T-Hub a boon for city start-ups

HYDERABAD: To help bridge the cultural gap and make transitions seamless, T-Hub is training six international start-ups in the mannerisms, practices and conventions of India as part of the India Market Access Program (IMAP).

Representatives of start-ups from the US, Canada, Austria, South Korea and the Netherlands which are currently stationed in T-Hub, are in the final stages of the three-month program.

International companies often experience a culture shock when they work with Indian vendors and clients for the first time. Hugues Marceau, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Autonom, a Canadian start-up, says, “I have noticed that whenever you go in India, people tend to ask if you would like to have something to eat or drink.” Other representatives have also taken note of such cultural differences and sha-red them during the programme.

Jay Krishnan, the CEO of T-Hub, says, “We tell them about the culture and how to do business in India. We also help with actual customer discovery in the Indian market.”

Representatives participating in the programme have said that their start-ups are being taken more seriously by vendors and client because of the “T-Hub” tag. “I am using the help of entrepreneurs in T-Hub to build network and a reputation. I know nobody here, but the brand value of T-Hub is helping me,” says Mr Marceau.

While cultural differences may exist, some taboos are universal. Megha Niluvas Srinivasamurthy of the LifeSense Group from the Netherlands says, “Our product, Carin, is a line of hi-tech, absorbent, beautiful underwear, which allows women to monitor urine loss throughout the day. Incontinence is subject that is considered a taboo because women do not want to talk about it. This is not just in India; it has been observed in other countries as well.”

Chirstoph Trost, the managing director of Austrian start-up Unispotter, highlights the unique features of the Indian education system. “It is different how people look for colleges here. The decision to opt for an undergraduate course is generally taken by the parents, and for post-graduate courses, students reach out to consultancies. This is not the case anywhere else, but it is a key indicator of our product’s sales,” he says. Mr Trost adds that being able to directly reach out to universities is next-to-impossible in most other countries. “This is unique to India, to be able to go to universities and speak to officers in their training and placement cells,” he says.

Apart from acquiring cultural knowledge, the start-ups are also learning about the Indian market. Michael Treasure, the founder of USA-based Lymousine, says, “We have had Indian cultural training sessions. We are also learning about the Indian market, which is certainly different from the American market. We are conducting market resear-ch and are fluid about the solution that we want to bring to the Indian market.”
International start-ups are also interacting with local start-ups to understand the dynamics involved in reaching out to customers. Autonom is planning to manufacture locally, Lymousine has expressed an interest in launching operations in India, and Unispotter will soon have a soft launch of its product.