Do We Need More Funds in India?
Someone posed this very appropriate question in response to my Incubator Fund series.
The answer is No.
However, what we need is two things:
1. Existing funds to follow the framework discussed in the series, so that there is more “incubation” going on inside of the funds that have already been allocated for India. Today, a lot of money is sitting idle.
2. Existing Incubators need to follow the framework that I discussed as well, so that they can become “effective” incubators, as opposed to failed experiments. Today, a lot of incubators are exactly that.
I would go so far as to say, that the model I have proposed for technology incubators could be adopted in other geographies besides India like Israel, China, and Europe, where efforts at setting up a more active high tech entrepreneurial ecosystem are under way. Similarly, in other parts of North America besides Silicon Valley, the model would apply.
One caveat: if you change the geography, fund sizes need to be tweaked.
In general, I believe that over the last 25 years, Silicon Valley has led the world’s technology innovation efforts. As a result of that phenomenon, a mass of knowledge and expertise has developed here that can be disseminated all over the world.
All I am suggesting through my incubator framework is for venture funds playing in these emerging market ecosystems to be a great deal more thoughtful and organized about entrepreneurship.
Otherwise, a lot of valuable time would be lost in trying to make progress on an ad-hoc basis.
