Whatsapp Threatens INDIA EXIT over encryption dispute and more | Roundup #150

[00:00:00] Namaste and welcome to another episode of the Startup Operator Roundup.

[00:00:04] I am Roshan Karyapa and I am Gunjan Saha and together we break down the biggest headlines

[00:00:10] of India's growing startup ecosystem.

[00:00:12] If this is the first time you are tuning into the channel then please consider subscribing

[00:00:15] it for Vee Talk, Everything Startup and if you are a regular listener please share this

[00:00:21] video with your friends and family, rate us on your favorite platform and leave a

[00:00:25] comment as to what you think.

[00:00:26] Hope you like this.

[00:00:28] Let's get started with the headlines for the week.

[00:00:30] WhatsApp, which is something that has become ubiquitous in our lives is now threatening

[00:00:35] to leave India if it is forced to break message encryption.

[00:00:39] Now I do not know how encrypted WhatsApp messages actually are because if I text you

[00:00:44] a brand very soon I will be getting ads on Instagram and what not.

[00:00:48] You know what they say.

[00:00:49] What do they say?

[00:00:50] Advertising in the sheets and encryption in the streets.

[00:00:55] I have been thinking of that for a while.

[00:00:59] Moving on Razorpay is forging into building UPI infrastructure.

[00:01:04] It has recently unveiled its new platform UPI Switch which is in partnership with Airtel

[00:01:10] Payments Bank.

[00:01:11] This is set to power over 10,000 UPI transactions per second.

[00:01:15] Again in the banking industry RBI has now barred Kotak Mahindra Bank from onboarding

[00:01:21] customers digitally citing issues with the bank's IT infrastructure.

[00:01:25] Now we thought RBI was only going after fintechs but apparently that is not the case.

[00:01:34] And again continuing with some IPO news, Swiggy has gotten shareholder approval for

[00:01:40] a $1.25 billion IPO.

[00:01:42] We will be comparing how it stacks up against Zomato's IPO.

[00:01:47] Along with that we will be talking about some fundraisers of the week and of course

[00:01:51] the talk of the town section.

[00:01:52] So stay tuned as we dive deeper into these topics.

[00:01:55] Well I don't know if it is a coincidence but both of us are wearing Indian.

[00:02:07] Maybe it's because we voted for India.

[00:02:10] Yeah, I mean we are all feeling very patriotic I suppose.

[00:02:14] It is election season after all.

[00:02:16] But not a common sentiment in Bangalore sadly.

[00:02:20] I mean voter percentage of 50% plus as usual.

[00:02:24] Even with the huge migrant population here and so on,

[00:02:28] I was somehow optimistic that people will come out and vote for development,

[00:02:32] vote for progress but that hasn't happened.

[00:02:35] Karnataka is in the 60s.

[00:02:38] Expected again.

[00:02:39] So this will go on and June 4th I suppose is when the results will be announced.

[00:02:46] So yeah, election season.

[00:02:49] If you do see people campaigning and so on and so forth,

[00:02:53] probably share some water, lassi whatever with those folks.

[00:02:57] It's hot man.

[00:02:59] It's really hot irrespective of party lines.

[00:03:02] These are folks who are out there showing us how democracy works.

[00:03:07] Well I went to the polling booth and I saw democracy works on the backbone of Biriyani.

[00:03:13] Yeah, I mean a lot of restaurants offering free dosas, coffee.

[00:03:18] Someone offering Rooh Afza also apparently.

[00:03:21] Yeah, so interesting times.

[00:03:24] So who did you vote for?

[00:03:26] I voted for progress and development.

[00:03:29] I mean it's no surprise obviously.

[00:03:32] Okay, so let's get started with the lead story.

[00:03:35] WhatsApp which counts India as one of its largest markets in the world in terms of user base.

[00:03:41] They have now informed the Delhi High Court that the platform would seize its operations

[00:03:45] if it is forced to break end-to-end encryption of messages.

[00:03:50] The court is hearing petitions filed by WhatsApp and Meta challenging rule

[00:03:55] for Redwood subsection 2 of the intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code of 2021.

[00:04:02] This rule mandates that social media intermediaries to enable identification of the first originator of the information

[00:04:09] when ordered by a court or competent authority.

[00:04:12] First originator of information means who sent out that piece of message or in this case information.

[00:04:18] Now what this means for WhatsApp is that it would need to store billions of messages over a prolonged period of time.

[00:04:26] In response to this statements advocate Keertiman Singh who was appearing for the central government

[00:04:31] claimed that it is important to trace messages especially under current circumstances.

[00:04:38] Now this current circumstances could mean the election wave,

[00:04:41] this current circumstances could mean the ongoing geopolitical scenarios that we are seeing playing out

[00:04:46] but regardless of what it means what does this mean from a company level as well as from a user level

[00:04:52] because I'm sure this falls under the purview of privacy and freedom of speech.

[00:04:57] See WhatsApp needs India as much as we need WhatsApp right.

[00:05:02] Where else are they going to get you know 400 or 500 million users.

[00:05:05] That's not going to happen right for sure.

[00:05:08] So look I mean I've always maintained with respect to all these social media platforms

[00:05:14] and any other type of tech you know companies that the law of the land is supreme.

[00:05:19] You can't function as a supra national entity and be a united nation unto yourself right

[00:05:26] and decide you know what is right and what is wrong.

[00:05:28] So it's very simple if you are operating in a particular country you just have to obey the laws of the land right

[00:05:34] and the laws of the land are clear right.

[00:05:36] I mean given the scale and the impact that WhatsApp can have you know I mean it is necessary for the government

[00:05:44] to have certain controls and checks in place right and irrespective of which government is in the centre for sure right.

[00:05:51] I mean we've seen you know election manipulation in the US right elsewhere.

[00:05:57] So obviously I mean you know it is prone to that right.

[00:06:02] Look it's a very difficult task from Meta's perspective as well.

[00:06:05] I mean they have been trying to you know stifle spam right take care of you know all of these malpractices and so on and so forth.

[00:06:15] But it's very difficult but you know I think this is more a stance from them not on any lofty principles as such

[00:06:24] because as you mentioned earlier in the comments they are perfectly fine you know using our data for advertising and what not right.

[00:06:30] But for somehow I mean for these kind of things they put up a principle stance right.

[00:06:35] I think it's just a overheads that they are really concerned about right.

[00:06:40] There might be scope for some misuse for sure right but I think I would want those matters to be decided by the courts or the government right.

[00:06:49] Not by you know some company which is headquartered in San Francisco for sure.

[00:06:55] But also this end to end encryption right.

[00:06:58] I think it's really a good rule but when it comes to matters of national security and stuff like that I mean definitely you got to obey like what the authorities tell you.

[00:07:08] Absolutely and this is you know I mean it's an equal thing for all platforms as well right.

[00:07:13] Yeah I mean what if an Indian platform goes to US and starts acting this way right.

[00:07:19] I mean that hey we will file cases we will do all of that.

[00:07:22] I don't think they will take it lying down.

[00:07:24] In fact I mean you've seen all these congressional hearings and so on and so forth in the US right.

[00:07:28] They have got every kind of data from you know the big guys right whether it's Google or Meta or whoever else.

[00:07:33] And I don't even want to talk about China here right because you know they are the other extreme.

[00:07:38] So yeah apart for the courts guys I mean if you want to operate in India I think the least you should do is obey the laws of the land for sure.

[00:07:45] Before next news we have some great developments on the UPI front.

[00:07:52] UPI has become India's favorite mode of payments right.

[00:07:57] The numbers are still climbing with the introduction of you know paying via credit cards through rupee credit cards.

[00:08:03] And UPI is also now offering credit lines by the infrastructure.

[00:08:09] And this is projected to reach 2 billion transactions per day by 2030.

[00:08:14] I think now we are closer on 1 billion or something.

[00:08:17] Razorpay had announced that developing on the UPI infrastructure they have launched UPI switch.

[00:08:23] Through UPI switch banks connect with the existing UPI infrastructure to facilitate seamless communication between core banking systems and UPI technology while processing a UPI transaction.

[00:08:34] This UPI switch will be powering technology service providers for banks.

[00:08:40] The piece of tech excels in dispute resolution resolving issues 7x faster within 24 hours than the industry average of 70s.

[00:08:49] I think this has been one of the biggest problems for UPI.

[00:08:52] How many times has it happened that you're making a merchant payment and you know the money gets stuck somewhere.

[00:08:59] And when you reach out to the support of Google Pay or PhonePay it shows that he either check with the bank or wait for 3 to 5 days for the money to be reverted back.

[00:09:07] Now UPI switch promises that this resolution will happen in a matter of 24 hours.

[00:09:11] Moreover the refunds will be instantly processed compared to as I mentioned the industry average.

[00:09:19] Razorpay has been at the forefront for you know for innovating in the payments space.

[00:09:26] They've also acquired a payment aggregator license and looks like there's no signs of slowing down.

[00:09:32] Yeah, yeah.

[00:09:33] No look my benchmark for payments is very low right because you know I was involved in all of this stuff 15 16 years back.

[00:09:42] So UPI is a delight for sure right.

[00:09:44] But I can see how you know some of these developments on the infrastructure front on the tech front is necessary as the number of transaction scale right.

[00:09:54] And as the trust builds and the transaction amounts also increase it's bound to happen.

[00:09:59] You know most of the transactions today are perhaps less than a couple of thousand right 80 90 percent would be less would be of that order right.

[00:10:08] But as reliability increases and as people start treating this you know almost as an any FTA or an IMPS in terms of the transaction amount right.

[00:10:19] Then I think you know these kind of changes these kind of development is absolutely integral for sure right.

[00:10:27] So yeah kudos to the Razorpay folks.

[00:10:30] I mean the fintechs are really showing us that you know how much you can do from a tech perspective right.

[00:10:36] I think you know 15 years back there was this whole debate about hey will fintechs kill banks right.

[00:10:44] And I think we've swung the other way around right now say you know almost to the point where we're thinking that you know the banks will become fintechs sooner than the vice versa right.

[00:10:54] But these kind of developments are definitely heartening.

[00:10:57] I myself you know I mean I started out very optimistic very bullish about the fintech case and you know I've quoted Angela Strange's article on how every company will be a fintech company more than a few times on the round up itself right.

[00:11:11] But what I'm realizing is that there are so many nuances to the industry itself to the business of financial services itself that it takes a lot more than technology to sort of run a great business here you know.

[00:11:27] On that note I mean did you hear Anupam's remarks about Danda and whatnot.

[00:11:35] I think it was some summit where Anupam Mittal in an internal panel discussion he said that Bangalore is a great city where a lot of innovation on the product front happens.

[00:11:47] But the real business or danda happens in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

[00:11:54] Well not saying that he's wrong but I think Bangalore is changing.

[00:11:59] Bangalore is changing especially in the past year, year and a half, two years.

[00:12:04] Whole conversation on profitability and unit economics has been on the rise.

[00:12:08] I think Bangalore will soon catch up.

[00:12:11] Look I mean I respect Anupam obviously right.

[00:12:14] I mean he's a fantastic entrepreneur investor he's been in the scene for three decades almost right.

[00:12:21] But look brass tacks guys.

[00:12:24] I mean you know it doesn't hold any water right.

[00:12:28] Zero the razor pay phone pay.

[00:12:31] I mean how many more should I name and all of these are the largest fintechs and they're based out of here right.

[00:12:37] And look I mean I'm not even like a region chauvinistic person right.

[00:12:41] I mean I want startup action everywhere in India right from Coimbatore to Surat, Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

[00:12:48] Let there be a million startups everywhere right and ecosystem should evolve for sure right.

[00:12:53] I'm very excited about the fact for example that there is a SaaS ecosystem which is very active in Surat in Coimbatore as well right.

[00:13:00] So obviously I mean startup action should be spread out right.

[00:13:03] Investments should flow into all of these different cities and VCs should go and set up firms in all of these different places.

[00:13:10] But I don't know man I mean all this like it seems like a very sort of broad brush stroke to kind of paint right.

[00:13:19] I mean we do obviously know how to build businesses which is why I mean Bangalore is the startup capital, is the VC capital, is all is like probably like 60 percent 70 percent of the ecosystem in India right.

[00:13:33] And obviously there was a bit of a glut, bit of a glut is an understatement.

[00:13:36] There was a huge glut in 2021 right.

[00:13:38] I mean it was a bull run of bull runs and things went out of hand right.

[00:13:43] But yeah there has been a correction since then you know and this downturn has been good.

[00:13:48] Has been really good from a startup perspective because people have been forced to be more disciplined right.

[00:13:53] Forced to be more focused, do less of these outrageous experiments right.

[00:13:59] Not on the tech innovation front but in terms of you know spending on acquiring users and giving away like you know freebies and what not right.

[00:14:08] I mean so yeah I mean look and look at the aspiration also right.

[00:14:13] I mean the aspiration is to go and list today right.

[00:14:16] We're talking about Ola listing, we're talking about Swiggy listing, plenty of others as well right.

[00:14:21] So if that is your aspiration then obviously you need to be more fiscally disciplined and they will get there right.

[00:14:27] I mean sure I mean I can think that you know startups are you know more innovative than conservative on the business front for sure right.

[00:14:36] I mean it is a new company obviously I mean it will be the case.

[00:14:41] Yeah I mean there's this other trope that happens often right.

[00:14:44] That oh you know what NCR is the place where startups actually list right.

[00:14:49] You have Make My Trip, you have you know Zomato, you have Paytm and so on.

[00:14:54] Guys if in five years that changes will Bangalore suddenly become the place where startups go and list.

[00:15:01] I mean that's absurd, it's completely absurd right.

[00:15:05] So don't be like locked into these you know my region versus your region and this versus that kind of thing.

[00:15:11] Some of it may hold true in some very minor cases right.

[00:15:15] But overall startup action should be absolutely democratized right.

[00:15:20] Let every city have more startups, more investors and let it bias to its own strengths right.

[00:15:28] Absolutely yeah.

[00:15:29] No well said.

[00:15:32] Thanks man.

[00:15:34] Wrapping this up I think it's also very good to see a private player actually building,

[00:15:40] helping to make the UP infrastructure better because I think couple of months back right we were talking that it's not easy to maintain and keep running the UP.

[00:15:50] Of course it has its own expenses right.

[00:15:52] What's better than passing on these running costs onto the customer is to see more private partnerships like this.

[00:15:58] Yeah I mean look I have also argued that a few thousand crores is nothing right.

[00:16:03] I mean think about like you know lakhs of crores for your budgets and what not right for a nation.

[00:16:09] Few thousand crores to you know run the most sophisticated, the best payment system in the world is really nothing right.

[00:16:17] But this kind of stuff where you know people invest in technology, invest in infrastructure and development that is absolutely necessary right.

[00:16:25] I mean people should not like you know companies should not just like lay back and try to reap the rewards of everything that's happened so far for you know the time oncoming right.

[00:16:35] I mean so yeah on that front yeah.

[00:16:38] Awesome.

[00:16:39] So for our next story we want to start off with this tweet by Ashneer Grover.

[00:16:44] He says that the irony is banks se tech nahi ho rahi or fintech se banking nahi ho rahi.

[00:16:51] He was referring to the recent so recent notice by RBI which bars Kotak Mahindra Bank from onboarding customers digitally.

[00:17:01] Now this has been a significant step in which RBI is again showcasing that it puts the needs and the convenience and the safety of customers first.

[00:17:12] RBI cited data security concerns are primary reason why it barred Kotak Mahindra Bank.

[00:17:16] It raised alarms about the bank's ability to safeguard customer information and maintain a robust data security protocol.

[00:17:24] For two years in a row Kotak Mahindra did not meet the standards set for managing IT risks and ensuring information security.

[00:17:32] After checking again RBI found that the bank still hadn't fixed these issues despite being given specific instructions to follow.

[00:17:40] In fact the bank had a major breakdown of its services on April 15th which troubled a lot of its customer.

[00:17:47] Therefore the central bank said it decided to place certain business restrictions on the bank in the interest of customers

[00:17:54] which may seriously impact not only the banks ability to render efficient customer service but also the financial ecosystem of digital banking and payment systems.

[00:18:03] Well we thought RBI was only going after the likes of PTM and other fintech companies but looks like no one is to be spared.

[00:18:11] Yeah I mean RBI is pretty secular in its danda right.

[00:18:17] Look if they have warned them for more than a couple of years then I suppose some kind of action is warranted.

[00:18:23] Same in the case of PTM also right. I mean they received some 7 or 8 warnings on the KYC front before they actually took some action

[00:18:30] punitively right. Well what can I say I mean systems have to definitely be upgraded.

[00:18:39] And these banks and insurance companies you know I mean there are a lot of them running on really dated systems right.

[00:18:46] 20-30 years old perhaps in some cases. I mean upgrading those are like a massive challenge.

[00:18:53] But in all fairness of the last 10 years I mean every bank has tried to you know transform digitally right and keep up with the times per se.

[00:19:03] But huge challenge very very complex I mean obviously the both of us know a little bit about this right having sold to banks and what not.

[00:19:11] But yeah I mean I hope the Kotak team is able to recover from this right and get back up to speed.

[00:19:18] But it's surprising because Kotak Mahindra I think the past 4-5 years they have been pushing the whole 811 product.

[00:19:25] Which is a digital only bank account and you know you get a virtual card and everything.

[00:19:31] And when I came across the news that hey it has had multiple failures on the tech side it just came shocking for the risk it poses to customers.

[00:19:40] Right and it's good that the RBI has taken some action against that.

[00:19:47] Next up we have been eagerly waiting for Swiggy's public market debut.

[00:19:53] And last week Swiggy received a green line from its shareholders for a public initial offering worth 1.2 billion dollars.

[00:20:00] The IPO is slated to happen sometime later this year.

[00:20:04] This will also include a fresh issue of up to 3750 crore rupees or approximately 450 million dollars.

[00:20:09] And an offer for sale component of up to rupees 6664 crores or 800 million.

[00:20:16] Fresh issue means that the company will be issuing new shares to raise capital for itself during an IPO.

[00:20:23] And offer for sale or OFS means that existing shareholders will be putting up some of their shares to be sold directly to the public during an IPO.

[00:20:32] To note here Swiggy was last valued at around 10.3 billion dollars which was during its last fundraisers that happened in early 2022.

[00:20:42] Let's compare this with Zomato the other company who along with Swiggy does the duopoly of the India food delivery business.

[00:20:50] In 2021 when Zomato went IPO it raised around 1.3 billion dollars.

[00:20:55] Of course the share prices had plummeted down but right now that has been doing really well. It has consistently been rising.

[00:21:02] On the market share front as of the first half of FY23 Swiggy holds 46% of food delivery market share whereas Zomato dominates with a 54% share.

[00:21:13] Swiggy recorded a 207 million dollar loss for the 9 months leading up to December 2023 against a revenue of 1.02 billion during the same period.

[00:21:23] Zomato on the other hand is profitable and according to latest news people are saying that Zomato's quick commerce delivery arm Blinkit that is now more valuable than Zomato's food delivery business.

[00:21:36] So a lot of exciting things happening Swiggy IPO coming up.

[00:21:40] Even more shocking than the 200 million loss is the 800 million offer for sale.

[00:21:46] I don't know what the logic is behind that.

[00:21:50] The Indian public retail investors have been extremely critical about this whole OFS.

[00:22:00] I don't know even then they have kind of priced it at that.

[00:22:04] It will be interesting to see how many of these will be from the founders themselves and the leadership themselves.

[00:22:10] Even if it is a minority it is not a good look in my opinion.

[00:22:14] So hard times.

[00:22:17] I personally feel that given the markets are at almost all time highs right now and the election results are out in a couple of months.

[00:22:28] I think I see some small correction coming up.

[00:22:33] I don't know how investors will receive this.

[00:22:38] But in any case I think they will probably list sometime later this year or next year.

[00:22:44] Later this year it is slated but we have seen these plans get postponed.

[00:22:49] So that might very well happen sometime next year I suppose and hopefully markets are a little more stable at that time.

[00:22:57] And see Zomato has been a fantastic turnaround in some sense.

[00:23:01] Because once they listed at that massive 40,000 crore valuation obviously their stock got battered.

[00:23:08] And they have slowly clawed their way back on the basis of phenomenal execution.

[00:23:16] They really consolidated the business well.

[00:23:18] Yeah, the first time they made profits it was due to a tax refund.

[00:23:21] We all made fun of it.

[00:23:22] But since then they have narrowed their losses to actually turn over a buck and become profitable.

[00:23:31] So maybe these businesses at a certain scale, in a certain model of execution can actually be profitable.

[00:23:42] That is what at least Zomato has probably shown.

[00:23:45] I hope that Swiggy pursues that path and that the retail investors are kind to it.

[00:23:53] Because I personally am a Swiggy fan or a Zomato fan.

[00:23:56] I order from Swiggy.

[00:24:00] Wishing the Swiggy team all the best.

[00:24:03] Well one of the primary reasons why Zomato has become a lucrative business is because of their B2B arm.

[00:24:09] I am forgetting what it is called but it procures fresh meat and vegetables and supplies it to restaurants.

[00:24:16] And that has not been in the limelight of the business but it has been doing phenomenally well.

[00:24:22] We have discussed it few times in the past.

[00:24:24] I think Zomato does half a dozen things of that.

[00:24:27] They have a POS business, they have a B2B business, there is Blinkit of course.

[00:24:32] And I am probably missing three or four other businesses that they have.

[00:24:36] Very interesting and this whole farm to fork model has been tried before.

[00:24:43] But it is such a challenging business to kind of execute.

[00:24:48] There are so many moving parts, the supply chain is really complex.

[00:24:52] And so your execution has to be phenomenal.

[00:24:56] Because otherwise your margins are hit very badly.

[00:25:00] And it is hard to really make money.

[00:25:01] But yeah, Zomato perhaps has figured it out.

[00:25:06] We had the founder of OTP on the platform some time back.

[00:25:10] They are fairly recognized in the NCR region.

[00:25:15] Gurgaon and around that.

[00:25:18] We will link to the episode on the podcast.

[00:25:22] We will link to that podcast in the description.

[00:25:25] Hopefully it gives some work to the producer who is sharing memes and what not.

[00:25:31] As we talk.

[00:25:33] So this Swiggy IPO is definitely something we will all be looking forward to.

[00:25:37] Swiggy is one of the largest startups in the country today.

[00:25:41] And you know this company going IPO at a time when fundraisers have been on the decline.

[00:25:47] This could be either mean two things.

[00:25:50] One, it shows investor confidence that the markets will soon have a growth trajectory.

[00:25:56] Or it could mean that they just want a way to offload their shares.

[00:25:59] Let us know what you think about this in the comment section below.

[00:26:04] Moving on to the big fundraisers of the week.

[00:26:08] Starting off we will talk about an international company called Rippling.

[00:26:12] This is a HR tech startup that raised 200 million dollars in a new financing round.

[00:26:17] And it also signed agreements with investors to repurchase up to 590 million dollars of equity from current employees, former employees and early investors.

[00:26:26] This financing round was led by Coetio and I think the startup is now valued north of 1 billion dollars.

[00:26:33] Dhruva Space has raised funding worth 9.4 million dollars in a blend of equity and debt financing from investors including IAN, Alpha Fund and the Technology Development Board.

[00:26:45] The funding will be used by the company to set up a 2.8 lakh square feet spacecraft facility.

[00:26:52] NVFC firm Northern Arc has raised 80 million dollars from the International Finance Corporation which is a member of the World Bank Group.

[00:27:00] Fashion retailer Lizcraft raised around 26 million dollars from Peak 15 partners, Prosus, Sophina and partners of DST Global.

[00:27:07] Cloud Excel raised around 200 crore rupees or around 24 million dollars approximately from NIIF, Infrastructure Finance Limited and Aditya Billa, Finance Limited.

[00:27:17] What's interesting to note here is that a lot of the fundraisers this week has been through debt rounds.

[00:27:23] What does that mean?

[00:27:25] It's just alternate forms of financing is kind of evolving in these markets.

[00:27:31] I suppose equity has become really expensive.

[00:27:37] If you look at it from a founder perspective, having to give up a lot more equity for the same amount of money.

[00:27:43] Relatively speaking at least compared to 2021-22 times.

[00:27:48] Perhaps they are evaluating debt.

[00:27:52] I want to call out Rippling here.

[00:27:54] The reason we are talking about Rippling is for two reasons.

[00:27:57] One because of Parker Conrad, the founder and what a phenomenal comeback he has made.

[00:28:04] He built this company called Zenefits.

[00:28:06] Zenefits was valued at about 4 billion dollars, ran into some compliance trouble and was kind of unceremoniously

[00:28:13] removed from that company.

[00:28:15] Since then he has come back to build Rippling.

[00:28:19] Rippling is valued at 10 billion dollars.

[00:28:22] Two and a half times his previous company.

[00:28:25] You can't keep a good person down for sure.

[00:28:30] Look, Rippling's really ambitious goal is to be that single system of records for all things employees.

[00:28:39] Which means they are doing battle with multiple large systems whether it is Workday or SAP or whoever else.

[00:28:49] They have managed to go up against these guys and actually build phenomenal business.

[00:28:56] They are close to around 400 million right now in ERR.

[00:28:59] Which is pretty amazing.

[00:29:01] In these times where everyone is talking about doom and gloom and SaaS, it's wonderful to hear this kind of a story.

[00:29:09] The first reason, the second reason is because they have built a phenomenal product and engineering team in here.

[00:29:16] In Nama Bangalore.

[00:29:19] They have hired some really amazing engineers and so on here.

[00:29:27] There is a common friend of ours also who was hired and who we should perhaps definitely check with for a party.

[00:29:34] We should definitely check with them on a party and what not.

[00:29:41] If you pass by Kormangala, which I am sure most of you do, startup folks, at least we hope you do.

[00:29:51] You might see a lot of these Rippling ads on employer branding.

[00:29:57] They have built an amazing team here.

[00:30:01] For those reasons, I think they are really special for sure.

[00:30:07] All the best.

[00:30:09] Amazing. Moving on to our talk of the town section, we have this tweet by Balaji Srinivasan.

[00:30:15] He tweets, I was ethnically cleansed out of San Francisco.

[00:30:20] I got out after Democrats started posting signs saying, die techies scum and smashing the windows of Google buses.

[00:30:27] He also posts a video where a Waymo driverless car was set on fire in San Francisco.

[00:30:34] He says that when Democrats lit crosses on fire back in the day, they wanted black people out.

[00:30:39] And when Democrats light self-driving cars on fire today, they want tech people out.

[00:30:44] It's a very interesting tweet. We will be linking it in the description. Please check it out.

[00:30:47] But Roshan, what do you make of this?

[00:30:49] It's just sad to see the decline of San Francisco.

[00:30:51] It's just sad to see the decline of San Francisco.

[00:30:53] Such an amazing city.

[00:30:55] Even historically, it was the heart of the hippie movement in the 60s.

[00:30:59] Some amazing music came out of it.

[00:31:02] Very nice weather.

[00:31:05] Almost feels like Bangalore.

[00:31:08] We will discount this year for sure.

[00:31:11] Bangalore has been burning this year.

[00:31:13] Great city, great vibes.

[00:31:16] Very friendly to immigrants.

[00:31:18] Obviously a bunch of Indians stay there.

[00:31:21] They go to San Jose and San Francisco.

[00:31:23] It's sad to see what's happened.

[00:31:26] I was in the SF a couple of years back.

[00:31:30] I felt really unsafe.

[00:31:33] More unsafe in the downtown SF than some of the more shady areas in Bangalore.

[00:31:41] It's just sad.

[00:31:44] The decline has been caused by multiple things.

[00:31:47] Obviously they have elected successive governments that have been a leech of sorts.

[00:31:56] Increased taxes, all kinds of stupid policies in terms of what to do with homelessness and drug addiction.

[00:32:07] The kind of public begets the kind of polity in some sense.

[00:32:12] Very profound.

[00:32:13] Deep quote.

[00:32:15] But it's true.

[00:32:17] You see the kind of politics that you want basically.

[00:32:21] This whole moving to Texas, Austin and elsewhere has been happening for a while.

[00:32:29] At least post-COVID it got accelerated.

[00:32:32] I think Balaji has moved to Singapore.

[00:32:35] Will you draw parallels of what's happening in SF to what's happening in Bangalore lately?

[00:32:41] Absolutely not.

[00:32:43] Bangalore is screwed up in a lot of ways but not even close to what's happening in SF.

[00:32:49] I hope it never gets to that point.

[00:32:53] The stress on all these cities is real.

[00:32:56] Which is why you need to have these satellite towns, twin cities, whatever you call them.

[00:33:03] Bangalore for instance, Mysore is eminently desirable in that sense.

[00:33:10] Just 100-120 km or whatever.

[00:33:13] Rather just 2 hours away.

[00:33:15] Just 2 hours away with the expressway and what not.

[00:33:17] That's closer than Kolmangalore to Whitefield.

[00:33:19] Yeah, exactly.

[00:33:21] If you build one of these high speed rails and what not, I'm sure the commute can come down to 40 minutes or so.

[00:33:27] So why will you live in Whitefield or wherever else?

[00:33:31] Close to the airport or something.

[00:33:33] If you could live in Vijayanagar and Mysore or wherever.

[00:33:37] The Mysore folks are going to hate this.

[00:33:40] Guys we're just spreading the love.

[00:33:42] Alright folks, thank you for staying with us right till the end.

[00:33:46] We hope you enjoyed this discussion.

[00:33:48] Again a gentle reminder to go out and vote whenever is the voting day in your constituency.

[00:33:54] Do read the manifesto's, make a sound judgement and pick a leader that you'd want to see take India forward.

[00:34:01] Do share this video, like, comment with your point of views on what we discussed today.

[00:34:07] And we'll be back again with more exciting updates from India's startup ecosystem next week.

[00:34:11] Take care, Jai Hind.

[00:34:13] See you guys, bye.