Building products in Silicon Valley vs India

This episode goes in-depth into contrasting the product ecosystems of Silicon Valley versus India. We cover everything from similarities & differences between product leaders in both ecosystems, their product-building philosophies, what they can learn from each other, and a bonus section on how US-India founders should approach community-building and networking in the Bay Area.

Joining me for this discussion is Suhas Motwani, co-founder of The Product Folks, one of Asia’s largest Product communities with 180k+ members. In parallel, he is also a founder and builder, having built a suite of productivity apps to help folks fight digital distraction, a notable one being “Indistract” with ~1.2M downloads.

Suhas is one of the top young thinkers and community builders in India’s startup & product management ecosystem. Over the last couple of years, he has been splitting time between the Bay Area and India, really immersing himself into Silicon Valley, and like me, bridging the US-India corridor and cross-pollinating learnings between both ecosystems.

TIME STAMPS:

(01:52) Building software for US vs India customers
(08:08) The dilemma of AI venture investing in India
(12:01) Similarities & differences between product leaders in the Bay Area vs India
(19:59) Role of the surrounding environment in shaping a founder’s mindset
(22:25) What can Silicon Valley learn from India's way of building products
(25:49) The global competitive advantage of Indian startups in software and deep tech
(36:39) Community-building in the US vs India
(41:11) How should an India-based seed startup approach community-building in the US?
(49:27) Tips for building relationships in Silicon Valley as a US-India founder

Connect with Suhas -   / suhasmotwani   and follow him on X - @MotwaniSuhas

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Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life.

I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (  / soumitrasharma5  ) and follow me on X (@soumitra_sharma).