Startups.in Interview

Nag. B is the brain behind Startups.in. Startups.in simplifies the establishment of startups through a collaborative approach that is a win-win situation to all the involved members. I’ve invited Nag to share some of his experiences in this interview.

Could you tell us something about yourself – your background, where you are based…?

Satish, thank you very much for your interest in Startups.in and I appreciate you taking time in featuring us on your highly regarded site.

So far, I’m yet another Indian currently based in US. I work for a company that provides offerings to create the Internet solutions and enables people to make powerful connections.

Personally, I also have a deep passion and a strong fascination about startups and entrepreneurship and Startups.in/India is an outlet to share these interests with others.

Could you tell us a little more about Startups.in?

As with any other venture it all started with an idea. In this case, the idea was to bring to fore the spirit of entrepreneurship in India and provide a common platform to connect startups, more specifically, startups in India. Startups.in/India is the first step towards realizing that idea.

The venture has been active for less than an year now and the focus so far has been to feature startups in India with two primary goals -

• help spread the word out to the world about the startups in India and
• help the future entrepreneurs learn from the experiences of the seasoned entrepreneurs.

Based on the feedback being received and looking at the way Startups.in/India is molding itself, I believe we are on the right track to meet our goals.

Startups.in is a central site that binds all other value add-in applications and other sites like:

• Startups.in/Jobs – a free job posting site
• Startups.in/Videos – a collection of educational videos highlighting entrepreneurship and technology etc., in addition to others.

Why did you decide to use Ruby on Rails (RoR) for this site?

As any other web based project developer, I too would prefer a framework that would allow us to churn better software which is easy to maintain with a quick turnaround time. I believe any framework that can meet these requirements would not only be a efficient choice but would also be “cost effective” for bootstrapped startups.

While I’m not an authority on web application frameworks, I’ve been keenly following the discussions on various websites and RoR seems to fit my requirements very well.

Again, this is coming from some one who did not have a first hand experience at RoR and I therefore have started seeking expert advice from well respected professionals like you who have been in this Industry for a long time.

What’s your impression about the RoR scene in India?

I will not claim much expertise here but from whatever I’ve been reading and following through the media, RoR as a whole still has a long to way before it goes mainstream and experiences a higher adoption rate. As far as RoR scene in India is concerned, the “scene” is still in its “opening act” and the “rail” is yet to pick up the “steam”.

But given its obvious advantages and with efforts from evangelists like you, I’m sure RoR will be on the express track very soon across India with Pune as its hub.

What are your future plans for Startups.in?

More than highlighting the products/services, Startups.in/India is about entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial spirit behind these startups in India. In my personal opinion what really deserves a focus is not just the startups but the passionate entrepreneurs driving them.

While we will continue to drive Startups.in/India with that focus, we will also continue to explore, innovate and offer better ways to help startups. Startu.ps will be our launch pad.

Thanks once again for the opportunity, Satish.

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