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ARCHIVED NEWSGo East, say entrepreneurs at panel on India American entrepreneurs and venture capitalists should cast their eyes toward India, Princeton graduates Randolph Altschuler ’93 and Sumir Chadha ’93 said in a panel discussion Oct. 25.
Altschuler, co-founder of the outsourcing company Office Tiger, and Chadha, senior managing director of Sequoia Capital India, painted a picture of the Indian economic landscape that was optimistic, but tempered with the realism of hard experience. “It’s almost like every sector is booming,” Chadha said, though he warned of pitfalls hidden in the “huge amount of economic optimism” that has taken India by storm. The event, “Creating New Ventures in India: Experiences, Opportunities and Challenges,” was part of a Technology Entrepreneurship Series co-sponsored by Princeton’s Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network. It was moderated by engineering professor Ed Zschau ’61, who teaches the University’s popular high-tech entrepreneurship course. Former roommates at Princeton, and later classmates at Harvard Business School, Altschuler and Chadha shared similar thoughts on business in India, despite having taken different approaches to the market. Altschuler, who majored in German literature, co-founded Office Tiger in 2000 with classmates Joseph Sigelman and Ravi Srinivasan. Chadha, a computer science major, plunged into the country that same year as a venture capitalist. The forward-thinkers were some of the first to realize the possibilities in outsourcing to India, but their successes did not always come easily. “The infrastructure in India is still pretty poor,” Altschuler said. “But you can build your own infrastructure much easier [now than six years ago].” Both Office Tiger and Sequoia are battling high rates of turnover among employees, and dealing with the Indian government is a challenge, the panelists said. Furthermore, labor and real estate costs have skyrocketed in Bangalore, Delhi and Bombay, leading many companies to set up shop in smaller and less-developed cities. These challenges notwithstanding, Altschuler and Chadha said that taking advantage of the business opportunities in India – from coffee shops to accounting services to software design – will help, rather than hurt, individual companies and the U.S. economy as a whole. “I actually think it is going to make us much stronger,” Chadha said. “It creates new markets and new opportunities as the Indian markets develop.” Improved telecommunications also are extending business opportunities to many other parts of the globe, including rural parts of the United States, said Altschuler. The entrepreneurship series will continue early next year, date to be announced, with an Innovation Forum where Princeton scientists and engineers will present research with commercial potential to an audience of students, entrepreneurs and investors. |
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Panelist Sumir Chadha '93 shares insights with audience members at a reception
after the event. (Photo by Stephanie Landers)
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