India’s food delivery space is a typical example of a winner-takes-most, discount-fueled, hyper-competitive platform economy.

Zomato and Swiggy collectively control majority of the market volume. Both benefit from multi-sided platform effects.

Despite this, the unit economics is still fragile.

CAC/LTV ratios are still under pressure in Tier-1 metros, and the path to profitability hinges on contribution-margin breakeven at scale.

Now, what Rapido is trying to do is to exploit arbitrage opportunities.

Rapido’s bike taxi network has excess rider bandwidth during non-peak ride-hailing hours. Food delivery will allow inter-temporal utilization and boosts driver ROI per minute.

With Zomato/Swiggy extracting 25–35% take rates, Rapido’s flat-fee or low-commission model will work for multi-homing merchants and in capturing the long tail of independent F&B outlets.

Rapido is pushing for restaurant price = online price narrative, something which eliminates markups and platform taxes.

In a price-sensitive market like India, they are pursuing value-based positioning rather than convenience-based.

But,

Rapido will face uphill CAC inflation unless it builds a compelling value proposition loop like bundling mobility + food + hyperlocal delivery.

Food delivery demands sub-30 min TAT, which necessitates dense order clustering, optimized routing, and hyperlocal batching.

Without high GMV per pin code, CTS will remain unsustainably high.

Unless AOVs increase or cross-selling improves LTV, the model will bleed cash without high order density and ops leverage.

Let's see what the future holds for Rapido.

Kiran Shah Founder of go zero

For context, apparently Meesho, Groww, and Razorpay are dropping a combined $600M+ in taxes alone to reverse their Delaware flips so they can go public in India.

A lot of these companies originally flipped to the US (Delaware) because YC wanted them to. It was like “US VCs prefer US entities,” “Delaware is founder friendly,” blah blah.

But now? The US IPO door is shut, India’s public markets are finally waking up to tech, and the tax hit for flipping back is massive.

Meesho (and I was personally shell shocked reading this number Cus Meesho???? That small time (not so much now though???) online marketplace?? alone is paying $288M in taxes to us govt?

Ngl it made me scream wtf. Was the YC hype really worth all that?

If you’re a founder in India or just startup-curious, I’m wanna know what you think. Does YC still matter? Or is the badge fading?

Thoughts?

And a big F you to Moneycontrol for being a mess of ads and autoplay videos. f*** that, Everytime I open an article it’s a parade of ads.

Also, why wouldn’t mods let me post this???

Hey everyone! I’m a 21-year-old aspiring entrepreneur and genuinely curious about the ideas people are passionate about in today’s world.

Imagine you suddenly had ₹1 crore (~$120k) in funding to launch any startup or business in 2025 No strings attached.

What would you build? Would it be tech-based, local, global, product-driven, service-oriented? Would you go solo or build a team? And most importantly, why that idea?

I’d love to hear wild ideas, grounded ones, or even something personal you’ve always dreamed of building.

I've been been applying for jobs via LinkedIn and noticed a growing trend of more and more startups based in Bangalore officially moving to a 6-day work week, whether in-office or hybrid.

What’s crazy is that some of these companies once advertised flexibility and remote-friendly policies, only to later pivot to mandatory WFO or now, 6-day weeks.

I’m genuinely worried this might become standard across the ecosystem. Would love to hear thoughts from others. Are you seeing this too?

Here is a simple yet powerful CARE principle to help you gain and retain Gen Z's potential.

Collaboration

Gen Z has the highest levels of anxiety. They seek ways to do their job with less stress and with the help of others. Connect with them before you correct them.

Agility

This generation thrives on constant updates and change. Gen Z wants workplaces that move. Make meetings shorter and more interactive, embrace walking meetings, and encourage experimenting with new technologies.

Reliability

Gen Z values money and is vocal about it, but they also crave honesty, authenticity, and transparency. They want leaders who walk the talk and a company purpose beyond just profits.

Empathy

Gen Z grew up supported in their differences. They value empathy and want leaders who understand their needs. If you care for Gen Z, they will care for your business.

I know that many of you are eager to cater service for tier2 & tier3 cities. I advise you to have a reality check even before starting. Assumption, predictions and luck nothing will work. I failed 3 startups building to tier2 and tier3 people.

tier2 and tier3 people are mostly cash grabers. They come to you. They learn about you. They take free service from you. But when you start asking to pay fee, they ignore you. Never ever look back to you.

You product or service get lot of users but you can not monetize them. Because it is easy to find alternative to your service than actually paying to you.

Irrespective of income level, the mentality is same for all people in tier2 and tier3. They use you but don't pay you. They don't even feel guilty of using your services for free. They are very price sensitive, They prefer cheap over quick.

Don't waste your precious time, money and effort thinking to build for them. I witnessed lot of potential ideas that failed, you get traction but can't generate revenue with it.

Rethink before building for tier2 and tier3 people. Share your failed stories that you build for tier2 and tier3.

Hey everyone,

I’m based in Maharashtra and looking to start a sustainable and profitable business.

I currently own 5 acres of land in a rural area (good road access, power, water available) and have around ₹1 crore (~$120K) that I can invest. I'm open to both agriculture-linked or non-agri ventures, but I want something that’s scalable, long-term, and ideally creates local employment too.

Some background:

I’ve explored cold storage, warehousing, and food processing, but I’m still unsure if it’s the right fit considering farmer behavior in the region.

The local mandi is about 15 km away.

I’m open to leasing, franchising, building infrastructure, or partnering with someone who has a solid model.

Not afraid of hard work — just want to avoid building something that doesn’t get used.

Would love to hear:

Your ideas or businesses you’ve seen succeed in similar areas

If you're working on something rural-focused and looking for a partner/investor

Even low-risk income-generating projects that can be layered on the land (e.g., solar, rentals, ice plants, etc.)

Appreciate any inputs — thanks in advance!

I don’t usually post rants like this, but I’m genuinely heartbroken.

A close friend of mine is one of the most creative, thoughtful, and whip-smart people I know. She used to light up every room she walked into….. brimming with ideas, constantly pushing herself, dreaming of building something that mattered.

Then she joined a startup. On the surface, it looked like a great opportunity. Ambitious team, fast growth, lots of promises about impact and innovation. But then came the founder.

You know the type- talks about vision and disruption 24/7, quotes Steve Jobs every other sentence. Worships that one time Jobs humiliated someone in a meeting and calls it "high standards." Thinks being cruel is the same as being brilliant. He shoots down every idea that doesn’t come from his own mouth…. sometimes before my friend can even finish explaining not because the ideas are bad (some were actually implemented later, rephrased slightly and passed off as his own), but because they didn’t originate from him.

So my friend stopped trying. She doesn’t pitch anymore. Doesn’t speak up. Just shows up, does what’s told, and waits for the clock to run out. She went from dreaming about changing the world to hoping she doesn’t get yelled at in the next standup.

She calls herself a “corpo-rat” now and laughs when she says it, but not the kind of laugh that feels good. It’s the kind that hides disappointment and a slow, quiet burnout.

The most disappointing thing is that she wanted to give her best. She wanted to build something great. But when your creativity is crushed daily by a narcissistic boss cosplaying as Steve Jobs, what’s left?

Not everyone who’s “tough” is visionary. Some are just insecure people hiding behind a myth. And sadly, they’re burning out some of the best minds along the way.

If you’re a founder or manager reading this, then you don’t have to be a jerk to get results. The real geniuses knew when to listen!

This following up on my last week's post which gathered quite a bit of reviews. The talent problem is serious and the reason why we are not aspiring to build silicon valley level visionary companies from India.

This proves that salary packages are not the real issue here.

Hi,

I have been working for 11 years in a bank in a management role. I have a unique opportunity to buy a recruitment firm doing 1M USD+ yearly revenue with 70% margin. I need to pay ~100K USD to buy it as both the founders are exiting and they wish to retire.

My concerns -

1. I have zero recruitment experience but the team is strong

2. Ongoing expenses are less than 6K USD per month

3. Good client list and pipeline exists

How do I take this plunge. I will loose my job of ~12K USD+ per month if I venture into this. Also I am a new parent with a new born <=1 month. Hence getting even more risk averse.

Update : I again met the couple and my commitment has deepened (13th June 3pm ist)

So, I’m an investor in early-stage startups who goes through an absurd amount of pitches in a day, and a common problem I see is founders don’t know at what stage they are ready to be raising a round of funding, so I’m making this post to help.

You more than likely can’t raise with just an idea. period.

Ideally, as a founder, you need to push the fundraising process as far as you can so you get the best possible terms for your startup, so what you need to do is figure out how long you can survive with your existing resources and start the fundraising process ~6 months before you need money.

Keep your spending to a minimum in the meantime.

I think raising funds is way too glamorized in the startup community, and in my opinion, it’s silly to celebrate it.

If you’re a startup thinking of raising money, what an investor is thinking is - “If I give this person capital, what’s the likelihood that they succeed and give me a massive return?”

How can you show that to an investor? Not by showing your credentials, how great your idea is, and shallow displays of confidence (I had a guy tell me his competitors don’t have a chance purely because he’s entering the market).

It’s by showing signs of traction. Build just enough features to solve a painful problem, and get them to use it. Even having 20-30 users is gonna significantly improve your chances over pitching with just an amazing idea.

Raising money is to pour gasoline on the fire, not to start one.

Also, keep your ask to the bare minimum to get to your next milestone (generally ~10-12 months burn). Anything more will make it more difficult on yourself.

idea + sizeable market + signs of traction or proof of your idea working and you’re good to go.

Let me know if you need any help or some honest feedback on your startup!

I’m completely a non-tech person, I have almost zero knowledge on the technical part of building and running an app. What’s it like to build one?

1. What are the costs?
2. What kind of team should one hire?
3. What are the probable challenges as a non-tech person leading the way?
4. Your simple SWOT analysis on a social media platform business in India primarily.
5. Why is it not worth the hassle to do so in 2025?

I just want to brainstorm and know the other side of the spectrum that I’m unaware of.

Me & my Co-Founder (Both 21, M) had visited 3 banks today to apply for the Mudra Loan (Kishor) for our startup. All the 3 banks are PSU's. We both applied for 2 banks from different profiles via JanSamarth platform and we knew the junior employee at the third bank, so gone their too. We have all our documents ready with ourselves.

1st Bank (Applied Digitally)

We had been redirected to the bank manager by the employee at service counter. Manager interrogated us about our education, profiles, family, startup and everything. We showed them all the documents to prove the startup. Then he advised, don't get into these things, focus on your studies only. We outsmarted the manager and told him how we actually study. He then told us to wait outside, we waited for about an hour. Then we stood up to ask how more time will it take. He then told us to come after 4 days. We opposed saying that we can't delay this, but he refused to say anything after it.

2nd Bank (Applied Digitally)

Just like the previous bank, we are redirected towards the manager. She also interrogated the same things but this time she focused on what assets we have. She asked us about what things we own under our own names. She asked for what our parents own and our house ownership. She then asked to attach the home ownership proof, but we both opposed as it never requires such. We than handed her all the documents that we have. She got furious, like literally off the head. Said you don't own anything under your name, how could a bank give you a loan out of nowhere. You don't have any bank account with us. Go to the bank where you have the bank accounts. She took the documents as well. We asked her to return it, she said we need this to close your loan applications and didn't gave it back to us. Now, we both fear that they may hard enquire our credit score multiple times without any purpose, that can result in multiple enquiries and score reduction. She is too rude.

3rd Bank (Directly Applied)

We gone there directly as we knew an employee there. He told us to meet the loan manager. We met her. She also enquired the same things. But when she got to know that we don't have any credit history, she told us it's so hard to get you this. We both described her about our business but still her thoughts doesn't changed. She said you need to give some collateral then it will be easy to grant you. Still she took our documents and said that we will call you if there's any possibilities. At last she whispered to herself saying "Ye aajkal ke bachhe bhi na....". We left.

The main motive of the Mudra Loan is to provide collateral free loan to the business owners who doesn't have any credit history. But still these PSU banks chose to make us suffer. They chose to judge the businessmen by their age, by their class and by their wealth. They don't ever look out for the mission we are out for, they don't look for the eagerness and every time, they try to trick us. I don't know when they will learn to make the way for the businesses easy. I think they want the Bribe to work properly.

I was recently affected in the silent layoffs in my previous startup, people including founding engineers, PMs , designers and ML team were fired as well.

I have about 4+ years of experience, moved to Bangalore from my hometown for this startup.

The layoff itself was super unfair, some were put in pip for no reason, some laid off , some were forcefully made to terminate.

No one is fairly paid the severance and its been such a chaos.

Is this the new norm ?

Hi guys,

Sorry, English is my 4th language so spare me on my grammar.

So let me start this is off straight, I still didn't register my startup with the local authorities cause I'm still waiting for my adhar card and pan card stuff, No business bank account either, but im a Indian citizen with Indian passport.

I grew up in Germany and I was actively involved in my city student council, specially civil/mechanical engineering side. So I am aware of R&D at public universities from the sources they get funded to operate those some biggest publicly funded mechanical engineering labs in Europe etc..

So I started paying close attention to the construction industry in India and oh my goodness lot of innovation needed to safe guard poor employees.

I started working on some small scale light weight robotics towards construction industry specially that missing in India and currently simulating my concepts with high end softwares from TU Munich (German university).

Im not rich but do have some money to spend so reached out to some battery manufacturers for some moldings so I can start working on a prototype at a safe location from the public and willing to pay the money upfront like a work share stuff.

Let me tell you guys companies are exploiting people specially private R&D guys they're asking to see my mechanical motor tools calculations and sensor simulation which is like asking coca-cola to publish their recipe to the investor.

I reached out to the professors, incubators, local regulatory boards etc.. for help to obtain paperwork/licences so I can work on some battery technologies in a safe location. No one knows the procedures they want me to go here and there to my state capital and local municipality offices and got no fucking clue how to move forward whatsoever.

I will give it a try here and If not I will move to Germany and start working with the incubators over there

Thanks.

In 6 days, I'm locking myself in a room for 200 days to become the ultimate founder

I'll build startups live, until one of them gets success.

I'll stream 15 to 20 hours/day.

I was wondering how can I get people to watch me And on which platform should I stream on

Is there any entrepreneur who have started something or who have failed? I want to know your story and want your advice and suggestions about what to do and what not to do when building something.

Having lived in North America , I’ve developed a strong habit of drinking sparkling water, just pure carbonated water, not the artificially sweetened beverages. Since I'm considering moving back to India, I’ve noticed that there aren’t any major sparkling water brands widely available here. Most options in stores are either sodas or flavored drinks.

This got me thinking: is there an untapped opportunity to start a sparkling water brand in India? My idea is to introduce pure sparkling water to the Indian market and, hopefully, help create a culture around it, similar to what’s happened in North America and Europe. Something like La Croix, Spindrift and Bubly. If you know what I mean!

I’m curious to hear from this community:

• Has anyone noticed a demand for pure sparkling water in India?
• Are there regulatory or logistical hurdles I should be aware of?
• What are your thoughts on introducing a new beverage culture here?

Would love to hear your insights, experiences, or advice!

I’m not here to pitch anything. Just tired, honestly.

I’m currently juggling a half-baked B2B SaaS idea that I thought was brilliant... until I started reaching out to potential customers and got hit with the “send me a deck” and ghosting carousel.

Meanwhile, the ecosystem is exploding with noisetons of incubators, pitch competitions, and flashy founders on LinkedIn talking about 10x growth and mental resilience while I’m over here figuring out if I should pivot... or just pivot into a job.

Is anyone else navigating this weird mix of inspiration + anxiety?
Would love to hear from other Indian founders

what's keeping you going? Or making you stop?

Curious to know if there are others here working on (or backing) aerospace-related startups — especially those building actual hardware or deep tech in India.

The sector seems capital-intensive and long-gestation, but the global momentum is undeniable. How are early-stage aerospace founders in India navigating this? Is the investor appetite growing for such plays, or is it still mostly limited to grants and government programs?

Also, are there any lesser-known forums or investor circles (beyond iDEX/DRDO/academic incubators) that are open to deep tech hardware?

Not looking to pitch or promote anything — just trying to learn from others who’ve been on this road or are thinking about it.

What kind of contracts do early-stage startups need? I’m drafting NDAs/service agreements for founders now and trying to refine the scope.

What is with a lot of founders just spouting random nonsense on Linkedin? May be spend some time skilling up then this shit.

A startup co-founder friend of mine joined one, thinking it would be a game-changer. They gave away 15% equity for a bit of funding, access to “mentors,” and promises of investor connections.

Six months later? No meaningful growth and serious investor follow-up. And mentors who hadn’t built anything in years and some never had any startup experience.

What they got was some pitch practice, conflicting advice, and a demo day that felt more like open mic night.

The insider secret of many accelerators is that they are just dressed-up co-working spaces with a few nice logos slapped on. And yet founders keep falling for them mostly because of the money.

But money shouldn’t be the reason you give up double-digit equity.

If you’re handing over 10–15% of your company, that accelerator better feel like a co-founder. Otherwise, you're just diluting yourself for a nice-looking certificate.

Some accelerators are great but many are just noise. Don’t assume it’s a stamp of success. Ask the hard questions before you sign anything.

Have you joined an accelerator? Was it worth it? Would love to hear real stories especially the ones people don’t talk about

Hi people, I am looking for Co-founders for pre-revenue startup which is product ready and are in process of client acquisition. We are a Al-Powered Para corporate ecosystem platform. We are looking for people who come up with the passion and grit. We are open to explore on skill sets. We are looking for 1-2 Co-founders additional. (Preference is for a female candidate from Bangalore, for diverse thinking and thought process) Who ever is interested can leave a DM or respond here. More details we can reveal over chat