There is a new archetype of founders emerging in India known as BARBIE - founders who did their Bachelors Abroad and Returned to Build in the Indian Ecosystem
We’re at the start of the BARBIE going after deep-tech as well and often choosing to not go/drop-out of college entirely. Not yet unicorns but give them time. Though I wouldn’t make claims of them doing better than other founders inherently
Praan, Airbound, Aspera, Jhana, and i’ll be self serving and add Dognosis as well ;)
While it's nearly impossible to know the number of Indians that studied abroad and later returned to India, it'd be great to see how many "Barbies" pitched your funds and how many of those were funded.
That baseline (denominator) number, or whatever other proxy you can think of, is the missing piece in this article!
Two technical details: Aadit Palicha grew up mostly in Dubai; Rahul Reddy grew up completely in SoCal.
Aadit dropped out after a year at Stanford. If a normal middle-class kid were to go to stanford from India, the kid wouldn't even dream of dropping out knowing how much money and loans were pulled to send them there. The privilege makes the difference. Not to mention, he has an affluent background.
I was thinking of the point that you did final cover in the second half - is it more the privilege of an affluent family or the foreign education that’s playing a greater role in these young people starting a business and becoming more successful? It would be worthwhile making a comparison of all founders by their family background to see if that adds up. Of course having a foreign stint broadens everyone’s perspective.
Good piece, Anmol and Anshul. Ofc I am biased but still!
Good article. Would be interesting to know which of these factors - studying outside or having affluent backgrounds impact the most.
Also do we have any statistic about any such founder from non affluent backgrounds making it big?
this explains so much about why some Indian consumer brands just feel… different. taste really is a competitive advantage.
We’re at the start of the BARBIE going after deep-tech as well and often choosing to not go/drop-out of college entirely. Not yet unicorns but give them time. Though I wouldn’t make claims of them doing better than other founders inherently
Praan, Airbound, Aspera, Jhana, and i’ll be self serving and add Dognosis as well ;)
Great read guys
While it's nearly impossible to know the number of Indians that studied abroad and later returned to India, it'd be great to see how many "Barbies" pitched your funds and how many of those were funded.
That baseline (denominator) number, or whatever other proxy you can think of, is the missing piece in this article!
Two technical details: Aadit Palicha grew up mostly in Dubai; Rahul Reddy grew up completely in SoCal.
Thanks for writing
What about the term marbie!?
Aadit dropped out after a year at Stanford. If a normal middle-class kid were to go to stanford from India, the kid wouldn't even dream of dropping out knowing how much money and loans were pulled to send them there. The privilege makes the difference. Not to mention, he has an affluent background.
Why are only undergrads being counted as Barbies, Anmol!
rich kids with Stanford degrees do well, shocking
this is... not exactly a contrarian thesis?
I was thinking of the point that you did final cover in the second half - is it more the privilege of an affluent family or the foreign education that’s playing a greater role in these young people starting a business and becoming more successful? It would be worthwhile making a comparison of all founders by their family background to see if that adds up. Of course having a foreign stint broadens everyone’s perspective.