Product Owner

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Which roles are wasteful and can easily be eliminated from startups?

Product Manager

Which roles are wasteful and can easily be eliminated from startups?- Grapevine

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I have seen lots of people joining startup for 2 main reasons - Pay & learning. I am fine with people joining just for pay (depends on person), but little skeptical with the "learning" aspect. Having 10 years of experience, I have worked for both Startup & Stable companies.
Currently we see hardly any startup being actually profitable/sustainable. So the tech solutions applied mostly deal with the short-term profit and growth. This often result in over-engineered solutions and unnecessary tools being used. Again, it's not that what we learn in startup is waste. But would you rather learn building long-term sustainable software or short-term with unreasonable user-base?
Open to be corrected here!!

Startup vs Stable

Software Engineer

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Company name - Chat360

It's pretty small and inconspicuous, but if I save even one person from joining this organisation, I will consider it worth it. Based on first hand accounts from 3 very reliable sources who are confirmed employees.

A very basic chatbot platform, being marketed as a Gen AI first product. They don't even have basic NLP and claim to be Gen AI. 

The founder & ceo is completely directionless. This is his side hustle, but while interviewing new hires he claims that he is the full time CEO (this is not true, he is barely available and always busy in his main business which is a car dealership) 

The co-founder is an IIT-grad, and due to the Founder's absence is basically running the show though he has zero business acumen. He constantly bitches about the founder to senior employees.

Of course, with such a toxic back story, it is hell to work here. No unity in the team, lot of back biting and bitching, public humiliation on WhatsApp groups, constant blame game. Basically, a shitshow. 

Do not, do not, do not join this place. Avoid it like the plague.

Toxic startup

have been seeing a lot of startup’s having multiple CXOs leaving within a short duration of them becoming profitable.

Is this another cost saving measure?

What do CXO exits in a profitable startup mean

Be it about investors, co-founders, hires, freelancers, family, or yourself

Founders, what will you never share publicly about your startup?

Being an investor in equity markets, i was aware of the fact that US market will crash as the free money by fed draws back. I obviously was not able to link this up with the funding dry-ness.

I still expect a founder to be aware of these economic events. I am curious how could the management decide to go for hiring employees only to lay them off a year later. 

If you are a founder, would be happy to know the other side of the story.

What triggered layoffs ?

Let me explain in detail. 
 There are two parts to it and can be broken down basis PnL 
 1. Revenues : Sudden jump in tech( social media, e-commerce, ad tech, fintech, etc) plus supporting industries (chipmakers, laptop / device manufacturer) and the general economy with QE money  
 This impacted forecasts as most firms forecast AOPs basis historically trend (which clearly was an abberation) - this lead to higher HC estimates and rampant and quick hiring  
 Variable costs: CAC, customer support, sales incentive all spiked up as 1. Everyone was putting money (inc bidding price for key words) and 2. Huge customer inflow due to covid (edtech, e-commerce) that required support  
 Fixed costs: While office space / rents remained steady or dropped as % of revenue. This was offseted by fixed tech (software, hardware, people) costs and other costs like (legal, HR, Business, Marketing, supply chain, etc.) the talent was expensive to source plus their need was instant as you already had customer to be served  
 All of this lead to rampant hiring, inflated CTC, rosy forecasts, etc.  
 everyone had turned a blind eye to inflation implications (as for the past 30 Y no one saw a shooting inflation - hence the key decisions makers had now experience & idea about it) - till Dec’21 even FED said inflation is transatory. 
 It was the Ukraine invasion that opened people eyes. Oil went up, food prices went up, UK Europe saw an energy crisis etc 
 This made all the rosy forecast mentioned above duller as 1. Demand was expected to reduce due to higher cost of living 2. Capital became scarce as funding drired 3. Cost of capital (WACC) became expensive as hurdle rate climbed (which is rate of return for bond)  
 Management and investor panicked as they have limited partners (LP) to answer and quess who are these (big pension funds) so people’s pension money had come into startups which were not showing signs of exit for investors. 
 All in all - it is a pain we all have to bare for being exuberant in 2021-2022:

Growth Manager

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

With so much going on in the startups scene and companies going in any direction (Think Dunzo, Byjus, Dukaan, etc from recent memory), how exactly should you judge a prospective company from the outside?

Tips appreciated

Sada shukriya Shri Shri angoori dev ka (#GrapeVine Lords)

Judging a company before joining

Program Manager

1. Novel/new business idea 
2. Degrees/MBAs
3. Experience/reputation
4. Money (hardly 20-30k to register company)
5. CTO
6. Employees/Co-founders
7. External investment
8. Website/app
9. Social media accounts
10. Office location (register home as office)

Far too many people focus on needing xyz before starting up. Most of them are excuses and self-imposed roadblocks from what I've seen in my conversations with people.

I'm currently working on 2 ventures that still have many items missing from this list. Doesn't really stop me from making revenue and profit.

Sure, there may be some things required from this list for specific businesses and at diff stages. But they are mostly an extra, good to have but not required.

What is required in copious amounts is courage and will power, willingness to face rejections and ability to withstand multiple failures only to get back up and try again. Also, a healthy enough risk appetite.

I hope to see more young and talented folks (especially MBA grads) start their own thing some day. Best time is in your twenties and early thirties, when you have little to lose. 

If you have any business ideas you want help with, I'd be happy to discuss and share contacts and resources if required.

Good luck soldiers, see you in the arena 🪖

What you DON'T NEED to run a business/startup/side hustle

Employees who are top performers are laid off. 
Employees who are in a firm for a long time are laid off. 
Employees who are freshers are laid off. 
Employees from IIMs/IITs are laid off. 
Employees who work just to get the job done are laid off. 
Seniors are laid off. 
Juniors are laid off
Hard working employees who get good ratings and give extra hours are laid off. 
Bad peforming ones are obviously laid off. 

Is there anyone who is safe. It's just at the mercy of few decision makers at the top and no matter what you do you will never be safe. 

Now I understand why parents say that government job is better.

Is there a pattern in layoffs

Business Analyst

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

I really wanted to build great products and have a say in how they would be built. To thrive in ambiguity and find relationships between causality and features is an addictive feeling. What about you?

What inspired you to become a Product Manager?

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"

Founder

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

Udaan fired more than 150 employees after raising $340 million dollar

Can anyone share for the benefit of those who are keen to avoid making mistakes..

Start up with most Toxic Work Culture

Startups will make you do 10 page recruitment assignment include questions like  gtm strategy ,how to handle multiple scenarios , make you do product demo etc Only for the founder to come and reject you without reading into any of these. What a waste of time and effort

Startup hiring is flawed

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 !!

Everyone is raising questions about why startups are losing money so heavily

But on the other aspect, do people see that the sectors which are the highest loss making have become a crucial impact of our lives?
Example
Hospitality, Ed-Tech,Food Tech, Logistics and Ride hailing

Can we imagine our lives to go back where we were 10-12 years ago without such services?

I think the bigger game is going to be get more people to use the platform, make them high intent users and get them so used to to the platform that it becomes a necessity
Hence I feel they are spending money to grab the audience and then build on it
I am quite sure a lot of companies are going to fall, but that is how a the world of business behaves
Would love to know thoughts

Are loss making startups good or bad?

Business Development Manager

My first startup had a smoking zone where there was gramophone looking art piece where people used to dump their ashes. Later someone told me that it’s a Bluetooth speaker and no one cared to put it back after the party that happened two weeks back. 

That was true culture shock.

What are some of the mindless things that high funded startups do?

The current startup tech employees and founders are filled with so much junkies who do not care about the product at all.

The culture is set when the startup is founded,when the first set of employees arrive.  These folks are some of the most driven and talented and that's fine, it's how it should be.

But the problem begins when these folks do not find their own hiring strategy and copy the hiring strategy of other companies.

Instead of analysing what works best for them they justify their hiring means by saying this is what other have done.

The result is you get a bunch of leetcode warriors who are always wanting to jump ships when given opportunity, never forming deep knowledge about their industry and their product.

I work in one of the legacy tech companies, sure we do not hire the best people but we nurture them and that earns loyalty and long careers in our company. 

Even the employees have a very 360 degree view wrt product. We always deeply care about our product. 

Tbh I love seeing the stupidity of the market and it makes me happy that more confident that these people are wrong and always will be. 

Even the Indian startups are unoriginal and copied from the west then how do you expect the hiring to be unique. We are all living in the circus where jokers are supporting each other in making the circus bigger.

A rant on startups

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Im currently working at McKinsey and want to understand if working at a startup in a strategy.growth role is better. What are the factors i should be thinking about before making the switch?

High growth startup or Consulting?

There are so many startups failing all around.
Many which I thought were doing something great also have been duds. Some epic surprise failures would be dunzo, pharmeasy, etc.
It looks like there will be many more such revelations in coming days 😐😐

Please share list of some stable and good startups (Series B and beyond) which I should be targetting.

Which roles are wasteful and can easily be eliminated from startups?

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