Prediction - The next startup to fall will be Jar

2 Engineering Director's and a Marketing Director left in last 2 months. CTO, CGO, CHRO have put down papers and are leaving soon. A Sr. Engg Director has also resigned. A couple of SDE's joined and are leaving within the month of joining and more older SDE's leaving too. These are voluntary exits despite the current layoff and downtrend.

I recently interviewed at Jar, and the team passed the vibe check. The folks seemed smart, hard working and growth driven. What are your opinions on the future prospects of the company, from what I have heard they are eye-ing for an IPO in the next 18-20 months and looking to get profitable by the end of this year. Any major tailwind in support or against them? Or any other opinion/experience with Jar would be appreciated.

What will happen to these startups who allow gold investments now? 😂

While there are lot of VCs coming out with their ‘expert’ outlook on 2024, let’s be real to share our own predictions. Idea is to share and learn and not just mudsling. Let me go first with few of my own 1. Neobanking will go belly up - it’s really hard to make money in just Savings account led neobanking I believe. With lending increasingly difficult, I think we will see likes of Jupiter going belly up 2. Gold mine of climate tech - climate tech will become more mainstream stream (similar to content and community in 2021, D2C in 2022 and SaaS in 2023) What are yours?

I have been following the Indian startup scene for a while now, and I have to say that I am not impressed. It seems like most of the startups here are nothing more than people chasing quick bucks and the entire scene is a circlejerk of people doing everything, attending these stupid conferences and gatherings than actually building something game-changing. Every founder is chasing nothing more than a valuation just so they can exit and there’s nothing wrong with it but don’t sit on a moral high ground talking about building business etc. There’s a reason we don’t see startups here penetrating west because most of the founders in the Indian ecosystem reek of ego and it’s all because we don’t judge business on merit but based on the degree the founders have. We all can count stupid startups draining money all because they are from some IIT or IIM or now some fancy degree from Ivy and yes it takes effort and hard work to reach there. Still, it automatically doesn’t translate to you naturally being better than a guy working his ass off to make up that difference. Also, just because you used your dad’s money to start a 'Venture Firm or be an angel investor after college doesn’t mean you’re an expert at everything. You’re just adding to the noise and the hype that is already too much in this space. You’re not helping anyone but yourself and your ego. So a friendly reminder can we all actually focus on building things based on hard work and merit instead of glorifying this circlejerk. Can we stop being obsessed with funding rounds and valuations and start being obsessed with solving real problems and creating value for customers and society? Can we stop being influenced by the media and the hype and start being influenced by the data and the feedback? Can we stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution?

Heard from most people that there’s a lot of crunch. Wondering if anyone at their companies feels like their startup is growing despite the slowdown. Razorpay, CRED, and are seeing tighter regulations and downrounds. The food delivery companies have all gone through their down rounds and readjustment of expectations. Even SaaS most founders have a poor revenue/employee ratio and the india story is still yet to play out for the newer bets. Just yesterday Oslash announced it’s shutting down its app. Any green shoots ☘️? And if there are maybe it’s a good thread for folks to try and hire.