Can we have a Grapevine feature for crowdsourcing this somehow?

Software Developer

I think they should, if they don't have anything to hide 😏 
  
 Problem is that larger the company grows to be, more the skeletons that get hidden in closets. 
  
 Most importantly, such numbers might lead people to estimate salaries and that could be controversial especially for senior folks who might not actually be able to justify it.

I mean if revealing salaries is the only issue, they can put salary as 1 block and rest all of them in detail.

Software Engineer

That wouldn't help much imo, salaries are usually the biggest chunk of expense in any business. Other expenses are mostly not as important.

Generalist

Should they? Yes. 
 Would they ever in a million? No. 
  
 It is too much sensitive information, sometimes even investors are not made privy to it

Lawyer

Hardware Engineer

People joining senior roles, CXO or BOD get that access, but only after the pay is agreed. Thats only do with legal reasons. For lower level employees we should be happy that startups allow coffee breaks or provide water supply in toilets.

Consultant

Hey Viners, do you think Startups should provide the details of their financial health to new employees so as for employees to know where they stand ???  Many startups, no financial transparency, f...

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

Hey Viners, do you think Startups should provide the details of their financial health to new employees so as for employees to know where they stand ???

Many startups, no financial transparency, founders who say we have enough runway, all bs and in the end laying off people, reducing benefits. Doing secondaries for founders and making big money and running away

Startup Career Rant !!

Startup Career Rant !!- Grapevine

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Absolutely sad to see the state of the startups, most of them.
I am a founder myself, and this is a post with equal disappointment with myself as much as it is for anyone else who relates.
Look at all these companies that have raised shit tons of capital, and now make a fraction of money that has been invested in them.
The raised money is spent on outsized, non business sense making acquisition costs, only to keep repeating it till the tap runs dry.
Then when all stakeholders get bored, the service quality plummets, the employees are fired and whole sectors are admonished as being bad.

But, my question is, which sector where large sums of money was invested in early days have come out with flying colours. Fucking nothing !
Edtech, proptech, agritech, ecommerce etc. etc. etc. kuch bhi nahi. 

Is there any sector where a startup which has raised in the 100s of millions in the first 5 years have actually built a sustainable business at any scale ?
Then scaling down, isse acha, scale slowly.
The worst part of this whole drama, is pushing the innovation wheel backward and destroying customer sentiment.

Isse acha, raise less money inititally, build slowly, and only scale when the market is ready. Artifical growth makes no sense, unless you have a treasure chest that shall never run out.
Even in that case, spend the money on assets and not on random acquisition costs, direct or indirect.

As founders, let's do better, nahi ?

Rant or is it ?

Founder

It was a pretty tense situation at the office. 

Nearly all engineering managers were laid off, most of the SDE-2s who were not the core engineering team and a lot of SDE-1s who had just joined this year. Even the interns were let go today.

Pretty scary scenario today. Just putting out an update. Apparently it was done to please the investors for the next series of funding. Can't say for sure though.

CityMall conducted layoffs today.

DevOps Engineer

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

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"

I am so frustrated by observing how some Indian startup founders have been mistreating employees. This is happening literally in all the startups and corporates.

Many of us invest their precious time and money obtaining degrees, only to become corporate employees.

India won the WC on Saturday night, and since then, I have seen numerous rant posts from people complaining that they missed this moment because they were overworked.

The rate of employee exploitation is alarmingly high, as founders often believe they have alot of options and are driven by their greed for money.

Look at the plight of startups, the top management says they do not have money so they lay off the whole departments without any prior notice. Yet they spend so lavishly on showing investors or on their socials how cool they all are.

We are bloody engineers, not their family bound slaves.
Why do we suffer ? 

I believe it is high time that we establish a union for employees working in the IT industry.
This exploitative culture needs to come to an end.

A Union of-by-for White Collar Employees

Product Manager

What are generally the metrics used during layoffs ?

Is it division by division or each employee is vetted for his performance and contributions ?

Do high salaried folks generally targeted even if they have good performance and history with company ?

With the overall bleak atmosphere in startup ecosystem and lack of transparency in this process from employers wanted to know how are decisions made. Most say it is performance based in news, how true is that ?

Layoff Parameters

Another consumer tech startup bites the dust :/

https://entrackr.com/2023/10/ex-myntra-ceos-startup-virgio-shuts-down-after-raising-37-mn/

Virgio shuts down a year into raising $37Mn

Get a tag(college/company) -> Open a startup -> Get Funding (even seed stage is fine) -> Burn money -> sell or shut down startup. 
  
 Fastest way to accumulate wealth in today's time.

Corporate Strategist

I'm seeing so many posts where startup employees are cribbing about things like layoffs, work culture etc etc. Doesn't seem like they have perspective on everything it takes to build a startup. I've built a failed startup myself and have immense respect for founders who are grinding it out there in such difficult recessionary circumstances. 

And then you have so many of the engineers and PMs cribbing about basics without talking about important things like learning growth, building for the future etc. Why such myopia? I work at a big tech and envy the speed at which startups move, the big responsibility everyone gets to handle, the fast career growth. All these things are being cribbed about. They crib about founders wanting more. Their job is to ensure success, not to give lifetime jobs to entitled people. They have more headaches you can imagine. In my small startup I had a million headaches. I can only imagine how hard it must be to run larger ships. Is everyone joining a startup these days looking for a get rich quick scheme?

Why are startup folks so entitled?

If you can’t run a business that lets people have a normal life then you’re the one who thinks they’re entitled to employees. 
 Businesses must take risk, employees don’t. Stop your whining that people won’t support shitty business plans

Growth Manager

How much importance is given to Finance head in strategy decision making/strategy planning in your companies?

Finance folks at startup

Director Finance

What an absolute shit show
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/fraud-threats-sexual-harassment-zilingos-ankiti-bose-files-fir-against-co-founder-ex-coo-12706929.html

Zilingo CEO files FIR against COO & CTO

Zilingo is already defunct. A once billion dollar startup that is now literally 0. 
One of the major startup scams. Investors just kept lapping up the GMV growth.

And now when everything is over, co-founders filing FIRs against themselves.
Disappointing.

My only appeal to everyone: please call out if you're at a startup that's doing similar stuff. A lot of careers can get saved...

PM here with 3.8 YoE, got an offer from a B2C/B2B company for PM position. Full time wfo, based out of Mumbai. Offering 20 lpa fixed. Verbally said will be starting ESOPs from next month and eyeing to go public in the next 2 years.

Yay or nay?

Startup Career Rant !!

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