key source of strength for Mentor Partners is that there are enough follow-on investors (including some two dozen Silicon Valley VC firms and strategic investors either already on the ground or very keen to invest in India) who can invest $3 million or more into their portfolio companies - when they are ready for it. Plus, as B.D.Goel, a member of the Mentor Partners network, points out, "success" for such a seed fund would be in validating the business models of their investee companies and helping them access name-brand investors as part of the first round. Mentor Partners will then rely on the follow on investors to take its investee companies to the next level, rather than having to hand-hold companies all the way to an exit. For entrepreneurs too, this is much better than having a larger fund invest $1-3 million when their products are still being built and then, just when they seem to be getting their marketing act together, start pushing towards a premature exit.Mentor Partners' model-including its relatively small fund size and its unique partner network-is a welcome addition to the Startup-VC ecosystem in India. What's even better is that there are more similar seed funds that are either up and running or being raised. While Bangalore has seen the launch of the $3 million Erasmic Incubation Fund, Mumbai-based angel investor Mahesh Murthy has teamed up with Pravin Gandhi (a co-founder of Infinity Venture) to raise a $10 million fund to be called, well, “Seed Fund”. Here's hoping that these seed funds-which are filling an increasingly obvious and large gap in the eco-system-will close their funds quickly and invest in creating some very exciting technology companies out of India in 2006.

Venture Intelligence India: New Seed Funds: Right time, Right Place, Right Model

Ever since I was a kid, I've been going back and forth to visit my family in India. But, in the past five or six years, something changed. My relatives, instead of asking me about all the things going on in America, started talking about all the things that were going on in India. There was a shine in their eyes talking about the progress that has already happened and that will come. It’s this hope and confidence that fundamentally changes the equation. People are now willing to take risks and entrepreneurship is starting from a grass-roots level. Indian companies are becoming confident enough to go shopping on a global scale and many are not afraid to grow aggressively. As the IPO and M&A markets become broader, it will provide more opportunities for small companies and, most crucially, the investors that put money into them.

This is true. Banaglore is SO hot right now. But it feels stable, too. The climate is ideal... its room temperature +-5 all year round. Forget about Hyderabad, its too hot.

So just forget about interacting with females, and mentally prepare yourself for the traffic and being stared at for months at a time and for a little bit of dysentary and get on that plane. You can hire 5 experienced developers in India for the price of one person here as long as you're willing to be there and get shit done. Being there gets you employees and infrastructure at half the rate you can contract it with an outsourcing firm. 50% displacement discount.

Got a techno-dream? Chase it, on the new frontier. The elephants name is Ganesha, and if you don't know what to order, try the Idli.

Venture Intelligence India: What's holding back the Indian Venture Capital Market?

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 2005--Progressive Gaming International Corporation (NASDAQ: PGIC - News; the Company), a leading provider of diversified technology and
content products and services used in the gaming industry worldwide,
announced today that it has completed its acquisition of EndX Group
Ltd. (EndX), a global gaming management systems software company
headquartered in the United Kingdom for cash of $27.0 million. Roth
Capital Partners, Cooley Godward LLP, and Bird & Bird in the United
Kingdom were advisors to the Company on the transaction.

EndX has been a key strategic partner with the Company for over
three years. The EndX Intelligence Product Suite is currently
installed in over 175 gaming centers in over 20 countries worldwide,
including the three major gaming operators in the U.K.

Progressive Gaming International Completes Acquisition of EndX Group Ltd.: Financial News - Yahoo!Finance

Real-time Salary Survey Information for:
Location:State=Karnataka (India)

PayScale - Karnataka Salary Survey, Salaries, Wages, Compensation

Consider
the position a casino operator finds himself in when he installs
a Slot Players Club system utilizing magnetic stripe card readers
to track how much his customers gamble. Because a casino floor typically
contains popular slot machines from many different manufacturers--most
of which communicate via their own proprietary protocols--the operator
must either buy or develop a Slot Machine Software Management System
(SMS) that can interpret the disparate protocols or select a proprietary
protocol supplied by a slot manufacturer or systems company.

Gamet Technology - Leader in Casino Systems Technology

National INdian Gaming Assoc.

National Indian Gaming Assoc.

WhiteSand Consulting is a professional services firm that provides strategy, operations and technology consulting services to a wide variety of clients, with an emphasis on gaming and hospitality. ��WhiteSand consultants have many years of casino, hotel, technology, marketing, and financial experience that provide the foundation of our business solutions.�

Home Page - WhiteSand Consulting

The global expansion of gambling led partially by the Internet and continuing deregulation has enabled GBGC to help operators, governments, financial institutions and the media on a continuing basis. We believe that gambling in the future will be regarded as a mainstream business activity no different from any other throughout the world.

casino consultants, betting consultants, gambling consultants - Global Betting & Gaming Consultants

Multimedia Games Inc. (MGAM)

MGAM: Profile for MULTIMEDIA GAMES - Yahoo! Finance

IGT

IGT: Profile for INTL GAME TECH - Yahoo! Finance