Pune Software Company: How to get paid?
By Pulkit Sharma

Pune in Maharashtra is one of the major tech hubs in the country.  Big tech players like IBM, Infosys, Wipro, Symantec, Cognizant, TCS and others have a major presence in this thriving metropolis.  Many medium and smallish tech companies also provide great products and services. One such company has publicly asked for advice in getting its dues from a US-based client.

Pune-based Coriolis (coriolis.co.in) describes its mission statement as “providing effective solutions for system software products and components of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs).”

Coriolis boss Barnali Ganesh has posted the following message on a Google forum on Pune startups.

“
Local: Tues, Jun 9 2009 3:30 pm
Subject: US based client did not pay: any experience?

We are a startup running software services business for past 4 years now. Recently we had a very bad experience with one of the US head-quartered clients who also has a development unit in Pune. Our company offered specialized system software services to them last year.

After lot of persuasion, they have refused to pay us for the last two months for our services. They availed of services for more than six months and the payments for the initial did come. So we did not realize that we will end up in not getting money from them for the last two months.

The amount they owe us is trivial for them while that is significant for a small company like ours. I did write to the US based CEO as well, but that also did not yield any result. Their excuse is that they do not have money to pay. But they still maintain a decent sized engineering team (after they shrunk in size) with decent salaries in Pune. The money they owe to us is =< 1% of their India team's salary budget.

The jurisdiction area, as per any other standard US agreement is, unfortunately the USA.
 
Guys, does anybody have any similar experience and most importantly it will be helpful to know if anybody has actually solved the problem.

I would like to highlight a bigger threat here, especially to the startups. If the overseas clients *(the jurisdiction area is the problem, you can not drag them to Indian court)* choose not to pay, is there any other option other than silently swallowing that?

Regards
Barnali
www.coriolis.co.in
“

When Coriolis contacted the CEO of the US-based client, he mentioned that he was ‘thinking of filing for bankruptcy’.  But till today, the company is operating normally. Other excuses are that they have run out of money.

The Pune technology community has rallied to offer all manner of advice and assistance to Barnali and the Coriolis team.  But as the contract said that any legal disputes would be settled in US Courts, cost factors prevent this Pune software company from pursuing this in America.