Leadership Seems to be the problem everywhere!!!!!

Haha true true 
 Though specific to aviation, only SpiceJet seems to be struggling

Consultant

Investor

Problem isn't money, leadership is

Problem isn't money, leadership is- Grapevine

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

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 ?

Founder

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

I am evaluating a couple of opportunities in strategy / growth roles at Fi and Jupiter. Any first hand feedback on these Neobanks will help me shape my decision. Feedback welcome in terms of work culture, money runway, business model, quality of people etc etc

Fi and Jupiter as employers and workplace

Product Marketing Manager

Hi everyone 
I saw a lot of pretty problems in my surroundings related to old age parents. Let me explain the problem in brief using an example, suppose there is a family having only one boy child, when turned 22 he got a job in a different city ( not in the city where his parents live) , so he has to leave the city where he was born. Now his parents are left in his old house and his salary is not enough so that he can carry his parents along with him. Now his parents have no support at his old house and also his parents are so old that they can't handle all the work so they need a person who can care for them. So here our startup comes into picture. Basically we provide the one caretaker of old parents in that case. Currently in India there are more than 3 million NRI who need that type of services and in India, a lot of families traveled in another city and they need that type of services. 
In future this business will definitely grow because nowadays a large number of people don't live in joint families. 
Note:- i am not supporting that old age parents should be left by the child, but there may be some difficulties. 

Suggestions are most welcomed :) 
See you all in the comments section.

Starting a startup need some talents to support

Two months ago I posted this rant on Grapevine (https://share.gvine.app/CLkpBuEqcCvrzKvx6) which I think is one of the most viral posts on the platform.

Since then I took a break, learned Vipassana, went to the mountains, read, and reflected. Here are some truth bombs that have been exploding in my head

1) There is a leadership crisis

Is it me or do today's self-proclaimed leaders just suck? Look around Grapevine: insecure toxic managers forcing people back to the office, overhiring CEOs who don't know WTF to do, and founders just abandoning ship. 

"Leaders" and founders today are about as disconnected from reality as the political class, because like politicians most of them are privileged, sheltered, and already wealthy.

2) Technological innovation doesn't mean progress. 

I couldn't laugh harder when I saw the Indus Valley report basically saying that maybe all of us VCs overestimated how much money we could make funding lending and consumer apps. 

Maybe funding lending apps that "open up credit for the poor" isn't sustainable when the rate of interest is >18%?

Technological innovation doesn't always mean real-world progress. A lot of times, it just ends up perpetuating and amplifying pre-existing inequality. 

3) Endless growth toward nothing 

Most of India's startup money comes from the West. Most of that money was just printed to repeatedly get out of an economic crisis. That's it. There was no great vision to fund the future of humanity behind all this new capital. Just Central Bankers and Presidents pressing the "Create Money" button to delay the inevitable.

Most of us here owe our wealth to Easy Money. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpMLAQbSYAw

PS: A book, that completely flipped my worldview during this time is this: https://www.amazon.in/Debt-First-Years-David-Graeber/dp/0143422715. I urge all fellow foot soldiers of capitalism to read this.

Until the next rant, stay sane, safe, and debt-free!

Follow-up to the most liked Grapevine post ever

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

What are the unique problems that you faced working as a PM in a startup at various stages vs the ones in corporate?

Problems faced by a PM in a startup

Product Manager

There are managers who are paid close to a Crore Rupees a year for doing this.

Scene: Our team is working on it. We’ll get back to you.
Reality: I have no idea about what the issue is. I’m completely dependent on my team.

Scene: I have a hard stop now. Have to drop off.
Reality: I don’t care about the ongoing meeting. My “passive” attendance in some other meeting is more important than the ongoing meeting.

Scene: +team FYI 
Reality: Not my responsibility. Team must take a look.

Scene: Do you have some bandwidth?
Reality: If you say no, I will use this against you during appraisal.

Scene: Feel free to give feedback about leadership. Your opinion is important for continuous improvement.
Reality: Negative feedback should be worded with politically correct statements. Else be ready to face consequences.

Scene: The leadership team expects so-and-so from you.
Reality: I’m not capable of questioning the leadership team. I’m just passing the buck to you.

Scene: Can you prepare a deck by this day?
Reality: I want to show a rosy picture to my leaders. I will ‘use’ you to impress my leaders.

Scene: Who wants to work on this item?
Reality: I’ll judge employees who don’t volunteer.

Scene: I want you to complete this (bullshit work) by this weekend at any cost.
Reality: I want to save my ass in this job.

Scene: Do you have any blockers?
Reality: As if I’m capable of resolving them…lol

Scene: Taking a day off. Reachable on mobile.
Reality: Added the second statement to ‘show’ how important & flexible I am. I know you’ll not call me anyways.

Scene: Manager presenting something. Do you have any questions?
Reality: -silence-

- - -
Have you ever encountered Managers like these?

Inefficient Managers

Software architect

Hi guys, can someone help me understand how MPL company culture is? Should ondjoin I. Product role there?

Mpl company culture and growth

Product Owner

I have heard/ read so many companies blindly hiring and promoting IITians to roles they are not suited for.
Many young grads are given manager roles, and they know sh*t about people management. just push all work to juniors.

How are Founders not able to see through this?

IIT grad bias

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

They have no life
They have nowhere to go
They have no one to be with
They have no passions outside work either

And they make your life hell as they become the baseline for comparison for all sorts of management from appraisal to work distribution.

Feel free to disagree with me, but I’m genuinely pissed today. How do you deal with them? I have a decent life outside work but lose most of it while trying to catchup to such people so that I don’t get fired.

Sorry for the title.

How the F do I deal with overworkers?

Software Engineer

Found this report by Inc42 on Linkedin.

Hope things get better!

In April 2022, #Dunzo cofounder &amp; CEO Kabeer Biswas said quick commerce is a game of optimisation — but ironically, 18 months later, Dunzo has very little left…

Problem isn't money, leadership is

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