STARTUP SPECIAL................ Starting Up, the Expat Way(3)

STARTUP SPECIAL Starting Up, the Expat Way(3)

1.    Brit Grit

If Steve Jobs travelled to India as a teenager in the quest of spirit ual enlightenment, Tom Ansell's passage to India after qualifying as a chartered surveyor with a masters degree from Cass Business School in the UK opened his eyes to the entrepreneurial opportunities in the country. “That business is conducted in English is a big help,“ he adds for good measure.

Ansell, who is based in Bengaluru (his sister too lives in the Garden City with her Indian husband), is today a serial entrepreneur, now into his third and fourth startups called Grallo and Whyable, both with bases in India and the UK. While Grallo provides solutions for event transportation, Whyable is a bespoke software development agency.

“For Grallo, the market is largely in India. From weddings to big events such as the IPL [Indian Premier League] matches and the Jaipur Literary Festival, we provide transportation solutions which provide efficiency and value,“ explains Ansell. For Whyable, on the other hand, business is largely UK based.

The biggest challenge for him in India has been the lack of a network of friends and business associates. “When you are in your own country, it is easy to ask for advice or see a friend to let you get away from the stresses of running a business,“ he says. But the thrill of being an entrepreneur in India keeps him going. “It forces you to get under the skin of a country in a way that you would rarely do whilst on holiday or travelling. I am just beginning to come to grips with all the festivals, what they mean and why they are important,“ he adds. Clearly, Ansell is here for the long haul.

2.    Sweet, Dark Spot

When Jane Mason, a corporate lawyer turned yoga teacher and organic food chef, moved to Puducherry four years ago from Australia and decided to start making chocolate for Indians, people told her she was crazy. “We were told that dark chocolate does not suit the Indian palate. But we have been humbled by the amazing response. People seem to be craving healthy and quality produce,“ says Mason who set up the outfit with her husband Fabien Bontems who has lived in Auroville, Puducherry for most of his life.

Mason & Co started out of the couple's home where they spent hours trying different beans and roasts. “We decided to train in chocolate making due to the absolute drought of good quality chocolate in India. When our friends tasted the chocolate they urged us to start selling,“ says Mason. That was two years back. Now the chocolates are available in retail outlets across five cities in India.

What sets Mason & Co apart is that besides the products being vegan and organic, the couple also supports sustainable and fair trade practices. From sourcing high quality cacao in India to understanding how the industry works and putting together equipment for the factory, the journey so far has been a tough one. “We had to spend a lot of time on the road visiting farmers and getting samples. We eventually found two farmers who were interested in producing higher quality cacao and we worked with them to improve the way they process the cacao after harvesting, with a focus on quality and flavour,“ says Mason. It took over a year for them to get the first batches that they were happy with.

However, Mason finds many positives about running a business in her adopted country too. “There is a lot of opportunity in India, not simply because of the size of the country but also because of the openness and eagerness for new and quality products,“ she says.

3.    No Jugaad, just Gyan

Stefan Mauer is no newbie in India, having worked as a foreign correspondent for German business daily Handelsblatt between 2010 and 2013. So the decision to set up a business consultancy with offices in India and Germany, along with partner Benedikt Grosse-Jaeger, was an easy one for him.

“The interesting thing about our company is that we started in India wanting to tap into the large creative human resources pool and then decided to expand to Germany,“ says Mauer. He explains that Ro.Gro is helping break stereotypes about running a business out of India by recruiting talented and creative people here. “Many of the campaigns that we have done for our clients have been about implementation of business solutions in India through a mix of local creativity and German precision. These are not just one-off projects but end-to-end solutions that start with the conceptualisation right up to execution,“ he adds. Prominent clients include the German Embassy in India and humanitarian aid organisation Doctors Without Borders.

Mauer's mantra is to not depend much on jugaad (the local word for innovative fixes, sometimes by bending the rules) even though it was one of the first Hindi words that he picked up. “The Indian bureaucratic system has an in-built flexibility that is sometimes helpful for business people. The German system, on the other hand, though more efficient can sometimes become rigorous and unforgiving,“ he says.

Mauer finds it comfortable to live in south Delhi's tony Defence Colony where it's easy to find European eateries.“I love Indian food too; in fact that was one of the reasons that I decided to stay back in India after my journalistic stint ended,“ he says. While he considers being young and single an advantage, Mauer is committed to living here and expanding the business for the long haul. “I like hanging out at the usual expat networks but I'm also making a lot of Indian friends,“ he says. Along with bagging a lot of clients, of course.

Ishani Duttagupta

 ETM24MAY15