Consultant

Real Estate

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Which startup from recent times failed most spectacularly?

Which startup from recent times failed most spectacularly?- Grapevine

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 startup is worth joining?

Product Manager

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

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...

Corporate Strategist

Read somewhere that they raised 525 Cr while the rev. at that point stood at 14L

What exactly went wrong with Koo?

Venture Capital

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

in your organisation, who are the people who actually make more than a crore (in cash, ESOP not included).

I am trying to validate the stuff I hear from my friends that every other guy in startups is making butt loads of monies and I look around and find even getting a 30-40+ Lacs job is demanding and not flying by the minute

1cr+ sal folls

Digital Marketer

Which Indian startup is not gonna make it past the funding winter?

Software Engineer

The Startup that you had an offer from but did not join, and then it went big? (Let's take a word from VCs, how they like to use anti portfolio lists on their sites - cos they got an opportunity to enter but missed)

What's your anti-startup

Growth Manager

While the company is doing absolutely poorly and laying off people left right and centre, the two so-called founders are on vacation to the US chilling and hanging out with people.

It's a disgrace that the Indian startup ecosystem has founders like them who are busy expanding their social and financial status at the cost of employee wellbeing and mental health.

What a disappointment.

Double faced founders

Program Manager

We always doubt some. For me it was Zepto, never thought I’d see them here. But they’ve really managed to grow while Swiggy and Blinkit were around. 

Which other startups have surprised you by becoming big, despite all odds? Or despite not seeming like big opportunities for you?

Which Indian Startup/product has surprised you with how big it became?

Founder

Picture speaks a thousand words

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Which all startups will go burst in 2024?

Software Developer

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

for me. i spent college studying for grades and 20s making money in a job I don't like, but never got to make the memories I should've with all my friends. I regret doing all of that

what is your worst mistake professionally?

If we are spiralling, let's spiral right

1. Focused solely on grades in colleges
2. Thought Campus placements were ultimate goal
3. Spent 3 years in a company with 5% increment (once), because it was comfortable
4. Scared to ask even minimum budget while negotiating salary
5. Overthinking every step, still not taking actions to correct or fuck up anything
6. Major major regret - not taking risk of starting own. It also has to do with parenting, but lets not blame.
7. Ran away from public sharing - speaking, athletics, all extracurricular activities for that matter. Kids grow up with zero confidence and looking fat & ugly. (I'm not fat shaming, some fat people look 🤌)

I'll add more, there will be more for sure 😂

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

As we can see only 3-5% Indian startups become profitable and rest of are still in the loss. But Cred , Zomato, Paytm and many more loss making companies are still in the market with tag of "Unicorn". Ye kaise possible ho paa rha hai.. investors ab bhi Paisa lagaye chale Jaa rhe hai .. 
Why ????????

Loss making startup

Another startup that could have been something had it not been for the bull market and Tiger investing unnecessarily. Over $66Mn raised, and now it's over.

Koo is shutting down

Copy cats. App should have been called Poo

Data Scientist

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

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 ?

I was speaking to an ex-colleague and he mentioned how my previous employer, a lending startup, has been intentionally over-reporting disbursal numbers and under-reporting delinquencies in portfolio.

They conveniently chuck the NBFC partners who dare to ask questions and instead catch new fish. During my time I saw sales staff committing rampant frauds and making money on the sides from users. The founders conveniently turned a blind eye till there was new business coming in. They've seemingly moved on to the next level now.

The founders have top pedigree and already come from well off families. Makes me wonder how many such skeletons are buried across startups and what leads to such behaviour. Especially in the wake of what we saw with GoMechanic, Zilingo etc.

Frauds at startups

Business Operations

Lets collate a list. I will start with a few guesses.
1. Bounce
2. Zepto
3. Sharechat
4. Dealshare

please add - lets collate a list and analyse again in 18 months.

What all large startups will shut down (fold) over the next 18 months?

Most startup’s are not founded with great altruistic purpose to elevate human condition. Most startup’s are founded where founders know they can make money or earn status points through little schemes of leveraging their network of investors. 

Most of them know they can earn more income by just raising some money from friends or VCs. Build a small tech tool and burn through money trying to acquire and retain customers. All this while hiring 100s of employees selling false narratives. 

What bugs me the most isn’t the thousands of people getting laid off, salary corrections or bankruptcies, it is the mafiaesque organisation built to “create wealth for some by exploitation of countless others” 

Most startup founders use brute force of content and media coupled with ignorance of people to perpetuate this cycle. 

It’s the virtue signalling and holier than thou attitude of most founders and VCs justifying all their mindless brutality in the name of strategy and growth which destroys aspirations and outcomes for the many. It’s more relevant in India because of large scale ignorance about money and large scale trust on educated individuals with the right college tags! 

If you have seen sopranos, most founders are like Anthony soprano - summarily violent, manipulative and ruthless behaviour primarily driven by selfish greed but juxtaposed with moments of vulnerability and struggle justifying his action with a facade of providing for his family. 

*Replace Anthony soprano with your founder/ceo name* 


1. VSS was playing fast and lose with rbi regulations resulting in stock crash and layoffs 
2. Byju’s systematically destroyed his own company and wealth of his employees just to ensure he retains majority control 
3. Ashneer G and his wife manipulated company books
4. Zerodha founders cheated in chess match or lied about their system failures which lost a lot of capital

PS: I refer to most founders because there are few exceptions who don’t fit into this narrative.

Startup founders are mafia bosses!

Incredibly myopic and pessimistic view. I'd suggest trying to be a founder yourself once before judging them. 
  
 Not every startup needs to elevate human condition, plus you still need money to make that happen. 
  
 Most founders don't actually earn much compared to jobs they could've had in companies. All you see is the flashy idiots like Kunal Shah and Byju. Not the bootstrapper shutting down their 10th project for xyz reasons. Because no one likes talking about their failures, and no one listens to people who fail. Only those who succeed.  
  
 You have a problem with the human condition buddy, not founders. Humans can be real shitty given the right kind of conditions. Everyone's fallible, even you.  
  
 If you think you can be a better founder than some of the names you mentioned, then you're only indulging in holier than thou behaviour, which you allegedly hate about founders.  
  
 I do agree with some of the things you said, but much of it is way off.

Which startup from recent times failed most spectacularly?

Discover More

Indian Startups on

by Aaron Olive

Stealth

Which startup is worth joining?

News Discussion on

by Jordon Lee

Meesho

Zilingo CEO files FIR against COO & CTO

Indian Startups on

by Isaiah Dean

Venture Capital

What exactly went wrong with Koo?

Business Roles on

by Jordon Denver

Stealth

1cr+ sal folls

Indian Startups on

by Jordon Olive

CricPe

Which Indian startup is not gonna make it past the funding winter?

Indian Startups on

by Kalan Carmden

Startup

What's your anti-startup

Indian Startups on

by Kendall Gabriel

Razorpay

Double faced founders

Indian Startups on

by Isaiah Lee

Stealth

Which Indian Startup/product has surprised you with how big it became?

Indian Startups on

by Kendall Olive

Google

Picture speaks a thousand words

Office Gossip on

by Kendall Lee

Google

Which all startups will go burst in 2024?

Misc on

by Jordon Carmden

Stealth

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

Indian Startups on

by Matilda Hyrum

Venture Capital

what is your worst mistake professionally?

Personal Finance on

by Anise Dean

Student

Loss making startup

News Discussion on

by Dezi Dean

Stealth

Koo is shutting down

Indian Startups on

by Jordon Lee

Stealth

Belly up startups

Office Gossip on

by Kendall Carmden

Stealth

Rant or is it ?

Indian Startups on

by Isaiah Carmden

Fintech Startup

Frauds at startups

Indian Startups on

by Dezi Nadeen

CricPe

What all large startups will shut down (fold) over the next 18 months?

Indian Startups on

by Isaiah Carmden

Others

Startup founders are mafia bosses!