Watch: Returning to India to Build a Startup After 5 Years in the U.S.

4:04 Jobs in case they move to India some temporarily or like they want to visit India to attend to the family members and all that so that is also something which I've seen among close family and friends so that time me and my wife talked about it and then we realized okay first thing is we were here for completions we always thought we are going to be there for just few years maybe five to eight years and then we'll come back and kovid was something which has taught us a very important lesson right okay you need to be available with your family when they need like immediately so being in US was not possible for us at that point of time so we realized in the future if situation volunteers that we have to be in India we won't be able to come immediately leave everything and come to India so that is one of the major points the second thing is we also saw a very tremendous amount of opportunity in India in the recent past we are seeing everywhere like different schemes of government make in India scheme or stand up India stand up India

5:04 Scheme all these different schemes and we are I was actually all along pretty excited about these things so from the longest period of time I mean I can think of I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur myself and I have not found the right time like all along but being in Universe it also helped me you know have built some Financial stability by which I could think of doing this but being in U.S starting a firm was not easy it has its own challenges and it's very expensive it's not easy at all and really trying to cater to the U.S market being on an immigrant Visa is not easy because you have a lot of permissions that you need to run through a lot of handles it's not easy to hire people for you and some days are not less either but again the population also we don't understand the demographics completely being immigrants we don't understand local demographics all that well so all that led me to move back to India we decided and then finally decided we

6:05 Moved back and beginning of 2022. if they decided to come back and yeah I mean they've been pretty good and after that we took some time to settle down you know set up a home in India and everything then finally I quit my work and then decided to pursue my own startups okay great yeah thanks for sharing the different factors that influenced you know making this decision to move back so maybe if you can talk a little bit about the logistics right I think sounds to me that I think during the Kobe time is when you seriously considered to do it right now instead of like delaying it further maybe anything on like Logistics like for example like you know how long you planned for anything that you handle right whether it's like shipping stuff you know taking care of some of the logistics anything that you can talk from your journey sure sure definitely so we I mean it was

7:07 Actually also not a hard decision so after we decided so we took probably we were daily Dialing for a month to see whether we want to move back and then I think I remember maybe a normal December time frame of 2021 is when we decided maybe we want to move back I'll let them know I want to move back so I'm like I don't want to renew my Visa again so my resources opt for Renewal so I said okay I don't want to do it anymore I want to move back so many moving we have seen a lot of people around friends are trying to carry stuff container and everything so for those people who want to carry I mean there are easy options Universal relocations is one of the options so that's actually a predict famous well-known one usually people you know send that kind of you know whatever they want right they are collected so when you are let's do some furniture that they want to carry but we didn't carry much because we didn't want to carry we had we realized a lot of things available in India it's India is not anymore where you don't get things you

8:08 Will get equally good things in India the same companies which are available in U.S are also available in India right now so in light of that we decided to just carry on someone else the memories that we have and our daughter's toys and other things but nothing significant we didn't carry any furniture we just decided to move we didn't want to bring in anything okay but I understand if somebody wants to carry and bring stuff because I did see some of my friends who also moved around the same time as we did so they did carry through you know some relocations that shipped some of them and it was not all that expensive it was pretty decent I think they got their stuff around two to three months time frame yes yeah for the full container and especially during the Kobe time in the early 2022 there were some of these Logistics issues available to The Container but otherwise it should be much more even a smooth sale okay sounds like I think it's a pretty straightforward move in your case able to make the decision and you know move back to India so I think you kind

9:09 Of touched about it slightly so you have transitioned with the same company I'm guessing with Infosys like from us to India when you are transferring to when you're moving back to India right for some time before you started your startup yeah so is actually was part of optimum optimal units Healthcare company so basically yeah so from 2014 I was in October and then 2015 2015 as an October 2015 to 2017 I worked in India then I moved to us and after that I moved back with the same formula so got it sorry Michael it's not Infosys it's a Optum so you've been missing always yeah it's good yeah I was with Infosys were a very brief period of time between 2014 to 2014. cool so I think one thing maybe you can if you're open maybe you can shed a little bit light about you know the startup

10:09 Right I think you know the flexibility of doing that in India versus maybe in us I think the timing maybe you know how you planned about it if there is anything that you have thought about it beforehand like while you're still in us or you know setting up the stones ready to you know move to the transition anything that you can share on that side yeah definitely so in 2021 itself like some time around February time we were thinking about it to see if we can start a startup in U.S right and then I realized that quitting my job and starting my own startup was not easy option at all it is not even an option for me because the amount of expenses that we would incur while in U.S was a challenge and second thing is immigration itself to start my own four microphone start in my name because I work on eleven visa and I had to start in my spouse name so it was actually quite a bit of selling

11:09 So in that aspect it is not easy navigating around the system and then setting up or even quitting and doing it full-time considering even consider the very thought of considering quitting and doing full time was not an option so after moving to India it was a lot easier because we had a bit of financial stability and my wife also picked up a job so if somebody is concerned about the fact that I actually would move because I could get it I mean I didn't have to search for a job right with my employer being the same but my spouse actually had to quit in U.S and then when she moved back it was actually very easy for her to find a job so within one month we had four offers lined up and she was she was very specific that she wanted a remote job because we had a young daughter at home one year old daughter so she was very specific saying Hey I want to ensure I want to get remote to work because I want to be close to my daughter so she had offers four offices in no time even though it was pandemic and even though a lot of people talk that a recession has started and it's difficult in this landscape and

12:10 All that they're very easy for her to get a job considering we have worked in us and you know we have the user experience there are a lot of people who are actually willing to you know hire us because actually worked their English so that was easy choice so it's those of people those people who are actually contemplating rather than they'll get a job or when they move back always easy or difficult it is deliminators are easy I've seen a lot of people actually get jobs great jobs in fact oh sorry maybe just one quick question on this career transition for your wife has she applied while in U.S or maybe after coming to India because we hear some questions from some of these aspirants who are trying to apply while in U.S maybe you know some of the issues with employers not considering them to be serious if they're going to come back or not so just curious in your

13:10 Case has your wife applied while in U.S or after coming to India like she started applying for the opportunities and you know and it was a quick turn to get the job yeah actually I played after coming back to India mainly because she wanted to take a break a few months if she wanted to spend time with the family you know travel around and everything so I know a lot of people have the notion that you take a break then break in employment then you may not get a job but there is no such thing I think quit in January in us and when she joined her in India in July of 2021. so even if it was a gap of six months and nobody actually even you know asked anything about it so it'll be a very easy thing for us he started applying I think in first week of July and my last week of July I've already working oh good okay so yeah now maybe you can schedule some information about your startup that you're about to say earlier

14:13 Sure sure so yeah you know starting startup in India was actually a lot easier right they have support systems we have people there are a lot of people who are ready to help you assist you all the services really easily Services very cheap Services affordable transaction call it cheap very affordable Services which can help you accelerate the process of starting a startup so for few months for I started the firm in April and I continue to work I inform my employer that hey I'm starting my form I would like to continue to work for some time finally because I have a hired people to help me with the development and design and everything so there's something which I could afford being in India I couldn't do that I couldn't afford people I couldn't afford resources because they were so expensive and doing it across India to us was also challenged because any lot of people do this where they start to form anyways and then hire people in India to do the

15:14 Development and design and everything but to me being here in India and collaborating directly with the team helps me a lot too much for me because it was taking a lot of my effort doing two jobs so then finally I decided to put my other paying job and coming in to start a full time and now I see that there is a very big Network and support for the standoff ecosystem in India so every week there are like a lot of events happening in almost every major city in India where there is a connect between startup Founders investors and you know there are people who always

16:15 Across companies doesn't matter so there are events happening every week so I've been to three of them and like I've got wonderful support from the other you know Founders and investors too sounds like I think a very good ecosystem for the startups especially with a lot of these government initiatives or programs and you know a lot of groups helping out each other so the ecosystem is definitely booming and a lot of opportunities if somebody is considering that option in India completely agreed maybe because you have worked in India you know for some time before moving to us and I think after moving here you kind of work for some duration and then kind of went into your own entrepreneur kind of a role maybe you can talk a little bit about the work culture the contrast like you know pre-us maybe

17:16 After U.S have you noticed any differences in terms of like how India has progressed or maybe you know just somebody who has worked in us for certain years you know their experience here so anything that you can share a light in terms of the work life balance the culture and also like from an entrepreneur like some of the challenges I think you know that definitely would be very valuable so I also I had put in like in a lot of hours regardless of the companies right like whether it is proactively yourself or somebody asking you to do it but it so happens that everybody's doing it and you don't want to be like lost in the race and you're like hey somebody else is doing more work than me so what if I don't you know get a better rating or a better High accordingly right so you're

18:17 Doing this and for the employer side also the focus was not so much on the life unbalance fact it is more of a work part and I realize I traveled to us I mean I think everybody assumes also that it's a lot of work-life balance but yeah I mean there is a decent amount of workload balance depending on the employer I have seen some employers being very ruthless in very work oriented so my I mean even from my work initially it because I translated from India to the US I took my work cultures from here to there so I was initially working the same amount of time I was working in India but then slowly realized that that is not the case I can focus on my and I started focusing on that and my image of India was the same before I moved back I thought okay India is what it is when I left so I think this is what

19:18 Most people are stuck with so their image of India is exactly what or they had seen before they left and I wasn't for a drastic shock when I moved back I mean pleasant surprise rather I'm not shocked presents are afraid after moving back to India because things have changed a lot so a in terms of the salaries that people are being paid in India it was absolutely you know surprising to see people get paid a huge amount of money trusting Indian market almost kept kept up rather in fact beyond the global languages that is one thing is a pleasant surprise for all of us and the second thing was there was so many companies focusing on workless violence mental health workouts and all that so you went from my own employee I noticed that they were not offering College fitness classes they were asking some yoga classes and it's like wow this is good and there's not there's generally like people used to work late nights earlier and now there was a very serious purpose

20:19 Shift from the management saying hey nobody wants nobody has to work late you're not supposed to work late like log off early if you don't have to be online so it is a big change I noticed and I also noticed the same thing I mean it's not just from online so I also noticed this from any of the other peers too where they also say hey yeah we'll try everything somewhere we are doing something we're going for the hike or we are going out out of town all of this so these kind of things are coming to play now so that is actually a very good thing that I'm seeing a good change that is happening in India where people have started focusing Beyond work I think the younger generation right the Millennials they don't want to be tied on with work they want to go enjoy the Finer Things of life so there are a lot of Avenues which are being developed right now so previously I've never seen a golf driving range in India and now I see there are a lot of global driving ranges right now and initially you know hiking was not a thing right like people went because very early people wanted to go but now there are weekend hike short hikes a lot of people were going out

21:20 Doing these things or weekend Retreats yeah now these are something which you will hear day in and day out yeah that has been a big shift in the culture which I'm seeing in our culture right now and I know I do notice that there are a lot of companies who are giving their employees Fridays second half off or for them to work on whatever they want it could be something that they're excited about be it learning or they want to do something on their own so in India to us yeah that's great I think sounds like a lot of evolution in terms of the perks or flexibilities that are offered to to you know the workforce especially I think it's just going to be much more competitive to keep the you know the team engaged employees engaged employees are all like also adapting to the the needs of

22:22 Millennials or the new work culture to make sure those are all available I think it's great to hear I think for those people who are considering I think it's worth talking to your friends or the people or the colleagues you know who are working in India to understand this a bit better in terms of the lifestyle in terms of the culture it is something that's also another important thing that's on people's mind but there are a lot of changes that has happened recently so so just I think you know thanks for sharing your thoughts on that so yeah of course one last thing I think after moving to India is there something that you have missed living in U.S actually that's a great question so yeah I mean I'd be lying if I say no we actually we were in a place where we were just 10 minutes away from the beach so we would actually go take a stroll in

23:24 The evening after work or just go there for her we would just peel your coffee and go and have watching the sunset because it's something I think about me and my wife missed and yeah I mean the national parks right U.S is known for national parks and the amazing trades that we get but again you win you get some and you lose some right into the day it's all about what you want and here I've been really thankful that I've been you know being close to family now so I get to spend a lot more time with my family be close to my friends and the biggest change that I noticed is in my daughter right so when we were in U.S so I thought it was just eight months old and she was very apprehensive to meet anybody or even like seeing or talk to anybody like my talk as in case but still and then somebody new a stranger would come she was very scared like she would be really scared and start crying and even after moving back for several months she carried the same

24:25 Thing because you know in U.S it's all quiet and it's just the two of us with the baby and started like getting better with everybody just playing with everybody so and since then she's become very talkative and very outspoken so you're like okay this is a very big change and this is something which you have seen for in kids in India and then when they talk to some of my peers right or my family members in U.S and when they notice our daughter growing up here versus their own kids being there they say hey this is such a significant change that you see here so the kids get exposed to a lot of family members and friends and all that so yeah I mean India is all about people you have the largest population in the world so at least make better use of it yeah for

25:26 Sure and I think that is worth to our advantage yeah especially I think the kids right I think you know the Pamper the exposure you know the P I think the opportunities for them to meet so many people and then they also like learn quickly because there are a lot of people talking to them or they are exposed to several things compared to what they would have in another country you know just because everybody is busy or you know the different aspects to that game cool is there anything is there any topic or anything that we haven't covered that you would like to bring it up to the Future aspirants who are considering to move back to India yeah one thing I want to cover is I think India is currently growing to a tremendous phase of growth where you have opportunity to do anything right like this is very hard to do so where all the action is right now the world's action is there so you see a lot of Industries coming and sort of setting up their offices here a lot of

26:28 Manufacturing companies flipping from China to India leveraging the also you know soft switch government has laid out yeah I mean this is a great place to be right now perfect place I know there are compromises you would feel that here a little bit compromising on theirs or that or will I get a job but I think believe me this is a place where you want to be because this is the exciting part this is where all the action is happening and you will not definitely miss that is something and next thing is you can afford all the support and help that you need in India which you won't get if it's not possible while Universe you have to probably request your parents or in-laws or somebody to hey and you just come over for some time help us because we are struggling because you have a kid or something or

27:28 You want your let's say the both the husband and wife are working and the wife the the work part is difficult for both of them then to even play with the kids you need somebody yeah because there's only so much the daycare the schools do so you will instead of doing all that you can just move back to India it's very easy you have a great support system and you can afford to do a lot of things here then that those things which you couldn't afford back anyways and we are standing for the good so every like if you see all the all the cities all the major cities they have Metro connectivity that's fantastic roads so I was actually pleasantly surprised the seeing the highway is right like right now somebody had told me that I could use cruise control for more than 10 minutes in India I would laugh it a few years ago I'm like hey this is a big joke but right now I I can confidently say I can use almost more than an hour like continuously close controls and I'm traveling across States so the the highways are beautiful it seems like

28:30 These roads have been got from U.S right so yeah there's a big change government explore India come and experience India and then you take addition right you don't have to take a drastic change immediately if required but come and live experience not travel so when somebody comes for say two weeks right they release a really short experience you can't really experience India you'll just be so busy you know meeting your friends family and all that you don't actually get to experience the India as a new India yeah it's visiting for a few weeks versus living for a couple of months even if it is possible it's definitely you know not as a visitor but living here right you know living in your own house or you know something is different experience it I think there has been a lot of changes things you know whether it's a work-life culture the infrastructure the services you know the food options the a lot of these Goods

29:32 Things that are available the digital India there's a lot happening I think you know it's it's good to explore and consider that so that you are evaluating your options appropriately and not to think the India like what you have in mind whatever it was right I think and you might not experience the same thing when you're just visiting for a week or two weeks so if possible and if you have the flexibility it's good to spend time if you're seriously considering about relocating back to India to give it a try and understand how it could be living you know by yourself with that said I think we are moving to our final segment of the show which is the rapid four the first question is surprise thing after returning to India for the digital penetration oh yeah it's amazing I was so extremely surprised I was like every you know even the smallest of the fruit window or the vegetable vendor

30:33 Or the flowers they use Google pay and phone plan on that that was pretty surprising and this is something which is not there in U.S as well even in the US we think it's a most developed country but believe me I have not seen this kind of but I was like mind blown in India is much much in an advanced stage where you don't even have to take your wallet card anything all you need is your phone yeah and you're good to go you know like the interlinking of all your Banks cards you know your mobile it's it's seamless so definitely a lot of progress in that in India what's your favorite destination travel destination in India and your favorite Indian dish or a restaurant favorite Indian I mean being me being a South Indian I would say I saw any South Indian food

31:33 And I started writings something very close to my heart is a local restaurant in Bangalore called SLV okay famous for its you know yummy italies and what else so that's my favorite I would say great local food and the last one is favorite part of living in India very part of living India is being too close to everybody being close to family great so experience yes so I think that's all for today folks thank you very much Prasad for taking your time and sharing your journey as well as your valuable insights especially on the work culture ease of starting a startup here in India and some of the thought process that went behind you know moving to India and you know the things to consider you know for people who are evaluating these options so I really appreciate to take the time and sharing your experience and journey with us

32:35 Today thank you so much for having me on the show I'm I'm glad I could you know participate in your show and share my experience great thank you all for joining us on this insightful journey of Desi Return if you enjoyed this episode and want to explore more stories and expert advice make sure to subscribe and hit the notification Bell don't forget to leave a comment below with your thoughts and experiences by the way check out the links in the description below for our Facebook group and social media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting videos thank you once again and until next time may your desert and journey be filled with joy growth and endless possibilities