Stripe offered to acquire us for $1.2 billion when we had $2M in revenue.
Today, we've raised $330M at an $8B valuation and reached $1B ARR.
We could've died three times during this journey.
This is the story I've never told anyone before:
Did you know that until 2022 any installed app on Android could see all other apps on your phone without permission? Now, devs need to declare which apps they need visibility to in AndroidManifest.xml
I was curious to see which Indian apps were spying on my installed apps 👇
Sudha Murthy Ji's first speech in the Rajya Sabha House. Such Humility, Clarity & Track Record.
We need more representations like her in Bharat 🔥🔥
Watch & Share Widely. She is an Inspiration for all of us.
#FI
2023: My Read of the Top 10 Trends
1) Year of net job losses in the Tech and Startup industry
After a massive indulgence in hiring in 2021-22, almost all tech players and startups downsized. These layoffs started with Facebook and ended with Paytm. There is some more pain yet to come.
2) Year of Generative AI
Open AI became mainstream despite its board room theatrics. Nvidia became a Trillion $ company while Open AI is looking to do a new funding round at $100B.
We are in the era of AI and AI is eating the world.
3) IPOs:
Successful IPO of MamaEarth has spread cheer and hope amongst many in the pipeline. Hammered tech stocks like Zomato bounced back in 2023.
4) Profits over Growth:
A New Paradigm has emerged in the startup ecosystem. Almost all Startups put the brakes on growth and focused on profitability.
5) Ukraine —> Gaza
War action moved from Ukraine to Gaza…humanity reached a new low and faces extreme polarization.
Oil and Food prices remained high through out the year as a result of these two wars.
6) Year of Political consolidation for BJP in India
Despite winning Karnataka, Telangana, & HP, Congress doesn’t feel like a strong challenge to BJP in 2024, which gained Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and MP.
7) Interest Rates have peaked globally and it seems that these will move downwards from this historic peak.
This has created a late burst in stock markets.
8) Pollution Peak
Almost whole of North India is now in the severe grip of endemic pollution…Govts in various states and centre continue to bicker while masses continue to suffer endlessly.
9) Big Sports is Big Business
Despite winning 10 straight games in the Cricket World Cup, Indian team faltered in the finals. IPL reached new heights in team and players valuations.
Soccer World Cup: Argentina won the World Cup and the legend of Messi grew multifold.
Saudi Arabia launched its own soccer league and has poured billions to attracting mega stars (like Ronaldo) from major European soccer leagues.
10) US, China and India
Dollar continues to be the global currency of trade and business. There is no competition in sight despite some noises made in 2023 by China and Russia.
2nd placed Chinese economy slowed down its growth, while 5th place Indian economy has grown strongly.
Razorpay has now received the final authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India @RBI to operate as a Payment Aggregator (PA) under the Payment Settlements Act, 2007. ✅
We are delighted to be one of the first Payment Gateways to have received the final PA license from RBI! 🚀
If you are a Software or Systems Engineer looking to advance in your career, here are 13 newsletters you must start reading during the holidays.
1) System Design Newsletter by @systemdesign42 - Complex systems very easily explained.
https://t.co/xywxJI9rjY
2) ByteSizeDesgn by @alexcancode - Great resource for learning how Big Tech companies operate.
https://t.co/p02QV58rJM
3) The Developing Dev by @ryanlpeterman - Fills the gaps for engineers who don’t have dedicated mentorship.
https://t.co/bz8kBh8JNq
4) Techlead Mentor by Raviraj Achar - Stories and learnings by a Meta Staff Engineer
https://t.co/B4aCPKs4xB
5) Tech World With Milan by @milan_milanovic - Technical deep dives and leadership
https://t.co/qdJZlWqrga
6) Refactoring by @lucaronin - From software development to working with people, all explained in a easily digestible way.
https://t.co/lDs5c8pB8F
7) The Caring Techie by @ironmissy - Many great articles about Tech Leadership and leading with empathy and care
https://t.co/Mwk3U7Arg9
8) Coding Challenges by @johncrickett - The name says everything.
https://t.co/zFog8nctfD
9) Engineering Leadership by @gregorojstersek - All things Engineering Leadership related.
https://t.co/FvacvkLz2M
10) High Growth Engineer by Jordan Cutler - Actionable advice for software engineers to grow faster in their careers.
https://t.co/KLq2BRUVvD
11) Creator Economy by @petergyang - Not strictly focused on engineering, but it teaches you to adopt a product-minded approach.
https://t.co/6p5joVEWys
12) The Pragmatic Engineer by @GergelyOrosz - Not much to say here: it's easily one of the most well-known and best-written engineering newsletters.
https://t.co/wI2QuM9u1g
13) Alex Ewerlöf Notes by @alexewerlof - Technical leadership, SRE and much more.
https://t.co/szREsmx3yL
You can also consider subscribing to 'The Hybrid Hacker,' my newsletter about Engineering Management/Leadership, Career Growth, and Productivity. 👇
🤓 https://t.co/XI1fju2knb
Two days ago, one of the greatest Indians in the history of India, passed away.
And most of us didn't notice. Which is very sad.
Because this guy is the greatest, not only in India from 1947 but our whole 5000 year old civilization
He is MS Swaminathan.
And this is his story
Your bank will now have to pay you ₹5,000 daily, if it fails to return your property documents on time after you've settled your loan completely.
For better service after closing your loan,
RBI has released this note for banks🧵
Accenture, TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Tech M are the companies which helped thousands of Indians prepare for better jobs and gave them chance to stay in a Metro city so that they could move out of from their small town, and reap the benefit of big metro city opportunities.
Those 3.00 Lakhs you got as a starter salary has great potential to grow and compounded to 10x to 100x in coming years but yes— in current cost of living this is peanuts 🥜 I’ve seen some of them have raised their salaries for freshers but looks like Tech M is yet to take action here!
And keep this in mind “beggars can’t be choosers” IMHO— if you don’t have other choices just take it and build your career from scratch with this opportunity!.
I started my career with 3.00 Lakhs with Accenture and always grateful to that off campus placement.
My Path as a Developer:
- B-Tech From Tier 3 College No placement.
- Went to Chennai and Started coding in Cobol.
- Landed an off-campus job for $300/month in 2010.
- Worked hard, Get an A+ rating many times, get promoted to team lead, and waited for H1B American Dream.🤦♂️
- Moved to Pune and Joined a Startup.
- Left in 8 months and Joined a UK bank for $3350/month.
- Worked hard in React, and JavaScript and understand why writing is important for software engineers and engineering managers.
- Build 4 products and 2 communities along with 9-5: All failed but gave me many lifetime learning.
- Moved to Sweden as a consultant for $9000/month.
- Started blogging and wrote 2 books and 200+ blogs in the last 3 years.
- Earned $100k+ as an independent writing consultant in the last 3 years along with a quarter-time role.
- Registered a company and working as an independent consultant and placing small bets in writing, tech and real estate.
Life is more random than it seems. Act accordingly.
Just like I'm figuring life, you'll do.
Keep shooting.
1/7 Introducing 🌟 AI Sex Expert 🌟 by @allohealth_care . We've combined state-of-the-art AI with medically vetted content to provide a safe space for your questions.
Explore now: https://t.co/elRISHO0tk
India has ₹35,000 crores as unclaimed bank deposits.
To solve this problem,
RBI has launched its UDGAM portal where you can find your unclaimed deposits.
Short thread on how this works 🧵
Today we look at the costs of caring for elderly parents at home - a rapidly growing need for many Indian families.
4 things you should do, NOW.
1) Set aside money. If your parents have it, ensure you can access it in an emergency (See infographic on what people are spending).
2) Get a family floater policy that covers your parents. This will take care of hospitalization, but not generally outpatient treatment or home care.
3) Collect info on nurses, home care providers (see infographic).
4) Mentally prepare yourself to give time and take a break from your career.
A generation of Indians has moved abroad or to another city, with nobody to look after ageing parents. If you cannot give the time, there are good quality senior living facilities, which we have covered separately. https://t.co/WGJyBh9wP4
Full story by @Shiprasorout here: https://t.co/PamnwJ5nIO
Lately, tech twitters been depressing.
- bad job market
- layoffs
- engineers applying & not hearing back
- talk of things improving only in 2024
- even good brands like Dunzo struggling
Figured I'll share internal 📊 to cover the state of India tech hiring and add perspective
Did you know just how tax efficient #NPS is? Deduction on contribution, tax-free return and 60% tax free on withdrawal. No tax on rebalancing. Even if you consider the 40% taxable corpus (for annuity), the blended rate is lower!