In 2020, we embarked on an incredible journey: setting up a Global Capability Center for a US-headquartered client in India. At the time, we didn't even realize that what we were building was called a GCC. We were just trying to solve a problem.
Over the next several posts, we'll share the steps we took and the challenges we faced — in the hope that it helps others considering a similar path. This first post focuses on one of the most consequential aspects of the whole journey: choosing the right location.
Where we started
We were working in our previous roles when the opportunity to set up an Indian entity for this client came our way. Neither of us had done anything like this before. The challenge immediately appealed — partly because of the scope, partly because nobody had a clean playbook to hand us.
The first step was to understand the nature of the work the Indian entity would handle. That meant having detailed, sometimes uncomfortable, conversations with our US counterparts to align expectations and clarify requirements. What functions would move? What stays in the US? What's a one-year goal versus a three-year goal?
Once we had that clarity, we turned our attention to finalizing the location.
The context: setting up during COVID
This was during the first wave of COVID-19. Teams were already working remotely. India was in and out of lockdowns. International travel was unpredictable.
Here's what we didn't yet realize: remote work was about to become the new norm, not a temporary patch. That ambiguity made every location decision feel heavier — were we choosing an office, or a labor market, or both?
Despite the uncertainties, we quickly converged on Bangalore. Three reasons made the decision easy.
Why Bangalore — three reasons that still hold up
1. Familiarity with the ecosystem
Our team had worked in Bangalore before. We knew which industrial parks ran reliably, which legal firms understood Indian-entity-with-US-parent setups, which hiring channels worked for senior engineering roles, and which didn't. When you're standing up an entity for the first time, knowing the ecosystem doesn't just save time — it saves you from learning expensive lessons in public.
2. Availability of a robust tech talent pool
Bangalore is, by some measures, the largest concentration of software talent on the planet. For our client's needs — a mix of product engineering, operations, finance, and HR — there was no scenario in which we'd hit a talent ceiling. That mattered then, and it matters more now that the team has grown to 80+ people.
3. Strong connectivity to most parts of the US
Direct flights matter. Time-zone overlap matters more. From Bangalore, you can comfortably get 3–4 hours of synchronous overlap with the US East Coast, and there are direct flights via the major hubs. When senior leaders need to be on-site quickly, that's not a small thing.
What everyone setting up a GCC should evaluate
Bangalore made sense for us. It may not be the right answer for you. Here's the framework we'd use if we were starting again today — three questions, plus a few practical filters underneath them:
- Cost of operations. Bangalore is more expensive than Hyderabad, Pune, or Chennai for salaries and real estate. If your model is cost-sensitive, the gap matters. If you're building a small, senior team, it often doesn't.
- Ease of setting up a business. State-level differences matter — labor laws, registration timelines, ease of getting Shops & Establishment licenses, FDI norms in special economic zones. Some states are dramatically faster than others.
- Headcount growth projections. If you plan to be 30 people in three years, almost any tier-1 city works. If you plan to be 300, the talent depth question gets serious — and only a few cities can comfortably support that scale across multiple functions.
The city you pick has to support not just your founding team but the version of your GCC three years from now. That's a much harder forecasting problem — and where most companies under-think it.
What's next
Choosing the location was the easy part, in retrospect. The next phase — actually incorporating the entity, dealing with banks, getting registrations sorted, and finding the right partners — is where things got real.
In Chapter 2, we walk through the budgeting work we did before incorporation: what to plan for, how to model headcount growth against cost, and the mistakes we'd avoid the second time around.
If you're thinking about setting up your own GCC and have questions about location, we'd love to hear from you — drop us a line at hello@globalcapabilitypartners.com.