Outsourcing Software Development To India

"Talking to you about software is like talking to the Maoists of Nepal about politics. They have a script they will read out of, and they will keep repeating themselves until either you give up or you give in. There is no conversation."
- An email I sent recently to someone in India

It can be done, it is a good idea, but there is no magic bullet. You have to know what you are getting into. If you attitude is, build me the best travel site in the world, and I have 5,000 dollars, and see you in two months, you are starting on the wrong foot. Your dreams will be dashed.

My BusiCopy Cofounder Anuj Bikram Thapa

Me In The New York Times

A few weeks back Anuj and I became Cofounders at 50% each to BusiCopy, a social network for businesses.

Before I came to America I was renting a place near the largest library in Nepal. Anuj was friends with the landlord's son. And we got to know each other. I came to America and kind of lost touch for the most part. He went to Japan. He was there for seven years doing hotel management. We might have exchanged an email or two along the way.

He returned to Nepal. The country was going through the final phases of a decade long civil war. And so going into tourism, his first choice, was not an option. To that point his only experience with computers was that he had used them for personal use.

In January 2006 he decided to go into IT. He, his brother in the US Amit Thapa, and that brother's friend Ujjyol Raj Singh teamed up. Amit was studying IT in Texas. He dropped out. Little knowledge is dangerous. You end up becoming an entrepreneur.

The UN, The US, The Internet

Image via WikipediaThe UN is not it, the US is not it, the Internet is it.

I have made that statement a few times at this blog.What do I mean?

I do not imagine a future where the UN as an organization has been dissolved, and the US federal government no longer exists. But I do imagine a future where the Internet has fundamentally altered the very fabric of what the UN is, how it functions, how far it reaches, how well it functions. I imagine a US federal government transformed by the forces unleashed by the Internet.

The Internet is transformative technology. But it does not operate in a vacuum. You take away people and you end up with computers. It is adding people to the equation that gave us the Internet. And so human institutions are very relevant to what the Internet is all about.

FoodSpotting Follows Me On Twitter

I just realized FoodSpotting follows me on Twitter. They must not mind seeing me in their stream all the time. I show up often. It is like when I was doing democracy work for Nepal a few years ago. One visiting politician said, "I know a whole bunch of people in Kathmandu, the only person who ever emails them is you."

The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal
FoodSpotting Third Thursday: Ai Fiori, 5-7 PM

Apple Does Hardware In Asia

Image via WikipediaHardware is harder to work on remotely than software. And it is not even remote. With all the communication possibilities of today, I think people can overemphasize the importance of geography. I enjoy a party as much as the next person, but if you think about it, the whole premise behind social networking - hello Facebook, hello Twitter - is that it is the relationship, not the physical proximity.

And so my tech team is in Kathmandu. It is 50 strong. It has been a profitable software shop five years in a row. But it is only now venturing out on its first tech startup. There are other software things you can do to make money, you know? The team has had global clients this entire time.

I became friends with the team leader before I came to America. This is not outsourcing any more than Nepal and India are foreign countries. They are not, not to me. Why can't I tap into my social capital?

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How To Pitch: The Rachel Sequoia Way

This three minute video has been making the rounds. It is a great video, and a great pitch. This actually fits my idea of a pitch. A pitch should be a video clip. "Passionate and irreverent, she presented her concept entitled Share The Air in bare-feet and using hand drawn illustrations to articulate her points. She was looking for $500,000 to help get her idea off the ground....." You can see her lift the energy in the room as she wades through. "I am not a fighter." I like that line. "I am a lover, not a fighter." "Air is at least 6% energy." Great. I have been wanting to say that the longest time. I said something similar in a blog post on January 29. You pack the revolution into the air. Bare feet. I like that. Awesome.

A Life Of Poverty

Image via WikipediaI have had my double cheese burger super sized. It was like a six month disappearance - they had Wael Ghonim disappear for 12 days in Egypt, they had me disappear for six months in America, cost me two major victory parties, I guess it is a bigger deal to put a black man into a White (WHITE) House than it is to kick an Arab out - plus the Great Recession - all my investors walked away - plus the Great Immigration Humiliation. But I have not so much as flinched.

My Failures

Image via WikipediaMy first step into tech entrepreneurship was in the late 90s. I was not the leader of the team, but I was a founding member of a team, lead by an Indian American woman out of Philadelphia, that was trying to build the top South Asian community online.

The company raised 25 million dollars round two and dutifully succumbed to the dot com bubble burst. What ensued was a nuclear winter.

She suggested I drop out of college. I should have. It is not like I was having fun in Kentucky: I hated the place after my first year. Over a year after I left promising to come back after graduation, the thing had already disappeared.

Bihar, Darbhanga

Image via WikipediaI am increasingly thinking in terms of India. More specifically the great state of Bihar. Specifically my birthtown of Darbhanga. I am thinking in terms of Darbhanga as the place I want to start with.

I know the terrain. I know the state language, the national language, the local languages.

India has been the largest microfinance market in the world. Bihar is India's poorest state.

But I need to do my homework first.

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Black Buddhas

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Advantage India, Disadvantage India

Image via WikipediaI first thought in terms of India. An Indian does not need to look far and wide to find poverty. It's right there. It's right there in the backyard. India has the vast majority of the dollar a day, two dollars a day people.

I'd start out by knowing the culture. I'd know the language. And when I say that I mean to say English also, not just Hindi, not just Maithili and Bhojpuri. India is the biggest English speaking country in the world.

And there is the size. I could take the company IPO based just on Bihar. Bihar alone is that big. It would make sense to polish the basic business model in Bihar and then take it to Africa, rather than otherwise.

India is a vibrant democracy, the biggest in the world.

Rootlessness And The City

Image by joiseyshowaa via FlickrI was born in India. I grew up in Nepal next door. I came to America for college. When I was applying for colleges while in Nepal, I did not have a favorite college in mind. I liked all sorts of colleges. Every prospectus I picked up I absolutely fell in love with. Now I realize what I was really applying for back then was to get into New York City. People who go to all those colleges all end up in New York City.

I have something akin to a PhD in race relations. There is the conscious level of the mind, the subconscious level, and there's deeper stuff. Racial identity can inhabit the mind at several levels. That's what makes a white guy high school drop out detain the top movie star in India for an hour at the New Jersey airport. Your name is Khan? You must be a terrorist.

Is Brazil The Microsoft Of Soccer?

Image via WikipediaBrazil is supposed to be one of the eternal powerhouses of soccer. Or so I thought. This year a lot of the old powers were gone by the wayside. Italy was nowhere in the picture. England was out fast. France, did they even qualify? This year saw a new world order in soccer.

Facebook Photo Album: Brasil

The Plateau Will Last Less Than Nine Months

What If The Plateau Lasts Nine Months?
That Plateau Feeling

The downturn has seen its worst phase. I don't think we will see an upswing right away, but I don't expect the plateau phase to last as long as the downturn phase did. And there sure will be a takeoff phase. The smartest among us will use this plateau phase to prepare for the takeoff phase.

The US and the world economy have seen much pain. But the US government and G20 took some right decisions. The takeoff was never automatic. Japan had its lost decade and is still reeling.

The US government has taken some right decisions on stimulus. But it still has not done the hard work for banking sector reform. The bankers are in for some tough love if America is to not repeat Japan's lost decade. The world can not afford America having a lost decade.

Don't tell me it is easy to borrow a few trillion from your grandchildren, but tough to show some tough love to bankers.

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'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where --' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
'--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.

Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

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Is Reading Socializing?

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Strictly speaking, not. Reading is not socializing. Status updates are not the same as saying hello in person. 2.0 socializing is make-do.



One consistent theme at this blog has been that the human is at the center of computing. Face time not only matters, but is central to the equation. But when I say face time, I don't mean just the caricature of it. As in, don't look at the screen, look at me. I mean group dynamics, I mean the larger human affairs, I mean staying in tune with the big political developments of the day.

But where 2.0 is indispensable is that although 5.0 is key and central, that 5.0 can not stand alone. (Web 5.0: Face Time) You need a rich 2.0 environment to give that 5.0 the best possible shape.




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China, India And The World

I mean I was born in India. This pertains to me. People who live on a dollar a day are people in my personal circle. I know quite a few of them: some of them have nicknames for me, from my homevillage.

BusinessWeek has come up with a fabulous story cluster around the big topics of the economic resurgence of the two Asian giants. But perspective has to be maintained. Look at the per capita income. The PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) for 2004 for China is $5,600. For India it is $3,100. Fro Nepal it is $1,500. I had to throw Nepal in because, well, I grew up in Nepal.

The same figure for the US is $40,100.

My point being it will be a while before India and China jump over to the $50,000 range.

But the GDP figures, adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity, are US $11.75 trillion, China $7.262 trillion and India $3.319 trillion. At that level the differences are less stark.

The 19th century was Britain's, the 20th was America's, this one is Asia's. Cisco's Scheinman: "We came to India for the costs, we stayed for the quality, and we're now investing for the innovation."

Africa could compete. Both India and China are living testimonies to economic unions and free trade. A China that were 20 different countries would be less efficient. Africa could compete by becoming a single economic unit, a single market. Snuff out civil wars, introduces democracies, and work towards becoming a single market. The recipe is no rocket science.