sharing this. He came across a person with an idea (Mr. E) When Mr X asked Mr E how it is different from snap deal or flipkart Mr E said they both don't have what he was doing. Obviously the next question by Mr X is how much time do these giants need t add that function? Think your self: is that a viable business?
All these thoughts I was sharing came to light now as when I was talking to a friend about Hyderabad. This lead to a conversation with Sadhana Chathurvedula. She wrote a nice article about some of the thoughts at a very high level. Proud to present the article that I am quoted along with great people (Srinivas Kollipara)
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