Founder

The man's a legend, and also brutally candid about his ilk.  https://x.com/abhiagarwal4/status/1715021893219078569?s=46&t=nRDq4JdZxNQ0LE5Wo1afg   He's also a bit of an ass himself for doing this:  ...

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

The man's a legend, and also brutally candid about his ilk.

https://x.com/abhi_agarwal4/status/1715021893219078569?s=46&t=nRD_q4JdZxNQ0LE5Wo1afg 

He's also a bit of an ass himself for doing this: 

https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/09/california_sues_khosla/

Vinod Khosla ratioed VCs

Sales manager

Vinod Khosla ratioed VCs- Grapevine

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

Investment Associate

Link to the video: https://x.com/thethomasjacob/status/1715836007835218371?s=20

Any founders/ VC here? Do you agree or disagree with what Khosla said?

Product Manager

● "70-Hour Workweeks and Peanuts" - It's Not Just "How Markets Work"
Claiming that grueling work hours and low wages are intrinsic to free markets oversimplifies a complex issue. Capitalism should mean fair exchange, not exploitation.

● "Founders' Fortunes vs. Employee Pennies" - Rethinking Entrepreneurial Rewards

Rewarding risk is valid, but amassing vast fortunes by underpaying employees raises ethical questions. Capitalism should be about equitable rewards, not just personal gain.

●"Don't Blame, Analyze the System" - Seeking Systemic Improvement

Critiquing capitalism isn't a personal attack; it's about refining the system. Understanding its flaws allows us to make it fairer for everyone.

●"Critique, Don't Opt Out" - Working Towards a Better Capitalism

Suggesting one should avoid capitalism if they criticize it oversimplifies the issue. Critique is a call for reform, not rejection. It's about making capitalism more equitable, not abandoning it.

No offense to the author, but the excessive toxicity that some folks spread across social media, be it on Twitter or LinkedIn, with others blindly hopping on board, really highlights how we sometimes let our critical thinking slide.

This is now becoming toxic!

I'd like to see Shantanu Deshpande from BSC, Nikhil Kamath from Zerodha, Turakhia brothers, Vinay Khosla.

Next GV AMA requests -

Product Owner

Second meeting with the guy, thought his outlook might improve because we had better numbers than the first meeting (few months ago). Didn't even remember the first conversation, or our business, didn't do any research on our startup or industry before the meeting. Kept forcing opinions on me instead of listening, same as the first meeting.

Extremely rude and a waste of time. He said many things no founder should say, that too for another founder.

(Pitching is difficult as is, rejection is common and it's very easy to get demotivated)

When I said I'll share my experience with other founders and startups so they don't engage with that platform, got a reply saying they'll send me a defamation notice if I do, and will also tell other investors in the community that we are doing this startup as a "hobby" and no investor will come onboard.

It's amazing to see the kind of arrogance some people have, especially in the investor and VC network. Would have loved to name and shame him but I have better things to do than to get into petty court cases with assholes. 

Fellow founders, please be very careful and choosy with who you talk to about your startup's fundraise. Indian VC ecosystem is mostly a circlejerk and a shitshow. You're better off raising from friends and family and even individual angel investors than trying to bargain with devils in disguise.

I will most likely stop pitching for investment altogether and focus on growing my profitability than waste time convincing idiots who'd rather throw money on pitch decks without an MVP and startups without PMF, revenue or profitability.

/endrant

Defamation notice threat: Pitching in India

Generalist

Any thoughts on this. Why do Founders always portray themselves as superheroes? Is normal job only meant for peasants like us?

Software Engineer

VCs then vs VCs now

Scathing attack on VCs from the Ken. What do you folks think about this ?

https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/how-vcs-killed-the-meaning-of-work/

The Ken vs the VC’s

Digital Accessibility Technologist

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Vcs congratulating themselves 😂

I have evaluated a lot of startups as part of my work. My approach has changed from being optimistic to being suspicious of a lot of founders, even before the process starts. 

The sheer number of founders that I come across that try to game metrics/play around with data to make the startup look good. 

Most commonly:
1) Completely changing the definition of margins, repeat rates, etc. and never clarifying that they are using different definition. 
2) Often giving rebates/discounts to key stakeholders but finding ways to hide it from their P&L so that it’s not visible. THIS IS SO COMMON - lot’s of them start showing revenues, and then you will see another cost item rising at the same pace, and lot’s of times it will just be money moving around
3) Sometimes completely giving the wrong picture of how their product works on ground. You then speak with their customers, and they describe something completely else.

Things like these are eating up the ecosystem. These founders also end up fooling some VCs, and then capital get’s kept away from actually good founders who have good intentions.

There was a recent major investment in the commerce space, and that is another one such example of a startup doing this. Needs to stop.

RANT: Founders who fake metrics

Vinod Khosla is a savage 😂

Analyst

👇🏽 who are some founders/leaders that you actually like and believe will be able to make great things happen. 

They don’t need to be famous.

🪡 Founders - who get it right?

Head of Growth

Heard from ppl that he doesn’t give time to his investee companies & he charges a success fees for being on the cap table. He’s also known for low balling founders on the valuations , any experience? 

Best part of this shitshow is when his parrot prateek speaks to founders, he talks as if he runs BoAt

Ps : he’s not even the decision maker at boat, he’s just the face & heads marketing 

What a scam

Aman Gupta ~ do startups need such investors? Maybe no

Data scientist

I'll start - One of the older VC firms with an office in Indiranagar (also probably planning to shut their scout vehicle fund after a few employee exits) reels of toxicity at the helm. GP who comes from a rich family has the habit of arm twisting employees and putting them down even on the smallest of the mistakes. What's your toxic VC story?

Let's discuss toxic VCs

Founder’s office

Grapevine team, we have had great AMAs before. Who's next? Can we suggest some?

Consultant

- 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

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nishantmittaltt_yesterday-i-posted-an-analysis-on-apna-activity-7136198472654897153-hMwv?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Damn. This is serious.

Founder of Apna lives in US, flies first class, has hired his best friends at huge salaries. More in the link below!

Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola just reacted aggressively to a complain-y tweet from comedian Kunal Kamra.

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