Rohit Jain

How does one define "Value" created by startup & its founders? Isn't this the most asked question and most often this gets answered in form of valuation {"Soonicorn"/ "Unicorn"/ "Decacorn" so on & so forth} and we all know that the valuation driven "status" is akin to the "flickering flame in a stormy night". I believe that: In the world of startups, where data holds sway, performance is the compass that shows the way. Real life stories tell the tale, revealing what's true, success should be measured by what startups can do. A startup's true value is felt when it's gone & its absence revealing what once shone. We are still very early in our pursuit of creating a long lasting positive impact in the life of millions of gamer's across the global south. However, we are pleased that KGeN has not only enabled the much needed recognition for gamers in their own homes & their immediate social circles but also delivered the first brush with financial independence to more than 500k gamers via their association with KGeN. Sharing few real life stories of our community members here for all the well wishers and you can view more stories on https://kgen.io/ P.S.: For those who think KGeN doesn't have data to show—stay tuned for the next post on Q1 performance. Shoutout to team KGeN Paranjay Agarwal Ishank Gupta Amit Hardi Tamoghna Biswas Akshey Aggarwal Girijesh J. Anita Srinivasan Tarun Satish Sandeep Shetty Debashish Ghosh Apurv Shrivastava

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❌ Stripe India is no longer onboarding Merchants (invite only). ❌ And Indians cannot set up Stripe Atlas (post for another day). Why did Stripe fail to make a dent in the world's second-largest startup ecosystem? The honest answer is, Stripe was a non-starter in India. In fact, my cofounder Ayush Agarwal in his previous VC-backed startup would route Razorpay/Cashfree for domestic transactions and Stripe for international transactions (explained later). Why did Stripe never take off in India? There are primarily three main reasons: 1. 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: All major decisions for the Indian market were taken in SFO. While Stripe India had local engineering talent, it did not have the autonomy to make local decisions. The product was never 'Indianized' and often got stuck in chicken-egg conundrums (more later). 2. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Razorpay, Cashfree, and the likes have built amazing payment products for Indian merchants. These products work well and have a strong brand name with the average Indian merchant. And Stripe could simply not compete wrt Pricing, Localisation, and GTM. 3. 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: India's switch to UPI hurt Stripe badly. India also implemented stringent data localisation laws that forced Stripe to rewrite the entire global product - from geo-agnostic to geo-localised data policy. Frequent RBI circulars did not help Stripe much. I'll illustrate the above with an example. Stripe India did not have UPI. It acquired UPI license but did not integrate UPI into its payment stack. Without UPI, onboarding Indian merchants was a non-starter. This is precisely why my co-founder used Stripe for international payments only. To integrate UPI into their payment stack, India team needed engineering resources. And the SFO office would require India team to show traction before allocating engineering resources. Classic chicken-egg conundrum. Also, India is not the only country where Stripe is retreating. It is also retreating from Indonesia where it faces local competition from Xendit, Doku etc. ----- So what can Indian merchants do if they want access to Stripe? Their best bet is to onboard with a Merchant of Record (MoR). We are building Dodo Payments, a global MoR to make global payments effortless. Once you onboard with Dodo Payments as a merchant, you can access Stripe US and a bunch of other payment gateways across the world - truly localising your global payments. DM me if I can be of help with anything payments/stripe/compliance. (source: personal conversations + Ken article)

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🚨 Stripe Atlas cannot be trusted. You'll just rack up $$$ in fines.👇 Here's Why With Atlas, Stripe extends the American dream to entrepreneurs across the world. Submit your business details over a few clicks and voila! Atlas will complete your incorporation in Delaware, secure company EIN, issue equity, and file all required documents. I bet Atlas was inspired by Collison Brothers' personal experience incorporating in US as Irish entrepreneurs. Let's be clear: Atlas is a slick product. RegTech is a tough space to productize and Stripe has an excellent understanding of the US law. However, it is blind to how regulations in the entrepreneurs' home countries affect Atlas. Let's take the example of India 🇮🇳 In India, RBI has FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act). Section II Part 4 clearly states that Indian residents cannot own international assets. This is exactly why startups like Vested had to scale back. As Sandeep Srinivasa explicitly called out in a recent Twitter thread. "You CANNOT use Stripe Atlas, Deel, or whatever else to incorporate. That's an instant FEMA violation that cannot be recovered from later. For an Indian citizen to buy shares in a US co, you have to do an ODI that needs RBI approval (even for 20$) and a UIN number. If you have done this through Stripe/Clerky/whatever, you're f**ked. Close the company and start again. There's no easily known way to recover." The proper way to incorporate in the US is the LLP route where each founder creates an LLP in their name. The LLP acquires the US shares through an RBI-approved ODI (Overseas Direct Investment) transaction with a UIN number. This takes 2-4 months and a significant lumpsum amount to set up. Sandeep also adds: "You cannot receive a salary from the US in India as a founder. This is a tax problem. Just don't do it." Every day I interact with Indian entrepreneurs who have set up US entities via Stripe Atlas. They think they found a 'jugaad' that gives access to Stripe US. (especially after Stripe Indian no longer onboarding merchants). And they can pay themselves from the US entity. If you are one of them, please please please (!!!) just shut down your US entity and immediately rethink. And if what you really need is Stripe US access, onboard a Merchant of Record like Dodo Payments. We have Stripe US + UPI, automated tax compliance, and inbuilt payment tools such as subscription/invoice/fraud etc. You can sign up for our beta (link in comments). I am also adding relevant Twitter threads and FEMA Act to the comments.

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Zepto entering BNPL. I generally hate how startups see lending as a go-to strategy for growth - whether it is B2B marketplaces / manufacturing aggregators to Quick commerce (especially given the organic growth happening). I often wonder if it really enables true demand or ends up unduly inflating it only to bring it all down during downturns. But, in this case, I slightly differ. Consumers have historically enjoyed extended monthly settlements from their local grocers - remember, hisaab me likh lena! BNPL for Zepto eliminates another friction for customers in buying grocery online.

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For all India watchers, another interesting week gone by with Coldplay gets too much love from India, India rules Chess Olympiad, housing demand robust, spend on health rises, substandard drugs made public, IIM-A introduces quotas, and more. 1. "A Sky Full of" Fans: Coldplay India 2025: When 13m fans logged in to book tickets. 2. King's Gambit: India clinches historic double gold at Chess Olympiad. 3. Home Sweet Home: Housing demand up by 12.3% in September quarter: Report 4. Making Electricity When The Sun Shines: India's solar PV module manufacturing capacity increases from 2.3GW to 67GW under Make in India. 5. Investing in Health: Health expenses share as against GDP increases from 1.13% in FY15 to 1.84% in FY22. 6. Connecting Global Investors: SEBI launched FPI outreach cell for seamless market access. 7. Deposits Trump Credit: Deposit growth outpaces credit growth in last 8 months: CARE Ratings 8. Know Your Meds: CDSO finds over 50 substandard drugs, full list included. 9. Manufacturing Needs More: Warehousing demand from manufacturing companies up in H1 2024. 10. Promoting Diversity: In a first, IIM-A to introduce quotas for PhD admissions. Have a fabulous weekend ahead 👍

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Factorwise is a journey full of fun, learning’s and little bit of pain(☺️) Building a venture and creating a business out of it is dependent on various variables. The most critical factors are…. -How co-founders put their put best foot forward on product and its delivery? -How we select fellow awesome people to join our journey? -Continous evolution and learning’s needs of the customers more thorougly - Figure out Why enterprises should feel delighted with Factorwise than just like it.. - Drive efficiency at scale through a product for enterprises. Dreaming is easy than doing When Doing becomes easier than just dreaming. Things change rapidly for greatness.. Fellow people we are enjoying working to build Factorwise, modular SCF stack. Let’s stay tuned with Factorwise, emerging SCF digital infrastructure. #SCFautimation #SCFtech #supplychainfinance #SCFstack Peter Mulroy Doaa Hafez

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Implications of buyback under Ind-AS With companies transitioning to Ind-AS from previous GAAP, I recently came across implications of buyback which is a clause commonly found in Shareholder agreements entered into between companies and investors.  The buy-back clause obligates the Company to buyback shares from the investor on the occurrence of conditions laid out in the agreement. Indian Accounting Standard (Ind AS) 32 states that an entity’s obligation to purchase its own shares for cash gives rise to a financial liability for the present value of the redemption amount even if the number of shares that the entity is obliged to repurchase is not fixed or if the obligation is conditional on the counterparty exercising a right to redeem. Hence depending on the terms of the document, the Company’s obligation to buyback the Securities under the SHA may amount to a contingent settlement provision, which will require that the Securities be classified as ‘financial liabilities’ in the books of the Company. Happy to hear from you some of the Ind-AS transition implications in the comments.

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As a founder, when you transition from start up to scale up, a few things happen. 1. Become a thinker rather than an operator. 2. Develop less tolerance for mediocrity. 3. Focus on the machine, not just the pieces—your job is to make it run better. Definitions vary for startup vs scale-up but from a founder perspective, things change. #founder

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There was a time at YourDOST, back in 2017, we thought of shutting down. We had only 3 months of cash left in the bank to pay team's salaries. We were very lost & didn’t have any clarity. Our monetisation experiments were not successful. We were helping people but didn’t have a business model in place. With only three months of runway left, we were staring at an uncertain future. When we were in the middle of this chaos, someone reached out to me on Facebook and messaged... "You guys are saving lives, one of them was mine." That was our tipping point. Starting up or surviving is no science - it always takes a leap of faith! A push to get going. This message became that push! It started a fire within the team! The team came together and took a lot of hard decisions - from cutting down on salaries, scrapping long-shot experiments, moving to zero-budget marketing etc. For the next 1 year we all worked with our heads down but our spirits high. We turned around - and became profitable in Jan 2019 - a milestone I will never forget. We were fortunate enough for the team that stood by us, B2B clients who gave us a chance and users (esp the one who sent this message) who kept us going. If it wasn't for you we would not be here! Like I say, stories are told in hindsight but life is lived moving forward. When I was at that juncture I would not have imagined how we would come out of it - to a place where we have been able to touch 30 lakh people across 500 corporates and colleges. And the number nearest to my heart - having saved 10,000+ lives over this journey. If you’d like to strengthen the emotional wellbeing of your institution or workplace, please reach out to us. I always believe, doing good and doing well can happen together. This is what our mission is. If you would like to be a part of this journey, please reach out. #MentalHealth #StudentsWellness #WorkplaceWellness #Entrepreneurship #YourDOST

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Asking this to all the Founders & PMs out there - How do you go about having customer conversations and interviews? Before going in and building anything, I am sure you would do a Smoke Test, where you try to find out if the audience you are targeting is even interested in what you'll be building. Will they buy it? Oftentimes, you have to read between the lines instead of taking what users are saying at face value. Would love to hear about your experience and approach to this, and what was your biggest learning? . . . #startup #founders #PM #Productmanagement #startupfounders #fintech #AI #customers

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Order book investing can create HUGE GENERATIONAL WEALTH for us. Let’s say a company has 60 Cr revenue and 15 Cr profit (implying a 15/60 = 25% profit margin) . This company has a order book of 100 Cr to be executed in 1 year. Once this year is over, high chance that this company posts 100 Cr in revenue and 25 Cr in PAT (using 25% profit margin). This company will appreciate by 66% or more assuming it is at a reasonable PE (since profit is increasing from 15 Cr to 25 Cr which is a 66% increase in profit). The only risk is order execution risk but it is quite low. Jisne order dia hai kuch soch ke hi dia hai na :) Do practice order book investing, many HNI investors do the same as well. It can make you rich. You can find the orders received by companies at Sovrenn and discover companies with strong order books. Sovrenn is India's best stock discovery platform. Discover stocks doing fundraising, posting excellent results, getting large orders at Sovrenn. You can now try Sovrenn absolutely FREE for 15 days Join Sovrenn Whatsapp Community: https://lnkd.in/g63YpkFx

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#OYO's journey from #STARTUP to #UNICORN may be fast but pulling a fast trigger like an #IPO is certainly not worth, given the challenges they are facing. #OYO has withdrawn its #IPO application twice and now approaching Institutions and HNI"s for funding round. #NYKAA and #PAYTM are examples that the #INDIAN #REGULATORS need to learn from and ensure that another name is not added to the list of #FIASCO. Any more setbacks in future with #HEFTY #VALUATIONS such as these big names and markets going through unwarranted volatility will only ensure #RETAIL #INVESTORS bleed their #CAPITAL. Time for #CAUTION https://lnkd.in/e7Yj7j2i

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How often do you get to hear that a service based start-up got funding!! Yes it is a hard truth that service based companies find it rather difficult to secure funding. Why? Let us look at some of the hurdles- 1. Proving Scalability: Service based company can depend on a single or handful of people to provide services. Thus investors often doubt whether service-based businesses can grow big. It can be hard to convince them you can scale up. 2. Lack of Physical Assets: Service start-ups usually don’t have many tangible assets like property or equipment. This makes it difficult to provide collateral for traditional bank loans. 3. Validating Revenue Model: Showing a sustainable and recurring revenue model can be tricky, especially in the early stages when your business is still finding its footing. Service based business can pick up immediately or sometimes can take to scale up. 4. Talent Acquisition: Service based company relies heavily on talent. Investors may worry about this dependency and the attrition. Hiring and keeping top talent in a competitive market can be risky. 5. Competition from Established Players: Convincing investors you have an edge over well-established service providers can be a tough sell. Service depends on brand value a lot, thus customers weight towards going for a known name rather than a new player. Despite these challenges, many service-based start-ups have successfully secured funding. They do this by crafting strong pitches, showcasing innovative business models, and demonstrating a deep understanding of their target market’s needs. 1 thing that is changing the game is introduction of technology in this industry. How? lets keep that for the next discussion. Have you faced similar challenges while seeking funding for your service start-up? #servicebasedbusiness #startup #funding

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The recent Indian Budget 2024-25 brought some major updates that could impact investors and employees holding ESOPs. Here’s a breakdown of what’s changing and how it might affect you: Starting October 1, 2024, if a company buys back its shares, the payout will now be taxed as dividend income rather than capital gains. This means you’ll be taxed according to your income tax slab, not the previous 20% tax on buybacks. For employees in startups, this could mean a higher tax bill if the buyback happens under section 68 of the Companies Act. Let’s understand about ESOP Taxation When Exercised: If you exercise your ESOPs, the difference between the market value and the exercise price will be taxed as salary. When Sold: Any profit from selling these shares will be taxed as capital gains, either short-term or long-term, depending on how long you’ve held them. What This Means for Startups? Startups often buy back ESOPs through secondary purchases by new investors. Under the new rules, these buybacks will now be taxed as regular income instead of capital gains. So, if you’re holding ESOPs, be prepared for a potential increase in your tax bill. But why does this matter? The budget is replacing the old 20% buyback tax with a new “deemed dividend” tax, which might mean more tax for you. This change aims to simplify the tax system, but it’s important to understand how it affects your finances. What do you think about the impact of these changes on your finances? #ESOPs #buyback #budget2024

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Practical insights with examples on how to go about USA expansion for global founders

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This shorts handle various intricacies of #expanding to #usa and how you can go about it

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As I sit with son on factorisation of polynomials... Example: a-square -5a -6 The trick is to multiply the coefficients of a-square and the constant term. You get -6. And then find the numbers that on multiplication gives -6 but on summation gives -5 Now he ponders on 3 and 2 the more obvious ones. Soon he realises that since the signs need to be opposite, they cannot on addition get you to -5. That 1 is a factor of all numbers and the number itself is then recollected. So you get 1 and 6, one of which needs to be negative. Now you come to an interesting part. Which one is to be kept negative? Things are a bit involved by now and so the attention doesnt come on the obvious point. After some pondering, it took some pointing attention to the fact that to get to -5 on addition, it is the bigger number that needs to be made negative. It was a wow moment, even if it was obvious... As i observed him solving subsequent problems, he started remembering this new rule, which he knew from earlier, but just got reinforced. Point 1 - Mathematics Education Now one thing is what it tells us about Mathematics education. The 100 small things to which attention need to be paid to, to get Maths right. It is cognitively taxing. You need supervisory/facilitating human attention, which is the simplest way to motivate a child to go through with it. It can become fun, but only if you get it right often. And like in all learning if you dont get it right often enough, it can make one lose interest. Point 2 - Neural net learning But to come to my soapbox, the neural networks also seem to be learning a 100 small things. The combination of getting trained where a pattern repeats and reinforces is what makes learning happen. The rule is not what we memorise. The rule is the compression of patterned enumeration. But human beings seem to internalise it, not based on memorising rules. We seem to internalise it based on the repetition of the enumeration and the fact that, now you can jump the step and not have to enumerate at all. The Rule is not what is either Taught or Learnt. The Rule is what you arrive at through a process. The process is the observation of the repetition of the enumeration and then suddenly being able to "see" the pattern. And for the LLM to learn any new Rule, we need to give it the Data which has this Patterned Enumeration. We thought in 2023 that we had some generalised Intelligence. We thought wrong. Anyone spending 1000s of hours with LLMs now knows that the LLM is not able to get into too much of generalisation. Neither are most Human Beings able to do that when they Learn! I will be very curious to know how AGI can be achieved. Because like the Ring in the Lord of the Rings, it will have to be the Ring that rules them all! How will we manage to pull that off? Does the patterned enumeration of Rules, have a Rule? Do we Humans somehow get it? Can we produce Data that makes this happen for Neural nets? #humanlearning #agi

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🤔 Ever wondered what drives the value of an apparel manufacturing company? 🧵 Understanding the key multiples used in valuing an apparel manufacturing business is crucial for making informed decisions. Let's dive into the factors influencing revenue, EBITDA, and SDE multiples: Revenue Multiple 📈 Factors increasing revenue multiples: 🟡 Strong brand reputation and customer loyalty 🟢 Diversified product offerings and target markets 🟡 Consistent year-over-year sales growth 📉 Factors decreasing revenue multiples: 🔴 High customer concentration risk 🔴 Declining market share or increased competition 🔴 Dependence on a single distribution channel EBITDA Multiple: 📈 Factors increasing EBITDA multiples: 🟢 High gross profit margins and operational efficiency 🟡 Scalable business model with room for growth 🟢 Favorable industry trends and market conditions 📉 Factors decreasing EBITDA multiples: 🔴 Inconsistent or declining profitability 🔴 Significant capital expenditure requirements 🔴 Volatile raw material prices or supply chain disruptions SDE Multiple: 📈 Factors increasing SDE multiples: 🟡 Strong management team and key employee retention 🟢 Proprietary technology, designs, or intellectual property 🟡 Potential for vertical integration or expansion into new markets 📉 Factors decreasing SDE multiples: 🔴 Overreliance on owner's personal relationships and expertise 🔴 Lack of documented processes and systems 🔴 Limited growth prospects or market saturation By understanding these key value drivers, you can make strategic decisions to maximize your apparel manufacturing company's worth and position it for success. 🚀 #ApparelManufacturingValuation #BusinessValuation #ValueDrivers #MultiplesMatter #KnowYourWorth Peak Business Valuation

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We all understand the significance of growth for startups. However, achieving an attractive financial position hinges on retention, be it of customers or employees. Without strong retention, profitability remains out of reach, as acquiring new customers and employees can be a cash drain.🚰 Here are 4 things to focus on to improve retention: 1️⃣ Feedback from customers so that you are fully informed about their needs and pain points. Once you have the feedback you also need to make sure changes are embedded with address what your customers need. 2️⃣ Pricing incentives which favour loyalty such as loyalty discounts or membership programs. This will encourage customer stickiness and loyalty, which will improve your overall margins over time. 3️⃣ Measuring customer retention rates and embedding this as an important metric amongst employees will increase attention and focus on retention. 4️⃣ Improving employee retention will also increase customer retention as your employees are the face of your business. And hiring/firing/replacing employees is expensive so retaining staff will improve margines overall. Remember it’s not just the pay which increases employee loyalty, but also having a positive workplace culture, empowering employees and recognising strong performance are all critical also.  _______ 👋 Hi! I'm Neeta Shah. 💻 I'm a Fractional CFO for growth stage businesses. 📈 We partner with Startup CEOs to optimize cash flow, accelerate growth and be ready for exit. DM me to connect and discuss.

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