Earlier this year, a German businessman, Michael Brecht launched a business social networking site for Australians, ZaaBiz.com. Since this month, August, ZaaBiz.com has expanded to India. “Within a few weeks of launching in Australia I figured there were 30,000 users from the Indian diaspora,” explains Brecht, “I thought, why not launch it formally in India?” According to Brecht’s figures, Indians could constitute 70 per cent of ZaaBiz.com’s projection of one million members, the largest in the Asia-Pacific region. His team back in Australia has 10 employees of which four are Indians. “I plan to set up a full-fledged office and have a separate marketing team over here,” says Brecht, who is currently in Mumbai for an official launch and promotion of the portal. His members are mostly small and medium scale entrepreneurs from industrial sectors, finance, retail and real estate. ZaaBiz.com has a popular online group called Gateway to India, for entrepreneurs abroad to discuss business opportunities here. Brecht’s clients in Mumbai include PR and travel companies like Adfactors and Blue Lotus Communications.

The business landscape in India has traditionally been hard for start-ups, Indian or foreign. Outsiders doing business here say a lot of entrepreneurial activity included getting the basics done efficiently and creatively, despite constraints. “This is a country which was born through disobedience and yet it has gone passive,” says Thom Petty, 48, an Italian-American chef and restaurateur, sitting in his very American garage basement restaurant, Sparky’s Diner in central Chennai. Petty is frustrated: there hasn’t been power for many hours and the gensets can’t help run the ACs for long.

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