Founders at work stories of startups early days pdf

Many once-promising financial startups are cash-strapped; others have broken business models. By Jeff Kauflin & Emily Mason ; Illustration by Matt Chase for Forbes ON November 15, the cofounders of Ribbon Home, a five-year-old financial technology company that promised to fix a “broken” homebuying market by offering buyers the ability to make all-cash offers, sent a cryptic and disconcerting email to its entire staff. “During this time of uncertainty, we ask team members who are not customer- or finance-facing to shift their focus from work to self-care, spending time with family and doing things that bring you comfort,” it read in part. Six days later, New York City-based Ribbon dismissed 85% of its staff—190 people—and cut severance to one week’s pay versus the six weeks employees had been previously promised. Fewer than 30 people remain today, and the company recently announced that it has paused all new business. Ribbon’s days are … [Read more...] about Merge Or Perish: 25 Struggling Fintech Startups

Inside the chaos at Synapse, where questionable management tactics by CEO Sankaet Pathak have left the company with its future in jeopardy. I n July 2019, the 29-year-old CEO of San Francisco financial technology startup Synapse scolded five of his engineers for not making faster progress. “Do you even enjoy this project?” Sankaet Pathak asked. “Not really,” the team’s leader answered. “That’s it, you’re out,” Pathak declared, firing the employee on the spot in front of his colleagues. Synapse’s Human Resources director, Juan Aguayo, confiscated the terminated worker’s key card and computer. But as Aguayo spoke, he received a message on his laptop, and his tone started to change. Minutes later, he said to the engineer, who was now crying, “Don’t worry, you’re not fired.” The dazed, confused employee went back to his desk. Pathak never spoke to him about the incident again, acting like it never happened. The engineer started looking for a new job the following week … [Read more...] about Broken Synapse: Why Employees And Customers Are Fleeing This Andreessen-Backed Fintech Startup

From left: AgniKul Cosmos co-founder and COO Moin SPM and CEO Srinath Ravichandran Agnikul Cosmos, a Chennai-based space tech startup, is planning a full-scale commercial launch of their rocket Agnibaan in March/April 2023, according to co-founder and CEO Srinath Ravichandran. Agnilet, the startup's single-piece 3D-printed engine, was recently successfully tested at the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram. The startup is planning a test launch of its two-stage booster Agnibaan in December 2022. And, based on the findings of the test launch, the startup plans to conduct a commercial launch with customer payloads in March or April 2023, Ravichandran said. "There are a lot of people who have expressed interest to be part of the launch. So I think once our test is done, we will start converting them into like actual contracts," Ravichandran said. Ravichandran and Moin SPM, an operations specialist, founded … [Read more...] about Agnikul Cosmos plans commercial launch of Agnibaan around March 2023

Representative image Fintech industry insiders are standing by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) directive to Google to ban more than 200 lending and betting apps from its play store, saying it's an issue of illegal cross-border data sharing and possible cybersecurity threat. Currently, an updated list of around 58 such apps is out including prominent names such as Kissht, PayU-backed LazyPay, KreditBee, and Ola Avail Finance; which are under review by Google , according to Moneycontrol’s sources. MeitY did this following instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The directive was sent out to internet service providers and app stores on an “urgent” and “emergency” basis on February 5. Also Read: RBI wants IT ministry to ensure only regulated digital lenders on app stores: FinMin These apps weren’t given prior notice and are still awaiting more information from the government bodies on the possible ban. Read More This … [Read more...] about Loan apps ban: Industry insiders call it a good move to remove bad actors

From left: AgniKul Cosmos co-founder and COO Moin SPM and CEO Srinath Ravichandran Agnikul Cosmos, a space technology startup based in Chennai, inaugurated India's first-ever privately designed and operated launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. The facility, designed by Agnikul and built in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), is divided into two sections: the Agnikul launchpad (ALP) and the Agnikul mission control centre (AMCC). They are separated by a distance of 4 kilometres. Agnikul Cosmos mission control The launchpad will support liquid-stage controlled launches and address the need for the ISRO's range operations team to monitor key flight safety parameters during launches. Read More Additionally, it has the ability to share data and other vital information with ISRO's Mission Control Center as required. In December, the … [Read more...] about Agnikul Cosmos inaugurates India’s first private rocket launchpad

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Though TikTok may be receiving a lot of press as of late, steadfast platforms like Instagram still reign supreme, with around 4.25 billion visits per month and 1.39 billion daily global active users alone. This means marketers and social media managers should always be thinking of ways to engage their followers and create meaningful content that will garner attention. But for new businesses especially, gaining traction on social media can be an uphill battle. To help, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council recommend eight tips for increasing engagement on your business’s Instagram and explain why these tactics are so effective no matter how large your following. 1. Define Your Brand Voice And Audience Define your brand voice and target audience before curating your content. Such a proactive approach will allow you to optimize budget usage for social media. Do you want to appeal to college students who are looking … [Read more...] about Eight Tips For Increasing Engagement With Your Business’s Instagram

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Meatable says you can have your steak and eat it, guilt free, as its cultured meat is set to hit restaurants next year. Americans love hot dogs. 20 billion of them are guzzled each year in the US. And that’s just a tiny fragment of the 350 million tons of meat gobbled up globally. “People love meat,” says Krijn De Nood, CEO of Dutch cellular agriculture start-up Meatable . “It’s a fantastic product. It’s high in protein. But it’s completely ruining our planet.” Better meat The world’s appetite for meat has tripled in the last fifty years . No wonder. It’s tasty. It’s packed with protein, vitamins and minerals. It’s an indispensable ingredient for many. But it comes with huge costs. Farmed animals, which outnumber humans, contribute most of the greenhouse gas emissions due to agriculture. Antibiotic resistance and diseases associated with livestock farming pose grave threats to human health. Of … [Read more...] about Eat A Hot Dog, Save The World.

The new chat-engine wars are underway, with Microsoft announcing its long-awaited integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot into Bing while Google published a blog post about its own chatbot for search, called Bard. Here’s something you don’t see every day: Microsoft Corp. is serving up a snazzy web search tool. And Google, whose search page has barely changed in 24 years, is also racing to launch a just-as-cool revamped tool in the next few weeks. It seems that officially, the new chat-engine wars are underway, with Microsoft on Tuesday announcing its long-awaited integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot into Bing and calling it a “copilot for the web.” Google published a blog post hours earlier about its own chatbot for search, called Bard. For Google in particular, it could be the riskiest strategic move it has made in years, a metaphorical leap off the couch that the company has been relaxing on for far too long. Update : Google is already grappling with chatbot accuracy problems … [Read more...] about Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Maybe: The great AI chatbot race

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK 2021: The Year of Value Chain Disruption I’ve never been a big fan of “Year of the [fill-in-the-blank]” proclamations. Google the term “year of the customer” and you’ll find that every year for the past 15 years has been heralded as the year of the customer. Hey, one year it might just really happen. And past claims of “disruption” in financial services have centered on changes at the customer interaction level—i.e., digital account applications, user interfaces, etc. That didn’t really result in much true disruption because there is a whole value chain of activities that occur leading up to the point of customer interaction—and little of that has changed to date. Changes (or disruptions) to the value chain have certainly been in the works for a while now, but 2021 is going to shine a much brighter spotlight on those activities—making 2021 the year of value chain … [Read more...] about Top 5 Banking And Fintech Trends For 2021