Startup Bros are net negative to society.

The US is in its late stage capitalist phase, a ship that's going to sink for the next 50 years. If you're a young person there it doesn't make sense to work as hard as your Grandpa the reward on average isn't as great. India on the other hand is poised to become a great multi-trillion $ economy. Onto something huge. We're talking like 10x growth of the economy here. Start-ups that have made it like Razorpay, Swiggy, PayTM, even Cred, if they survive will be really huge as capital in the country, liquidity and lifestyles go up over the next 50 years. Be the capitalist, take the risks, make bets, work and stack up promotions and money. Don't join an Infosys and work 70 hours there, do it for a start up of any scale you believe is going to make it. Or better yet start your own.

Hello everyone, I'm Varun, the co-founder of Mesa School of Business. We’re Asia’s first startup focused business school focused on fostering the next generation of startup leaders in India. Prior to Mesa, I was a Sr. Product Manager at Amazon in Seattle, and did my MBA from Kellogg School of Management. I'd love to chat with you folks about my journey in building Mesa, my thoughts on higher education, 0-to-1 building, amongst other things. Ask me anything! :) I'll be back at 5 pm and start answering.

Majority of Indian startups has toxic work culture and the same is not true for any US or Europe based startup. Indian startups just copy paste ideas from the west and apply it to Indian context. We don't have original product barring few such as Postman and all. Why is it so and how we can improve the situation?

Come at me, I'm not scared. There is a reason why FAANG engineers are top-rated VS some random startup engineer. Here are the reasons why I think that Indian Startup culture is pure cringe: 1. The random use of the following emojis- 🚀💰📈📊💡 2. Fake enthusiasm for every little thing - "Wow! 25M people ordered condoms WOWOW!!!🚀" 3. Claim that you are a verb("company name"): "I am a (Zoman, Flipster, Swiggster or whatever)" but no one really knows about it outside of your company. 4. The HR is a proper softie in the name of Employee wellbeing but will end up being a sadist the moment layoffs happen. 5. Think hard if you really want to work in a place that is your LinkedIn feed on Steroids.

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.

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.

There is so much negativity around startups right now due to the market cycle since 1.5 years and because of a few bad names but I think overall startups have created massive opportunities in terms of wealth creation, up skilling and giving major breaks to people to learn faster. I think this is largely a founder driven issue as they simply want to be cool and startup for the sake of it but I’ve also seen founders that are committed and passionate however is getting difficult to recognize them and find companies actually building a good product that is solving good problem statement AND not get toxic culture. Can people share some examples in the last 5 years of such founders/startups so we can discuss them more and get some positivity on this platform?

- Most VCs are fraud, they never make any money and keep shifting from one fund to another to hide that they never made anyone any money. They also have usually no real input to add. They are no subject matter except negotiations which too mostly they just prey upon any founders. It's a thankless asset class. Most founders will always hate it as they will never get a dollar and most investors hate it as they will never net a dollar. Never chase VC, they are supposed to find opportunity .. Chasing them is useless, they judge you for it. So treat them from first day like your ex. Gf/bf. - Most tech startup founders are fraud, they never make any money and keep shifting from one idea to another to hide they never made anyone any money. it usually takes 20 years to make a real $100 million dollar revenue company, but 20 months to be a unicorn. Any unicorn today is priced according to what they would make after 5-10 years... Yeah right. - Making real money is hard. Making fake money is easy. 99% of startup Esops are fraud If the company is homerun, then they won't get you stock easy. If the company is maybe homerun, they won't give you cash easily. If you get free cash and esops, just imagine it's an 18 month project. - Most of the humblebrags are fraud as half of them don't even understand the fine print of what they think is real money but not. - Most of the people who usually ask for change have no intention for it. They want to be seen as leaders, change is hard, negotiated and cried for. - you only live once. Go hard.. No one like people who have too much to talk but nothing to show.

People who are very early in your career and are working has analyst/associate in VC firms , don't you guys think your career ended before it even started ? People usually go for VC after becoming a entrepreneur/CEO/COO etc. usually a semi retired type ex : Vinod khosla etc now your skills are very rare and only valuable for other VC firms and B schools . I have seen many people on Twitter who just graduated and are working in VC . I know salary is good , it's glamorous but could have become great entrepreneur, executive etc Just a thought who thought of VC has a career What do you guys think and also isn't startups ecosystem too noisy ?

Have been an entrepreneur since college days. Went full time on same idea and worked on it for a good 4 years full time before starting something new, raising some money, later pivoting (fucked up here) and eventually shutting shop last year. Life has been tough since then since there is no clarity on what to spend next 2-5 years on - acquisition offer falling apart, tried looking for jobs but didn't finalise and later did a bit of consulting (good pay but didn't really work out). I now have a few good conversations going on right now - leading product & EIR/Founders Office. What do you suggest would be an ideal thing to do? Profile - Solid Generalist. Non tech. Money ain't really an issue right now but can't stay dependent on savings for so long - its stupid. PS - If you or someone you know is hiring, please reach out. Happy exploring ideas as well.