Why is India's Twitter Rival KOO shutting down? | Roundup #157 | The Startup Operator

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator, Roundup I am Roshen Karepa And I am Gwingen Saha and together we break down the biggest headlines of Indias growing startup ecosystem

[00:00:10] If this is the first time you are tuning into the channel then please consider subscribing to it for we talk everything startups And if you are regular listener you already know what to do, like, share, subscribe, do all the good stuff

[00:00:21] This is gonna be a long discussion so let's dive straight into it Sevi has been having a rather busy week, it released the true-to-label circular and banned sharing livestock prices with third-party apps Narayana hostel has floated a new health insurance product called Adity

[00:00:38] We'll talk as to why this is different from what's already available in the market The KOO app which was launched during the Chinese App Bands in India and promised to be a Twitter alternate It's shutting down after acquisition talks have failed

[00:00:53] And there was an article titled is an Academy Up For Sale merger or bailout We find that out in our conversations On the other side reliance retail is set to relaunch sheen, which is a Chinese brand in India

[00:01:06] Swiggy rolls out a new feature for users to share food recommendations and Peak 15 it reportedly has over 16,000 crore rupees of dry powder and once found was to focus more on AI

[00:01:19] Then we have a myth of Kant who is saying that India should evolve beyond application based layer and Offer end to end AI capabilities and DPI It is making a case for the removal of angel tax

[00:01:32] So a lot of interesting topics to discuss hope you enjoy the conversation Caddy I have to say that's a good looking shirt. Hey, thanks man I mean this is a batik from Indonesia

[00:01:50] It's their traditional dress and shout out to Lydia. Thank you so much for giving me this shirt Quite a few other gifts as well. We have the Moody G. Bobble head on the table

[00:02:02] Right, so he's there for support and I have the latest edition of that jokes by At dad says jokes It's an Instagram sensation apparently and it's a best selling series So yeah, but only you read whatever you come there

[00:02:16] You know my wife and I were having a tender philosophy of movement. We were talking about life and such as you do right and I told her she really has to embrace her mistakes She gave me a hug

[00:02:31] All right after that, I think pretty much everything would be you know more interesting in relative comparison I entered my stintet why more last week the end of seven long years

[00:02:42] Gosh, I mean time flies man really time flies when you're you know hanging out with a best crew ever Right so Yeah, shout out to my wife Mo fam Right thanks for all the lovely memories and yeah

[00:02:58] Hope we work together again. Yeah, so let's get started. What's this news about? Sabi oh yeah, Sabi has assured a new circular which you know mandates all market infrastructure Institution which includes your you know brokerage firms and whatnot according to the circular

[00:03:12] The MII which means the market institution instrument charges which are to be recovered from the end client should be true to label That is if certain MII charges levied on the end-client by members Which is stock brokers depository participants and clearing members

[00:03:27] It should be ensured by MII said the same amount is received by them And the charge structure of the MII should be uniform and equal for all its members instead of the ongoing slab wise structure Which is dependent on the volume of activity of the members now?

[00:03:44] This is interesting for a couple of reasons. This was indeed a big revenue stream fall broke And this is a practice followed by a lot of markets as well, but now that the revenue stream is going away the charges most likely to come to end customers

[00:03:57] Yeah, look I mean we're in the zero brokerage era right I mean pioneered by the likes of zero there and They don't charge on any equity investing and so on and so forth. They charge on trades

[00:04:09] And in the case of zero the this rebate which you mentioned contributes about 10% But it can be as high as 4050% for some of the other brokerages as such So effectively this will end the zero brokerage era Right I mean people are gonna charge a transaction fee

[00:04:27] Right I think the sabhi had the right interest in mine in the sense that they definitely want to curve down the Option trading value option trading volume rather

[00:04:38] Right which is which poses a huge risk to the market and and I mean there are so many of these statistics that You know less than one person of traders actually make any money right So sabhi is very conscious of that and want to protect retail investors

[00:04:53] But over the years we've seen that retail has significantly come into this whole Option trading business right so it's a move for that because Earlier the brokerages would you know show these volumes to the exchange and and make that money right I mean now with this fee of

[00:05:11] You know almost like a standard price on everything The volumes are immaterial basically right so they try to Yeah, I mean this is this is gonna this gonna hurt the brokerages for sure in the Interim period and we might also end up paying

[00:05:27] You know a little more for the brokerages that we work with So it's going to be used basically going through the Nickelcomers Twitter thread right and Some of the tweets mentioned that key it's great that sabhi wants to level the playing field among brokers

[00:05:43] But when brokers are making a profit they kept it to themselves and when this stream is gone They'll convert it to a cost and pass it on to cost of course, right? I mean they need to make that money somehow

[00:05:54] If not like you know at the levels that they were making earlier They will have to I mean they obviously they have to turn over a buck rate how will they see in business otherwise So that cost is gonna get transferred to the end customer for sure

[00:06:07] Which is you and me I think this will also make investing more serious right on this is like putting in money See that is what the government and sabhi and everyone wants to encourage right which is like serious equity in investing Right and they want to discourage this

[00:06:26] Intradite trading and you know options and Commodities futures all of those stuff right I mean they want to discourage those those things and really encourage long-term equity investing But to be fair I mean it's it's all of these numbers will grow right with time

[00:06:43] I mean and you're seeing how many of these Finflensors and so on and so forth. I mean have like simple ways to trade and so on and so forth on YouTube right, so it's I don't think we were you know kind of prepared for this

[00:06:56] Finflensor world as such right Even now I mean I think the most popular ads on YouTube are all of these like make 10,000 bucks on the stock exchange and make this make that whatever Right so yeah South and Reyes, Satarkri. Mm-hmm But again to make things more

[00:07:14] You know safe for the retail investors sabhi has also banned stock exchanges and depositories from sharing real-time stock price data With third party after that offer virtual stock trading services or fantasy games based on stock market movements

[00:07:28] Sabhi's concerned that these virtual trading apps could lead to a risky behavior and unrealistic expectations from the stock market Especially when they move from fantasy and involve real money rewards Regulators says if the data is used for educational or entertainment purposes without monetary incentives

[00:07:44] It may be allowed with a one day delay But this ban has effectively shut down all virtual trading apps like Stock paid trading leagues and bullsprie and Kind of you know again reiterators the point Bob

[00:08:00] Exactly right I mean if I am a fintech entrepreneur I'll be quick in my boots because you know Effectively RBI finished off this whole lending business, right? I mean the P2P lending and all of that stuff

[00:08:12] B and PL on all of that right now this whole broke-riches exchanges stock investing trading and that kind of Businesses are under the lens So look I mean again this is a lesson for

[00:08:26] You know entrepreneurs as well, right? I mean that you have to work with the regulators and to be fair I mean I think people are a lot more macho, no, they're not trying to you know

[00:08:35] Plain the gray areas, but there is so much ambiguity between lines that it does happen that way Right I mean we had a couple of fantastic episodes on compliance Specifically right I mean we had Manish Maria the off fellow

[00:08:49] He's the co-founder there and also Siddharth method of kiwi app Right I mean Siddharth is again a very experienced person comes from the industry Right both of them have spoken about you know regulation and compliance in fintech

[00:09:02] I highly encourage you guys check out those episodes will link to it in the description But yeah, this is I mean it's it's testy times for sure Well, it's not only seby that has been busy even I are D.I. is making its presence felt

[00:09:18] I idea is the insurance regulatory body in the country and it recently granted insurance licenses to hospital chains Dr. Devi Shetty who is the founder of Narayana hospital mentioned in an A&I podcast that this is a game changer for the healthcare Industry in India

[00:09:35] Narayana health insurance which is a new venture by Narayana health hospital chain has launched its first health insurance product called Aditi It offers a sum assured of one crow rupees for surgery and five lakhs of medical

[00:09:49] Management at Narayana network hospitals and the annual premium for the plan is only 10,000 rupees This is a revolutionary product considering the premium cost is around 30,000 USG per annum for a family in the US

[00:10:02] This is about 25% of median household consumption and Narayana health is planning to do that for 5% of median household consumption But I do really think this will be sustainable in the long run. It's a good way to introduce a new product

[00:10:17] But 10k for one crowed seems like my pennies on the dollar It's it's amazing. It's amazing. It's an ambitious plan for sure and it's a first of it's own kind in India for sure

[00:10:28] Right, I mean this is fairly common in the US where the care provider itself provides insurance and so on Right Fantastic fantastic stuff cool does to Dr. Devishati and team I mean again

[00:10:42] Dr. Devishati has done a phenomenal work in healthcare in India right truly has made like world class You know services accessible to common Indians right and having been to Narayana and experience their You know

[00:10:55] They're care I can tell you I mean I really vouch for their services for sure Look We've made the point multiple times on the podcast before that all healthcare expenses

[00:11:06] Well most of it at least in India is out of pocket right every family if you look at it whether it's middle class Or below is one or two You know really bad expenses from really going bankrupt

[00:11:21] So this one crower plan is a phenomenal phenomenal value for money. I would say right now there are a couple of restrictions I think one it's only restricted to the Narayana hospital network They plan to add other large hospital chains as well and increase their coverage

[00:11:37] But look I mean if you are around Narayana hospital I mean we are about 16 kilometers away from here Right, it's it's amazing. It's really amazing The second thing is that

[00:11:49] Most surgeries don't cost as much right. I mean you don't you don't end up paying like 50 60 lakhs a 1 crore or something of that's all right Most of them are in the range of five to ten lakhs maybe around there

[00:12:00] The real key expense is in let's say cancer care right keep more and so on and so forth Right, and and on that front I mean it's not very clear how much How comprehensive this plan is to that end right but this is a fantastic start

[00:12:16] I personally am considering you know whether I should get one And top it up right by the third thing third thing which brings me to that is that I don't know if there's a top-up

[00:12:26] Man and so on right I mean I don't know how it kind of plays well with the other policies a whole There are also not going through intermediaries. They're going directly right, so which means that if you're using one of these plum or loop or whatever else

[00:12:41] Right or something else to manage your insurance policies and care and so on and so forth You might likely not find Narayana integrated with them at this point

[00:12:50] Right maybe maybe in the future so it's a very ambitious plan for nominal phenomenal first step and cool loss to IRDI also right I mean there are they're doing amazing work like amazing amazing work

[00:13:03] See one thing I can tell you is the regulatory bodies in India whether it's the RBI or You know IRDI etcetera They're they're very very forward thinking right they're being super innovative and Really cool loss to them. I would say yeah

[00:13:17] I think the primary job for regulatory bodies is not to introduce more regulations but rather uncomplicate and simplify them Right, and this is exactly what they're doing. Yeah, I mean look FinTech in general right financial services Operating in the gray area is a risky business

[00:13:34] Right because we've just seen what's happened You know when These laws and regulations come in place so I think regulatory bodies should definitely work along with the industry and Chateau the path right I mean give a roadmap in terms of you know what they're thinking of

[00:13:52] I had what their core priorities are and so on so forth. IRDI is very clear They want to increase insurance penetration Right and so that's why I mean they're open to these other formats and so on so forth to increase that kind of penetration right

[00:14:07] I mean in India I think the penetration is about 15% Right maybe 15 20% and if you remove this group health and whatnot, I mean it'll come down even lower Right so So it's good. It's phenomenal stuff and yeah, I think I might get one Do share your reviews All right

[00:14:27] Last week cool also announced that is shutting down due to financial difficulties and an unpredictable market The reasons for the closure is failed partnership talks and high technology costs The company started laying off a significant part of its workforce in April 2023 at its peak

[00:14:44] Cool had around 2.1 million daily active users and 10 million monthly users including over 9000 VIPs Well, we all know that there's no playbook for how to grow a startup or you know what for what specific reasons Startups fail but I think who was a really interesting story that we followed?

[00:15:03] Yeah, I mean there is this I don't know if it's tall-style or someone who had this code right all happy families are alike and All miserable families are miserable in their own unique ways Right I mean It can apply to startups as well Right so

[00:15:19] Look man, I mean it's just a humongous challenge to build a social network Okay In India I think probably 100 people have tried this and have failed Right so cool is added to that list

[00:15:33] Do we need an indigenous social network? Yes, right but for some reason it's not happened and cool decide to focus on vernacular

[00:15:42] Pretty ahead of its time. I would say right I mean at the time it came up and so on and they also had this impetus of this non-China You know COVID sort of an environment for them to really scale

[00:15:54] But monetization has been you know has been a challenge Twitter itself is figuring out how to make money right I mean the only ones who are really really killing it on that front is meta Right, did you see Mark Zuckerberg Celebrating 4th of July

[00:16:12] Dude is a baller man. I mean there was that member a few years back There was this picture of him in a jet ski Yeah, I think full sunblock everything looked weird and now has drinking up your week surfing

[00:16:24] Dude, so that guy has gone from being one of the like most hated figures To actually like a pretty cool dude who does Juditsu and who flies the American flag and drinks beer and whatnot right I mean I'm I'm kind of often reminded of the billgates PR

[00:16:42] You know billgates in the 90s was like he was evil right because I mean he's a guy who screwed next game. I mean he's a guy who was like you know pay for license kind of person Closed and you know Anti open source type of person

[00:16:59] Right, and then since then he has become this filanthropist and so on and so forth I think like a similar sort of image maker is happening for Zuckerzo There was his but Zucker is putting an effort man. I mean like

[00:17:12] You know all of that surfing and stuff. I'm sure it's like really how does PR team is going to create job? They were just me in that game with Zuck wearing a gold chain and now wearing a gold chain is part of his table fashion

[00:17:22] Seriously amazing amazing stuff like who was doing the image management for Zuck It deserves all of the you know all of the praise but coming back to cool anyway I think you know Fantastic effort by Aprimaya and team

[00:17:38] Right, but unfortunate that it has to come to this. It was on life support for a while I would say right I mean last six months to 12 months They hadn't paid salaries and they had laid off quite a few folks and so on

[00:17:50] But yeah, it's it's look start-ups are really complicated Okay, we celebrate successes and we think everyone can you know make it big and so on and that's right I mean we should think about it

[00:18:05] But there's also huge amount of survival chip buyers right. I mean for every one start of the success There are like you know 85 others who don't make it another 10 others who are like just about there Right, so

[00:18:18] The odds are really really difficult and look coming up from here is a successful guy Right, I mean he sold taxi for sure way back in the day for 200 plus million So obviously he knows a thing or two and he's been a very prolific angel investor as well

[00:18:32] But business is hard man and markets can humble you, you know So yeah, I mean I really hope in my lifetime someone else You know builds a successful indigenous maybe vernacular

[00:18:44] Social network we definitely need it. I would say yeah, but I think this will not be the complete end of Could they are planning to make all the infrastructure public so the people can build on top of it So so I think that's a good stuff good thing

[00:18:59] So last week we came across this article on the morning context saying that an academy is up for a sale A merger or a bailout the article says that God of Mungel who is the co-founder and CEO of an academy

[00:19:11] He has the approach multiple education companies like physics, Walla Allen and other educational companies for an outright acquisition But later he took to Twitter to clarify that a lot was being said about the company but to set the record straight an academy is not for sale

[00:19:29] It's going to report it's best year in terms of growth and profitability So this again raises the question which we have been discussing in past round-ups that What are these media companies doing

[00:19:40] Just to get clicks on their articles. Yeah, they're just dunking our startups man look coming I read the article and I don't subscribe to the morning context I don't subscribe to any startup media friend of mine shared on email and

[00:19:55] Look I mean it's just purely like all allegory kill you know I mean it's just like you know she said she said and a fifth person said something else and this is what it is and you know trying to like You know

[00:20:09] Put everything together in the form of a conjecture now. I'm not saying it's not it's it's not accurate right? I mean maybe accurate right, but It's very probabilistic right and I don't know why is they would like publish something like this for sure

[00:20:23] I mean just reads like gossip you know it just reads like pastry gossip if you ask me and This Ashish guy was better man. I mean I don't I mean I feel very bad actually because you know when used to write for them

[00:20:35] You used to write this real nice long form Humanizing articles on tech and startups and so on right, but I don't know the last 10 years I mean It's just gone complete 180 you know I mean every article every second article is just like dunking on people or random builds

[00:20:50] It you know If there's outright fraud and misbehavior and so on and so forth yeah, I mean sure Right by all means report that but this kind of stuff doesn't help real. Let us it help right and then the

[00:21:04] The tone also is just so shitty and it's just like yeah, I mean you know what it is right I just apply the man in the arena principle for this kind of stuff right? I mean if there's someone out there in the arena

[00:21:16] And they're taking the heads and they're trying to do something Look I mean you either build or you just shut up about it Right you can't dunk on people who are in the arena trying to build stuff right Unaccredum is not without problems. Of course they have problems

[00:21:31] Right the valued at three of four billion dollars You know and it was the attack boom. I mean money was available. They took it Right, I mean if money is available Guess what 99% 99% percent of people will take it. Yeah, right. I mean it's it's

[00:21:47] It's a rather silly to be all high-end mighty and say that oh this much money was spent at 10 billion dollars for spend and so on and so forth I mean it's therefore the taking people will take it Right

[00:21:58] Yeah, and you have to learn and live I mean like you know You learn from this and get better the next time and the iteration after this will be Even better right. I mean you won't get a physics wall up without

[00:22:08] a buy juice and an unaccredum here and like four others before right and you won't get those without You know the islands and the Akash and all of that before that right? I mean Every startup wave is an iteration it's an iteration forward

[00:22:22] Right and guess what I mean this whole process of creative destruction has been happening for Decades right I would argue centuries Right, but if you should on every person is gonna make a mistake then well, I mean that's just Inhibiting progress in my opinion

[00:22:36] Right so yeah, that's also what you're trying to do when our podcast as well. Right? I mean we're trying to filter out all the Mean stream meters and just to get the most relevant Content for folks like and most importantly right I mean we believe entrepreneurs

[00:22:51] Change the world and we want to like improve optimism on that front right I want every kid who listens to this podcast Every other person who is maybe like mid career whatever to consider starting up

[00:23:02] Right, I'm not getting freaked out by all of this like noise because ultimately this is noise the odds are Like near insurmountable like I mentioned you know one out of perhaps hundred startups really really really hit it big Right another 10 or 15 are just doing all right

[00:23:19] The remaining 70 or 80 are gone right those are the odds I mean it's insane odds. I mean god knows them in you know entrepreneurs founders need a lot more support right So this is nonsense and an academy for what it's worth has about 1500 crores in the bank

[00:23:37] Okay, so it's not like you know they're completely out of cash or whatever I mean it's just they had to figure out a viable business model They started digital I mean they moved offline Because you know post-COVID I mean all of the schools and everything are back

[00:23:53] They just had to figure out a way to make money out of this and and look Again people have this weird notion that you have to lose money hand over fist in a tech and so on Mega fortunes have been built in education

[00:24:06] Mega mega fortunes right you take top 50 top 100 You know richest folks in India and you subtract all of these You know manufacturing guys who are like in you know steel aluminum all those kinds

[00:24:19] Right you will find a lot of education is right a ton of people have made money in education So and coaching is a net policy business right I mean what do I have? I mean if I get four students here. I mean I'll be net profitable

[00:24:33] So it's just a question of Reorienting that business model and I think Look All the best to go to and team I hope they keep at it Either which we are and I mean whether they get acquired or they go on to do something else

[00:24:47] I mean all the best to them Yeah So folks be careful from where you get your news updates from Okay, let's talk about reliance but this is not from a wedding perspective

[00:25:00] Reliance retail ventures plan to relaunch sheen which is a company that got banned in India because of his Chinese ties

[00:25:07] The new operations will be managed by a company that is wholly owned by reliance retail and sheen will be receiving a license fee based on the Indian firms profit Sheen was banned in India in around 20 20 due to geopolitical issues

[00:25:22] But now the platform and servers will be exclusively hosted in India and sheen will have no access or rights to customer data In fact, they'll be paid only when the subsidiary of reliance will be turning profit

[00:25:35] While this is a good move, I think the biggest impact will be felt by the likes of NYCAR, Mintra and other fast fashion affordable fashion companies But this also means it will benefit the end customers because these companies will again need to devaluate how they are gonna

[00:25:51] Churn our profits while lowering profit margins Another news swiggy has role-out a new feature for its users. I think there's a very important features It's a feature that allows users to recommend dishes and restaurants to others. Wow So it's basically sharing. It's basically sharing wow

[00:26:10] But that aside there's also a report by swiggy itself saying that the food delivery market is likely to search by 3.2X By 2030 the Indian food delivery industry is projected to grow at a Cagor of 18% from 66,000 crore rupees in 2023 to over 2 lakh crores by 2030

[00:26:29] Now of course all of these features by swiggy will definitely help to get more people to try out new places But this food delivery market right I mean right now Ola has started with the Oendisi delivery We have the Lexus somato swiggy

[00:26:45] I don't think do you think we'll see more players here or there'll be some consolidation or what exactly is gonna lead to this 3X growth Is stuff to say right I mean we thought the right sharing business was gonna be a monopoly business

[00:26:59] Right I mean between Uber and that time I think taxi for sure and Ola and so on right but With Nama Aetherian so on there is hope that you know someone else might come in and kind of make a decent size business

[00:27:13] In this space right I'm not sure you know how things are gonna work out With the swiggy and somatoes of the world right The hasn't been a significant scalable alternative yet Right, but I won't rule that out you know

[00:27:31] Of course, I mean building all these restaurant relationships and then integrating the technology is so on and so forth stuff right guys check out this App start-up called urban pipe up. I mean they they do this restaurant back in Integration for swiggy somatoes all of these folks

[00:27:50] So that you know it's it's completely plug-in play for restaurants right I mean they don't have to do one thing for swiggy one thing for somatoes and something else Incidentally swiggy and somatoes have both invested in urban pipe up right so Yeah, I mean

[00:28:05] Let's see let's see what really happens going forward. Well, I think the best as an Indian consumer You'll only go to those aggregators that offer the cheapest price and right now. Oh, I was doing a great job at it

[00:28:18] Yeah, everything is for 50% off really yeah, I'm a little out. Oh, I'm full of food up this whole food delivery space itself is going to grow Insanely that's what the swiggy reports says but you know, I mean if you look at China for instance

[00:28:32] It's probably 50% of the market Right and India is headed that way, you know the less and less people cooking at home more people ordering out Right more discretionary income more aspirations one and so forth. So it is going to rise for sure

[00:28:48] Okay peak 15 has said that they have around 16,000 crore rupees in dry powder And they want more founders to focus on AI This is a based on interview with Rajan Anandhan who is a managing director of peak 15 ventures

[00:29:05] peak 15 has invested in closer 25 AI start-ups on the past one one and a half years and some of the notable investments like 10.5 million in cloud physician 7 million in orbit shift 105 million in at-land So they're really going big on AI

[00:29:22] But this kind of diminishing of the boom we saw in 1920 with crypto web three startups So do you think this could another be another bubble look with two billion dollars of cash to Invest in India and Southeast Asia? I mean you need every kind of startup, right?

[00:29:40] Honestly there aren't that many startups, you know, so I don't know I mean it's it's a humongous challenge investing this Money in the next four or five or six years even So it's going to be a tough task for sure

[00:29:53] Right my hope is that there'll be more deep tech manufacturing those kind of startups As well right I mean building some real IP for India More money is good absolutely good. I mean definitely more money in the ecosystem means that more people will try this out

[00:30:09] Right and overall I mean will progress so yeah good India is really Has the potential for scaling this right? I mean And then also says that 20% of global AI researchers are of Indian origin

[00:30:23] But they're mostly based in the US so there is a big need to attract the Stalin back to India And even Amitab Khan thread who is a G20 Sharpa and former Nithia you see you

[00:30:33] He's saying that India generates 20% of global data but has only two percent of the world's servers and less than 2% of the global Computing capacity Number of AI projects on get-up by Indians account for 19% of worldwide initiatives

[00:30:50] So there's a lot of potential and while yes as an investor they do have a time frame to start generating returns But two billion dollars in a six or seven year time frame This I got to all ask if despite the potential in the country yeah for sure

[00:31:05] I mean the like I said there aren't that many Investible startups if you ask me right so it's going to be interesting to see how this kind of pans out We definitely have the developer talent right we just need the resources

[00:31:18] To sort of be able to build scalable businesses and I think we're getting there So even the government is doing it's bit right a few weeks back there now. There'll be procuring 10,000 GPUs in the next 18 months and build an AI computing capacity for people to you know

[00:31:36] Jumped out in a way yeah so yeah definitely interesting space too We definitely have to encourage college entrepreneurs right I mean folks out of college the first toy should somehow become an entrepreneurship Right because again very low risk, you know

[00:31:54] You can fail in your early 20s right hopefully and You learn a ton out of this whole startup experience that could be useful for your career going forward as well. So yeah Okay All right and other news the department for promotion and industry and internal trade the DPI

[00:32:12] IT is making a pitch for the removal of angel tax for startups and we as you all know the budget announcement is just around the corner Angel tax refers to the income tax levied by the government on funding reeds by unlisted companies on startups That have

[00:32:28] valuations exceeding the fair market value But well this has been a big ask from the startup community for years now and the final decision Rest with the finance ministry. Yeah, I mean it's it's tough man

[00:32:41] I mean look who determines farm market value and also how do your tax unrealized returns So on and so forth right so So I mean we've spoken about angel tax multiple times before I mean it's it's definitely a draconian It has to be done away with

[00:32:58] It's just taken a long long long long time for us to get to this point But hopefully there's enough consensus at this point right so yeah, we'll the government let go of a big revenue stream It's not a big revenue stream and they will let go of it

[00:33:12] Okay, we'll see if I budget to be announced Here's a quick recap of all the notable fund raises from the week Topping the list was purple which is a

[00:33:22] Ecommerce company there is one 20 million dollars in a series f funding round along with that we also have EV startup Matter that raise 35 million dollars and agritic brand haria dot AG that raise 29.2 million dollars on the early stage

[00:33:39] Deals side we have 20 start-up that secured funding worth 36.13 million dollars during the week So seeing steady growth in the number of fund raises But nothing like what we seen in the past years Yeah, purple is an interesting story. I mean we should definitely host a founder sometime

[00:33:57] Right 120 million is a significant raise At this point of time We're seeing some of these growth rounds coming at this point right I mean whether it was earlier or

[00:34:08] Purple and so on yeah, I think funding is happening at the extreme's either at the early early stages or at the growth stage People and between are getting like this is covered no they're top of profitability Exactly yeah

[00:34:22] So on Twitter we are following this page called startup archive right and they find some really interesting videos from the past Last week they posted this video of Mark Zuckerberg explaining the importance of Option-value and flexibility before starting a company sounds complex with the messages simple

[00:34:40] Take a listen you want to start a company before you understand what you want to do I know that that's different from your philosophy on the know believe me I wish we would get more people

[00:34:49] Through where the company started them rather than by certain and just get back to a question of why did we first open it Colleges that had competitors I have this big Fear I think of getting Locked in to doing things that aren't actually the most impactful things

[00:35:02] To me this is like the trait that entrepreneurs have is they just have this like Laser like ability to go find where they can have the most impact and you know when you take on a new project

[00:35:13] Especially if you hire people or start a company you're doing that project There are obviously different ways that it can exit and all that but I think having the flexibility to explore a lot of different things

[00:35:22] Which you can do when you're in college, which is one of the amazing things about being in college As you can work in all these hobbies and code a lot of stuff and try a lot of different things

[00:35:29] It's this amazing flexibility that I think most people take for granted and once you decide Okay, I'm gonna start a company and I'm gonna do with someone else you immediately now need to convince someone else if you want to change your mind on something and

[00:35:39] I think people really undervalue the option value and flexibility I think explore what you want to do before committing is really like the key thing and keep yourself flexible

[00:35:48] You can definitely do that within the framework of a company, but I think you have to be fantastic simple message right? I mean Wanting to start a company is different than actually finding something to solve?

[00:35:59] I think the important message there is not to start up just because you want to start up But rather be compelled to start up right and I feel like you know

[00:36:10] If you've not got that idea there is a certain you know way to sort of triangulate towards that program has this wonderful wonderful essay on how to start up Right or how to find an idea or one such thing right? I mean we'll link to it in the

[00:36:25] Description do check out that fantastic essay by Paul Graham but yeah, wait for it wait for it and Usually when it happens I mean you know right? I mean it's so compelling that you want to start something

[00:36:39] And also I mean don't think of a company upfront. I mean it could just be a project aside hustle Which can then grow into a company right because a lot of the times I think

[00:36:49] Especially if you're early in your career and so on you don't have to like You know go all in and so on right try out a few things tinker You know get a feel for how things are and then let it grow into it, you know

[00:37:02] So a fantastic fantastic You know message by Zok And there's another Tweet we came across right it's a new clipping That reads marriage optimized San Francisco couples work out their issues with off-site performance reviews and whatnot They are using tech to level up their love

[00:37:25] So Alex Cohen tweeted My wife and I have been happily married for five years. Here is a marriage stack Slack for family communication, Jira for chose board Latest for 360 degree family reviews Repling for family payroll sales force or tracking relationship milestones

[00:37:42] Docuys sign for family signing and in documents Where do you read the rest of it? It says my wife is on a pip and we've had to fire our two-year old We recently had to fire our one year old and my wife is on a pip

[00:38:00] Everything is going great Yeah Family vacations turns out to be of sites It's crazy man It's so hard to differentiate like real news from satire actually You know but I do know folks who are religious about

[00:38:17] You know all this stuff right I mean they apply all these work principles to relationships and so on And there's certain value to it. I mean I do follow calendar Right, I mean I do set aside time for chores and whatnot

[00:38:29] But I haven't reached the latest levels yet Right or Repling guard for bits. So yeah interesting I think the most the biggest value which I get from tech is using a motion board To coordinate with my flatmate that you okay what's gonna be the weekly meals to have

[00:38:47] That's that's helpful all right All right folks, that's it for this round of it was another longer one But hope that you have some interesting take-away stromit Do leave your comments and wait I think before wrapping up

[00:39:04] There's one message which I'd like to read out. Oh yeah, we got this on an email last week from Coder Boven, Coder Boven. Thank you for your message He says that I just had to reach out and express my utter amazement at a content on startup culture

[00:39:20] It's incredibly refreshing to hear such insightful and inspiring takes on the journey Your content is exactly what I needed to hear right now. It's reinvigorated my own unspinald spirit and filled me with fresh wave of enthusiasm Keep up the phenomenal work Thanks, Boven this was

[00:39:36] This was a great thing to read man in the morning. Yeah, usually when someone starts with those one or two lines I mean I I'm half expecting this I think something to you

[00:39:45] But yeah, this was this was awesome. This was awesome. Thank you so much, Boven for your support A lot of you right to us, you know asking how you can help and so on and so forth

[00:39:56] Just share this with your fellow startup operators friends family who are else You think could be interested in this kind of stuff Yes, we don't have 100,000 subscribers as yet, but we'll get there with your help. We try to improve production and distribution All other facets of this thing

[00:40:13] Right while staying true to a core right I mean we want to have nice long-form conversations on startup building That's one we want to do and that's what we've been doing so yeah with a little bit of help from you We can get there and

[00:40:29] Get to that next level now before we leave folks right. I mean I think we should like end with a joke or something right dad jokes So I Trap the couple of vegan burglars in my basement I trapped a couple of vegan burglars in my basement

[00:40:46] At least I think they were vegan They kept shouting let us leave Hi guys hope you have a better week than this joke We back again next week for more interesting takes on what's happening in the Indian Star of Equipment system Take care. Have a great week

[00:41:04] Cheers guys, bye