Any news which all are hanging by a thread ?

Investor

Any insight on why Pratilipi? I wanted to apply in their design team

UX/UI Designer

Growth Manager

This will continue till q2 next year, if ai improves productivity expect a pause in hiring too

Product Manager

As long as  EBITDA positive and profitable then company will survive!    Unit economics needs to be focused!   newnormal startups

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

As long as  EBITDA positive and profitable then company will survive! 


Unit economics needs to be focused! 

#newnormal #startups

Next coming months you will see many startups shutting down

Analyst

Next coming months you will see many startups shutting down- Grapevine

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

Whats your thought about tech boom is over? I personally think tech promised a lot much things and it failed. I may be wrong but people who are calling chat gpt is the future was the ones who supported web3 and crypto mania. So what will keep moving the tech industry? One of which is I think is digital automation, rest please enlighten us, so that we can research, read and learn about it.

Tech boom

Software Engineer

Any tech investor with non-tech background? How did you do it? What skills to focus on?

Tech Investing with Non-Tech Background

I have been following the Indian startup scene for a while now, and I have to say that I am not impressed. It seems like most of the startups here are nothing more than people chasing quick bucks and the entire scene is a circlejerk of people doing everything, attending these stupid conferences and gatherings than actually building something game-changing.

Every founder is chasing nothing more than a valuation just so they can exit and there’s nothing wrong with it but don’t sit on a moral high ground talking about building business etc. There’s a reason we don’t see startups here penetrating west because most of the founders in the Indian ecosystem reek of ego and it’s all because we don’t judge business on merit but based on the degree the founders have. We all can count stupid startups draining money all because they are from some IIT or IIM or now some fancy degree from Ivy and yes it takes effort and hard work to reach there. Still, it automatically doesn’t translate to you naturally being better than a guy working his ass off to make up that difference.

Also, just because you used your dad’s money to start a 'Venture Firm or be an angel investor after college doesn’t mean you’re an expert at everything. You’re just adding to the noise and the hype that is already too much in this space. You’re not helping anyone but yourself and your ego.

So a friendly reminder can we all actually focus on building things based on hard work and merit instead of glorifying this circlejerk. Can we stop being obsessed with funding rounds and valuations and start being obsessed with solving real problems and creating value for customers and society? Can we stop being influenced by the media and the hype and start being influenced by the data and the feedback? Can we stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution?

Startup scene being a complete circlejerk.

1 year back all startups were losing money like crazy while all of a sudden everyone from Swiggy to Meesho to Unacademy are profitable or EBITDA positive.
Other companies which were profitable earlier have not shown a spike in profit.

Were these companies uselessly burning money earlier if they can just suddenly become profitable in 6-8 months

Profitable startups

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

Hi Grapeviners, creating a thread where you can post the name of a toxic culture company along with which department. 

This thread is created as a one stop place to know about Toxic Culture Companies whether it, Early/Seed/Growth Stage/MNC . 


#community

List of Companies to avoid - short reasons welcome

Putting this again

Most YC funded startups 
Most *.ai 
All “Ed-techs” (aka “SalMa” sales and marketing) 
Uber-for-X 
10min-thingmajings 
Niche funded D2Cs 
BNPLs

Year is ending in another 1 month.
A rough year for many startups winding off
Which startups do you think will wind off in next, 6 months?
Which startup should be saved and get VC fundings for continuing operations as Dhandha mode

Belly up startups

Founder

Not all the founders are smart some are just lucky!

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/from-gomechanic-to-zestmoney-why-thousands-of-startups-shutdown-in-2023-11953691.html

number of deadpooled startups, or companies in India that shutdown or were pushed to the brink of a shutdown, stood at 34,848 in 2023

-Online brands are expanding offline to achieve scale
 -Late stage startups are gearing towards profitability earlier than planned 
-Biz models built on behavior during Covid are struggling (like edtech) 
-Startups which got funded due to TikTok ban are struggling 
-Finfluencers are soon expected to struggle
 -Credit Fintech w/o NBFC license is a struggle
 -Very few consumer content startups frm India are seeing scale and profitability
 -RMG is struggling due to regulations
 -India focused creator economy startups finding it difficult to scale 
-PLG led Indian SaaS startups not able to cross $20M ARR
 -Some VCs finding it tough to raise without DPI 
-Public markets thrashing innovative/vanity metrics of pvt VC funded cos. and their pvt market valuations 
-Series B and beyond is tough, down round/flat round is now common
 - Deals happening at single digit ARR multiple for SaaS valuations 
- Web3 startups not getting funded 
- Most GenAI startups not able to build any defensibility
- Most B2B Commerce startups are not able to increase gross margins or reduce NWC
 - CACs are ever increasing 
- Compliance issues at many startups - Layoffs to continue 
- startups which got funded in 2021, will soon be out of runway
 - no liquidity event for vested ESOPs in most Indian startups
 - secondaries happening at 35% discount in some cases 
- deal closure times have become 2x - less FOMO amongst VCs 
- More instances of M&A falling through

Harsh realities of Indian startup ecosystem

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.

Want to join startup

Software Developer

2022 has been the year of ESOP value destruction. Lets collect some real instances here. This silent but deadly phenomenon is hardly reported in mainstream media.

ESOP value obliterated

Business Analyst

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

Here is the way it happens
Fed in USA will increase interest rates to tame inflation. VCs will have to generate greater returns, because USA bonds give better return than most of the bets they’re going to make. Half of the portfolio companies of normie VCs will go under. 

All the limited partners who put in the money into VCs pocket to invest, will start drying up. They'll question every investment the VC makes, so ofc they will become risk averse. 

So VCs will force their companies to become profitable, cut down cost in every way possible. 

Startups will end up firing 20-30 per of the workforce, its do or die for them.  


Now, what can you do?
1/ have buffer amount in fixed deposits (5-6 mos of your expenses), amount you can liquidate easily
2/ now is the time to work hard and prove your worth, be the top performer in team. For the first time in 5y, hiring and retaining equation is in employers favor 
3/ cut down on buying any assets which are not going to appreciate (esp the ones you’re buying on Emi)
4/ upskill yourself 
5/ if possible get a pvt healthcare insurance for you and your loved ones, don't depend on corporate insurance. 

Remember, USA’s recession is world’s recession. Only question is how the cards are going to fall, together all at once or one by one. 

Brace up, next 9 mos are going to be the most difficult times you’ve seen in tech in last 2 decades. 

Godspeed.

ps: sector i would stay away from india perspective- edtech for now

Most of the millenials and genz folks working in tech in India would face recession for the first time

I had heard Waycool was also talking to raise at unicorn valuation, but they've fired like 300 people on Monday, so that's pretty uncertain. What to make of Zepto, though?

India's 109th unicorn?

Data Scientist

Startups which were loosing hundreds of millions last year are now annocuing PAT and planning for IPOs. What has changed really or were they uselessly burning money

Sudden profits in all startups

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)

Hi folks, 

I'm Aadit, Co-Founder & CEO at Zepto. We're one of India's fastest growing consumer internet companies and are today present across 10+ cities in the country. 

I'd love to chat with you folks about my journey in building Zepto, my thoughts on the quick commerce space, organization building, amongst other things.

Ask away!

I'm Aadit Palicha, Co-Founder & CEO at Zepto. Ask me anything!

Hey @Aadit  
I’m @salt  
  
Some questions from my side: 
1. As companies scale there are many diverging opinions on how things should run. How do you ensure that the best ideas drive the company even though they might be in direct conflict with your point of view?  
  
2. What kind of impact have you seen via use of Machine Learning to streamline operational efficiency wrt initial benchmarks? 
  
3. What is the key focus area that you are currently working on? 
  
4. How do you balance creating shareholder value versus customer value?

I know this might be a one off, but even if they are close to profitable/break even quarters, this can become a strong business

Big if true, given Meesho’s scale

I dont trust a single words come out of the CXO’s mouth in case of startups. All bullshiting and hyping

Engineering Manager

Specifically for people in tech startups/tech ecosystem, what makes you hopeful about the coming year? What are you looking forward to?

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