True for gaming and social products. Especially, when the market dynamics is more around winner take all.

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Invest in mechanics!

Software Developer

Invest in mechanics!- Grapevine

Everyone is raising questions about why startups are losing money so heavily

But on the other aspect, do people see that the sectors which are the highest loss making have become a crucial impact of our lives?
Example
Hospitality, Ed-Tech,Food Tech, Logistics and Ride hailing

Can we imagine our lives to go back where we were 10-12 years ago without such services?

I think the bigger game is going to be get more people to use the platform, make them high intent users and get them so used to to the platform that it becomes a necessity
Hence I feel they are spending money to grab the audience and then build on it
I am quite sure a lot of companies are going to fall, but that is how a the world of business behaves
Would love to know thoughts

Are loss making startups good or bad?

Business Development Manager

VC here: Which company would you want to start if you left FAANG?

idea chori krne ka tareeka thoda cazual hai

Senior Software Engineer

Blind is officially in India now!

Product Manager

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

Founder

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

Want to build a AI startup. Finding it impossible as 
1) Incumbents with distribution and data will easily build AI to their products
2) I don’t have PhD to build something truly innovative.
3) For consumer space, I don’t think it’s possible to build a new device or a OS etc (Incumbents again!)

I seriously wonder how startup founders start something! Do they just BS VCs about nice ideas and raise money? Any tips *from actual founders*  will be useful

Can’t think of good startup ideas!

How are startups competing in the same space on almost similar products and raising a lot lot of money on almost similar products 😮.

How to be better than competition if it's almost similar product that everyone is offering especially in FINTECH with plug and play APIs?

Opinions?

Need Serious Opinions

Hi All, I am thinking of starting up in a space that in very passionate about and feel I have a unique insight. I also have a cofounder who I know from a long time from college when we studied comp science

What are some common pitfalls to avoid at the early stage of an startup?

Startup pitfalls to avoid

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I have seen from the place I work at that growth (in terms of monetory benefits and opportunities) is much better for SDE folks than Data Science people.

1. For freshers it's easy to learn to write css and get complete responsibility of a task henceforth on completion getting more recognition and praise than in Data Science. Good tasks are almost never given directly to freshers due to steep learning curve in the field hence leading to lower growth rate.

2. SDE folks generally have tasks divided into sprints which make them a lot more easily trackable and appreciable at reviews, whereas in DS at least at the place I have worked tasks are given haphazardly and almost never account to much while reviews.

3. Another observation is that folks who have worked for about 3-4 years in SDE profiles have now become team leads whereas DS folks have not been promoted at the same pace 

Looking at all this, in my opinion data science folks are treated as second class citizens as compared to sde folks.

All this might not be true for all the firms, and I want to know if anyone else has some views on this.

I'm frustrated!

Growth In Data Science vs SDE profile for freshers

Data Scientist

I have saved up close to a lac from my Internships, will be starting FT soon. I was thinking of YOLOing my entire savings by buying Zomato shares.

I really believe the company will grow multifolds in the future, also I won’t have qualms if they don’t do well and I end up losing my money.

I feel it’s better to take a bet on this as the money isn’t really significant and is better used if Invested somewhere. I might just end up wasting it buying AJ1s, Airpods and all that expensive stuff.

What do you guys think about this? What’s your view on Zomato’s future?

PS- No Index funds, MF advices pls. I’ve done enough research and will Invest once I start getting monthly salary from my FT Job.

Zomato - Long term stock or a Fad?

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

Hi folks,
People who are investors here (not traders), where do you look for investment advice for stock picking? Like company analysis and recommendations for mid-long term for Indian stock market.

I know Capital India which does deep Analysis of companies for their paid community and releases recos. In US, there is one called ‘the motley fool’.

Any other recommendations?

stock market ‘investing’ recos

Welcome to Confessions's Private Community

When I was in 12th and gave my exams for JEE Mains I got -

Physics : 1
Chemistry : 2
Maths : -3

Basically:0 but it was intentional. I got 99% on my 12th and 10th board. Qualified for NERIST Entrance Exam. Got everything but wanted to prove a point, “One piece of paper won’t decide my future.”

Guess I was wrong. Now no investors wants to invest in my ideas because they look for pedigree.

My friends got into IIT Bombay, Delhi and Kharagpur. But unfortunately for them they couldn’t get a job????

My friend who got into IITK got the highest marks in our state batch of 2018. Now his doing coaching. My IITB friend didn’t get an interview nor placement. Lastly my IITD friend is back at studying for MTech.

Don’t understand what is happening. I can build but investors don’t invest. They can work but got no job.￼

Biggest regret of not getting in IIT

I understand if someone is asking this question, the person isn't ready. But would like to know from founders, what was your motivation ? What pushed you over from a 9-5?
Is it just taking a bet on yourself and working towards solving the problem?

When should one startup ?

Software Engineer

Kya dikat hai bhai, udane do paisa. Tumhare thodi hai. 

Good firms genuinely perform well and return money. The ecosystem is not forgiving -- you don't survive very long if you don't create any big wins. It's an extremely high stress job with very little WLB. You do make money but it comes at a cost.

Layoffs are sad but at least those jobs existed in the first place? They wouldn't without VC money. India's VC scene is extremely young and it'll take time before we produce a Google. Entrepreneurs are not always right, they are not always nice either; but they definitely are courageous.

Unpopular Opinion: VCs get a lot of crap for no reason

VCs kill many startups with unrealistic targets that the main problem. Not every business is designed to give ultra quick returns VCs want . They ruin well potential startups

Invest in mechanics!

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