Vishal Ghotge

I’ve been thinking about the best ways I can support startup CEOs before year end, with the goal of helping teams pursue growth more effectively in 2025. One common sentiment I’ve heard from CEOs at all stage of growth in recent months is some version of: “We need to keep advancing all potential paths to growth simultaneously, and we'll see where we gain traction first.” What all of these leaders have in common is that they are pursuing paths to growth that will require their organizations to: ⚡ Sell into fully new customer types ⚡ Learn what these new customers need, how they solve challenges today, their expectations, ways of working, etc. ⚡ Position existing solutions in the context of needs ⚡ Potentially define, iterate, and develop new solutions to address needs ⚡ Assess how existing organizational capabilities and resources available align to serving those new customer types, and identify gaps (The list goes on) As a result, I’ve decided to focus much of the rest of this year on helping existing and new startup clients: ✔ Review their portfolios of growth initiatives ✔ Document their understanding of opportunities ✔ Identify key assumptions and open questions ✔ Prioritize across initiatives Reach out if you would welcome this support for your organization ahead of year end, and happy to schedule time to discuss next steps. Happy weekend. #startups #growth #healthcare #healthtech #q4  –- Hi, I’m Brittany Ryan, Founder & Principal at Sunrise Advisors. I serve as a fractional product and commercial executive to health tech startups, venture capital firms, and venture-building teams. I’m passionate about helping ensure organizations are pursuing growth effectively, and would love to partner if you and your team need support. Thanks!

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At Forum we look at thousands of deals each year across our Accelerator and Pre-Seed funds but only end up investing in a little over 1% of those startups.  As an early stage VC, I am in the business of saying no to nearly every startup I meet, and while there is nuanced rationale for many of the startups I pass on, a vast majority of businesses that don’t meet the qualification to get funded typically fall into one of two buckets. ▪ First time founders have a tendency to go out to market too early to raise pre-seed capital ▪   I’m sure most founders have heard some iteration of this from VCs that ultimately pass on their business.  In some cases it's a blanket excuse covering up for other pass reasons- perhaps a VC doesn’t believe in a team or isn’t bullish on the market opportunity - but in many cases founders simply haven't proven enough to the market to warrant an investment. I meet many teams with an articulate vision for the product that they want to build, but they either haven't performed enough customer discovery to prove demand for their initial wedge product, or need to raise pre-seed capital to build out an MVP.  In those cases, pre-seed investors are unwilling to underwrite those risks.  To be default fundable, teams need to be able to keep costs low, perform extensive customer discovery, and ship some version of an early product - pilots and early paid customers are key. A huge piece of this is having founding engineering talent on the team. ▪Not every startup is a venture opportunity ▪ By definition, a venture backed business is solving a problem within a market opportunity so massive and so desperately needed, that its growth rate is off the charts.   It spreads like a weed, absorbing almost unlimited amounts of capital to fulfill demand within its customer base.   Each year there are maybe 20 companies launched that ultimately have venture scale outcomes. The bar to reach this rarified air is unfathomably high and the reality is the vast majority of founders simply aren’t building for opportunities that have the potential to be one of these generational companies. Many startup founders view VC as the only viable option for capitalizing their business, but not every great business is a venture business, and most successful founders never take VC dollars.  In order to reach an IPO/acquisition large enough to generate venture returns, a startup needs a credible path to $100s of millions in revenue. This is the standard by which early stage opportunities are evaluated. The flip side to this, and I share this feedback often with founders I meet that are building interesting business in non venture markets, if you are able to scale to $10- $20M in revenue that can be a massively successful outcome for a founder.  There are investors who focus on these type outcomes, namely lower middle market PE shops, and the typical path to those deals is a bootstrapped business or a friends/family capital raise.

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Where are we on the continuum of chaos and control? This is a question Clay co-founder and CEO Kareem Amin periodically asks himself as the company grows and inevitably creeps toward the controlled side of the spectrum. “Companies and management teams default to control. You want to control outcomes, control the direction of the company, and understand your inputs and outputs. But doing this underestimates the cost of coordination and communication — and the value of chaos,” he says. “You want a healthy amount of chaos to create anything new or creative.” On The Review today, we asked founders to share their go-to questions like this one to reflect on the business, the team and their own leadership (full list in the comments below)

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The DEI Mirage and the VC Money Game: A Wake-Up Call for Founders The entrepreneurial world often paints a rosy picture of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and the venture capital (VC) landscape. However, behind the glossy facade lies a harsh reality: DEI efforts frequently fall short, and the VC world is primarily driven by profit, not genuine inclusivity. As a founder, you may have envisioned pitching your groundbreaking idea to enthusiastic investors, eager to support your vision. But what if that dream doesn't materialize? What if you never step into the hallowed halls of incubators and accelerators? Let's face it: the traditional path to success isn't always accessible to everyone. The VC world, despite its claims of diversity, often favors certain demographics and business models. This can leave many talented founders feeling excluded and disillusioned. However, this isn't a reason to despair. It's a call to action. It's time to re-evaluate your goals and chart a new course. Don't let the shortcomings of the system deter you. Instead, use them as fuel to ignite your entrepreneurial spirit. The truth is, there are countless ways to succeed outside the traditional VC model. You can bootstrap your business, seek funding from alternative sources, or build a loyal customer base through organic growth. These paths may be less glamorous, but they offer a level of autonomy and control that VC funding often lacks. Moreover, by forging your own path, you can create a business that aligns with your values and priorities. You can build a company culture that truly embraces diversity and inclusion, rather than simply paying lip service to these ideals. Remember, your worth as a founder isn't determined by the number of VC pitches you make or the amount of funding you secure. It's defined by your passion, your resilience, and your unwavering commitment to your vision. So, if the DEI mirage and the VC money game have left you feeling disillusioned, don't give up. Instead, embrace this as an opportunity to create something truly unique and impactful. The world needs your ideas, your creativity, and your entrepreneurial spirit. The road ahead may be challenging, but it's also filled with limitless possibilities. Forge your own path, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Disclaimer: This article is not intended to discourage founders from seeking VC funding or participating in DEI initiatives. It's a call for greater transparency and a more realistic assessment of the challenges and opportunities that exist in the entrepreneurial world. - Google Made me say that... JK - be originally weird and you. - Rodman Johnson founder Shifter | Shftr & bevee smart.

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If you missed key insights from Matt McIlwain(Madrona) at Seattle Venture Day I took some time to summarize a few of the key points! How should small startups or emerging companies think about partnering with enterprises? Enterprises are very motivated to have better solutions, Early stage startups have to think differently and think outside the existing structure silos that the current SaaS applications represent, think outside the generally structured data that lives in databases. Think more about data lakes and unstructured data and crossflows, flows that live across current Saas and structure application. Matt thinks its in the crossflows with the differently structured data that’s where some of the big breakthroughs are going to come with breaking into working with big enterprises at the agentic layer. Overlaps between the current AI boom and the .com boom in Seattle? Less GTM talent than Engineering talent here in Seattle. A lot of corporate capital here, Microsoft and Amazon market cap is over 5T today so a lot of the experts that helped build these companies and worked on cloud technologies, applied AI, Robotics, etc.. have helped grow the startup ecosystem here in Seattle. What is Matts framework for selection companies that are investable in this AI boom? The chip layer is saturated with capital from big cloud and harder to return capital. Matt thinks the agentic and enabling layer there will be a lot more winners. Functional and domain specific solutions are great – Gradial is an example on the marketing side. Madrona wants to see founders who infatuated with the problem they see and are better suited to solve that problem than anyone else. Matts thoughts on the M&A and IPO markets? IPO markets have pretty much stayed soft this year, but M&A is going to pick up a good bit.  There is pressure on the Mag 7 and larger companies from the FTC but a lot more happening in the middle market like Atlassian and Docusign, etcc. Companies that are between 20b and 100b in market cap have to figure out how to increase their market position/AI talent through acquisitions. PE is also hungry to put their capital to work and very aggressive at putting their capital to work. Matt believes he will see VC groups getting bought up by PE groups in different forms. They may allow VCs and founders to keep some of their capital and to re-up in some of those deals. What should founders look for from investors? Matt believes having a consortium of investors is largely a good thing and having great early investors are important in helping you grow. It’s also valuable to have someone who is your lead champion and will roll up their sleeves with you every week. Madrona loves founders who are coachable but not too coachable – If the investor has all the best ideas something is not right. The founder should be leading the way! Pablo Casilimas Justis Mendez OneSixOne Ventures

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Day #4 of observations from attending Home Care 100 this month: There is a cambrian explosion of "AI scribe for OASIS docs in <15 min" startups currently underway in Home Health. A new one of these is launching every few months. I'm certain we'll see 2x AI scribe vendors at the next HC100 in January. And so, I listened for the overall positioning of these products by the vendor and buyer at Home Care 100. It sounded like this: HH CEO: “I need a solution to lower the caregiver burden of clinical documentation” HH Vendor: “I offer AI to reduce the burden of clinical documentation” This may sound like a "checkmate" match between what the CEO is saying, and what the vendor is offering. But it isn't. The CEO actually has a business model problem. They cannot afford to sufficiently pay for the time it takes for caregivers to complete clinical documentation. And so, they are stuck looking for solutions that minimize the cost of personal time on documentation that caregivers have to absorb. Solutions that offer AI and the promise of driving down this cost down for the caregiver are the start, but not the endgame. If I were not building Arya, and wanted to build a standout documentation product, I would build an "AI-powered clinical documentation agency", not an AI scribe. Here's what this AI-powered documentation agency would sound like: 1. We eliminate 90% of all clinical documentation at your company. We do it at 1/10th the cost of a traditional outsourced documentation shop 2. We do this by a human-in-the-loop AI solution, that allows our human documenters to work 10x faster than DIY 3. Under the hood, we integrate with *all* the best AI out there (incl. ChatGPT) in a SOC2+ HIPAA guaranteed environment. We decide the best AI+human workflow to use for each documentation on the fly. Regardless, you always pay a flat rate, and we absorb the risk or AI vs human effort 4. Your caregivers approve each human-in-the-loop documentation. We don't publish anything to the EHR till it's approved 5. We guarantee a <1% error/ change rate on our documentation from caregivers, or we offer some money back I did some back of the napkin math to see what the economics of an such an agency might look like. With the current math, the caregiver is still absorbing upwards of $10 worth of time per OASIS documentation. If an AI-powered agency drove this cost down to the single digits per doc, might HH agencies be able to work this into their financial model and take this off the caregiver's plate entirely? Here's hoping for a "we've got you covered on the documentation " caregiver benefit coming in the future. #homecare #homecareagencies #HC100 #homecare100 #homehealth

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What is a good fundraising story? How much equity should founders aim to give away at each stage of investment? Many founders are confused about this and it can lead to problems with future fundraising if you get it wrong. Some basic ballpark numbers: Angel: At the Angel round it’s normal to sell around 10-15% of your equity. Depending on your startup’s level of maturity this could be $100k on $1M, $250k on $2M, etc. Angels should NOT get board seats or have any type of control and should invest via SAFE notes where allowed and Convertible Notes (CNs) where not. Pre-Seed: This is typically when Accelerating Asia Ventures (AAV) invests and is often a bridge to your first larger ($1M+) round where the lead VC takes a board seat and things become more formalised. At this stage you should also be aiming to give away a maximum of 10-15% equity. Similar to the Angel round, you should not be giving board seats unless someone invests USD500k+. Rounds at this stage are usually $300k-$750k. Seed: Often the first round where there is extensive due diligence and the total investment crosses $1M. The lead (usually a VC) will take a board seat. Often this is the first priced equity round (instead of SAFE or CN) and the previous investors will have their notes converted into preference shares defined by the lead investor. VCs will typically want 15-25% and will also want to include an Employee Stock Option Plan as part of the round. ESOP should be ~10% at this stage. These numbers are fairly normal, but of course if the founders can keep more % that’s usually better. More detail in my Stack: https://lnkd.in/gaT8MSJ9

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New Thesis - Beyond Language: An Introduction to The Transformational Potential of LxMs A core tenet of the new firm I am building is to generate sectoral theses in areas that I believe can lead to outlier returns. Over the years, I have been fascinated by novel foundational technology catalyzed by open ecosystems - and the impact they can have on areas beyond language. In this post, I introduce the concept of LxMs - a new thesis I am developing - and how they will impact various sectors. Follow along our series for in-depth insights and case studies on how LxMs are transforming various industries. We will explore how these advanced models are revolutionizing fields such as scientific intelligence (biology, chemistry), industrial intelligence (robotics, manufacturing) and gaming (design, engines, modeling, simulation). Read our intro and stay tuned for our subsequent posts. Huge props to Archit Gadhok for co-piloting this with me!

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We believe in extreme vetting of our founders. You can't build a unicorn if you spend time on silly stuff, like seeing family and friends. Grow up, and focus on investor returns. #vc #startups #investment

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I'm excited to announce that Mindset Care, the platform designed to simplify the application process for Social Security Disability benefits for individuals with mental illnesses and their caregivers, has raised $13 million. Science led the latest funding round and has backed the company since it launched from Science Inc.’s startup studio. We are thrilled to have Wellington Management (Van Jones, Jackson Cummings), Tubbs Ventures, Enable Ventures (Regina "Gina" Kline, Margaret Knowles), XYZ, and LivEdge Capital on board to enable Mindset to meet the growing demand for disability assistance. 17 million Americans live with a serious mental illness and qualify for disability benefits. Yet, it is estimated that about 65% of initial disability applications are denied, often due to errors or incomplete information​. This financing will enable Mindset Care to expand into partnerships with community and large-scale organizations, including local mental health nonprofits, government agencies, and homeless shelters. It has been a privilege to work with Darren Webb, Mindset’s co-founder and CEO, and see his passion and commitment to supporting people struggling with their mental health and their caregivers firsthand. Mindset Care’s community outreach teams work directly in homeless shelters, corrections facilities, veteran organizations, food drives, and rehab facilities to find and assist eligible applicants. Mindset’s platform utilizes AI to handle operational tasks, streamlining and automating the prequalification of prospective claimants and reducing the time required from weeks to less than an hour. At Science, we remain steadfast in our dedication to supporting companies as they strive to build a brighter tomorrow for society. Organizations like Mindset Care are deploying innovative solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges, and we are honored to be part of their journey. We congratulate the entire Mindset Care team for their dedication and upward momentum. We are thrilled to continue working alongside Mindset Care and uplifting their critical role in addressing America’s mental health crisis. *Fun fact: I connected with Enable Ventures thru the Columbia Business School alum network. Grateful for their support. Link to announcement in comments below. #venturecapital #mentalhealth #digitalhealth #disabilityawareness

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Fundraising founders, don’t be too hard on yourself—it’s a tough fundraising environment, and that’s no secret. But remember to keep raising your standards because the bar for VC funding is getting higher, and you’ve got to meet it. As the venture capital landscape tightens, competition for dollars is fiercer than ever. At Startup Ignition Ventures, we’re seeing this shift firsthand, every day more and more apparent. In 2021 and 2022, many startups could secure VC checks despite being loosely thrown together and rough around the edges. Fast forward to 2024, and those same startups wouldn’t make the cut. That's not a knock on yesterday's startups as much as it is a contrast to today’s fundraising environment being completely different. Today, the founders getting funded are buttoned-up, detail-oriented, and operating at a much higher level. Everything has to be top-notch to catch a VC’s attention. Why the change? The number of active investors has dropped by 38% from 2022 to 2024 (PitchBook), meaning fewer deals are being made. VC funding is also down over 30% year-over-year (GlobalData). This means the standard has tightened, and startups must rise well above the average “2022 or 2023 fundability status” to secure 2024 investment. Startups now need to show exceptional business models, traction, products, and teams to stand out in a shrinking pool of opportunities. The landscape may be tough, but it’s also ripe for startups that prove they’re exceptional. Now is the time to build, to gear up, and then be ready for further opportunity as the market begins to turn. Which I personally think is around the corner in 2025.

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Time to post this again, alas: if you were impacted in today's Google layoffs, and you might like to get involved in climate tech, please reach out. I am happy to advise on ways to find opportunities to put your existing skills to work. Also, next week is #SanFranciscoClimateWeek, so sign up for events to start your job search immediately: https://lu.ma/SFCW2024 Do also check out workonclimate.org, climatedraft.org, and terra.do to see the smorgasbord of climate hiring going on and connect with fellow climateers. And I will repeat myself: a layoff says nothing about you personally, and (the way Google does it) isn't related to performance. It won't be held against you in the job search. As Googlers, you're talented and hardworking and you deserve the great opportunities you're going to find out there. Feel your feelings, by all means, but don't hunker down and hide. REACH OUT. #xooglers #xoogle #googlers #google #layoffs

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*Advisory Board 2.0* - Less equity, more accountability. Increasingly over the past couple of years, I have seen founders who are building a new kind of advisory board. It starts with identifying a group of people who fit three distinct criteria: 1. Expert-level advisors 2. Potential customers 3. Angel investors Ideally, they are all three. These founders are going out and recruiting dozens of advisors and approaching them with a new kind of offering: - Equity in the form of 200 - 5,000 shares per advisor. Relative to the 10-15 million outstanding, that might be 10,000 total shares for the advisory board, or .1% of the company rather than .25-1% for each advisor - Access to WhatsApp or Telegram group with community of their peers - Monthly or quarterly advisory board calls to share product feedback, industry news, company progress, etc - Access to invest in the company, sometimes at a discount to a future round - Kickbacks or referral bonuses in the form of cash or additional equity for referring new customers, employees, or investors - Ability to run a free or discounted proof of concept as a customer Read the rest of the post and examples of how this works in practice on th Is weeks’ Monday Morning Meeting. Link in comments. #founders #vc Antler

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Thought for the day for Investors and Founders. Every startup needs 3 people on the team; Tech visionary, Sales missionary, Product designer. The CEO should be an expert at one of these roles. You might think that a Founder CEO can fill all three roles, but that is rarely the case. You might think the startup can fill those roles later in the evolution. Maybe, but you lose so much time, and risk getting too far off track if you wait. You might think not having deep domain experience in the market they are targeting, isn't important. Thinking smart thoughts, and having a crisp pitch deck is NOT the same as grinding at the problem for years. If you don't see 3 strong people on the team that totally get those 3 roles, and people who have deep domain experience... don't invest.

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When my colleague Jaya Gupta and I first wrote about the service-as-software paradigm shift 6 months ago, we had a few ideas about how this was playing out in the real world. Now, after talking with hundreds of startups and watching their experiments, we’ve outlined a framework that brings service-as-software to life: a System of Agents. What you already knew: AI is turning the traditional SaaS software model on its head. What you probably don’t know is what service-as-software looks like in practice—or which companies are already surging ahead in the space. Agents reshape the core of what makes software valuable: it’s no longer simply a tool for organizing work. It is the worker itself, capable of understanding, executing, and improving upon traditionally human-delivered services. For builders, we've outlined four key considerations for designing agentic systems. And, we’ve chosen a list of the 50 most promising companies building with agents, the System of Agents 50. Our latest blog in the comments 👇

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A System of Agents: Our view on how founders can jump on a $4.6T opportunity. 👇 When Foundation Capital partner Jaya Gupta and I first outlined the Service-as-Software framework months ago, we knew we were describing something transformative. Now, after engaging with hundreds of startups, the potential is even clearer: the way to put Service-as-Software into action is through a System of Agents. Unlike traditional software systems that passively wait for human input, a Systems of Agents approach reimagines how software operates. Groups of cooperating AI agents aren't just tools; they're autonomous workers—capable of capturing, processing, and acting on both structured and unstructured data with unprecedented intelligence. The agents understand context, make decisions, and continuously improve. The initial Service-as-Software shift was significant. But a System of Agents? This is the paradigm shift that will unlock new, previously unimaginable categories of work. Here are four tips for founders building with Systems of Agents: ✔️ Capture data at the source Traditional software relies on human input, but Systems of Agents thrive when they operate directly at the source of data creation. By owning the interface where data originates, you empower your system to orchestrate downstream actions seamlessly. ✔️ Reframe costs as workforce investments When a System of Agents handles an entire job function, think beyond software budgets—classify it as part of a company’s workforce spending. This positions your solution as something that aligns with personnel costs, rather than operational software expenses. ✔️ Expand workstreams with AI’s 24/7 capabilities AI agents never clock out. Builders can use this round-the-clock reliability and scalability to unlock new opportunities—think of offering constant support in healthcare or real-time operations in logistics and customer service. ✔️ Prepare for pricing and business model changes Embrace the shift from seat-based pricing to outcome-driven models. With Service-as-Software and Systems of Agents, your value proposition is tied not to the number of licenses issued but to the measurable outcomes and improvements your AI delivers. Read our full analysis in the comments 👓

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VC funding in healthcare has been more resilient than in other industries. Here are some key takeaways from recent Carta data: 👉 At the priced seed, Series A, and Series B stages, dilution for health startups has noticeably decreased, while dilution for SaaS startups has stayed flat or increased slightly. 👉 In priced seed rounds, median dilution for healthcare companies dipped to 14.2%, compared to 20% for SaaS.  👉 The frequency of bridge rounds surged in the health sector in Q1, jumping to 44.3% from 36.9% in Q4 2023. This is the first significant increase in bridge rounds in healthcare over SaaS since early 2022. 👉 More founder-friendly terms for health startups may result from enduring VC interest since COVID. Healthcare has remained strong through economic turmoil, enabling higher valuations with smaller round sizes. What are the implications? The healthcare sector might see a rise in new ventures due to favorable investment conditions and lower dilution rates. The surge in bridge rounds suggests that certain sectors within healthcare face unique challenges that require interim financing solutions. Founders and investors in the healthcare space- what are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear from you. If you know a founder innovating in healthcare, tag them in the comments! The Artemis Fund is especially interested in groundbreaking care tech companies. You can check out Carta’s full blog linked in the comments. If you haven’t read our latest blog on care tech, you’ll find that there too. #healthcare #caretech #fundraising

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Imagine you’re meeting a VC today and pitching your company. Now, also imagine the VC goes home tonight and tells his or her spouse about the meeting with you. How do you think the VC would (or should) describe your product to the spouse? Remember, this is for someone who doesn’t have any context, and probably doesn’t have time to listen the whole story. If you can think of a story version that's plain and simple -- how you want the VC to describe your product to the spouse -- perhaps that version should be your pitch in the first place?

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3 truths and 1 lie: 1) A former staffer of the San Francisco District Attorney, who was fired due to an inadvertent "Reply all" email asking his boss about her "panties color," is now suing the city for defamation. He asserts that the embarrassing message was sent accidentally, and it was intended for a friend who was grieving the recent loss of his father. 2) Kamala Harris's presidential campaign has set a new record by raising an unprecedented $90 million in just one day. This feat was achieved after President Biden decided not to seek reelection and endorsed Harris as the Dems nominee. It is the largest single-day collection in presidential history. 3) An Ohio woman has admitted to abusing the 911 system by making nearly 400 false emergency calls since 2020. Her repeated calls, often multiple times a day, falsely claimed various illnesses. Why, you ask? "For the thrill of getting countless ambulance rides." 4) According to the announcements made by FinMin Nirmala Sitharaman, the Indian salaried class will now be able to save up to Rs. 17,500 in income tax i.e. up to Rs. 1,450 per month. Second is a partial lie. It is $81 million, and not $90 million. And, you thought 4th is a lie, didn't you? Well, it is not a lie but a joke on you and me! 😑 If you don't want your news to be boring, join this WhatsApp group (only for women): https://lnkd.in/dafpnSgV We pick the most relevant news/content, break it down for your easy consumption and share it at 4 pm IST. #news #community #WhatsApp

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