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
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.
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.
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!
Well said. The truth that people need to think hard and digest is on western models of predatory capitalism (oh no, I am not a socialist). The predatory nature has been around ever since the dawn of Christian era in the 4th century. It has manifested itself in various forms and ended up as dogmatic one truth to building start ups - borrow with no guardrails and cooly claim that 90% of start ups are bound to fail. That works when you hold the reserve capital. If 90% fail, the system deserves serious scrutiny and not a model to be imitated across the world. Foundational technology is absolutely essential to preserve territorial integrity and some of it will trickle down as utility for common man. It's always been that way and will continue to be. Foundational technologies are the ones that are worth imitating from the West. Most of the leaders and founders are blind consumers of western propaganda on how start ups can be made to work. The real lessons in entrepreneurship must be taken from Morbi, Tirupur, Ludhiana. Sadly, "start-ups" sound cooler than "business". Business is something Indians know how to make it work. Start-ups are where Indians refused to learn the basics of business because it's less cool to learn it from their fellow Indians who made it work.
So true.
And to be fair there are more than enough founders who are capable and willing but almost none of them get through because they don't have the same credentials/degrees investors do.
If you're truly investing in the future of India, get out of cities, find entrepreneurs who don't come from privilege and then make your 90/10 model work. I don't think any VC with influential money has gotten down in the dirt and moulded startups/entrepreneurs here.
If you're talking about transforming India without bending over backwards to the West, then go, live and invest as an Indian not as a Western clone.
Completely agree. Degrees matter, but in deep tech/foundational technologies. Technologies don't help when your business model is screwed up. Zerodha and Zoho are the rare ones that didn't blindly follow the herd. What's really happening was that these founders were touting tech in place of their business models, going gaga over growth at the cost of cash flows, quoting non GAAP financials as some kind of directional rosiness, and now firing techies when their business model got a reality check.
Wow Thank you for putting up this update
Such a nice read, and totally resonate with what you’ve written!
Did you work at a BNPL startup like Slice, postPe or Zest before quiting? The founders abandoning the ship rings some bells😅
Haha, no man. But it's a common trend across sectors I think. I completely get founders starting companies for money but don't leave it when the going is bad.
Even Sharechat founders abandoned their startup.
Top 10 anime comebacks 🔥
Yeh Vipassana kon hai? But on a serious note. Leaders have sucked in the past too it's nothing new, an endless cycle of power corrupts and the same bullshit in a new packaging
Haha. Vipasana was amazing. 12/10 would recommend 10 days of silence and reflection.
True leaders have sucked in the past too. However with whatever history I have learned, I don't think they have had such a wide and deep influence on the world and human lives.
Aren't you supposed to be disconnected from everything and just breathe throughout Vipassana for 10 days. BTW where did you go? Do you recommend it for someone kinda going through a rough patch at work and having attention span of a 🐔 and anger of a 🐘?
Not really. Through Vipassana you learn how to stay connected with reality but not be affected by it, if it makes sense. I would highly highly recommend it to anyone in any stage of life, especially if you're at a crossroads and need to control extreme emotional states.
I went to a centre in Tamil Nadu. One hack to get a slot is to apply to a neighbouring state centre.
Continued from another comment.
For an entrepreneur, example Kunal Shah stopped paying/reducing salaries tomorrow, how many would remain with him. For a manager, how many employees they managed would go with them if the manager switched companies.
What you said is true, but the again most startups (including famous ones) are low hanging fruit. Very few who do actual innovation. If we believe startups are somehow more suited to innovation, that means we started drinking our own koolaid. We started believing our own stories we tell others. The only way startups can compete with established players is through innovation or go into unestablished areas. Both require innovation, which is, again, hard, so they are just incentivized to innovate. That doesn't mean most of them do.
Greedflation. Greed is the reason capitalism works and ironically the reason it suffers (it's not ironic actually, most things in the universe are like that, food for example). When listed companies share price drops because their growth decreased (mind you, they are still growing, just that the rate of growth decreased, that's all), that tells you how greedy capitalism has become.
Very nice book recommendation. You sound like a smart dude, hope life works out for you.
Thanks a lot for sharing your perspective! Greedflation is a term I'm gonna use more often now, makes more sense too.
Money and this era's capitalism is probably the greatest story ever told. But like every great story it has to come to an end to give way to better ones.
I wish more of the capitalist cheerleaders read good counter arguments like this book or even Sci-fi by Ursula Le Guinn rather than selling the same Buffet is Best and Elon Musk is God narrative.
Completely agree, and I believe so do most others on the vine.
One possible solution is open source projects that are larger than just making a company but can also include fixing local infrastructure to bring about actual change.
Most startups are dead beyond 10 years, depending on easy money makes things impermanent.
As a bootstrapper it is quite visible.
Loved the post! Thanks a lot. What a breathe of fresh air
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