Startups Talk India

He once stood on the streets with a humble table, trying to sell smartphones that nobody had heard of. No crowd, no buzz, no media. Just a man with a vision and a product he truly believed in. Lei Jun didn’t come from a family of billionaires. He didn’t have celebrity endorsements or viral campaigns. What he had was faith—in his idea, in his team, and in the power of persistence. Fast forward to today, and that same man walks into arenas packed with people chanting his name. Flashlights everywhere, fans chasing him for pictures, and the world watching what Xiaomi will do next. He didn’t just build a tech brand—he built a movement. A brand that became a part of people’s lives. Affordable, reliable, and rooted in value. The same streets that once ignored him now celebrate him. This is more than a success story. It’s a reminder that dreams don’t need permission. That starting small doesn’t mean thinking small. That belief, backed with relentless effort, can move mountains. If Lei Jun can go from street stalls to global stages, maybe it’s time we stop doubting our day ones—and start building towards our day hundreds. #reels #startups #business #entrepreneurs #xiaomi #smartphone #tech #ai #nothing #china #explorepage #trending #viral #motivation #success

A software engineer on Reddit recently shared a post about a job offer he received from a Fintech startup in Germany and another one from an Indian company. The Indian company offered him 45 LPA while the German startup offered him 80,000 euros per year. The user then was seeking feedback from Reddit based on his 8 year work experience and why would the relocation might make sense or is it better off to stay in India with 45 LPA salary. What are your views on this?

A social media post has sparked widespread debate online regarding job safety in the country. The post by Venkatesh Alla, which has gone viral on X, shares the story of a high-earning Bengaluru techie who was laid off from a leading tech company recently. The techie, identified as Salim in the post, held a job with a salary of Rs 43.5 lakh per annum. The post talks about the tough situation faced by the top-performing engineer from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) who had paid over Rs 30 lakh in income tax over five years. According to the X post, Salim was laid off last month with only three months' severance pay. He is now unemployed and relies on his severance pay and savings to pay for his children's education, which costs Rs 1.95 lakh per child per year. “Last year alone, he paid ₹11.22 lakhs in income tax. In just 5 years, over ₹30 lakhs gone into the system, and in return, he got zero support. No safety net. No job security. No respect for his contribution,” the post by Alla read. His post further mentioned that the techie had fallen into depression, saying he felt “abandoned from every direction.” “The same government he paid lakhs to in taxes betrayed him the moment he needed it most. He asked me to keep his identity anonymous, so I’m just sharing his initial, Mr. Salim,” the post added. In conclusion, the X user highlighted the lack of any framework by the government for the job security of private sector employees, writing, "This is what happens to genuine taxpayers in India. You pay. You comply. You contribute. And when you're in crisis, you're on your own. This country desperately needs to change. Because, right now, it's failing the very people who carry it forward." Source: NDTV Profit #reels #startups #business #entrepreneurs #motivation #jobs #bengaluru #employees #market #culture #explorepage #trending #tech #ai

After successfully building and selling Scapic, an AI/AR startup, to Flipkart and then leading deep-tech innovation at Flipkart Labs, entrepreneurs Sai Krishna V K and Ajay P V have now launched their next big venture: ShopOS, an AI-native operating system for e-commerce. And they’ve just raised a massive $20 million in funding, led by Binny Bansal, the legendary cofounder of Flipkart himself. For Binny, this is more than just an investment, it's a vote of confidence in a new vision for commerce, powered not by dashboards and manual inputs, but by autonomous AI agents. ShopOS is an operating system that aims to replace the slow, repetitive, manual tasks of running an online store, from writing product descriptions and running marketing campaigns to creating personalized shopping experiences, with intelligent AI agents that do it all. Automatically. In real time. This isn’t just another startup. This is a potential inflection point for global e-commerce. Binny built Flipkart. Now he's betting big on the next era of commerce, and it’s AI-native.

India’s middle class isn’t shrinking—it’s splitting. And in the blunt words of tech founder Shyam Achuthan, the divide is no longer between rich and poor, but between those who fake wealth and those quietly building it. In a LinkedIn post that’s ricocheted across social feeds, Achuthan lays out a brutal diagnosis of the Indian middle class. What once was the backbone of society—“hardworking families with steady jobs, two-wheelers turning into cars, annual vacations, and dreams of owning a home”—is now teetering on a knife edge. “Today, the middle class is on a dangerous path—one that leads either to wealth or worry. There’s no middle ground anymore,” he writes. At the heart of his argument: financial self-delusion. Achuthan paints a picture of a generation prioritizing optics over ownership. “From EMI-loaded iPhones to overpriced brunches, today’s middle class is desperate to look rich, not be rich,” he says. He breaks it down ruthlessly: a ₹50K monthly salary eaten up by ₹20K rent, ₹10K EMIs, ₹5K in weekend splurges—and barely ₹1K left, if any, for actual investments. “This is financial suicide dressed up as ‘living your best life.’ They’re borrowing their future to flex in the present. Instagram aesthetics over actual assets.” But not all is lost. A “smart few,” he notes, are playing a longer, quieter game. “They skip the lavish weddings. They drive used cars or take the metro. They live below their means. They invest early and consistently.” They may not look the part now, but in a decade, Achuthan says, “they’ll own what others are still renting.” His post takes a darker turn with a harsh truth: “You can’t fake wealth forever.” With inflation rising, job security eroding, and AI eating into traditional roles, he warns the middle class to pick a side: “Act rich and become poor, or act poor and become rich.” He ends with a prescription—track every rupee, invest 20–30% of income, build assets, and learn how money works. “Your decisions today decide which side you’ll be on tomorrow.” Source: Business Today

MS Dhoni's application to trademark the phrase 'Captain Cool' - a moniker long associated with him because of his calm on-field demeanour - has been officially accepted and published by the Trademark Registry of India. The trademark will be granted if no objection or opposition is raised by any third party within 120 days of its acceptance, which was on June 16, 2025. The trademark was filed under categories related to sports training, coaching, and the provision of sports training facilities and services. Dhoni had filed the application in June 2023. He was informed at the time by the registry that another company, Prabha Skill Sports (OPC) Private Limited, had already registered the trademark 'Captain Cool'. In response, Dhoni filed a rectification petition for the cited mark, alleging that the company was attempting to exploit his brand and the popularity of the term. In his application, Dhoni stated: "This is a case of bad faith registration on the part of the company, aimed at deceiving the public and unlawfully enriching themselves by trading on the name of a well-known individual." Dhoni's application was accepted after at least four hearings. Dhoni was last seen in action during IPL 2025, where he took over the Chennai Super Kings' captaincy midway through the season after Ruturaj Gaikwad suffered an injury. CSK endured a disappointing campaign, finishing at the bottom of the table for the first time in 16 seasons. Earlier this month, Dhoni was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. "It is an honour to be named in the ICC Hall of Fame, which recognises the contributions of cricketers across generations and from all over the world," Dhoni said in a statement. "To have your name remembered alongside such all-time greats is a wonderful feeling. It is something that I will cherish forever." Dhoni, who will turn 44 this July, has kept his options open with regard to returning for another IPL season. Source: ESPNCricinfo

A 32-year-old software engineer from Bengaluru fell victim to a major cyber scam after connecting with a woman on a matrimonial website. The fraud cost him a total of Rs 79.3 lakh, according to a police complaint. The victim, Rishi (name changed), who lives in Ramamurthy Nagar, said the scam started in early February 2025. He was contacted by a woman using the name Gunturi Rohini Varma, who claimed to be from Visakhapatnam and working for a trading company in the United Kingdom. She said she would visit India within six months to discuss marriage. The two began talking regularly through calls and texts and soon developed trust. Rishi told the police that Rohini contacted him through Indian and UK phone number. She gradually introduced him to a supposed investment opportunity that she claimed would give high returns, something they READ could use to build their life toget her. She shared details of how the trading platform worked and convinced him to transfer money into different bank accounts. Soon, other scammers also joined in, pretending to be from the same trading firm. They showed Rishi fake profit updates on a website to gain his confidence. But when Rishi tried to withdraw the supposed profits, he was told he would need to pay extra for taxes and processing fees. "I was emotionally pressured and blackmailed. I made these payments out of fear of losing everything," Rishi said in his complaint. Source: Economic Times #reels #business #startups #entrepreneurs #uk #india #scam #engineer #viral #bangalore #memes #wwe #explorepage #trending #viral #johncena

Unacademy and Airlearn CEO Gaurav Munjal has ignited a heated debate with a pointed observation on India’s lagging investments in AI compared to global trends. “$465B investment in AI globally. Less than $1B in India,” Munjal wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. “We are busy building Bhujia companies while others are dominating in AI.” Munjal's remark highlighted Indian founders' continued focus on traditional consumer businesses over emerging technologies. In 2024, global private venture capital funding in AI startups stood at $131.5 billion, while the U.S. alone attracted $109.1 billion in private AI investments—almost 100 times India’s tally. According to Stanford’s 2025 AI Index, China followed at $9.3 billion and the U.K. at $4.5 billion. Meanwhile, India ranked 12th globally with just $1.16 billion in private AI investment in 2024. Even cumulatively, from 2013 to 2024, India’s total private AI investment stood at $11.29 billion—still less than what the US invested in a single year. Despite this, the Indian government is making efforts to close the gap. In March 2024, it approved a Rs 10,372 crore for the India AI Mission for five years. However, public funding alone is unlikely to bridge the vast gap without a similar surge in private capital and risk-taking by startups and investors. Source: Indianstartupnews #reels #startups #business #entrepreneurs #investment #food #foodporn #finance #government #explorepage #trending #viral #shahidkapoor #bollywood

Bengaluru-based CA and startup founder Abhishek Jamuar didn’t mince words on LinkedIn: “Sorry to say, but Dubai’s Indian buyers are smiling wider than India’s. Jamuar’s post spotlights a striking divide between what property ownership looks like for Indians abroad versus those buying at home. In Dubai, he says, it’s not just the wealthy snapping up real estate. Regular working-class couples—those who’ve saved diligently over a decade or more—are buying two to three properties, renting them out at yields of 6–7%, and borrowing at just 5%. The result: sustainable, income-generating assets that double as retirement plans. “Not burdened by the EMIs,” Jamuar emphasized, underlining the financial breathing room this model creates. Contrast that with India, where the same middle-class couple typically buys a single home, borrows at 10%, and earns a rental yield of just 3%. “One person’s entire income keeps going into EMIs,” he wrote. Ownership, in this case, becomes an ongoing liability rather than a future-ready asset. To be clear, Jamuar isn’t calling Dubai’s real estate market better. In fact, he believes India’s property prices grow faster. But his core point is about the structure—how Dubai’s system offers freedom, and India’s offers stress. “The burden that comes with buying a property in India, and the freedom that comes with buying a property in Dubai,” he concluded, is the real difference. It’s not a market problem—it’s a model problem Source: Business Today

When you start your startup, you lose some of your reality when you keep focusing on building it. The more focus you keep on the startup, more you lose the importance of keeping up with reality. The most crazy part is when you fall in love with the success of your startup. That is when you completely lose the time you can prioritize with your family and friends. What do you think is the experience of startup founders.

In a recent post on X, Gurugram entrepreneur Rajesh Sawhney shared his insights on how the cities like Bangalore, Gurugram and Mumbai were built on migrants and not by the people of the city. The post spoke about how the condition of cities was before the IT boom and how the current situation is. He also said that the natives have been benefitting from the transformation of the cities and should celebrate the contribution of the migrants towards the development. What are your thoughts on this?

The Delhi High Court has ruled that employment contract clauses restricting an individual's right to seek new employment after leaving a job are void, citing Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act. The verdict delivered on June 25 by Justice Tejas Karia, was in a case concerning a software developer whose previous employer attempted to enforce a non-compete clause to stop him from joining a client organisation. "An employee cannot be confronted with the situation where he has to either work for the previous employer or remain idle. In employer-employee contracts, the restrictive or negative covenant are viewed strictly as the employer has an advantage over the employee and it is quite often the case that the employee has to sign standard form contract or not be employed at all," the court observed. Any terms of the employment that impose a restriction on right of employee to get job post-termination of the contract of employment shall be void, contrary to Section 27 of the Indian Contracts Act, it added. The Section 27 of the Indian Contracts Act declares all agreements that restrains any person from practising a lawful trade, profession or business as void. "Agreement in restraint of trade, void — Every agreement by which any one is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade or business of any kind, is to that extent void," reads the Section 27. Source: CNBC #reels #startups #business #entrepreneurs #employees #law #highcourt #delhi #explorepage #trending #viral #tech #ai #salmankhan #news