Unlocking Exit Strategies in India's Startup Ecosystem

Curious if anyone made a lot of money from their startups getting sold here on grapevine Has your life changed? What do u do now?

Sharing some reflections on this: 1. Product is not a function with a large hierarchy / multiple levels in the ladder. Managerial responsibility comes in very late in the product career and the spans are typically small (relative to other functions like engineering, sales, operations). This also means a steeper funnel to the top and only a handful VP Product roles in the industry. 2. Product is centered around technology and digital consumer trends, both of which are fast changing. This requires constant unlearning and relearning. But more critically, this also means that previous knowledge/experience hits a plateau on marginal value beyond a basic threshold (where you have developed some essential product semse and skills). 3. Product managers are also much higher-paid vs other functional peers, at comparable years of experience. This means that a PM gets to a very high salary (say, 1+ crore) by the age of 40 (15-20y into their career). Tech functions in non-tech companies (like FMCG, banking) cannot offer that kind of pay, meaning salary growth beyond a point is limited to tech-first companies / limiting addressable market for lateral moves. All of these considererd, how should PMs think about the longevity of their careers? Unlike traditional roles, this does not seem like a "retire at 60" job. What would be the realistic age one should plan for, at which career growth and salary growth will stagnate? What are ways in which a 80%ile PM can extend their career (eg: also taking up engineering management or P&L responsibility or growth function etc., to increase scope)? PS: this post is not for the top 5-10% PMs. They will always find roles at VP level etc, this is for the 50-90%ile bucket of PM talent.

There are essentially four parties in the startup economy: 1. The Consumer 2. The Enabler(read, Startup) 3. The Service Provider 4. The Investor Now let's look at Game Theory motivations: 1. The Indian Consumer wants to minimise money spent per unit value extracted, the Western Consumer wants to maximise value extracted per unit money spent. (There's a massive difference.) 2. The Startup depending on the stage wants to maximise User Growth and Free Cash Flows. 3. The Service provider wants to maximise financial incentives. 4. The Investor is wants to maximise the XIRR of their fund. For this they need to reach a multibagger liquidity event. Now let's look at what happens when: 1. The Consumer gets f'ed over: The startup attains pricing power through deep competitive moats allowing for monopolisation. They can jack up the prices to ensure nice FCF, greater rewards for Service Providers and great returns to their investors. (Think, Uber can charge anything to you now) 2. The Startup gets f'ed over: The users get bang for their buck, the service providers get good incentives, the investors push for higher growth but unfortunately the startup does not have enough capital to service their Cost of Operations through their unit economics, so they will either run out of cash or investor patience. Either ways, they are doomed. (Think every legit startup that failed) 3. The Service Provider get f'ed over: This is the likeliest scenario as they have the least power in this dynamic. Rewards will be reduced over time or made harder to achieve. They have no option because they got no option for sustenance. (Think any on-demand service providing app) 4. The investor gets f'ed over: Now imagine there is a startup that can balance the act very well. They have a service that users are willing to pay a margin on. They pay their service providers fairly and have decent unit economics. Now, the investor will do halla about destruction of shareholder value from little growth. (Is this the case with BluSmart?) Maybe that's why building in India is tough.

-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

With the host of startups closing down, was curious to know what does founder net worth usually result in and how do they generally make money for them along the way. Few questions- 1. Do founder sell percentage of own shares in Series A and B raises? I would assume there would be some checks on this but want to know what's the practical reality of this and if this happens what's the amount a founder can make through this 2. If the startup is clear it has to shut down, what typically happens? Acquisitions? Insolvency? 3. Assume a Series B level startup with valuation around 150 cr with say 10 Cr annual revenue and 40 cr losses and 30% founder stake and it's clear it has to shut down. In the absence of any acquisition, what money comes to the founder

I have some money to invest and knowledge about startups and funding. Is it enough for me to be a VC or I've to join some VC firm or take a course?

Go ahead, ask if we pushed founders to commit fraud.

willl try my best to be honest, ask me anything

Seeing lots of web 3 startups by Indian founders. And they are getting VC attention as well. What are your views on web/ crypto/ blockchain startups? Are these the future or just a fad that will go away soon?