[NP] How many of you work in startups in India and how many of you love/hate it and why?

I made a career out of working in startups. 15 years and still going strong.

The web was still new back then, but the chutiyapa was still the same - get visitors without really having any clear idea on how to monetize them. So we spent 2 years and some making a website showcasing Flash animations and games. The business plan was that somebody would be interested in buying the company because visitors and ad potential. So the directors had planned an exit before the product even got off the ground. No wonder the staff was demotivated and potential buyers skeptical. The company stopped its regular consultation to divert more manpower to the website. No surprise that it shut down a few months after.

The consultancy as a primary business model was prevalant at almost all places except two. Another one I spent 3 years with took up contract work from a US telecoms major. Half the team worked on that project. The other half was divided into several teams looking at different product ideas - medical, news, social networks and accessibility. After the 2008 crash, the contract with the telecoms giant was not renewed and cash flow stopped. The owner was close to retiring any way, so he ate the losses and shut all operations. Lives comfortably in a retirement commune with his family. This was the most fun place to work at because I got to deal with fancy telecom hardware and be an all-round geek. If given a choice, I'd still be working there.

A more recent company was working on software to print books. In 2015. That couldn't publish PDF. I repeat, they were building a printing software that couldn't publish PDF in 2015. They're still struggling at completing the product.

I'm not waiting for a big break as an employee. I never take ESOPs because duh! Gimme cash now rather than promises of future riches. And I haven't been wrong in so many years. Very few companies actually turn into something big. I'll happily take a slightly lesser pay for the joy of working on pure engineering projects. If I do end up missing the gravy train on another Flipkart or BookMyShow because of my conservative nature, so be it. I'll at least have shared the joy of doing something big.

/r/india Thread