A Playbook For Indian Founders Building Global Businesses

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Caveat Emptor: This is not legal or business advice. Just my Opinion.

Here’s a series of tweets I wrote on a possible playbook for Indian founders chasing large global opportunities.

1/ Playbook for Awesome Indian founders to build a Bn USD business:

— Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

2/ Figure out a globally scalable idea. One that you have the domain expertise, the tech expertise and the operations ability for. — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

3/ Build initial team (2-3 founders, 1-2 early employees) in India. Burn Rate under $3000 pm. — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

4/ Create Valuable Product, Tech, Network extensively through Startup Ecosystem. Raise ZERO from investors. Use friends, own savings. — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

 

5/ (Caveat: This is for Indian business targeting global markets – India may be 1 of them, but for this playbook – not only mkt you target.) — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

 

6/ Get initial traction using Events like TiE Bootcamp, TiE Smashup, Pitch Competitions, find early adopters, get some press from Tech Blogs — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

 

7/ Find few supporters in Indian ecosystem who are Angels – @Zishaan @Vijayshekhar @AlokeBajpai @HelloAnand @avlesh – Founders who invest. — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

8/ Get them excited about your product, get investment commitments but dont take money yet. Use your network to get 1-2 paying intl clients.

— Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

9/ Use this opportunity to find a way into some Big-4 Accelerator in Silicon Valley: @500Startups, @ycombinator @angelpad, @techstars. — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

10/ Once in USA, Set up Delaware C-Corp as Parent, and ask your angels to invest directly into US Entity. Some may have issues but most wont — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

 

11/ Club this round with Accelerator round, now you have enough money to chase a good team, get a strong US footing, and build US base. — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

 

12/ Set up in a US city by either coast, find a way to grow your Indian team, manage operations and then start fund raising as a US Company. — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

 

13/ Use accelerator networks, social proof and (ofcourse, have a kick-ass product – see 3 Ass theory from @jeff) to get influencer clients — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

14/ Once you have angels in USA investing in you, and you have indian angels as well, you have social proof, traction and can grow 2-sides.

— Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

15/ Despite any visa issues you may face, in 12-18 months you’ll have a strong business that can raise serious $$$ at great terms in USA

— Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

16/ Then, its up to you how you leverage said base to create a compelling story. Exit opportunities will come to you since you’re global — Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

 

17/ US VC’s will not hesitate to put money because you’re cross border with US HQ.

— Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014

18/ Please note caveat: This is playbook for Indian founders chasing global opportunities with cross border teams.

— Pranay Srinivasan (@utekkare) July 14, 2014