Not sure your comment about Microsoft is entirely correct - I know that was the stated intention when MS started the site but I see some evidence that they are hiring locally.
90Degrees was founded by a former colleague of mine, and they definitely hired a lot more than just sales from BOBJ, actually I'd have said it was the opposite - they took a lot of tech guys from my old team at a time when morale got pretty low a year or so after BOBJ took over. Most of those guys relocated to Redmond after MS took over, a few are back at SAP.
Being acquired by a larger company will affect the culture. Most people who date from the days of Crystal look back fondly on that time. Things definitely took a hit after BOBJ took over but if you look back the site thrived under BOBJ. It may have helped that BOBJ was really only 50% bigger than Crystal at the time. SAP is a different story, they were about 10x the size of BOBJ. I left, which tells you something about my morale there.
There has been a bit of turnover at Indicee - there was a period (prior to my arrival) when they were using more contractors etc - but we have a pretty solid full-time team now. We just pushed out a 2.0 of the product which is a substantial reworking.
Microsoft hires locally for MGS BigPark (their game studio). The rest are still waiting for their H1-B. It's not in MS DNA to operate like the way Google does. Microsoft prefers their employees for a product/group to be within the same building. (Knew this cause I used to work there).
I personally would put Indicee at the level of Vision Critical and Elastic Path in terms of the technical, the business, and the market. I hope you guys would do well.
I never understand what Bootup Labs startups do to be honest. I also don't understand what these "Social Media" startups are trying to build. Maybe I'm too young to understand the business models.
I'd prefer to see more startups that deal with serious businesses. But that's just me.
90Degrees was founded by a former colleague of mine, and they definitely hired a lot more than just sales from BOBJ, actually I'd have said it was the opposite - they took a lot of tech guys from my old team at a time when morale got pretty low a year or so after BOBJ took over. Most of those guys relocated to Redmond after MS took over, a few are back at SAP.
Being acquired by a larger company will affect the culture. Most people who date from the days of Crystal look back fondly on that time. Things definitely took a hit after BOBJ took over but if you look back the site thrived under BOBJ. It may have helped that BOBJ was really only 50% bigger than Crystal at the time. SAP is a different story, they were about 10x the size of BOBJ. I left, which tells you something about my morale there.
There has been a bit of turnover at Indicee - there was a period (prior to my arrival) when they were using more contractors etc - but we have a pretty solid full-time team now. We just pushed out a 2.0 of the product which is a substantial reworking.