As A new founder, what does success mean for a starup?

I've been in startups for the last 8 years. From Series B/C onwards to even a unicorn, over time worked at 3. One of them was an outright scam, raised many millions of $s from top investors, and then ultimately died. Also close with CXOs at decent sized startups, and there is a pattern out there. A few thoughts: 1. Being a startup founder is tough. There's pain. Some people thrive in pain. AKA Masochists. Know how to spot a founder who works 15 hours a day because they love their vision vs. somebody who works 15 hours a day because they're masochists. These people thrive in pain, and hence love to see you miserable as you slog away the hours under their leadership. There is absolutely no vision for the future that they have. They do it for the fame, money, and cause a lot of pain in the process. Nothing good comes out of it. Investors love this breed. 2. I wish I'd done more than just leave the scammy startup. At the point, I decided against whistleblowing. Because I thought there's so many people employed here, they would all be impacted. Over time, 200-300 people more joined after I left. Once the scam was caught, all of them lost their jobs. 3. I'm not a coder. I'm a generalist. Over time, my pay grew but not in line with my peers who went into consulting/VC and then came back to big tech/startups. Over time, you disadvantage yourself if you stick around as a generalist in startups for too long. The next team pays you at some premium over the last one, there's no step jump. You need to somehow find a successful startup early, and genuinely, that is impossible to game - even VCs have to bet on 20 to get it right. These are a few disjointed thoughts. I hope they give some insight. My only takeaways: - If you work at a scammy startup, don't stand it. At least, don't stick around. - I earn lesser than my peers (tier 1 undergrad), but I regret nothing. I love my work, and I'll never get over the kick. I cannot imagine working at a larger company ever again. - Ultimately, you have to be optimistic. Believe that India will grow, good founders will come around, magic will happen ❤️

I've a great idea and it's validated after talking to more than 50 founders/head of sales. Questions - 1. What's the process of getting a domain/and checking if the domain/product name is not a brand name globally anywhere? 2. Wrt raising funding, any founders here who can throw some light on how much salaries you used to take? I am not very inclined towards bootstrapping rn. 3. What were the challenges wrt starting your website, getting it validated by running ads etc? Maybe some D2C founders can help me out here. 4. What tools did you use for your first MVP launch? Thanks

Something I've found very frustrating while pitching to investors, platforms and funds is that so many of them actually just bait and switch. They pose like gyani people earnestly looking for investments or helping entrepreneurs, but when you speak to them they start selling you their services. Fundraise is apparently just a step away, need to signup here first, or create xyz report first, or do outreach to xyz number of people, or do market research and fresh pitch deck creation, or hire xyz consultant/agency to get to the "next level" - basically a bunch of barriers you need to pay to clear despite having a profitable business with paying customers. Fact of the matter is there are plenty of people raising money based off of pitch decks with no MVP , or even just the right conversations with the right people. But they are rare and hard to find organically. Requires lots of networking and connecting dots over months and years. The point is, this selling in the guise of securing investment is tiresome and a waste of time for most entrepreneurs. They probably do get a few suckers occasionally which helps them stay afloat I guess. Some of them might even take your ideas and start building something of their own or back someone to build it under them. Once you start pitching, the deck starts floating around in VC groups and networks mostly beyond the reach of the average entrepreneur. Considering all this, just keeping one's head down and bootstrapping forever in peace seems like a better approach.

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

IIT grad here building a venture backed startup. I think 99% of folks here believe that venture backed founders are super entitled and in a much "cosier" position than employees Just sharing a few facts about our journey so far if it helps anyone improve their perspectives- 1) Paying ourselves 33% of our campus salary & 60% of what we are paying to our employees (Talking about Pure Base Salary here, not including ESOPs) 2) Insane stress - You basically have to raise money to build (esp if its deeptech because of the high fixed costs) and there are predefined metrics you have to always chase, sometimes just beyond yourselves. Your product will be copied if it's good because well, they always have more money than you. You work 7 days a week for insane hours, chasing metrics required to be "afloat" 3) 99% of venture backed startups result in 0 liquidity gain for founders. So basically in all likeliness, everything is for a net negative return compared to if we took the campus job So, when you wholeheartedly bash founders as if they are sitting On a goldmine while you are toiling for THEIR gold Treasure, just understand that more likely than not, there is not really any gold but rather an irrational hope they are clinging to Also, Yes-we pay above market to our employees (100% hike for the last one) but the truth is some startups just Can't afford it. And ironically, there is a much higher looking down on these startups with meagurely paid founders rather than giants like Tech Mahindra paying peanuts to their employees while having a 1000% salary hike for the executives. Yeah, most startups need to do better but please appreciate if someone is atleast trying to do better because trust me, it's INSANELY HARD.. The number of posts I see about Flipkart making hundreds millionaires is way too less than the ones I see about pinpointing at every single mistake early stage startups do & I just wanted to express my opinion on it Peace!

Team is less than 10 people still, slowly growing. Net profit could be higher, that's top priority to work on now. Total cash invested by founders was 15L over 3-4 years. Yearly revenue : 2019 - less than 30k 20 - 1.5L (after pivot) 22 - 50L Getting to the first lakh and then to 10 lakhs was probably the most challenging part. We thought of shutting down multiple times, struggled through multiple fights between founders. Glad we didn't stop working and pulled through. This is my 4th or 5th attempt at starting up. Except for 1, other attempts didn't even get to incorporation stage. Would love to hear from other bootstrappers and their experience.

Hey All I graduated in 2021 out of DU and parallely converted my internship with a preseries A fintech startup for a full-time role, pay was less that what I would've got in campus placements, but I prioritised steep learning curve or a 15k per month salary difference. After spending 15 months reporting directly to the ceo in a 150 member team, I resigned. Initially the pace was enjoyable, later on it became toxic. Moved to Bangalore and joined another start-up, didn't take a huge hike since I just wanted to start somewhere. After working here for 7 months, now I have much for focussed idea on what my strengths are and I'm working with experienced folks (avg 8+ years). I'm a 22 year old working in the founding team of pretty good product startup (funded by Kunal and bunch of other angels). Currently I'm at 6LPA, and would reach a 12LPA in thr next 3-4 months subject to fundraise, what I would like an opinion on is if after completing an year and we don't raise a round, do I stay? Or do I go back home and prepare for Gmat or CAT, then do aan expensive MBA by taking a loan? Or do I find another startup asking for a 12LPA? or do I try for a established company role in program management or partnerships or something? I don't have any family money or business to fall back on, but fortunately I didn't take a loan for my education yet, and my parents would be okay to give me another 2 more years to figure things out. Would appreciate help from anyone who've been in a similar journey or just any piece of advice. Thanks!

I am a Software Engineer with 6 years of work experience. Currently working for a US based startup. Previously I have worked for Amazon and a couple of Indian startups. My current org is remote and I am working from my hometown. It's super chill in this company and work is only to build CRUD and APIs. I feel too stagnant here, my manager is also super chill and is in retirement mode. I feel this will message my future. I joined this company so I can work on my start up but haven't been very active there too. Recently a Google recruiter contacted me for a L4 role and had the recruiter screen and he scheduled the interview for the next month. Google base monthly salary for L4 is way below my current since it's a US based startup. But with RSUs Google annual CTC his higher. I am confused whether to continue in my org and focus back on startup or start preparing for Google interview. In the long term I want to start my company. At the same time Google will offer an AI ecosystem and resources that will help my startup. Please share your views.

As a startup generalist, this has been unsettling, personally. What should all of us be doing to stay ahead of AI curve? What upskilling is required? What will be still relevant in 5-10 years?

Question : Are founders allowed to draw salary from Seed funding?