What are the advantages & disadvantages of teaming up with a "tech" co-founder based in India?

I have worked in India in Tata Consultancy Services. I think the biggest thing you have to take care with is culture. Indians and Indian work ethics is very very different from the west and it can (probably will) be a source of headache for both of you. I am not saying that it is impossible to deal with the cultural differences, but expect a lot of hassle to get anything done. Said this, you might want to test (as in, see in practice): Technical skill - overselling and underdelivering is something that is not so unusual in India. Besides this, India has some good schools, but a lot of them are really weak (I remember working with a Computer Science graduate that did not know how to press ctrl+alt+del to login). Problem solving skills - most of Indian family, school and work environments are very much top down: I give you the solution and you shut up. So lots of times Indians will have difficulty with problem solving skills (they will come to you for a solution), which is not great for a co-founder, especially a technical one. Ability to express and deal with negation and constructive feedback - Indians have a bit of difficulty with saying "no". It is a culture that has a very indirect approach of saying "no" (i.e.: they say "yes" or "maybe", but with their tone and body language they are really saying "not in hell"). This is something that is very frustrating when you ask "can you deliver X by Y?", they say "yes" and then it is not delivered. They are also not very good at telling you what needs to be improved. Commitment to deadlines -  Exactly because of the above, it is really common to be surprised by stuff not being done in the time allocated. Planning ability - India is a very uncertain place, it is hard to plan anything, so Indians lots of times don't bother planning things (they just do them) and they often don't see why you want to plan something. This obviously creates a lot of firefighting at work. Please note that any generalization about India cannot be 100% accurate. Individuals are always different. But that is my general experience while working with Indians in an Indian company in India. I might suggest you to search on the Eastern European countries, like Russia, Romania and Ukraine. They seen to have an untapped source of engineering talent, while being a lot closer in terms of culture.

Not advisable to a large extent. Although advantageous in many aspects, but it could lead to serious problems over a period of time. I have been approached in the past for opportunities likes these but I have tried to keep it simple. 1. Cultural factors - As many have mentioned here, dealing with Indians is just equivalent to dealing with people from other cultures. Indians can get workoholic and eliminate personal life for professional in many instances as they believe to put everything first at work, to an extent that they scarifice their personal lives too, which is not what people from west indulge often at. 2. Ethical Nature - Gaining trust and loyalty is very difficult for involved parties unless money is the driving force. 3. Communication - Could get very difficult. At times cultural factors along with understanding emotions at work could be very tough. Besides the above, knowledge levels and work proficiency matters a lot in any professional relationship which gets very difficult to manage/maintain with distance.

I can speak from other side, since i am Asian ( Pakistani ) and am co-founder to companies registered in NYC. I had worked with my partners in capacity of outsourcing, for 6 months and we understood each other capabilities. We have never met with each other, but we speak daily over Skype. We are doing high-end product development and have our roles defined. I take care of technical stuff and based offshore, where as my partners take care of product management and investor relationship. We have registered the firm in NYC and all the IP is vested in US company and the work is outsourced to local entity. i assume with internet and social media, people are trusting people across border and working with talent globally.

Based on my experience having a cofounder not co-located does not work all that well. Its one thing the time difference and other thing is to continuously interact with that person on daily basis, agree and disagree on discussion points, bounce your idea/listen to you ideas, share the eurekha moments. This does not happen when not co-located. Burning midnight oil is not a good idea for either of your since you are not at your best in the middle of night and your discussions and conversations will never be effective. You are better off looking for a tech cofounder locally and let him/her handle the application development through as outsourcing partner.