Would there be no questions from the VCs about how the growth is going? When they see such low burn rate?

Product Manager

I asked about it. They did burn some of it but realised over the last one year that raising at a higher valuation will be near to impossible so they are trying to weather the storm by this. 
  
 Thankfully, they haven’t hired much but it’s a genuine concern whether they can raise again but this answer means that they have a much longer runway.

Product Owner

Founder

What is his motivation to look out then? He seems to be weathering the storm brilliantly

Software Engineer

Recruiter

I'm sorry but can you explain the whole ''interest payables on the corpus through staggered payouts from debt instruments of varying risk profiles.

met a founder for a job interview today, and I asked them about their burn rate.  motherfcker blew my mind when he said that they have never even touched the invested amount as he funds the company...

met a founder for a job interview today, and I asked them about their burn rate.

motherf*cker blew my mind when he said that they have never even touched the invested amount as he funds the company from the interest payables on the corpus through staggered payouts from debt instruments of varying risk profiles.

not sure if he’s capping or not tbh. 🤔

met a founder who raised in 2021 (peak zirp era)

met a founder who raised in 2021 (peak zirp era)- Grapevine

How it happened?
-wifi turned off
-Slack disabled
-Email disabled

Mojocare laysoff their entire staff of around 200+ people

That's some crazy shit, the CEO reached out to me 3-4 months back on LinkedIn for a Managerial position. Glad that I rejected it.

Customer Success

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Hi Folks, Can you please let me know which startsups or organisation we should not join 

Reason may be:

No Mission and Vision
Pathetic HR Policies
Burning investors money with 0 Revenue product
Random Hiring and Layoffs
Other reason you can mention
Dirty Politics
Dirty Appraisals and Promotions
If i missed anything mention in comments 

So that our geeks will not join pathetic place and save atleast current job

Do not join list

UX/UI Designer

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

Udaan fired more than 150 employees after raising $340 million dollar

#startup the word has lost value since the 2020/21 era and employees/founders are actually feeling it now.  #Founders felt like Sugar Daddies and employees started asking for it. What is a real startup? no actual chair to even sit, that is a startup, you don't have loads of money, hence the word (we are a startup)

During 2019 end to 2022 people got ridiculous amounts of funding, funds beyond the actual numbers, 44x revenue multiples and what not, like bro, do you have a proper GTM, nobody fkin knows, but are you the founder that know that other guy? yes, here here take my money, strip my VC fund and take all of it. 

Employees were looking for Sugar daddies not companies, fkin 2 off sites/ quarter, #bmw bikes/cars, 5X salary competitions, unlimited time offs, (Do you know how many actual leaves are ideal in an actual #startup? 0). Joining bonuses going upto $10k in India. Are you serious? is that a startup, or a sugar daddy? 

Most of these startups went bankrupt or have lost value because they deserve it, They were working in startups because the leadership is a young team, it's real chill and all those bs. founders were doing it because it was trendy and cool. Nothing actually converts into value. These employees are all out there looking for same packages now, obviously they ain't getting it, so taking paycuts. Those founders are in some corner of some city, building their next idea!

Startups or Sugar daddies?

Growth Manager

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

What is a reasonable ask while negotiating with startups?

Should I ask for a match or hike of X% over my TC/annum (52lk Base + 8lk Bonus + Rs30lk RSUs), or should I negotiate only over the Cash (Base + Bonus) component?

A startup I’m negotiating with is not considering the RSUs I have and is offering a 8% hike only on the cash component, and is throwing in ESOPs (paper money) instead.

What do I do?

Need help negotiating with a startup

Anupam Mittal was shocked to know that the founders of Nasher Miles take 5-7 lakhs per month per founder

Is that alot? What has been y'all experience?

Is 5-7L per month in hand alot?

Principal Software Engineer

What are the typical Founders office / EIR role CTC ( Cash + ESOPs) offered to someone with 3-4 years of experience. Pls mention company name as well. Let's make this thread a informative source for salaries in FO roles

Founders Office CTC

I will get the ball rolling: heard that Kunal Shah invests as less as INR 50K in return for good % of equity, by saying that using his name in media will give the startup enough value in itself (can't deny tbh).

What have you heard/seen around the circuit?

Secrets of Indian Angels/VCs

About me: 25M working in a super early stage startup for 1yr.

The startup is only 2 yrs old with seed funding. 2 pivots, but none worked. The 3rd pivot is interesting and we still don't know if it'll work 


I want to understand the life of an Early employee, how do you manage to keep hope, or when to call it quits?

Have vested esops. Also feel if I can get 1.5X cash salary if i switch

When to quit an early stage startup

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 ❤️

PSA: What 8 years in startups have taught me

A startup with experienced folks and a well defined set of roles and responsibilities >>> one where we're all "a family"

Can anyone here tell me what exactly went wrong with Dunzo... I was working on a case study related to the same... Would certainly help me a lot

What went wrong with Dunzo?

Looking to find startups that may not have even started operations. Theses that you guys find interesting. People you know who are building. Would be helpful to know 🙏🏻

Interesting early stage teams/startups?

Investment Associate

Look you need to have few database server farm decentralised for major countries,, and those will handle millions of searches every second plus you need to build an entire company and software systems to serve customers with potential few office and sales in 5 major countries. The product is full market fit and even 500 million users might pay a premium for it. What's your view? If any questions, please ask in comment.

If you startup SOM is more than a billion customers, could you raise $40 mil as seed funding?

Solution Architect

Krutrim has become a unicorn after securing $50m in funding, making it the first Indian AI startup with a valuation of $1bn. It seems like an extremely overvalued company being built yet again. Thoughts?

India's 1st Unicorn in 2024

Are we going back to good golden days of insane salaries. I am really curious on how was the valuation decided. On what basis? Did this platform earned a single penny yet.

Program Manager

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

Hi everyone, I joined a startup back in May which started in May itself. I wrote the first line of code and it has been the backend work since then and have hired a few interns along the way. 

I took some pay cut to join this startup and i didn't receive any share/ESOPs as well in my offer letter. but whenever i talk to my friends who have worked or are working in these types of companies, ask me to ask for the ESOPs/equity from my founder. 

I did talk about  equity/ESOPs before accepting my offer letter but that time, they said, you will be issued ESOPs later on when we raise some funding. We will make some ESOPs plan when we raise funding. 

I know that our company has only raised friends and family round of amount near to 1cr. 

Now I need advice on.. should i bring up this conversation again with the company's founder ? 
And how much percentage of equity should I be asking..? 

 given that I am giving my 101% daily and leading the backend team.. although i have industry experience of only 3 years but have good academic achievements and has completed graduation in computer science in tier-1 college.

How to ask for ESOPs when you are a founding engineer

Glorified slave hiring

I had heard Waycool was also talking to raise at unicorn valuation, but they've fired like 300 people on Monday, so that's pretty uncertain. What to make of Zepto, though?

India's 109th unicorn?

Data Scientist

Painful to see so many startups run out of money/ shut down. Is your company doing good?

Founders are not shitposting on the socials, so that’s good I think 😅

Around 200 fired across several departments, mostly tech and analytics.

met a founder who raised in 2021 (peak zirp era)

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