What is your opinion on a successful startup, is it raising million dollars, is it valuation, is it making profitable. My startup could make 1 lakh per month profit, revenue is around 1.5 lakhs, At...

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What is your opinion on a successful startup, is it raising million dollars, is it valuation, is it making profitable. My startup could make 1 lakh per month profit, revenue is around 1.5 lakhs, At this point, I do not understand what to achieve now. I did not raise single rupee. This question raised when I am about to raise 10 lakhs for 20%, This happened very randomly, I’m unsure about my company future. After working on this, the plans when I thought initially faded

As A new founder, what does success mean for a starup?

Founder

As A new founder, what does success mean for a starup?- Grapevine

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 ❤️

PSA: What 8 years in startups have taught me

A startup with experienced folks and a well defined set of roles and responsibilities >>> one where we're all "a family"

Software Engineer

I've a great idea and it's validated after talking to more than 50 founders/head of sales.

Questions -
1. What's the process of getting a domain/and checking if the domain/product name is not a brand name globally anywhere?

2. Wrt raising funding, any founders here who can throw some light on how much salaries you used to take? I am not very inclined towards bootstrapping rn.

3. What were the challenges wrt starting your website, getting it validated by running ads etc? Maybe some D2C founders can help me out here.

4. What tools did you use for your first MVP launch?

Thanks

Thinking of build my own startup. Have questions?

Product Manager

Something I've found very frustrating while pitching to investors, platforms and funds is that so many of them actually just bait and switch.

They pose like gyani people earnestly looking for investments or helping entrepreneurs, but when you speak to them they start selling you their services.

Fundraise is apparently just a step away, need to signup here first, or create xyz report first, or do outreach to xyz number of people, or do market research and fresh pitch deck creation, or hire xyz consultant/agency to get to the "next level" - basically a bunch of barriers you need to pay to clear despite having a profitable business with paying customers. 

Fact of the matter is there are plenty of people raising money based off of pitch decks with no MVP , or even just the right conversations with the right people. But they are rare and hard to find organically. Requires lots of networking and connecting dots over months and years.

The point is, this selling in the guise of securing investment is tiresome and a waste of time for most entrepreneurs. They probably do get a few suckers occasionally which helps them stay afloat I guess.

Some of them might even take your ideas and start building something of their own or back someone to build it under them. Once you start pitching, the deck starts floating around in VC groups and networks mostly beyond the reach of the average entrepreneur.

Considering all this, just keeping one's head down and bootstrapping forever in peace seems like a better approach.

Disingenuous behaviour in startup ecosystem

Product Owner

With the host of startups closing down, was curious to know what does founder net worth usually result in and how do they generally make money for them along the way. Few questions-

1. Do founder sell percentage of own shares in Series A and B raises? I would assume there would be some checks on this but want to know what's the practical reality of this and if this happens what's the amount a founder can make through this 


2. If the startup is clear it has to shut down, what typically happens? Acquisitions? Insolvency?


3. Assume a Series B  level startup with valuation around 150 cr with say 10 Cr annual revenue and 40 cr losses and 30% founder stake and it's clear it has to shut down. In the absence of any acquisition, what money comes to the founder

Founder wealth gains in failed startups

well placed to answer this.
We recently shut down.
we had raised about 4.8 mn USD and were operational for 3 years.
When we decided to shut down we had about 500k in the bank.
The primary reason was so that we could clear all our dues and liabilities well.
We paid 2.5-3 months of severance, laptops to our team.
Then we had to clear a lot of statutory payments, which were usually taken care of from the monthly cash flows.
Then we hired a high charging consulting firm to ensure proper due diligence of closure process so that there are no surprises later, whether it was around taxation, vendor payments or any contracts.
Then we hired a law firm for the closure process.
After all this, the company was left with about 150k USD on the books.
This money was paid out to us two founders as severance payout.
In the 3 years of operations the founders in general averaged at less than 25% of their market salary, which meant depletion of personal resources completely.
The severance amount received by each of us was as good as 60-80% of our market salary.
Net net, financially, less money earned from salary + severance than would have earned in 3 years of my market salary job.
Hope this helps :)

Management Consulting

IIT grad here building a venture backed startup. I think 99% of folks here believe that venture backed founders are super entitled and in a much "cosier" position than employees

Just sharing a few facts about our journey so far if it helps anyone improve their perspectives-

1) Paying ourselves 33% of our campus salary & 60% of what we are paying to our employees (Talking about Pure Base Salary here, not including ESOPs)

2) Insane stress - You basically have to raise money to build (esp if its deeptech because of the high fixed costs) and there are predefined metrics you have to always chase, sometimes just beyond yourselves. 

Your product will be copied if it's good because well, they always have more money than you. You work 7 days a week for insane hours, chasing metrics required to be "afloat" 

3) 99% of venture backed startups result in 0 liquidity gain for founders. So basically in all likeliness, everything is for a net negative return compared to if we took the campus job

So, when you wholeheartedly bash founders as if they are sitting On a goldmine while you are toiling for THEIR gold Treasure, just understand that more likely than not, there is not really any gold but rather an irrational hope they are clinging to

Also, Yes-we pay above market to our employees (100% hike for the last one) but the truth is some startups just Can't afford it. And ironically, there is a much higher looking down on these startups with meagurely paid founders rather than giants like Tech Mahindra paying peanuts to their employees while having a 1000% salary hike for the executives. 

Yeah, most startups need to do better but please appreciate if someone is atleast trying to do better because trust me, it's INSANELY HARD.. 

The number of posts I see about Flipkart making hundreds millionaires is way too less than the ones I see about pinpointing at every single mistake early stage startups do & I just wanted to express my opinion on it

Peace!

People way overestimate the life of founders

Oh no poor founders, they have to pay fair salary to their employees.

Team is less than 10 people still, slowly growing. Net profit could be higher, that's top priority to work on now. Total cash invested by founders was 15L over 3-4 years.

Yearly revenue :

2019 - less than 30k 
20 - 1.5L (after pivot)
22 - 50L

Getting to the first lakh and then to 10 lakhs was probably the most challenging part.

We thought of shutting down multiple times, struggled through multiple fights between founders. Glad we didn't stop working and pulled through.

This is my 4th or 5th attempt at starting up. Except for 1, other attempts didn't even get to incorporation stage.

Would love to hear from other bootstrappers and their experience.

Personal milestone: 1Cr in rev as a bootstrapper

We’re at about $400K bootstrapped with a team of 2 (me included), started in 2019. Revenue almost doubled in last 18 months. 
  
 My personal observation is that if you’re going to bootstrap, you need to go after high margin, niche markets (unless you’re doing services) because you don’t have a lot of money for marketing. 
  
 Our main growth channel is affiliates and SEO. Growth will be slow so we just have to keep at it. Also, beware of VC-funded competitors.

Generalist

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Hey All

I graduated in 2021 out of DU and parallely converted my internship with a preseries A fintech startup for a full-time role, pay was less that what I would've got in campus placements, but I prioritised steep learning curve or a 15k per month salary difference.

After spending 15 months reporting directly to the ceo in a 150 member team, I resigned. Initially the pace was enjoyable, later on it became toxic.

Moved to Bangalore and joined another start-up, didn't take a huge hike since I just wanted to start somewhere. After working here for 7 months, now I have much for focussed idea on what my strengths are and I'm working with experienced folks (avg 8+ years). I'm a 22 year old working in the founding team of pretty good product startup (funded by Kunal and bunch of other angels).

Currently I'm at 6LPA, and would reach a 12LPA in thr next 3-4 months subject to fundraise, what I would like an opinion on is if after completing an year and we don't raise a round, do I stay? Or do I go back home and prepare for Gmat or CAT, then do aan expensive MBA by taking a loan? Or do I find another startup asking for a 12LPA? or do I try for a established company role in program management or partnerships or something?

I don't have any family money or business to fall back on, but fortunately I didn't take a loan for my education yet, and my parents would be okay to give me another 2 more years to figure things out.

Would appreciate help from anyone who've been in a similar journey or just any piece of advice.

Thanks!

Started off career in startups

Program Manager

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I am a Software Engineer with 6 years of work experience. Currently working for a US based startup. Previously I have worked for Amazon and a couple of Indian startups.

My current org is remote and I am working from my hometown. It's super chill in this company and work is only to build CRUD and APIs. I feel too stagnant here, my manager is also super chill and is in retirement mode. I feel this will message my future.

I joined this company so I can work on my start up but haven't been very active there too.

Recently a Google recruiter contacted me for a L4 role and had the recruiter screen and he scheduled the interview for the next month.
Google base monthly salary for L4 is way below my current since it's a US based startup. But with RSUs Google annual CTC his higher.

I am confused whether to continue in my org and focus back on startup or start preparing for Google interview. In the long term I want to start my company. At the same time Google will offer an AI ecosystem and resources that will help my startup.

Please share your views.

Please help. Too much confusion.

Software Developer

As a startup generalist, this has been unsettling, personally. What should all of us be doing to stay ahead of AI curve? What upskilling is required? What will be still relevant in 5-10 years?

How are you coping with the launch of Devin?

Question : 
Are founders allowed to draw salary from Seed funding?

Founder Salary

Project Manager

Welcome to Ask Grapeviners's Private Community

What is stopping you from starting up your own company?

Consultant

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

I have been on this journey for a long time now. Lots of failure comes with loads of learning. Each step or initiative I took has helped me grow as a person, the business guy (ed-tech, media space), and also in terms of technicalities (full-stack product management, hardcore hands-on into technology and I love user experience)

Ps: currently running an edtech startup in pre-seed/seed stage

Feel free to ask anything, would be happy to help even personally

5 years of failure (Entrepreneurship) AMA

Currently I’m in the stage of building the MVP of my idea. Idea is not something unique. Already has a lot of competitors. In that scenario what is the chance of somebody investing in my startup. And I am also not from any tier 1 colleges or not an ex employee of any unicorn startups. In fact  I am a college drop out from a tier 3 college. What is chance of I’m getting funding?

How to raise angel funding for my startup?

𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱.

Investor

Most startup’s are not founded with great altruistic purpose to elevate human condition. Most startup’s are founded where founders know they can make money or earn status points through little schemes of leveraging their network of investors. 

Most of them know they can earn more income by just raising some money from friends or VCs. Build a small tech tool and burn through money trying to acquire and retain customers. All this while hiring 100s of employees selling false narratives. 

What bugs me the most isn’t the thousands of people getting laid off, salary corrections or bankruptcies, it is the mafiaesque organisation built to “create wealth for some by exploitation of countless others” 

Most startup founders use brute force of content and media coupled with ignorance of people to perpetuate this cycle. 

It’s the virtue signalling and holier than thou attitude of most founders and VCs justifying all their mindless brutality in the name of strategy and growth which destroys aspirations and outcomes for the many. It’s more relevant in India because of large scale ignorance about money and large scale trust on educated individuals with the right college tags! 

If you have seen sopranos, most founders are like Anthony soprano - summarily violent, manipulative and ruthless behaviour primarily driven by selfish greed but juxtaposed with moments of vulnerability and struggle justifying his action with a facade of providing for his family. 

*Replace Anthony soprano with your founder/ceo name* 


1. VSS was playing fast and lose with rbi regulations resulting in stock crash and layoffs 
2. Byju’s systematically destroyed his own company and wealth of his employees just to ensure he retains majority control 
3. Ashneer G and his wife manipulated company books
4. Zerodha founders cheated in chess match or lied about their system failures which lost a lot of capital

PS: I refer to most founders because there are few exceptions who don’t fit into this narrative.

Startup founders are mafia bosses!

Incredibly myopic and pessimistic view. I'd suggest trying to be a founder yourself once before judging them. 
  
 Not every startup needs to elevate human condition, plus you still need money to make that happen. 
  
 Most founders don't actually earn much compared to jobs they could've had in companies. All you see is the flashy idiots like Kunal Shah and Byju. Not the bootstrapper shutting down their 10th project for xyz reasons. Because no one likes talking about their failures, and no one listens to people who fail. Only those who succeed.  
  
 You have a problem with the human condition buddy, not founders. Humans can be real shitty given the right kind of conditions. Everyone's fallible, even you.  
  
 If you think you can be a better founder than some of the names you mentioned, then you're only indulging in holier than thou behaviour, which you allegedly hate about founders.  
  
 I do agree with some of the things you said, but much of it is way off.

How do you evaluate the risk and the potential of the offer from an early-stage (seed stage done) startup in India?

For example (hypothetical), a seasoned leader / founder is starting a new startup in fintech industry (e.g., next zerodha, etc). They raise 10 million USD at 30 million USD post-money valuation. 

I took fintech as example specifically to ensure it's not only engineers that will be needed from the beginning.

* Now, If I were to join as a founding team member (founding engineer for example), what kind of salary, ESOPs one should expect as minimum?

* If I were to join after 2-3 engineers are already hired (so not founding engg anymore), what is realistic expectation? 

* What are some questions I must ask to evaluate if the offer and equity I am being given is good or not.

(I know there's probably no way to generalise a "good/bad offer" as that likely depends also on very specific situation of the startup - like what problem is it trying to tackle, and what is the potential of it, etc. So feel free to share your experience as well if not advice)

Evaluating risk of joining a seed stage startup

I’m considering joining as a founding engineer at an early stage startup who is just about to sign a $4M seed round.

They offered to match my current base and a $20,000 in ESOPs. 

When joining at such early stage companies, how should I think of ESOPs so that I can better negotiate. I’m banking on this idea going big and I want to get as much ESOPs as possible to maximise my returns in the future.

ESOPs in early stage startups

Looking for insights on stocks+cash package for a co founder role (handling all things non tech). The company has raised 1mil pre series.

What is the salary of a Co-founder for pre series start up

Co-Founder

MNC worked but didn’t liked the culture. Thinking to work in a startup and hoping for a good culture. Work life balance can not always be good ik.

As A new founder, what does success mean for a starup?

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