Summer is coming!

A little about myself: 22, just graduated Btech CS from tier 1 college, got placed in a few tier 1 companies, baniya (relevant), and good at engineering in general ( won several actually honourable awards internationally, from government of India, some IIT random techfests, etc). Point of telling this being to get some credibility for the readers so that they don’t take me as a young dumb overconfident 20yr old. (maybe I am?) I really want to earn money, probably in my genes, my father wants the same for me. My dad has a decent wholesale business (around 1cr per year profit) and I don’t mind moving in it as well. It’s recommended to stay sometime in corporate to learn the nitty gritties of life and other aspects. I don’t mind that either. Personally, I want to get into entrepreneurship, but again it’s easier said that done, how to start, idea, implementation and everything else it’s just the tip of the iceberg. People of my age (some of them being close to me as well) have started their ventures and have got funding upto 500k USD and it makes me jls. I’ll be probably joining an MNC and will stay for around 1 year and then see how it goes. I’ll be really helpful if fellow grapeviners can shed some words of wisdom on how to go on here to a startup/business/high earning journey?

Here are my rules: 1. Forget about starting a startup. It’s overrated and a waste of time. 2. Focus only on the popular tech skills that every company wants today. Avoid niche tech— stick to AWS, JS, Python, and React. You will thank me for this. Go and Rust might be the future but you will have time to pick that up later. 3. Accept a full-time remote job, even if it pays lesser than your in office job. You'll save money, and it’ll be worth it. 4. Ditch the big cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi. Move to a smaller town nearby; it's smarter and cheaper. You can still network yet save money. 5. Leave any job that requires too much work or too many meetings. Meetings are the mind-killer. You’ll quickly find another job because you specialized. 6. Take two-month vacations between jobs or contracts. You deserve it. It will help you decide what you want to do next in life. 7. Do this for 7 years while investing most of your salary in a diversified portfolio. Don’t go too crazy with degen gambling/ fantasy apps/ futures and options/ trading etc. Congratulations. You’re now rich like any other senior programmer that invested, but you’ve worked less, and for fewer years.

Been long since I wrote here. A casual post to discuss anything startup/VC related. Which startups are doing good, which ones not too good. Especially if you're a founder - how is the market feeling? My pov: despite the excess capital with VCs, funding is still very much dry. For a bit during the last year, there was a flurry of investments in SaaS and AI. Even that has dried up now. Slowest I have seen. Why: I think there's no push factor to invest, there's a lack of people starting up (vs. previous years). Awaiting some inflection point, so that things kickstart again.

I was recently impacted by layoff and having 20yrs of exp into application support and service management with last 10yrs grown into a middle management role(limited tech hands-on and no dev experience nor CS background) While I am financially ok atm and can manage staying at home for next 12-24 months, I am not financially independent yet. its getting too boring and I want to get back into some sort of work routine as I am keen on retirement yet. Challenges I am seeing with finding a new opportunity: - The job market seems to be quite restricted for senior roles with that experience - Few that came across were at a substantial low salary. - Some others required significant hands-on experience Thought process:: - While salary is not a major concern, I am not sure if I makes sense to take a pay cut. - Given the speed of tech changes, not sure what kind of learning/certification would be helpful - Even if I do tech self-learning, lack of practical hands-on seems to be a drawback - At 40+ while I am open to work hard and learn, i view is to find a job and learn into it , rather than other wat round Any guidance/pointers would be appreciated. As would any leads/introductions on suitable opportunities you know of.

Hello, I'm curious about your insights on smart investment strategies for the money I've earned through internships and other sources. How can I make the most of these earnings? I'm open to suggestions and keen on learning from your experiences. Thanks in advance for your valuable advice!

What should I do to reach 100 cr in 10-15 years? I'm an ambitious person who can work his ass off. But I lack direction, I don't know what I should do to get there. Any answer can give me a better perspective. But please refrain from questioning the ambition. I'm in tech and I make 22 lacs/year (4 years of exp) My current portfolio split up: 6 lacs - Nifty 50 MF 5 lacs - FD 10-20 lacs - real estate

So here's the thing. I'm 4 years into my SWE career & have realised this field is not for me for long term. I seriously want to get out of this rate race early. But I don't have any skill or talent other than SWE which can earn me decent money. Since SWE pays well my lifestyle has become of higher standard and I am now used to this lifestyle and don't want to compromise on this lifestyle by leaving the well paying SWE field. I have around 50 lakh of savings invested and interested in some business of my own but don't have a clue where to start. Please give me ideas of how I can get out of this rat race early ?

I've been in startups for the last 8 years. From Series B/C onwards to even a unicorn, over time worked at 3. One of them was an outright scam, raised many millions of $s from top investors, and then ultimately died. Also close with CXOs at decent sized startups, and there is a pattern out there. A few thoughts: 1. Being a startup founder is tough. There's pain. Some people thrive in pain. AKA Masochists. Know how to spot a founder who works 15 hours a day because they love their vision vs. somebody who works 15 hours a day because they're masochists. These people thrive in pain, and hence love to see you miserable as you slog away the hours under their leadership. There is absolutely no vision for the future that they have. They do it for the fame, money, and cause a lot of pain in the process. Nothing good comes out of it. Investors love this breed. 2. I wish I'd done more than just leave the scammy startup. At the point, I decided against whistleblowing. Because I thought there's so many people employed here, they would all be impacted. Over time, 200-300 people more joined after I left. Once the scam was caught, all of them lost their jobs. 3. I'm not a coder. I'm a generalist. Over time, my pay grew but not in line with my peers who went into consulting/VC and then came back to big tech/startups. Over time, you disadvantage yourself if you stick around as a generalist in startups for too long. The next team pays you at some premium over the last one, there's no step jump. You need to somehow find a successful startup early, and genuinely, that is impossible to game - even VCs have to bet on 20 to get it right. These are a few disjointed thoughts. I hope they give some insight. My only takeaways: - If you work at a scammy startup, don't stand it. At least, don't stick around. - I earn lesser than my peers (tier 1 undergrad), but I regret nothing. I love my work, and I'll never get over the kick. I cannot imagine working at a larger company ever again. - Ultimately, you have to be optimistic. Believe that India will grow, good founders will come around, magic will happen ❤️