Software Developer

Ok... But why can't u tell the name, may i know the reason?

Senior Consultant

My founder is even horrible than this but i sympathise with you

Web Developer

Who even fires interns... You can just have a strong convo with them and they all fall in line like sheep.

Founder

Software Engineer

Ok so some interns were on leave today due to long weekend or they genuinely had an family emergency  But wait the founder told that’s not the way how internships work , we will close their interns...

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

Ok so some interns were on leave today due to long weekend or they genuinely had an family emergency

But wait the founder told that’s not the way how internships work , we will close their internships

I mean why you too have your families at home

How flexible are Startup Founders

How flexible are Startup Founders- Grapevine

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Today’s startups are using the interns/employees to the point of exhaustion(taking work of 12-14 hours) but returning in penny without any job security, you just do a small mistake(actually which may not be called a mistake also) and to fulfil their ego the management will kick you out anytime. It’s we, the employees, who are helping organisations show upper trend so that they can bag Series A, B etc. Whereas the co-founders and higher hierarchy members are enjoying limitless wealth in form of salary and also going every then and now on holiday trips.

Today’s co-founders are not leaving any stone unturned in reaching a new low.

Co-founders reaching new low for personal Wealth Creations

Operation Manager

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.

Welcome to Ask Grapeviners's Private Community

Hey guys, I have been working in a startup company for 3 weeks. I am a fresher and I am forced to work on weekends and even during holidays like 2nd of Oct. My Team lead always tells me to come to the office during weekends and he says it's an order. I am working in sales and the reason they gave is that we have to work as festivals are coming.

How should I tell my team lead and manager that I  am exhausted and can't work like that. I am totally new to the Job life and don't have any clue how to move forward. Please help!

Need help! Been working 7 days a week since 3 weeks.

So, I joined a startup as a content writing intern.  the timings were shitty (10hrs Mon-Sat)  but it was good. I had already told them my situation that I do have classes for 2hrs I need to attend but otherwise I'm free (distance learning hai). I also need to go twice a month to centres for assignment submission  or queries.

But, the worst part is that no one was giving me feedback and I was still getting to know how things work on my own. However, after 20 days, they terminated my contract saying I wasn't up to mark and without any warnings or feedback. I was so flabbergasted that I couldn't voice my opinion. 

Now, I have gotten.internship opportunities from 2 startups. I don't know if this is how startup works and I don't want to get so stressed about it. Is this how startup environments are?

P.S. : That was my first experience working with a Startup

Are Startups like this?

Compiling a couple of ways people can understand a toxic founder from a distance, before they start working with them actively 
I've now met with a lot of them over the last couple of years, here are the ones that stand out the most to me: 

1) Narcissism: They'll love to have fame through random things. Stuff like Forbes 30u30 or some random award. Even if it means nothing. They'll show how great business is doing on social media, even when it may be nosediving. You'll never know things are messed up on the inside. 

2) Masochism: They're super likely to enjoy pain: be it messed up working hours, or bad health, or just really hard times. This almost allows them to thrive during adversity. This is usually coupled with sadism, they'll typically love that they can take pain well, but you cannot. 

3) Overemphasize on the carrot: In your first couple of meetings with them, once they like you, they will over emphasize on the benefits you will have if you work with them. They'll keep repeating how your career could skyrocket, or how you could be a star in other ways. This is also a typical red flag.

These are just 3 of the ones that I feel summarize what I have seen in known toxic founders. Happy to debate/know more if somebody else has had the lovely experience too :D

Traits of toxic founders

Product Manager

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Recently set out to hire interns and had a really strange experience

Went through about 170 CVs. Most were shabbily formatted - which is okay, I understand most people aren’t that serious in college.

But then after shortlisting and setting up interviews:
- Multiple kids just did not show up for the interview. They did not even write a mail excusing themselves. Or reply to any mail from me about them missing the call.

- Some of them literally turned up for the call on their phone. They’re mostly well to do, and definitely have laptops. But just casual. 

- This reduced my selection pool to literally 8-9 interns from 180. Of these too, generally saw most of them had too much overconfidence and arrogance about them. Barely went into the depth of the answers, and would over-portray their contribution in past projects/internships, without being able to explain what they really did

I am genuinely shocked and taken aback. These were all Tier 1 college kids, and I just did not expect it to be so bad. A shock for me, and a future shock for many of these kids when they get into the workforce!

College kids have a reality shock waiting for them

Come to Tier 3 colleges, they are very humble and hardworking 😊

This person, say ABC, has been cribbing not finding an internship

I try fix one for them

Instructions I get, stipend should be 10-15k/mo, or won't do

Umm, I mean?

GenZ's (over)confidence amazes me

Thats the bare minimum pay one can expect even as an intern. Thats not overconfidence. They just don't want to do free labor and be exploited lol

Application Analyst

Consultant

For context: Weekends are off. So just fri WFH. This is a Series B startup. I am not even asking for a leave but WFH for just 1 day. I joined recently. The only thing I did wrong was possibly informing a little too late.

Want to get opinion if I am overthinking or this classifies as toxic culture in startups where you are expected to push limits above and beyond regularly and sometimes weekends.

---

Is this toxic work culture or I am overthinking

Not a great culture, also you don’t have to give the actual reason, instead say due to some unavoidable work or family health reason you will need to wfh. Its a good way of seeing what kind of employer one is, when they also treat urgencies like that. Indians feel they need to give a detailed explanation as to why they deserve wfh or leave, whereas in international companies, you just have to inform the manager.

Senior Designer

Growth Manager

Why do companies giving such assignments which is not even on react js, it is on fabric.js, and isnt a single functionality is enough to judge. Along with this i got wireframe design to designed it as well. 
What is your thought on this ?

Ruthless assignment

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

We are a VC-backed Fintech based out of Bengaluru, solving for the next half-billion!

We are currently hiring for Founders' Office Interns (3 or 6 months). If you are interested, send us your resume using the form in the comments and our team will reach out to relevant candidates.

Hiring Founders' Office Interns

Chief of Staff

I am a Product Designer at an Edtech Startup (raising 20m Series B soon) with almost a year (1) of full time experience but overall almost 3 (including internships) at some great companies.

As I am looking for a change what salary should I expect? Considering:-

- I have a design degree from a Non-IIT/Non-NID Tier 1 University (known for good engineers) [so good foundation hopefully]
- The companies I have interned at range from Japanese MNC/Conglomerate, Indian Fashion focused E-Commerce Giant, Indian Food Tech/Delivery Giant & an Indian Digital Transformation Giant.
- The average stipend I earned at these companies was around 40K/month.
- The salary I earn right now every month is between 70 - 90K
- I believe I have Got good Product focused UX knowledge. [Part of the Product team not a seperate Design Team]
- Not another Figma/Framer drooling Designer.
- Many of my peers from my alma mater are placed in Big Tech or Desi Giants owned by Foreign Giants

So what salary should I be expecting? (Keeping aside the ESOP/RSU part)
Is ~ 1.25L/month in hand is right ask?

Please suggest.

How much Salary to expect? [INDIA] 🇮🇳

Product Designer

So I recently joined a early stage startup as a founders office product intern,

Basic Insights 
My age - 25
Industry - XR
Stipend - 20k
Travel time - 2 hours up and down 
Location - Banglore 

I rqstd founder for hybrid work as I don't see my real-time need in the office, Founder is quite rigid on the office point and wants me to be present in office no matter what and also on some other things. 

I kind of see it as a red flag, what's would you suggest can this turn to a full time offering or just a internship and then ask me to leave the org.

Note - not comprising on my work by any means.

Need your advice, from senior folks

Support Specialist

I am currently doing an SDE Internship in one of the startups in gurugram. Initially I was given a 6 month intern + full time offer, all went well, but in the last month this company is revoking full time offers of some interns  and extending the intern offer to 3-4 months. What should I do in this case ? I am literally scared right now?

Unfair practices in startup revoking FT offer

Startups life. No sleep, late nights, weekends, no Diwali holidays, not seeing your family for years, unethical Founders,  difficulty to build trust with friends and ex colleagues after you moved to startups,  what has been your story.

Startups life. No sleep, late nights, weekends, no Diwali holidays, not seeing your family for years

Either he is EVIL or just have no idea how to communicate

Most startup founders are like this, zero empathy or care for humans. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I heard that recently a bunch of data analyst interns were hired, with the specific clause that *You gotta work Saturday's and Sunday's too*. And it's a deal breaker

So many interns hired, with this clause, i can clearly see through this; make them work like slaves, and dispose of them after their internship. I don't think they intend to convert any of these guys to FTE

Pata hai recession wicession chalra hai, but aisa advantage loge logon ka?

Work work balance at Zomato

Context: I work at a startup, it's a pretty chill work environment, very flexible, hybrid model. Everything is great.

Problem: They take flexible work hours too seriously, I have meetings at 10 PM on weekdays and almost every weekend there's some work which they need the next day in most cases but apparently have to keep the meeting on the weekend with no prior notice.

I mean, i like going to office twice a week around 11-12 and coming back around 7, wfh when I have a few meetings that day but is it normal to work on weekends? and after work hours?

P.S. I've only been in this company for a month and joined as a fresher.

Now that I've put it down, this is such a gen z problem lol

But what should I do?

working post work hours and on weekends?

Currently working in a startup company 

Usually, I do my work in the given time, but due to some dependencies on me and after meetings on around 6-7PM some tasks are allocated to me that should be picked on the next day but due to "bhai plz Kar de" culture it is picked on the same which is not sometimes favorable and will cost around ending my day around 11 or 12 

Should this be embraced and how to tackle these things?

Should you embrace 'bhai - bhai' culture?

I used to take these requests and do them the same day out of good will. The ability to say no, comes with some experience. Give it 1 2 months you'll start saying no. It comes naturally and slowly

How flexible are Startup Founders

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