Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Let's thank the VCs

Business Analyst

Let's thank the VCs- Grapevine

Great to see VCs getting creative :)

Investment Associate

I love to read about tech and how startups evolved. Have spent a lot of time figuring out how the good product companies in the US got built: Google, FB, Instagram, Snap, Pinterest etc. etc. 

One thing stands out: A lot of these started out as just projects, and not a real startup. 
Instagram was just an idea to make photo filtering better. Reddit was just a project around making a cooler internet.

They set off as projects, and got some traction before becoming funded startups. Because they had devs in the founding team, who were always doing projects as side hustles. 

This wasn't the time when SDE salaries were so pumped up, they didn't want to just become good devs, they probably wanted to solve real problems. 

My takeaway: 

Maybe Engineers shouldn’t be too incentivised to just code. They should be incentivised to think business. 
Thats how FB, Google, Insta etc happened as companies.

In India, high pay endears engineers to stick to coding, do less business thinking.
That’s why we don’t see too many coders posting their side projects on X, Reddit, GV within India. Maybe there just aren’t enough. 

Have just been thinking about this. 

Open to thoughts from the community - maybe my view is limited. Would love to hear.

Why Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley, and why that will likely not happen in India

This is an actually very true. 
  
 I’ve seen developers who are very good in the stuff they do but lack the thinking from a customer / business POV. They take the PRD and convert it into code but never ever question whether this is the experience they want to provide to the end user.  
  
 Everyone needs to understand code is a way to achieve business and to achieve business , you would need to think from a business prospective. 
  
 That’s why , I always tell my juniors whenever they code , always take a step back and put yourself in the customer shoes and think what you are doing is what you want as a customer or not

Software Developer

Corporate Strategist

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

Software Engineer

Product Manager

Know a cousin who is a founder. Tells me with experience that VCs in India only operate in FOMO. Unless you tell them another VC is looking to invest in you, they will NEVER invest in you. 

They need fomo to operate 

Only exception is ex CXO founders (high profile), where they know they'll get funded so it's fastest fingers first!!

People should call this out more. What are examples around you where VCs have done something bad to a startup?

Growth And Strategy

VC here. Doing this for fun.
Don't take all views seriously.

Comment a startup's name, I'll share if it's promising or whatever I know

Analyst

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Hey everyone. 

Thought I could do an AMA. A bit about me - have 4 years of work experience and graduated from a non engineering college. Was at a startup before (from Series B to Series D) before becoming a VC

Personally look at consumer and B2B investments here 

Happy to answer any questions around life as a junior VC, startup ecosystem, career growth etc.

AMA: I work at a large VC Fund focusing on early stage investments

This is the biggest problem with VC ecosystem 4 yoe kids taking calls on experienced, hardworking founders. Dude first learn the game then invest , judge people playing the game. VCs know nothing about how to run startups. Unless they have been entrepreneurs themselves. IMO It's a colossal waste of talent to become a VC for young PPL.

VC with 5+ yrs of exp - AMA

Community Manager

Hey folks,

Just wanted to understand more about the VC ecosystem and their investment thesis for Indian Landscape. Have watched a few episodes of "Desi VC Podcast". Would be great if anyone can recommend what all episodes can be watched to get a good understanding of the same.
Or would love to hear other recommendations as well.

Thank you!

VC Podcasts

Product analyst

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 :)

Founder

Management Consulting

I will go first: 
Supam Maheswari, 3 unicorns, 2 of them are profitable (FirstCry, Xpressbees) (Globalbees)

Kishore Biyani, founder BigBazaar

Who are the people in Indian Startup space you greatly regard to?

Asking this on behalf of many founders like myself, wanted to collate across multiple inputs: what is it that VCs really want to hear/see from a startup? 

Would love to get inputs from VCs and other founders alike - basis your experience on what has worked what hasn't worked.

The usual suspects: obviously the founder credentials, TAM, insights, metrics. But, what else? 
Look forward to informed answers.

What do VCs really look for in startups? How do they evaluate?

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/bhavish-aggarwals-ai-startup-krutrim-turns-unicorn-after-raising-50-million-12129991.html

2024 first unicorn

Product Owner

What are some of the articles which are a must read for someone who is part of the VC ecosystem or aspiring to be a part of the VC ecosystem in India

Shout out to VCs here

Growth Manager

Krutrim has become a unicorn after securing $50m in funding, making it the first Indian AI startup with a valuation of $1bn. It seems like an extremely overvalued company being built yet again. Thoughts?

India's 1st Unicorn in 2024

Are we going back to good golden days of insane salaries. I am really curious on how was the valuation decided. On what basis? Did this platform earned a single penny yet.

Program Manager

Just read through the document. Gotta say, it’s such rich and helpful details:

- Helps you understand how VC fund returns work over a 10 year period
- How their startups in different sectors differed in returns (enterprise software did much better than consumer and B2B)
- How Tier 1 founder startups ended up doing much better than non Tier 1 founder startups (unfortunate data, I would hope this is a bias from that period) 
- They seem to have had 16/17% YoY returns while India Quotient has higher (20-23%ish) 

But overall, just gotta commend them for taking the effort and making this data public. It’s very helpful!

Link below: 
https://x.com/BKartRed/status/1735560796451619242?s=20

Blume's Omega Files - Take a bow! 🙌🏻

Been spending way too much time on Grapevine lately - absolutely loving it @Micheal_Scott!

Posted the Prosus report takeaways yday - lots of you DMed asking questions. Then I saw NewsAnchor break down the entire Prosus Annual Report - great stuff.

I was an Associate at one of the largest VC funds in India, so I enjoy going through new reports and summarising them - found my notes from Bain's India Venture Capital Report 2024. Thought of sharing the unedited summary that I shared with the Partners at the fund, have a bunch of these - can share more if of value to any of you here (ofc removing the confidential parts)

Notes:
1/ India's maintaining its gravitational pull despite the global funding crunch. Sure, overall funding nosedived 63% to $9.6B, but we're still the #2 destination in Asia-Pacific. Might not necessarily be a crash, it's a necessary course correction.
2/ Early-stage investing is showing remarkable resilience. Seed deals now comprise 70% of all deals, up from 60%, with average check sizes holding steady at $1.4M. Smart money is quietly positioning itself for the next wave of innovation.
3/ The tech-only playbook is being rewritten. While consumer tech, fintech, and SaaS still command 60% of funding, traditional sectors like BFSI are gaining ground, with average deal sizes jumping from $8M to $15M. We're witnessing the birth of tech-enabled, not just tech-centric, growth stories.
4/ The unicorn factory has hit pause, with only 2 new billion-dollar valuations vs. 23 in 2022. Mega-rounds ($100M+) plummeted from 48 to 15. This isn't a drought; it's a return to fundamentals. The era of grow-now-profit-later is firmly behind us.
5/ Generative AI isn't just hype; it's reshaping the landscape. Funding exploded from $15M to $250M, with 80% flowing to existing companies integrating AI. India's quickly becoming a laboratory for practical AI applications, not just speculative moonshots.
6/ Electric mobility is rewiring itself. While overall funding dipped slightly to $600M+, charging infrastructure investment surged 50%. The real opportunity isn't just in vehicles; it's in building out the entire EV ecosystem.
7/ Exits are defying gravity, leaping 1.7x to $6.6B. Public market sales led the charge at 55%, even as IPOs cooled. LPs are getting liquidity, and the secondary market is proving surprisingly robust. There's still appetite for quality assets.
8/ PE is no longer just watching from the sidelines. These players doubled their share to 25% of investments, going toe-to-toe with traditional VCs. The lines between growth equity and venture capital are blurring, and it's changing the game for late-stage rounds.
9/ We're watching natural selection in real-time. Yes, 35,000+ startups shuttered and 20,000+ layoffs hit the headlines. But companies like Groww and Indifi turned profitable. This isn't a bubble bursting; it's an ecosystem strengthening its foundations.
10/ Domestic VCs are coming of age. While overall fund-raising halved to $4B, homegrown VCs led 90%+ of raises. They're not just following; they're specializing, with thematic funds like Omnivore's $150M agritech vehicle. The ecosystem is bootstrapping its own future.
11/ Regulation isn't just tightening; it's evolving. Angel Tax expanded and lending norms got stricter, but we're also seeing innovative policies like UPI for foreign travelers. India's crafting a uniquely balanced approach to fostering innovation while maintaining stability.

Topics we can discuss during our standup:
1/ Can India produce global tech giants if it's primarily adopting rather than pioneering in areas like AI? How do we enable this?
2/ How will the shift towards profitability impact India's ability to foster truly disruptive innovations? Implications for us, how should we be evaluating deals differently?
3/ With domestic VCs leading the charge, how will this change India's startup narrative on the global stage?
4/ Is this maturation setting the stage for more resilient, globally competitive Indian startups, or are we risking our innovation edge? How do we look at thesis driven investing v/s fomo investing?

Link to Bain's report - https://www.bain.com/insights/india-venture-capital-report-2024/

P.S. Do note that this is 6+ months old - data points mostly look diff now but sharing it anyways. Will post more as and when I get time :)

My notes on Bain's 2024 VC report as a VC Associate

Investor

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

- Most VCs are fraud, they never make any money and keep shifting from one fund to another to hide that they never made anyone any money. 
They also have usually no real input to add. 
They are no subject matter except negotiations which too mostly they just prey upon any founders. 

It's a thankless asset class. Most founders will always hate it as they will never get a dollar and most investors hate it as they will never net a dollar. 

Never chase VC, they are supposed to find opportunity .. Chasing them is useless, they judge you for it. 
So treat them from first day like your ex. Gf/bf. 

- Most tech startup founders are fraud,  they never make any money and keep shifting from one idea to another to hide they never made anyone any money. 
it usually takes 20 years to make a real $100 million dollar revenue company, but 20 months to be a unicorn. 
Any unicorn today is priced according to what they would make after 5-10 years... Yeah right. 

- Making real money is hard. Making fake money is easy. 
99% of startup Esops are fraud
If the company is homerun, then they won't get you stock easy. 
If the company is maybe homerun, they won't give you cash easily. 
If you get free cash and esops, just imagine it's an 18 month project. 

- Most of the humblebrags are fraud as half of them don't even understand the fine print of what they think is real money but not. 

- Most of the people who usually ask for change have no intention for it. They want to be seen as leaders, change is hard, negotiated and cried for. 

- you only live once. Go hard.. No one like people who have too much to talk but nothing to show.

Some observations after 10+ years of being in the system

I am presented with an opportunity to join the Investor Relations team of one of the IT companies. I currently work with the AR team of the same company, but I’m unsure of the roadmap and career progression in a Investor Relations role. 

Can someone please share some guidance / opinion if this would be a good move and what could the future career path look like ? 

Thank you !

How is Investor Relations as a career ?

Investor Relations

Starting a small tradition of our own on Boxing Day: a roast of the Indian startup ecosystem!

Through the year, have seen some of the most Top Kek comments here, and I thought it’d be nice to do this for fun! 

Let’s keep it in good jest, no getting personal 🫣
Looking forward to some really creative burns!

PS: I do realize there’s no real correlation between Boxing Day and actual boxing :)

Boxing Day: A roast of Indian Startups 🥊

A very harsh year indeed 
 Almost 261k techies got laid off, and only 261 got laid :/ 
  
 (Sorry)

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