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For those who have worked in different IT companies or startups including in Pune and outside of it, what makes pune different (better or worse) in terms of helping or constraining such organisations ? This is neither a flame bait nor a question to suggest A is better/worse then B - its an exercise in understanding / crowdsourcing the various parameters that differentiate pune |
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@Navin I have not directly dealt with customers in Pune/Mumbai/elsewhere but there is definitely a difference in the approach of the city; they are "laid back" as a whole. Even sellers are laid back, In mumbai if I am willing to spend 10k on certain something I would get people calling, I would get deals and I can see it getting competitive. In pune I have not been able to buy things even when I am physically present in the store. If you go out to eat it take ages with extra manpower on hands to serve a simple daily meal and If you are in mumbai you would certainly see there time ticking is certainly different. That being said here people are fun and often receptive of ideas and ready to help without a commercial motive, students/professionals do understand value of startup in the career path which I find lacking in mumbai on a more generalized basis. @cuteaditi power cuts is indeed a PITA. I think Pune has the potential of being the cooler avatar of IT which might not include multi billion $ businesses setting up their offices here but I see it making contributions to the new age of software which is fun, usable and adhering to needs of dynamics of the software world we live in. Everyday I find about a new company doing something different using the new tools and methodology and if we are able to bring them together on idea sharing platform, it can certainly be a hub of cool things. About the Geek culture, though its subjective to opine but I think pune has too early taken up the title of "city of geeks". Quality wise I would like to see more coming out of universities, startups on a global level though it might be the atlantis of geeks at india level (cant really say) but techweekends, meetups through constant curation will eventually get us there. I am still finding out, so my opinion is as good as that of a involved tourist. Till now, happy to be here. |
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Pune does not have that many large IT companies as compared to Bangalore. Usually its ambitious folks from large companies that decide to take the plunge & do startups in most places. Hence the ecosystem of startups is dependent mostly on existing large companies. That translates into a weaker startup ecosystem in Pune to start with. Second, Pune does not really figure in a major way as a IT hub. It runs second to Bangalore, Hyderabad. VCs are in general circumspect in funding very early stage startups based totally out of India. Even if they do, they would prefer first rung IT cities. Pune suffers there too. Third, even within India most large/medium sized customers are located in the Metro cities, Bangalore and Hyderabad. That makes them a bit more inaccessible to Pune startups. Pune though (as pointed out by "cuteaditi") has a whole bunch of enthusiastic folks! So that covers up a bit. |
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Pune has very few high end development/research jobs and that limits the options from an IT job's perspective. But I have been following the startup culture in Pune and it looks quite vibrant. Bangalore is quite saturated on those terms (I have been working only in bangalore) and hence it lacks the fresh energy and enthu. Moreover, there are many activities happening in Pune recently and it has become very easy to know about such events...I would say the visibility is quite high. I had tough time finding about OCC in Blore and unfortunately it doesnt seem that active...this is just one of the examples. Yay. I'd read that as a +1 for POCC and a +1 for PuneTech, and due to that a +1 for Pune. Cool, and thanks! :-)
(07 Dec '09, 04:46)
Navin Kabra ♦♦
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I do not believe that there is a fundamental difference when you compare Pune with other cities in India as far as infrastructure or customer base/attitude go. To be successful, you need to have a culture of innovation with a supporting network of mentors and angels, and people who are responsible for jobs other than engineering (sales, marketing,etc.). From what I have seen, Pune certainly has the innovation and mentorship angles covered to a certain extent, however, it is sorely lacking as far as the other points go. Mind you, this is not just a failing of Pune, but all hi-tech cities in India. |
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one plus for Pune is that there is a vibrant community for start ups such as POCC & Punetech from which i have personally benefited, wherein you have people ready to help you always, secondly from IT perspective there are lot of Colleges here and hence there is some talent available as well, thirdly and most importantly the cost of living here is less as compared to Bangalore & Mumbai (can't say abt Hyderabad) so salary for employees etc..and of renting or buying space for office etc is also affordable comparatively, also Pune's still not as congested as compared to these cities! therefore the cost of starting up should also be less especially on these fronts |
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Best: Pune has lots of awesome people. Passionate and enthu. A great geek culture. Worst: For a garage startup, there is power cut for 4-7 hours a day. Lots of other infra problem like traffic. High cost of living, so its hard to go self funded and start. |
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One of the things I had always heard was that Pune has a 'laid back' culture that is not amenable to startups. The argument being that as a city, or as a community, we are content with middling success, and will not take the extraordinary efforts needed for huge wins. Upto now this was hearsay for me, but now in my own startup, we are repeatedly seeing some of that attitude from our prospective customers. And we're hearing from multiple sources that this would not be true in Bombay or Delhi. This remains unproven so far, so please take it with a pinch of salt. Because, it is quite possible that customers everywhere are like that. But I've heard this enough times now to wonder whether there's some truth to it. |
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This is a not a direct answer, but something that hopefully will get further discussion going. Here's a PuneTech article that does some benchmarking across Silicon Valley's startup ecosystem and Pune. "Can Pune Emulate The Silicon Valley Technology Startup Ecosystem?" (Click here: http://punetech.com/can-pune-emulate-the-silicon-valley-technology-startup-ecosystem/ ) Would be interesting to see how these benchmarking criteria stack up for other Indian cities. |
