The stereotype addiction and why Silicon India is a sham

Note: I had written this piece about three and a half years ago. A lot of the Indian startup scene has changed in many nice ways. However, I still think that the core of the writing is still very relevant. It will not sit very well with most readers. I welcome the carnage.

Amidst the comparatively subdued cacophony of an upscale shopping mall’s restaurant, two men and a woman sat having lunch. They spoke of consumerism, content marketing and exchanged information about where their old classmates were. They also spoke about Edward Norton, the weather and cracked poor jokes. How is this geeky sounding group relevant? Let me explain by first citing how they were similar, and then any different from the occupants of the other several tables.

One man came in a car and brought his wife. It was not a flashy sedan. He would go back to a home, a puppy, and heading the marketing team of a million dollar startup. The other would go back to being an editor of a multi-nation spanning publication. In many ways they were similar if we consider monetary income and lifestyle to the people around them. How they were different however, is very significant. They were both graduate school dropouts who managed to not man the counter of a shoddy Internet counter. All of them were just over 20.

The Stereotype Addiction

The group I spoke about had broken the stereotype barrier. It took way more effort than it would take them to get into the Information Technology bandwagon. To not be a stereotype in our country is a crime — a dogma for which you pay throughout your life unless you prove to turn your rebellion into a moneymaking jackpot.

What exactly is the stereotype addiction?

In this part of the world (which for many reasons is primarily India but also to a large extent, many parts of South East Asia), it is not cool to be young and successful. Sure the term sounds all jazzy and nice. But let me tell you a deliberately ignored reality — you are not defined as “successful” until you have “successfully” managed to marry a women your parents approve of and you either have a high paying private (read only renowned MNCs) industry job which sends you abroad on business every two months. Or, you marry a woman your parents approve of and work for the almighty government. No matter if that means living in a shoddy complex where the last electrical job was done in 1997.

Don’t get me wrong, sure you can write the UPSC (the ultimate Government job examinations in India) and get to be the Deputy Commissioner. You are not successful if you are trying to create the next disruptive startup in a billion dollar Internet industry. What will happen if there is an IPO? Don’t even try to explain that to your parents! You are certainly not successful if you are the editor of a movie review website that feeds it’s intellectual writing to one of the top 100 websites on the Internet either.

Every time you Skype with your parents (yes, it’s as important as marrying the right girl), after long conversation of how you should do the cabbage and how the aunt turned down yet another marriage proposal, you are reminded, “How much longer son? We are not getting any younger! We’d certainly love to see a new member! Oh and did you check the ‘Employment News’? They have staff-selection exams coming up for the ONGC (the prestigious Oil and Gas Corporation of India). Doesn’t hurt to write the exam does it? Don’t join! Who’s asking you to?”

The sad bit is that it is not just the generation disparity. That would be the good news actually; if there was a perceptable difference between changing generations. The addiction of being a part of the stereotype generation is almost as much prevalent among the youth as it is with the old. I don’t have data to prove it and perhaps there will be many who will comment against this statement.

I say this because I for one, did not have a single classmate, senior or junior that I know of who tried to do things different. I do not know anyone in my entire acquaintance circle. But of course, I have certainly heard of someone doing it! Do you know of anyone? You see, the point in the making is the endangered species that the Indian innovator is. You spot them, but you need to get your binoculars out and even then, you read about them more than you actually spot them in person. We Indians always had a thing for an easier way of life. It’s imbibed right into our genes. We never go on round-the-word trips. We use the money to get an Audi.

We had a diplomatic independence (give it a rest, Gandhians and extremist evangelists alike). And we still prefer to do the end job. We never look to be the creator. Western outsourcing helps whet our appetite for easy money. It’s easier to just be there in a classroom. It’s easier to nod to everything a professor says. It’s easier to sit at campus interviews and stick to the company you get into for a false sense of loyalty while your identity card’s tag changes colours portraying your seniority.

Why Silicon India is a sham

This bit is about the people who do break out of the stereotype shackle every now and then. The truth is, most have not yet broken out of it. We do find someone from the IITs (Indian Institute of Technology, call it the Harvard of India) sometimes deciding to become an entrepreneur. However, in most cases than not, it’s a sham. I’ll tell you why. First, since we so proudly claim to be the new Silicon Valley (shame, we could not even create a new name. Didn’t I tell you we love an easy life?), it is important to learn how exactly does the original Silicon Valley work. But even before that, it’s important to understand what the term exactly means. Silicon Valley refers to part of San Francisco Bay Area which is home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations as well as thousands of small startups. It is the massive number of small startups that make up for all the fame.

The silicon valley of India was never a revolution. It was a slow, bottom feeding gradual naming that we have acquired. Most of our startups are either IIT or IIM alumni coming out of Google or similar with a sizeable if not fat wallet or, passing out graduates from the same institutions whose projects received funding. Again, do not get me wrong. I have enormous respect for this set of people. They are the vanguards of change.

However, we hardly have any serial entrepreneurs. Startups are designed to fail. You have to re-engineer them to succeed. Hence, naturally, most startups fail — be it in sunny California or hot India. The difference is that when a startup there fails, chances are that the founders take what they learnt, get back to the drawing boards, contact angel investors, and found another startup.

It’s not that they ultimately succeed in making a Fortune 500 company. However, in many cases, you land up having folks coming together to be part of something different. Even if that means putting all that experience into joining another level two startup which has already crossed the bankruptcy threshold.

Now comes the difference in our country. I personally at least do not know of any serial entrepreneur. I do know of companies started inside a college dorm and certainly know of Ambani. But how many are there? With the lack if not absence of serial entrepreneurship and under Rs. 50k startups (yes, many small businesses start that small), the Silicon Valley brand in India is a Sham.