Silicon Valley bank just wrecked the entire startup ecosystem

I love to read about tech and how startups evolved. Have spent a lot of time figuring out how the good product companies in the US got built: Google, FB, Instagram, Snap, Pinterest etc. etc. One thing stands out: A lot of these started out as just projects, and not a real startup. Instagram was just an idea to make photo filtering better. Reddit was just a project around making a cooler internet. They set off as projects, and got some traction before becoming funded startups. Because they had devs in the founding team, who were always doing projects as side hustles. This wasn't the time when SDE salaries were so pumped up, they didn't want to just become good devs, they probably wanted to solve real problems. My takeaway: Maybe Engineers shouldn’t be too incentivised to just code. They should be incentivised to think business. Thats how FB, Google, Insta etc happened as companies. In India, high pay endears engineers to stick to coding, do less business thinking. That’s why we don’t see too many coders posting their side projects on X, Reddit, GV within India. Maybe there just aren’t enough. Have just been thinking about this. Open to thoughts from the community - maybe my view is limited. Would love to hear.

Another consumer tech startup bites the dust :/ https://entrackr.com/2023/10/ex-myntra-ceos-startup-virgio-shuts-down-after-raising-37-mn/

I recently got an offer from a seed stage startup for a SDE2 role. They shared the offer in a 2 liner mail. Weirdly enough they have a probation period of 3 months which could also be extended to 6 months during which there'll be no paid leaves, nothing, and you cannot be late to the office any day. I asked them to share the detailed offer letter with all these verbal probation clauses penned down and they've not replied for a week. After getting the offer, they asked me to submit my adhar card, pan card, 10th, 12th marksheet, graduation certificate, passport, birth certificate, payslips, previous offer letter, resignation mail, proof of bonuses and all sorts of documents. It's funny how they think trust only works one way. I've withdrawn the application as there were too many red flags during the entire process. I really wish the Indian corporate system had an open culture where trust is bidirectional and not act like we're at the mercy of their job.

Indian founders should pay the price for frauds. Ashneer Grover driving his Ferrari bought from stolen money and becoming a hero on television has set up a very bad example for the youth.

A lot of folks working at startups seem to be "passionate " about their job. Some of them possibly, truly are. Some foolishly reverse engineer this passion because they're paid really well and they've been doing a good job and it's good personal PR to say "passion". A few reality checks. 1. Your cool Bangalore lifestyle is a result of investment risks/bets taken by VC's . 2. Your salary is as much about the market demand as it is about your " passion " and talent. 3. Startups will generally lower the bar for hiring processes to meet their demand for talent. Why need so much talent? Because the startup needs to spend that 100M$ Series C that just made them a unicorn. That's how they convince the VC to give more money. "We are going to 2x revenue by 2xing our salesforce and buying 10M$ worth of Saas that will increase our productivity by 5x. " And boom ...100M$ transferred into you SVB bank account. 4. You are as replaceable as a garbage bag on your dustbin. The HR is probably flirting with 10 other like you over linkedin. 5. The "values" this startup apparently espouses are mostly nothing but a honey trap and positioning to lure talent. It's great to have a nice tech job that pays well and allows you to gloat on twitter like a techbro but don't let it fool you into getting an inflated sense of entitlement. You're probably living on borrowed time....and money. :)

What could they do to undo this downward spiral?

Do you guys agree with the list? Anymore candidates

omg what's happening guys in the startup scene where are the VCs hiding. 🤑