Warning: "It's just a personal observation/case study. No hate for this or any other startup." Interestingly, nowadays I have been observing one thing: most new startups are pushing more towards marketing than their actual product before and after launch. They are doing lots and lots of marketing to gain first-time consumers or initial sign-ups using investors' money. What I feel is that they do this to show investors they are getting attention to their product, to increase the valuation of their startup, and to get investment again from those or other investors (similar to cases like the new-gen AI startups seen on X, Sugar Cosmetics, Zepto, boAt, etc). This becomes a win-win situation for both the founder and the early investors. If a new investor joins after seeing more revenue (which is obviously generated by burning money on marketing), it increases the valuation and gives an easy exit to the previous investors if they wish. After a point, there will be two situations: 1. The investors will realize that the startup is not making money through profit or innovation because it lacks a strong foundation. Thus, they will not put in more money, the marketing game will stop, and either they will sell the company or the founder will exit (a case like boAt). 2. Once they have raised enough money from investors by forming this loop of doing marketing -> gaining users -> showing it to new investors to raise money -> giving an exit to the earlier ones -> the loop continues.... Eventually, they will go for an IPO, put the whole burden on retail investors (like Lenskart) and take an easy exit. Conclusion: I have been observing the same phenomenon in new-gen AI startups, which heavily rely on giving freebies and pushing aggressive marketing. This is not necessarily wrong; however, it just shows we have forgotten about making a profit and long-term gains. We just want easy money. Even Indian investors are realizing this now, and investment in India is dwindling due to this being one of the factors. Thank you. Again, "Warning: It's just a personal observation/case study. No hate to this or any other startup."

8.5 CGPA 🥹 (Sem 2)

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