IIM Ahmedabad has launched a Summer startup camp based on the widely covered summer founders program by Ycombinator and some startup school like activities.
1. What is it that they are offering ?
You(a bunch of geeks in groups of 2 to 4) come to Ahmedabad and write a cool new Web 2.0 'ish application with something unique within 2-3 months while networking with the VCs/Entrepreneurs/Large company types and by the end of 3 months raise some funding for the company you build around that product.
2. What is it that interests them most?
That entrepreneurs are able to attract some top talent from the IIM-A to help them commercialize the idea. Which is splendid as IIM-A is the top management institute in India. The camp is aiming to create these additional exciting paths for these students as well as for entrepreneurs apart from creating some exciting case studies for the program.
3. What do they care about ?
Your ability to create a ready to launch application in 2 months timeframe.
4. Does IIM-A take any stake in the startups that get created ?
No, they are benign. They care to spur geeks to be entrepreneurial, build something cool and want to be able to say 'hey look this was incubated at IIM-A and helped by IIM-A graduates'. Nothing better than a billion dollar corporation incubated at your institute. Call it enlightened self-interest. Perhaps they'll have a shot being India's Stanford.
5. But can startups really be created for Rs 8000 per person per month?
Ofcourse not. You can't really buy server space to even host a 'working' demo application for that money but perhaps pay for hosting your subversion repository. You can stay hungry and stay foolish until you build your application and after you have raised your first round comes the time to spend money on those Google Adwords and dedicated virtual servers, Amazon storage and whatnot.
6. Microsoft is a partner does that mean say goodbye to OSS web2.0 stack ?
No way, infact the program prefers you use OSS technologies to build something quickly. Anyway its too expensive in terms of time to struggle with Microsoft technologies to rapidly build a scalable web 2.0 startup.
7. Do they pay for travel in and out of Ahmedabad ?
No travel expenses are not covered by the program.
8. Is it the greatest thing to have happened in India ? Arguments from the devil's advocate ?
Its kind of difficult to answer. A lot depends on the quality of networking organized by the program. Rupees 24K and a place to stay is definitely not a great deal for an experienced professional but probably means something for a student whose parents told him he can't have their hard earned money to blow on a 'business'. The educational aspects of a program also would be very helpful to students I suppose but may not mean much to a seasoned software professional about to quit his job.
The application form for e.g. asks for your percentage shudder!! some of the greatest hackers in India who I know haven't even bothered to complete their degree. In a way the program expects students or very young professionals to join in since they assume you might have commitments of the type "GRE/GMAT/weddings/mandatory internships"
-- Advice to young professionals and students, please don't hold me responsible if you end up jobless and paisa-less after following my advice.
9. Should a student forgo a campus placement to join in this program ?
Depends on your risk taking ability, If you don't have any family responsibilities which require you to start earning in high 5 figures immediately, I would say sure why not ? If you were smart enough to be placed in a campus interview then after this program you'll be definitely be considered a better bet by smarter product companies/well funded startups even if you weren't able to raise funding for your idea and decided to box it.
10. Should I quit my job in a well established 'outsourcing' company/captive Center of Excellence to startup?
Again depends on your particular circumstances, people like me consider outsourcing companies as a kind of career dead-end in itself. With the dollar-rupee arbitrage disappearing despite frantic efforts of the RBI it might be one of the best decisions you have taken in your life. I would also recommend that you read carefully your Non-disclosure and proprietary rights agreement you signed with your employer before you decide that perhaps a sabbatical would be better than quitting the job.
11. Bonus Tip: You can apply with more than one idea, the program coordinators will choose the best one they like.
Suggestions for camp coordinators
If you really care to see demos of applications built by software professionals provide each team applying with a separate virtual hosting server on demand to allow them to demonstrate their code. It is expensive(time) to host fully functional code on shared hosting hosts where you typically don't control the environment for your application.
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