The father of the Pentium processor needs no introduction. But it’s Vinod Dham’s post-corporate career —in the “dark side, of startups”—that’s more illuminating for entrepreneurs. As head of NEA-IndoUS Ventures, which helps Indian startups get off the ground, Dham feels India excels in new ideas in the services arena but lacks the innovative edge. Excerpts from an interview:
Why are business leaders coming into the VC space now?
Before this, a lot of us were building our own careers and the environment in India was not conducive. It is a lot different now. India welcomes foreign venture capital more readily. It was also my passion to raise capital in the US and deploy it in India. We want to encourage young entrepreneurship in India—it is a natural step, which is why people like Narayana Murthy are getting into this space.
But you could have set up your own company.
Yes, but if I did another startup, I would be impacting only one company. This way, I can make an impact on a number of companies in different areas.
What’s unique about Indian startups?
In India innovation does not happen in technology but in application of technology and in services for companies and clients. That is unique. The US is also concerned about lack of innovation in that space and lack of people to do that and looks to India. But the lack of innovation in technology comes from the fact that we don’t have a lot of science and tech postgrads in India. We hope that with VCs becoming active, the institutional mechanism will change. But it will take time. We get 100s of ideas every month but we invest in just 2-3 of them that we find promising.
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