印度蓄勢引爆創業潮

????91springboard于2013年1月開業，目前已有38家公司入住，出租率為50%。這家公司提供五種套餐，最低的為每天500印度盧比（約49.4元人民幣），提供10小時辦公時間；最高的為每月9999印度盧比（約1235.4元人民幣），可住宿，辦公時間不限，而且有專人提供前臺服務。

????贊丹?古普塔是入住91 springboard的創業者之一，他說自己花了幾個月時間來找辦公場地。他看過的地方不是會停電，就是漏水，市政當局甚至宣布其中一座大樓為危房，而另一個地方還兼做寵物店。古普塔編寫了一個屏蔽垃圾信息的手機應用程序，他說：“這個地方對我來說很有價值。”

????查瓦拉指出，要想盈利，91sprinboard的出租率至少要達到80%，但他們很樂觀。他們已經在考慮把業務發展到另外兩個地方，同時還計劃設立一筆初期投資基金。他說，和2007年開辦專項咨詢公司時不同的是，現在每個月都會有幾家初創型公司前來詢價，而且情況一直如此。查瓦拉問到：“靠直接和間接外商投資，印度的GDP還能增長多久呢？我們得在內部實現發展。”

????星期天的這次活動以喝酒比賽開場，組織活動的公司名叫Nurture Talent。阿米特?格羅弗是這家公司的創始人之一。他說，今年他們將為2.5萬人舉辦300場活動，所有活動的目的都是幫助參與者創業。這些舉措表明，印度的創業者網絡正日漸成熟。

????潘卡吉?杰恩在起步期投資公司500 Startups負責審查印度的初創型企業。他說：“曾在美國科技領域打拼并創業的人來到了印度，這為印度生態系統的發展提供了幫助。”杰恩就是這些跨國流動人員中最顯眼的一位——他2010年來到印度，參與創建了Startup Weekend。這是一家專門組織創業者活動的機構，目的是讓他們在54個小時內組建起公司。

????聯合組織人亞汀?薩庫爾稱，Startup Weekend在三年時間里舉辦了超過16場活動，“業務重點正在向較小的城市轉移。”這個機構正計劃為女性創業者舉辦一次活動。在印度，創業界仍由男性主導。在Nurture Talent舉辦的這次活動中，95%以上的參與者都是男性。的確，獲得成功的印度初創型企業大多集中在網絡領域，而且男性在印度工程行業占據著主導地位。印度理工學院（Indian Institutes of Technology）是印度的國家級工程學府，競爭力很強。在這里，入學新生中女性的比重不足10%。

錢、錢、錢

????印度上午創業者面臨的最大挑戰是籌集資金，這個問題的嚴重性甚至有可能超過基礎設施。就風險投資資金而言，印度遠遠落后于硅谷。Nasscom提供的數據顯示，2012年，美國成立了大約1.5萬家由機構出資的初創型科技企業，以色列成立了約800家，而印度只成立了區區150家。

????人們正在設法把創業者、資金和資源聯系在一起。Nasscom最近啟動了一個名為10000 Start-ups的項目，目標是今后10年在國內設立1萬家由機構出資的初創公司。首輪申請在4月初到5月末之間進行。近4千家初創型企業提交了申請，申請內容或為天使資金，或為孵化器中的一個位置，或二者兼而有之。申請企業中約70名在新德里工作的創業者應邀到91 springboard參加了和投資者的見面活動。

????據Nasscom介紹，印度的天使投資生態系統相當有活力——其中有大約1千名投資者。除了高凈值個人，兩大天使投資組織——Indian Angel Network和Mumbai Angels擁有數百名成員。行業網站YourStory.in提供的數據顯示，2013年第二季度，印度出現了70筆風險投資和天使投資，價值估計為2.70億美元（16.68億元人民幣）。其中，有30筆投資屬于種子期投資。

????91springboard opened in January 2013 and is now at 50% occupancy with 38 tenant companies. It offers five different packages, ranging from a day package that costs Rs. 500 (~$8) for 10 hours of desk time to a resident package that costs Rs. 9,999 (~$200) per month for unlimited desk time and the services of a "live receptionist."

????Chandan Gupta, an entrepreneur who rents space at 91, says he looked for a coworking space for months. Spaces he tried to rent had issues with power outages and water logging; city authorities had even condemned one building. Another served as a part-time pet store. "I get value out of this space," says Gupta, who has created a mobile phone app that blocks spam.

????Chawla says 91sprinboard will need to reach at least 80% occupancy to make a profit, but they're optimistic. They're already looking to expand to two more spaces and are planning to start an early-stage investment fund. As opposed to 2007, when he started his boutique investment business, Chawla says he now gets several inquires a month from startups. And he sees that trend continuing. "How long will GDP growth rely on FII or FDI?" he asks. "We need to get some internal growth going."

????Sunday's event -- organized by a company called Nurture Talent -- opens with a drinking contest. Amit Grover, one of Nurture Talent's founders, says that this year, they'll organize 300 events for 25,000 participants, all on preparing participants to become entrepreneurs. Such efforts are a sign that India's entrepreneurial networks are maturing.

????"The influx of people who have experience in the tech and startup world in the United States moving to India has helped move the ecosystem forward," says Pankaj Jain, who vets Indian startups for the early stage investment firm 500 Startups. Jain is one of the most visible of these transplants -- he came to India in 2010 to help launch Startup Weekend, an event franchise that brings would-be entrepreneurs together to create a business in 54 hours.

????Over the course of three years, Startup Weekend has held more than 16 events, says co-organizer Yatin Thakur. "The focus is shifting towards smaller cities," Thakur says. In addition to events in smaller towns, Startup Weekend is looking at an event for women entrepreneurs. In India, entrepreneurship remains male-dominated. At the Nurture Talent event, more than 95% of the crowd was male. Indeed, most of India's startup success stories are online businesses, and men dominate the engineering world in India. At the Indian Institutes of Technology, India's highly competitive state engineering school, less than 10% of the entering class is female.

Money, money, money

????Perhaps even more than infrastructure, the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs in India is scoring funding. When it comes to venture capital funding, India lags far behind Silicon Valley. According to Nasscom, the U.S. produced around 15,000 institutionally funded tech startups in 2012, Israel produced about 800, and India produced a paltry 150.

????There are efforts underway to connect entrepreneurs with funding and resources. Nasscom recently launched a project called 10,000 Start-ups, with the goal of producing 10,000 institutionally funded startups in India over the next 10 years. The first round of applications ran from early April through the end of May. Nearly 4,000 startups applied either for angel funding, a spot in an incubator, or both. Out of these applications, about 70 entrepreneurs based in Delhi were invited for a meet-and-greet event with investors at 91springboard.

????India has a fairly robust angel investment ecosystem -- about a thousand investors, according to Nasscom. In addition to high net worth individuals, two prominent angel networks, the Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels, have several hundred members between them. In the second quarter of 2013, according to industry site YourStory.in, there were 70 venture capital and angel deals worth an estimated $270 million in India. Out of these, 30 deals were at the seed stage..