- Pivoting suddenly after 10+y of operations is a bad sign. 
- Also just 150 employees during the mother of all bull cycles, prolly they didn't get enough growth
- See the leaders, are they leaving?

Equity Research

Sometimes you’ll have gut feeling after talking to founders/ executives. Stick to it. Esp in bear markets, you’ll be able to smell if something is bad quickly

Product Owner

When they don’t have a clear business model

Software Developer

10year old Saas startup with 150 employees dominated the market for the last 7 years with notable clients. Trying to pivot to get more profitable.   Raised series B in March’22 and went on a hiri...

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

10-year old Saas start-up with ~150 employees dominated the market for the last 7 years with notable clients. Trying to pivot to get more profitable. 

Raised series B in March’22 and went on a hiring spree. During that time period, they've also fired one third of the sales team due to "performance" but 0% of reps have attained quota in the last 4 quarters.

Top indicators that startup is failing

Top indicators that startup is failing- Grapevine

First, they had a layoff.
Lot of good people quit including great people
Then, they had a second lay off 
Some  great people in the leadership quit.
Middle management people are quitting every day.
Only engineers and other people who are not able to get jobs are remaining 
They shut down majority of US acquisitions
They are trying to sell some of them like Tynkr and Epic
Not able to raise funding till now even though trying since December 
Sales is down 90% 
New Inside Sales process is not working 
They are out of runway.

Byjus may shut down

Growth Manager

Hey everyone, when do you think is a good time to move on from a startup and start looking out for a new role ?

To give you a background, I have been part of this startup in a sales closing role for more than 3+ years. Being a Hardware + software product, we had a rough time in the initial years but clocked close to a 1 Million USD in orders booked with good contributions from my side. However, past few months, the mood across board is very gloomy with

• Layoffs happening every month ,
• Competition moving ahead of us in a rapid pace,
• We are more or less absent from most of the tradeshows. Being a Hardware product driven through trade channels like distributors, being present at these shows is paramount. So no inbound leads
• Marketing function being reduced to single person responsible to just post on LinkedIn and website maintenance,
• No clear direction from the founders on the way forward, completing the remaining product items or contributing to sales
• A feeling across board that everyone including the senior management is just looking at saving their jobs
• Last hike in Jan 2022. In Jan 2023 we did not have any hike but we were promised a percentage of orders booked if we reach BEP. we are still way short of BEP

How do you think should I evaluate the whole situation ? Is it time to look out aggressively for a new job ?

Is it time to start applying for new jobs ?

What is the biggest hike you ever got?

Rebel foods Pvt Ltd (formerly faasos), which became unicorn has done layoffs in tech and product. ( We have no idea about kitchen staff layoffs) 
The number of people let go forms a considerable % of the total strength

Beware of joining such startups! They will surely name this as "performance" based removal, but what do you have to say for firing freshers you hired not even 6 months ago?

Rebel Foods Pvt Ltd, (formerly Faasos) has done layoffs

Software Engineer

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

1. Fancy talks from founders such as ownership, independence, building for next generation, speed etc
2. Learn new tech
3. Glofiying working at odd hours
4. Don't talk about stress and anxiety 

Start ups are not for weak heart and normal humans who have life after work. It's only for people who will give up their life to build somone else dream. Prove me wrong.

An ex ola person cried infront of me for the workplace stress and unrealistic push

Startup are brutal

Lawyer

-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

Team is less than 10 people still, slowly growing. Net profit could be higher, that's top priority to work on now. Total cash invested by founders was 15L over 3-4 years.

Yearly revenue :

2019 - less than 30k 
20 - 1.5L (after pivot)
22 - 50L

Getting to the first lakh and then to 10 lakhs was probably the most challenging part.

We thought of shutting down multiple times, struggled through multiple fights between founders. Glad we didn't stop working and pulled through.

This is my 4th or 5th attempt at starting up. Except for 1, other attempts didn't even get to incorporation stage.

Would love to hear from other bootstrappers and their experience.

Personal milestone: 1Cr in rev as a bootstrapper

We’re at about $400K bootstrapped with a team of 2 (me included), started in 2019. Revenue almost doubled in last 18 months. 
  
 My personal observation is that if you’re going to bootstrap, you need to go after high margin, niche markets (unless you’re doing services) because you don’t have a lot of money for marketing. 
  
 Our main growth channel is affiliates and SEO. Growth will be slow so we just have to keep at it. Also, beware of VC-funded competitors.

Founder

Generalist

Painful to see so many startups run out of money/ shut down. Is your company doing good?

Founders are not shitposting on the socials, so that’s good I think 😅

There is big layoff 50% in reliance retail - jiomart B2B business.

Reasons
Very poor management, aggressive hiring, creating business that does not exist,  downfall of business.

Compensation -

Asked people to resign & said to serve notice 90 days.
No additional support or benefit.

Layoff in Reliance Retail

Analyst

"Healthtech startup implodes, axes 3/4 of workforce after lavish Series-C funding round! Upper management rewards themselves with director-level promotions, while loyal employees are left in the lurch. In a ruthless move, the company offers a two-month notice period but refuses to provide termination letters, forcing employees to quit and forfeit their rightful severance pay. The very same employees who contributed to the startup's success are now callously discarded, leaving many wondering if greed and betrayal are the new industry standards."

Hint - it's amongst one of the biggest emr platform and says doctor first approach.

Layoff news - Major healthtech startup

Company - Healthplix technologies 
 Yes the news is real, I have a couple of freida there in sales, support, tech and marketing. 
  
 All of them had a meeting with HR today and we're told June would be your last day working day.

Support Specialist

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

[Thread] You get massive seed funding: What do you don’t do?

Product Manager

What's the biggest crisis your startup or a startup you work at faced? How did you solve it?

Startup Crisis

Hard-core banglorean here.  

Seen dunzo grow from when it was a WhatsApp group in Indiranagar to when it became a verb. What happened to dunzo? 

Call it not understanding what I have read or just plain lazy,  I am not able to fathom what happened to a company that was the OG of its industry and grew with 0 marketing and solely on the product and how it happened. 

Anyone care to simplify it and explain?

Dunzo for dummies.

Sales Manager

Project Manager

Headcount decreased from 145 to 80 with the target of bringing it to 50. Ceo is a dumbo with no clear understanding of product and future. They launched a new product called Verk which was an AI agent that could do tasks of all kind for you but in background they hired cheap labour to do those tasks manually. Total sham. They aggressively hired across verticals for it and when the bubble burst and investors whopped asses of Ceo and cto (who is a co-founder but just follows master’s orders) by asking them not to use funds raised for a different product to fund this new sham product, they fired people within 2-3 days. Extraordinary performers were let go of just because of office politics and bootlicking by non performing old timers. Btw some founding members also resigned citing future difficulties since this is the 7th pivot they are taking. Founder ensures no firings will happen and then fires folks the next day. Sham company. Beware before joining!

65% staff laid off at Contlo/SuperAgi

A thread:

1.	Over the last 2 months, the Chief Business Officer, Head of Marketing, and Head of Enterprise have been laid off.

2.	CEO has surrounded himself with 3-4 Yes Men/Women who have no expertise in the respective domains that they are currently looking at (being called as Founder’s Office staff – but are basically playing the role of glorified postmen/women)

3.	Rest of the senior leadership has been demoted for all practical purposes and all business decisions are taken in weekend meetings between the CEO, and his close friend (who is also acting as the CBO currently)

4.	Work culture has become so toxic that employees across levels are either looking out or jumping ship or even resigning without offers in hand

5.	There is a ton of investor pressure on the CEO to start showing tangible revenue – classic case of raising money at bloated valuations with no business model in place

Apna is heading for a cliff!

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

So I joined a startup on Oct, 23(6 months completed).  They are struggling to raise funds. From Jan, they started layoffs from ops and customer support, went to major cost-cutting: no tea, snacks, giving the floor to rent, restricting the leaves: like for leave, you have to get approval from HR and the CEO, not the manager.  I'm in a tech team, and multiple products are lined up for release, so work is there, but ultra micro-managing. I'm getting opportunities but I'm not sure whether to switch or not. 

I leave my last job in 5 months due to their funding issue. That's why I'm skeptical to leave or not. 

Would love to hear advice.

To switch or not

In your experience, what are some early signs that help detect incoming layoffs at a startup?

 It could be company-wide, team specific or in a particular function only.

Layoffs at startups: Early signs or warning signals

Hiring freeze, decreased marketing spend, founding team retreating away from day to day activities and meetings

Introduction: 
Started my professional journey at a friend's startup amidst the pandemic, delving into edutech and grocery MVP consulting when job options were scarce.

Career Progression:
•Began as a manual tester and swiftly climbed the ranks to QA manager, product manager, social media manager, talent acquisition, lead ops, scrum meetings host, business analyst, and reporting manager—all within three years.

Challenges and Contributions:
• Joined a team of 5, facing tight deadlines and escalating challenges.
• Non-tech background but injected administrative skills, streamlining project management and operational processes.
• Conducted 100-200 interviews monthly, meticulously filtering candidates on a tight budget.

Burnout and Promises:
• Burnout from 12-13 hour workdays, skipping holidays.Assurances of growth for everyone as the company expands. 
• Promised on reimbursement , which didn't happen.

Shift in Dynamics:
• After 2 years, team expanded to 30 members.
• Entry of a senior manager triggered organizational changes, leading to politics and misunderstandings.
• Company achieved its goals, securing a pre-seed investment of 3.5 million USD.

Unexpected Turn:
• Migrated everyone to a new company post-OKRs, except for me.
• Left without a role and dismissed due to the absence of a space for non-technical roles.
• Was quiet fired with alot of trauma. But was strong enough to get back on my feet

Upskilling and Unfair Reviews:
• Upskilled as a data analyst but was left out of review sessions, necessitating self-initiation.
• Access to the CEO, once easy, became challenging post the senior manager's arrival.

Current Dilemma:
• Underpaid with a CTC of 3.5 LPA with a failed promise of hike 
• Transitioned to data analysis through sheer hustle and determination.

Seeking Guidance:
• Unsure about the next steps, seeking advice and suggestions from the community.

From Manual Tester to Lead: My Rollercoaster Journey in Tech Startups - Unveiling the Upskilling Hustle, Burnout, and a 3.5 Million USD Pre-Seed Triumph!

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