They’re boomers. Whatever is unknown is scary and needs to be regulated. Very anti-business tbh.

Lol!! Profiting on gambling is not poor policy. Higher taxes is good for you and me

Product Manager

Gambling should be banned. Not blodd taxed. People's lives get destroyed. Govt should be banning all such apps. But what does govt do? Hamara hafta do

Software Lead

Product Head

Because it is their job to ensure that the most vulnerable don't screw up their lives

By that argument a lot of things should be banned and prohibited.

Assistant Manager

Banning just because it harms people will demonstrate a bad light to potential external investments, limitation through high taxes is the first move before the industry eventually slows down

Product analyst

Crypto is as good as gambling. Not supported by any fundamentals. Why would govt not go after it to.protect the most vulnerable. 
 For fintechs why would the govt put up with high risk , high leverage and malpractices? Not only govt even Google has come after fintechs now. Also gambling is the main profitable wing of gaming companies in india

Jab tak Ambani aur Adani nahi ayega koi yeh danda nahi kar sakta

Lol. No love for gambling. Let it suffocate

Founding Engineer

Greater good + government+ regulations is a combo that doesn't exist. Govt is gonna keep increasing taxes. They cut corporate tax rate a few years ago, that shortfall has to be made up somewhere. Making tax an election issue is the way to go.

Investor

Mandir bnaane ka startup krte hain...that will boom!!

https://www.srimandir.com/ be careful what you wish for.

Project Manager

Computer scientist

One of the reasons why IT industry grew such gigantic size in India is that poor babus and politicians didn’t understand what information technology is and how to impose rules to generate bribe for themselves. Government will always frame laws and regulations so that politicians and bureaucrats will get enough bribe and authority to safeguard themselves if at all they were caught.  
  
 If at all they really want to do good for society there are thousands of evils which are flourishing but they are already generating bribes for them. So they won’t regulate those.

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Why is the Indian government going after startups through suffocating regulations? There is a pattern : crypto -> fintech -> gaming. What is the greater good story in these moves?

Why is the Indian government going after startups through suffocating regulations? There is a pattern : crypto -> fintech -> gaming. What is the greater good story in these moves?- Grapevine

At Nexus(our startup), we're passionate about revolutionizing the way people invest in Stocks and crypto. But as any startup founder can attest, the path to success is often filled with obstacles.

Recently, we encountered a significant roadblock in our quest for funding. A potential investor turned us down, citing that hit us hard: we didn't have a fully functioning MVP.

Now, you might be wondering, what exactly our MVP was showing? Well it wasn't the flashy trading platform we dream of. Instead it considered a basic interface with stock prices displayed here and there. The cold reality is that users couldn't buy or sell any assets, nor could they access other advanced features. Why, you ask ?

The answer lies in the complex regulatory landscape of the financial industry. To facilitate the trading functionality, a platform must obtain a SEBI license. This license requires rigorous compliance with financial regulations, and crucially proof of "financial backing". 

Investors won't understand that we need a significant amount of funding to take off. Without it, we'd be swimming in the shallow waters.

Navigating the tough terrain of startup funding: the MVP dilemma

Was reading a thread where people were saying don't be in shock if Ambani/Reliance starts making move after RBI's action on Paytm. I initially thought it to be a meme. Now I am just curious. 

Is the system really fair to allow such moves by the rivals after penalising them?
Or is the system that rigged to make sure their friends can get all the business to technically get the favors, funds, etc? 
Any thoughts on this? 
Whether is it too cruel and unfair that system just can't come into action to stop such moves otherwise how the startups anyway could rival the innovation that happens in the West if our own system anyway is there to cripple in such scenarios or do you think it's all fair in the name of business (you donot follow regulations, you will have to suffer eventually)? 
PS:- This is just to have a healthy discussion without any biases intended, with no political agenda in mind. I hope you'll keep the discussion healthy and interesting. 
Picture source:- stocktwits(ig)

Is system really fair? Thoughts on JioFin acquiring Paytm Wallets biz.

Product Engineer

Budget 2024 scrapped the angel tax for all investors, creating the ultimate playground for innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

Big news for Indian startups!

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

Stupid move by Indian government in GenAi sector

There are essentially four parties in the startup economy:

1. The Consumer
2. The Enabler(read, Startup)
3. The Service Provider
4. The Investor

Now let's look at Game Theory motivations:

1. The Indian Consumer wants to minimise money spent per unit value extracted, the Western Consumer wants to maximise value extracted per unit money spent. (There's a massive difference.)

2. The Startup depending on the stage wants to maximise User Growth and Free Cash Flows.

3. The Service provider wants to maximise financial incentives.

4. The Investor is wants to maximise the XIRR of their fund. For this they need to reach a multibagger liquidity event.

Now let's look at what happens when:

1. The Consumer gets f'ed over: 

The startup attains pricing power through deep competitive moats allowing for monopolisation. They can jack up the prices to ensure nice FCF, greater rewards for Service Providers and great returns to their investors. (Think, Uber can charge anything to you now)

2. The Startup gets f'ed over: 

The users get bang for their buck, the service providers get good incentives, the investors push for higher growth but unfortunately the startup does not have enough capital to service their Cost of Operations through their unit economics, so they will either run out of cash or investor patience. Either ways, they are doomed. (Think every legit startup that failed)

3. The Service Provider get f'ed over: 

This is the likeliest scenario as they have the least power in this dynamic. Rewards will be reduced over time or made harder to achieve. They have no option because they got no option for sustenance. (Think any on-demand service providing app)

4. The investor gets f'ed over: 

Now imagine there is a startup that can balance the act very well. They have a service that users are willing to pay a margin on. They pay their service providers fairly and have decent unit economics. Now, the investor will do halla about destruction of shareholder value from little growth. (Is this the case with BluSmart?)

Maybe that's why building in India is tough.

[Rant] Here's why someone usually ends up f'ed over, for a startup to get successful in India

It’s getting bad for Tech in general

Software Engineer

The Morning Vine 🍇

Journalist

A lot of folks working at startups seem to be "passionate " about their job. Some of them possibly, truly are. Some foolishly reverse engineer this passion because they're paid really well and they've been doing a good job and it's good personal PR to say "passion".  A few reality checks.

1. Your cool Bangalore lifestyle is a result of investment risks/bets taken by VC's .

2. Your salary is as much about the market demand as it is about your " passion " and talent.

3. Startups will generally lower the bar for hiring processes to meet their demand for talent. Why need so much talent? Because the startup  needs to spend that 100M$ Series C that just made them a unicorn. That's how they convince the VC to give more money. "We are going to 2x revenue by 2xing our salesforce and buying 10M$ worth of Saas that will increase our productivity by 5x. " And boom ...100M$ transferred into you SVB bank account.

4. You are as replaceable as a garbage bag on your dustbin. The HR is probably flirting with 10 other like you over linkedin.


5. The "values" this startup apparently espouses are mostly nothing but a honey trap and positioning to lure talent.

It's great to have a nice tech job that pays well and allows you to gloat on twitter like a techbro but don't let it fool you into getting an inflated sense of entitlement. You're probably living on borrowed time....and money. :)

" Passionate " Startup folks

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Happy friday folks!

Starting off with the Watercooler - the place for all casual conversations and thoughts that might feel too small to make a post out of :) 

Look forward to hearing from you folks!

Daily Watercooler (21st July)

I know a lot of people from startup community are coming out in support of VSS & Paytm. But they are happily ignoring the news & experts' words of caution.
Look at what ex-RBI director has to say on the issue. IT WAS A DISASTER IN MAKING SINCE OCT'23.
No one is above the law of land. Startups don't mean you can innovate at the expense of compliance.
https://www.cnbctv18.com/finance/paytm-payments-bank-rbi-order-restrictions-disaster-in-the-making-18940381.htm

Why is the Indian government going after startups through suffocating regulations? There is a pattern : crypto -> fintech -> gaming. What is the greater good story in these moves?

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