more on New Start-Up Breed: Born in the USA, Made in India

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Udhay Shankar N <udhay () pobox com>
Date: September 23, 2004 10:11:35 PM EDT
To: cak () dimebank com, Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on New Start-Up Breed: Born in the USA, Made in 
India


> From: "Christopher A. Kantarjiev" <cak () dimebank com>
> Date: September 21, 2004 6:10:43 AM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] New Start-Up Breed: Born in the USA, Made in India
>
> Dave,
>
> I worked for such a startup for two years. It was a disaster, because 
> we
> couldn't find good line managers to work in India. The few engineering 
> staff and
> management in Santa Clara spent half of each day fixing the mistakes 
> and
> misdirection that the Bangalore crew had checked in every night.

Chris and I were colleagues in this particular startup. I have my own 
opinion on where the "mistakes and misdirection" actually originated, 
in this particular case, but we won't go into that.

I think that the current situation is qualitatively different, as a LOT 
more attention is being paid to process. This does not necessarily mean 
more quality, but it does mean more predictability. The problem of 
teams working tens of timezones and thousands of miles apart is being 
explicitly addressed in several companies now, including the one I 
currently work for. The success of this is debatable, but the point I 
want to make is that there is a change from the earlier situation where 
any "situations" were habitually addressed by throwing more and more 
midnight oil at them until something, or somebody, cracked.

Udhay

PS: one more minor nit, for Chris - the startup he was originally 
talking about was born in Bangalore, and later went to the US. :)


--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

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