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<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a> has started payout process of employees it fired two months back. Although it did not disclose how many employees were <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=lay-offs&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">laid-off</a>, it is estimated around 1,500 people were asked to leave across three units- <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword> and <keyword id="3489561" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="vulcan-express">Vulcan Express</keyword> As Snapdeal has begun the process, one of the issues concerning employees is the value of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Esops&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Employee Stock Options</a> (Esops). The Esops have gone down drastically. In May 2015, Snapdeal had made several senior hires with the promise of heavy chunks of Esops. "I joined Snapdeal two years ago, when the company was valued at $6.5 billion. I was entitled to shares worth Rs 7-8 lakh. When I checked the value of my shares in the first week of March, they had fallen to Rs 1.8 lakh,” a former employee involved in strategy and business development at the organisation told ET. "At FreeCharge, employees have received their severance and settlements as indicated. I received my payout between April 10 and 12 which was the promised payout date,” a former senior executive told ET. Reportedly, severance packages for the affected employees ranged between two and four months' of salaries.

Snapdeal begins payouts to employees it fired; value of Esops go down

<keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">Startups</keyword> such as <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/snapdeal-has-started-down-sizing-600-employees-have-already-been-fired/articleshow/57343065.cms">Snapdeal</a>, YepMe and Craftsvilla, have been on a firing spree and employees are sinking into depression, holding themselves responsible for the layoffs. 
 
However, these employees need to keep in mind the fact that the layoffs happened more because of business conditions and not specifically because of their poor performances. 
 <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="investments">Investments</keyword> in startups dropped to $1.4 billion in 2016 as compared to $2 billion in 2015, which led companies in banking, infrastructure and information technology to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/working-for-a-startup-your-job-is-in-danger/articleshow/57405822.cms">tighten their hands</a>. 
 
"It's unfortunate, but layoffs are simply a way of corporate life now. So, maintain a positive outlook and think about what you want to do," Rohit Sandal, HR director at Lenovo, told ET. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/forget-appraisal-cognizant-might-fire-more-than-6000-employees-this-year/articleshow/57729436.cms">Forget appraisal! Cognizant might fire more than 6,000 employees this year</a> 
 
While some employees who were laid off decided to immediately look for another job, some decided to take a break and volunteer for a cause, giving them a different perspective in life and also giving them a chance to stand out in the eyes of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-someone-who-is-ready-to-employ-laid-off-employees-ofsnapdeal-and-stayzilla/articleshow/57343884.cms">future employers</a>. 
 
Mental health can get adversely impacted if one keeps thinking about the negative things in life, which is why one needs to opt for de-stressing exercises, yoga and meditation. 
 
One can also make good use of this free time to learn something new and enhance their skills, which would have been difficult to manage with the job. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/layoffs-jeopardize-job-security-resumes-flooding-hiring-platforms/articleshow/57554146.cms">Layoffs jeopardize job security; resumes flooding hiring platforms</a> 
 
At the end, what matters is that laid off employees remain positive and take it as a chance to reinvent themselves, knowing that it was not their fault that they were let go. 
 
(Image source: Benzinga)

Losing that job was not your fault! Don’t let yourself sink into depression

India’s online market place <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal </a>laid-off 600 employees recently and warned the co-founders employees for more tough decisions. Well, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> is not along in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=layoffs&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">firing its employees</a> as more<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startups&amp;sortorder=effectivedate"> Indian startups </a>are handing out pink slips to hundreds. 
 
The fear of being fired is looming large on employees as many startups have begun giving notices to workers to trim costs, save money and make profits. 
 Apart from Snapdeal, other <keyword id="982553" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-startups">Indian startups</keyword> such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=craftsvilla&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Craftsvilla</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=yepme&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">YepMe</a>, Tolexo, etc have laid-off employees recently. 
 "(<keyword id="635221" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Craftsvilla">Craftsvilla</keyword>) has laid off more than 100 staffers in recent weeks, including its entire product and technology teams and most of its operations and marketing teams,” a former senior executive of the company told ET. 
 
In fact, some senior employees aware of the coming troubles had put in their papers a couple of months ago, sources told ET. 
 
Industry experts say the lay-offs could be due to slowing funding, rash decisions by founders, etc. 
 "More (<keyword id="6357067" type="EVENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="layoffs">layoffs</keyword>) will happen throughout 2017. The cleanup has started and most consumer internet companies will go through this,” Harminder Sahni, managing director at consultancy Wazir Advisors, told ET. 
 "While we were preparing for the worst, we still had a little hope. But when it was clear the company was shutting, the main priority was to relocate the employees,” Ipe Walliaveetil, who was senior manager for operations at <keyword id="1112419" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Stayzilla">Stayzilla</keyword>, told ET. 
 
Fashion retailer YepMe recently laid off an unspecified number of people from its warehousing and quality control teams. 
 
"We were planning to break-even in January. But demonetisation hit, (the option for cash payments on delivery) disappeared and sales were down. We decided to move our focus outside of India,” Vivek Gaur, founder of YepMe, which recently began operations in the United Kingdom, told ET.

Working for a startup? Your job is in danger

If people aware of the plan are to be believed, India’s leading ecommerce company <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> will trim its workforce in the next two months. The online marketplace has started cost cutting as growth graph is getting stunted and investors less willing to provide fresh funds. 
 The move is expected to affect about 1,000 employees directly employed by the company in its ecommerce marketplace while thousands of contract workers in the company's logistics division are also expected to be let off, people aware of the situation told <keyword id="77091" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Economic-Times">The Economic Times</keyword>. 
 "5,000-odd contract staff employed by the company's logistics subsidiary <keyword id="3489561" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="vulcan-express">Vulcan Express</keyword> will be pared down as well as about 3,000 people on the rolls of the logistics company," a company executive and two consultants working with the company informed the ET. 
 
Early this week, the managers had received mails from top management asking them to ‘right-size’ their teams. However on being enquired by the ET, the company chose not speak directly on the issue. Instead they responded to the financial daily saying, "On our journey towards profitability, it is imperative that we continue to drive efficiency in our business, which enables us to pass on the value to our consumers and sellers. As in the past, and like all good companies do, we will continue to assess resource allocation in furtherance of our goals of enhancing customer and seller experience while driving high quality growth.”

Snapdeal to fire 1000 employees
in next two months

The Indian e-commerce giant <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> has issued a notice to its consumer service department, asking 200 members to either shape up or ship out. 
 
Owing to the almost impossible demands of the company's performance improvement plan, most employees are opting for the second option, said several people aware of the matter. 
 
"The process is still on and nearly 70 have been called in till now (Wednesday)," one of the 100 employees summoned by the HR department told ET. 
 
In December last year, 150 employees were asked to quit the company. 
 
"Last trimester, which ended in November, employees were asked to leave in December. This time, before the end of this trimester, which is March, they are asking us to leave," said one person. "In April 2015, we had close to 1,000 employees. Now we have around 500, of which 200 employees are being asked to leave." 
 
The options given to employees are choosing between resigning or going on the performance plan, for which they would be given a month's time to meet targets, failing which they will be terminated. 
 
However, the company denied that it was sacking majority of its teams. 
 
"There have been no firings or layoffs at Snapdeal," a spokesperson said in response to ET’s query. "Some employees at our Contact Centre, who were not meeting the required performance parameters have been offered a Performance Improvement Plan, which offers such employees 30 days to improve their performance. Some of the employees have chosen not to go through the Performance Improvement Plan and have instead opted to exit. In deference to their wishes, Snapdeal has accepted their resignations. The PIP process is expected to 
cover about 200 team members." 
 
<a href="http://cdn2.thegrindstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/shutterstock_66384196.jpg">Image source</a>

Snapdeal asks 200 employees to shape up or ship out; employees choosing latter over ‘impossible’ targets

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startups&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Startups</a> are going through a tough time. They are in news for all the wrong reasons, especially because they have been on a firing spree since the year 2017 has begun. 
 
As investors are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=funding&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">tightening their purse strings </a>and startups are now focussing on revamping operations and making profits, startups are targeting employees and cutting the workforce. 
 
In 2017, many small businesses such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=yepme&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">YepMe</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=craftsvilla&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Craftsvilla</a>, etc have been giving their employees nightmares, who are worrying over pink slips. 
 
The scenario at India’s third online marketplace <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a> is also not good as it has fired over 600 employees so far. 
 
The companies are looking to trim costs and employees are staring at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=lay-offs&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">job cuts</a>. 
 
Here are 5 companies that have massively laid-off employees

5
companies that fired employees in 2017

Paytm and Snapdeal were planning a merger recently. While the all-stock deal is yet to shape up, Paytm’s founder Vijay Sekhar Sharma is playing a Good Samaritan. With 600 people in Snapdeal’s Gurgaon office already shown the door and more awaiting the firing the squad at the ecommerce company, people are hunting for jobs like never before. Also the recent shut down of travel portal Stayzilla has increased the pool of talents. At such a juncture, Paytm founder announced on social media that they are open to hire talents. 
 
"Hello, Tech/Product people in Delhi NCR, feeling heat of business restructuring? We welcome you @Paytm and @PaytmMall with open arms” read one of Sharma’s tweet yesterday morning. Paytm is planning to expand its business with Paytm Mall and has 250 openings. 
 
"We are recruiting for our marketplace and the bank: Hence, trained and domain experts are welcome. We believe startups have great people and they will fit well in our entrepreneurial culture," a spokesperson of Paytm told The Economic Times in an email. 
 
Not just Sharma, EVC Ventures and OfBusiness have also publicly announced their willingness to hire laid off employees of Snapdeal.

Here’s someone who is ready to employ laid off employees of
Snapdeal and Stayzilla

This appraisal season, Indian companies are in no mood of sparing their underperformers, especially after Wipro sacked about 600 people following a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/small-business/tech/wipro-sacks-600-employees-post-performance-appraisal/articleshow/58283452.cms">'rigorous performance appraisal'</a>. While Indian IT firms, financial services companies, startups and BPOs will be leading this race in being aggressive with the firing process, other sectors would also be following the same path so that they can only have the best of manpower. "Going forward, the trend will be a lot more around performance-orientation," S Venkatesh, president group HR at RPG Enterprises, told <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/jobs/companies-take-tougher-stand-on-poor-performers/articleshow/58350223.cms">ET</a>. "People are negotiating hard: whether it's while being hired off campus or while changing jobs. Naturally, companies, too, are taking a hard line on slips in their performance," he said. RPG Enterprises owns companies like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/markets/Tyre-stocks-are-on-fire-today-Know-why/articleshow/48343583.cms">CEAT</a>, KEC International Zensar Technologies, and has a tendency of putting employees on performance improvement plans if need be. "The days when people joined a company only to retire from it are over," said Venkatesh. Other than performance, reduction in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/careers/exclusive-salary-budgets-are-slowing-down-and-there-is-going-to-be-a-dip-in-appraisals-as-per-this-report/articleshow/57287938.cms">budgets allotted for salaries</a> can also be cited as a reason behind these aggressive firing policies. In the recent past, IT majors like Infosys, TCS and Cognizant along with banks like Axis Bank and ICICI Bank have fired a large number of employees. Similarly, e-commerce companies like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/retail/e-commerce/Flipkart-may-handover-pink-slips-to-nearly-700-employees/articleshow/53446176.cms">Flipkart</a> and Snaodeal have also followed the path of firing nonperforming employees. Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Snapdeal-asks-200-employees-to-improve-or-resign/articleshow/51135067.cms">Snapdeal asks 200 employees to shape up or ship out; employees choosing latter over ‘impossible’ targets</a> However, experts are of the view that Indian companies are relatively more easygoing when it comes to firing employees, as compared to their global counterparts.

This performance appraisal period is about underperformers as well

Be it <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword> or <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, whenever a company is getting acquired, employees of the company getting sold are the worst hit. They undergo a trauma of getting fired and replaced by the company acquiring them, after all, in the wheel of cost cutting, employees get axed first. “When businesses get into the wars of winning and success, the focus is market share, power and control. Boards and bankers put on their thinking caps and focus all their energies onto how they can get the best of both worlds. The fact that nobody is indispensible sets in an environment that leads most employees to believe that the change is a serious situation and many get shaken to the extent of leaving the organization in search of stability and peace,” said Pramod Parkar, Principal Consultant &amp; Director, Edify Consultants. Most of the employees feel too much pressure, which leads to too much disruption in their careers and work-life. “The fact that should be most importantly understood is that the team coming into power needs to form a winning team. Sitting on a fence won’t help, you need to be firm, planted and patient. Your contribution and open mindedness can be a winning trump card to actually make hay while the sun is shining,” he said. In case your company is also getting acquired, keep these 4 points in mind for success during turbulent times

4 ways how employees can prepare themselves when their company is getting acquired

<a href="http://www1.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=recruitment&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Recruitment</a> in Indian <a href="http://www1.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startups&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">startups </a>has slowed down as the businesses are concentrating more on securing funds, posting profits and scaling up operations. 
 
The hiring has dropped by 10-50% in many of the startups, even as <a href="http://www1.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=talent&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">talent</a> influx is on the rise. 
 
Recruitment in logistics, grocery and food delivery companies have slowed down and many employees are also being fired. 
 
"We were getting about 100 requisitions a month from startups for senior and midlevel hiring 12 months ago. Today, we get a maximum of 30-40,” Joseph Devasia, managing director for India at Antal International, which works with more than 50 startups, told ET. 
 
"With investors now asking companies to focus on profits and cut down on spends, hiring managers are more cautious,” Thammaiah BN, managing director at Kelly Services, told ET. 
 
Meanwhile, even as various startups want to hire senior level executives to enhance operations, the plan gets scrapped during the board meetings. 
 
Recently,<a href="http://www1.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate"> Snapdeal</a> handed over pink slips to employees in a bid to rationalise its operations. 
 
Amid the hiring gloom, one of the sectors which is flourishing is<a href="http://www1.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=fintech+startups&amp;sortorder=effectivedate"> fintech</a>. The financial-technology startups are hiring due to India’s digital economy push. 
 
"We are seeing more open positions in startups in the financial technology services sector post demonetisation across all three levels- senior, mid and entry,” Rituparna Chakraborty, cofounder of staffing firm TeamLease Services, told ET, adding “these companies are expanding aggressively and job requirements have almost tripled.”

Talent influx is on the rise but there are less takers; recruitment in startups drops by 50%

Indian job sector is marred with the fear of layoffs because of cash crunch or increasing automation, which has resulted in a major rise in the number of resumes on hiring platforms. 
 
Applications from people from IT and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indian-e-commerce-market-is-slowing-down/articleshow/52940196.cms">e-commerce</a> industries have increased by 20-25%, as per Lohit Bhatia, business head, staffing solutions, IKYA Human Capital Solutions. 
 
"It's happening at firms where the management is either reducing workforce or rationalising the headcount to balance demand and supply," Bhatia told ET. 
 
Last year, there were about 9,200 employee layoffs, a lot more than about 5,500 in 2015, says research platform Xeler8. Major industries that saw these layoffs were food delivery, e-commerce and consumer services companies. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/indias-manufacturing-sales-shrink-expect-more-layoffs/articleshow/57376642.cms">India's manufacturing sales shrink. Expect more layoffs</a> 
 <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, the e-commerce major, is also <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/snapdeal-has-started-down-sizing-600-employees-have-already-been-fired/articleshow/57343065.cms">firing employees</a> because of cash crunch, as reported earlier. 
 
While on one side job seekers are knocking on the doors of these platforms, employers are increasingly withdrawing. Online recruitment activity in e-commerce stumbled from 3% in December 2016 to a negative 3% in January 2017, says Monster. Month-on-month, there has been a 4% decline in hiring activity. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/telecom-industry-is-going-to-witness-massive-layoffs-over-25000-pink-slips-loom/articleshow/57161647.cms">Telecom industry is going to witness massive layoffs; over 25,000 pink slips loom</a> 
 
A major change has come in the Indian IT sector because of automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and as a result, Indian techies are more and more <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/possible-restructuring-poses-threats-to-mid-level-employees-in-indian-it-sector/articleshow/57512270.cms">worried about their jobs</a>. 
 However, things are not as bad in the e-commerce space, with <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> planning to hire 20-30% more people in 2017 compared to 2016, and Paytm founder Viay Shekhar Sharma announcing vacancies in tech and product space. 
 
(Image source: LinkedIn)

Layoffs jeopardize job security; resumes flooding hiring platforms

<ul><li><keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shopclues">Shopclues</keyword> has finally been sold to Singapore-based <keyword id="8279466" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Qoo10">Qoo10</keyword> in an all stock deal. </li><li>The <keyword id="7321558" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="unicorn-startup">unicorn startup</keyword> was sold at a valuation ranging between just $70-100 million. </li><li>This year, Shopclues had been at the centre of multiple failed attempts at mergers as it tried to survive.</li></ul>Indian unicorn e-commerce startup Shopclues has finally <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/shopclues-acquired-by-singapore-based-qoo10/71839928">found</a> a buyer in Singapore-based e-commerce platform Qoo10. Shopclues which was once valued at $1.1 billion-- is sold in an all stock deal for a reported valuation ranging between $70-$100 million. Here’s a look at how it all went down for the e-commerce startup. 2011 Shopclues was founded in July 2011 by Sanjay Sethi, Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika Aggarwal. This was two years before Amazon came to India. It raised an angel round of funding. 2012 The startup raised its series A round of funding of $4 million. During this time, Shopclues had 2500 transactions a day and according to <a href="https://www.techcircle.in/2012/09/04/excl-shopclues-raises-4m-in-series-a-round-looking-to-gross-rs-100cr-sales-by-dec-2012">reports</a>, was hoping to turn profitable by 2013. 2013 Gaining momentum, Shopclues closes its series B round for $10 million from investors Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners. 2014 Shopclues raised $15 million as a part of its series C round of funding from its existing investors. 2015 In 2015, the startup scooped up its Series D funding for $100 million, also welcoming Tiger Global to its board of investors. “Shopclues has emerged as the leading marketplace of choice for the millions of small and local businesses seeking to reach mass consumers in India’s tier 2 and tier 3 cities,” the then Tiger Global private equity business head Lee Fixel <a href="https://www.vccircle.com/e-com-marketplace-shopclues-raises-100m-series-c-funding-led-tiger-global/">had said.</a> It also registered a GMV of $400 million. 2016 Between late 2015 and early 2016, Shopclues closed its series E round of funding to join the prestigious unicorn club. It also brought back its dreams for profitability while also reportedly hoping for an IPO. 2017 Shopclues was caught in the middle of a very public spat between its founders – husband and wife duo Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika. Aggarwal put out a post on Facebook accusing his wife of “an illicit affair” as well as ousting him from the company. It was also the year when the company’s <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/money/shopclues-fy-17-revenue-up-5-losses-decline-by-13/articleshow/61539773.cms">revenue began slowing dow</a>n. In FY17, the company’s revenue grew by 5% instead of the usual 50% jump it had been seeing. Its losses stood at ₹332 crores. 2018 It managed to come back in the game with a 46% revenue jump and cutting down its losses to ₹208 crore in FY18. But at this time, Shopclues also <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/shopclues-revenue-up-46-to-rs-273-crore/articleshow/66409043.cms">cut down</a> on operational costs, advertising spends and employee benefits. However, it was facing immense competition from Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm etc who were growing at breakneck speed. Meanwhile, Shopclues was focussing on its wholesale marketplace model. Once again, its plans to go in for an IPO in 2018, failed to see the light of the day. Multiple senior management <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/top-level-exits-at-shopcluescom/article23263804.ece">exits</a> too began in the company. It also fired 50 employees across verticals. It also lost a legal fight with L’oreal, which had <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/loral-india-wins-judgement-on-counterfeits-against-shopclues/articleshow/66652453.cms">accused</a> Shopclues of selling counterfeit products on its platform. 2019 Having survived on bridge rounds of investments, troubles started mounting for the company as its struggle to survive became public. The rumours of its probable sell began taking solid turns. Snapdeal (who was itself making a comeback from massive losses) was reported to be in talks with Shopclues for a possible merger, but the talks didn’t go through in the end. There were also rumours about ebay.in looking to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/ebay-in-talks-with-etailers-including-shopclues-for-a-fresh-bid-in-india/articleshow/65157378.cms">acquire</a> Shopclues. Shopclues also laid off about 200 employees to cut costs. Then came the news of its final sale to Singapore-based Qoo10 in an all stock deal, but with a massive fall in valuation. “This partnership presents new strategic opportunities for both companies, as it opens up cross-border opportunities for consumers and sellers across Asia,” the company said in a statement.

Once valued at $1.1 billion Shopclues finally gets sold for less than $100 million valuation

Gone are the days when bigger necessarily meant better for startups across the country. While a billion dollar valuation meant the world to upcoming entrepreneurs as early as a year back, with the global financial tides turning, the focus has shifted from big GMV figures to driving efficiency in business models. 
 
This comes at a time when well-funded hyper-local startups like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=PepperTap&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">PepperTap</a> have shut down and larger ones like Grofers and Zomato have been forced to scale down operations. The so called ‘unicorns’ are struggling to raise funds, and recklessness with investors' money is punished with tighter purse-strings. 
 
Meet <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Sandeep+Aggarwal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Sandeep Aggarwal</a>, co-founder of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ShopClues&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">ShopClues</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Droom&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Droom</a>. He was a wall-street analyst who bootstrapped his venture with his own funds and angel money that he raised from his friends and family till he first received institutional funding to the tune of $4 million in January 2012. 
 
Interestingly, Aggarwal’s latest startup <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Droom&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Droom</a> has a mere three employees in customer support. The company’s GMV to human resource ratio stands at $1 million annualized GMV per person. Aggarwal claims it’s the highest amongst startups in the country. His company is currently doing close to $170 million in annualized GMV. 
 
Business Insider sat down with Aggarwal to understand where machines can replace man, and where they can’t. 
 
Journey to automating <keyword id="2947589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Droom">Droom</keyword> 
While I’m proud of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ShopClues&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">ShopClues</a>, we still had to hire hundreds in customer support, and I didn’t want to repeat that mistake. 
 
It took me over a month to conceptualize Droom as a wireframe. I still remember, there were 127 slides. I thought through the workflow cycle, where one may need to call customer support, and what can and can’t be automated. 
 
Today we have only one supervisor and three employees in customer support. 
 
Potential of <keyword id="294572" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="80" keywordseo="machine-learning">machine learning</keyword> 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Machine+learning&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Machine learning</a> will allow us to have similar, if not better results in customers support. I think we can touch Rs. 250 crores in GMV per customer support employee. We can improve on that with keywords-based FAQs. One can also use IVR. 
 
 ‘Labor is cheaper than tech’ 
That’s the kind of thinking that has limited us to the services industry. It’s time we create quality product and platform companies. Human resource is cheap because it accounts for limited financial exposure, human errors and lack of reporting. 
 
Technology replacing employment 
Technology may deem some redundant. It’s their job to adapt and re-train themselves. That’s called survival for the fittest. That way people would actually end up earning more than they are currently. 
 If we wouldn’t have had built <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>’ returns platform, over 500 people would have been doing returns alone. While from a socialist perspective you could say that employs 500 people, it drives severe inefficiencies in the supply chain. 
 
Is it a sector-specific problem? 
It’s all about the founder’s vision and mindset. There are three types of founders – the marketing guy, the ops guy and the product guy. You can throw money at a problem, and get it solved. Automation for the first time may have its own set of problems than deploying manual labor. 
 Consider this, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> is only 20-30% bigger than ShopClues in terms of GMV, but has a 7-8x bigger workforce. 
 
Challenges in automation in hyper-growth markets 
There is a price for everything. 
 
For hyper-growth sectors, you have to train yourself to ignore certain things. However, you shouldn’t be left trying to dig the well after the fire. 
 
The eternal debate that a machine doesn’t know right from wrong 
The best brain on earth is the human mind. There’s no substitute to that. 
 
However, in an assembly line scenario, there’s always the option to have a separate bin that can come under human inspection. Everything doesn’t boil down to a yes/no. Our technologies can also capture the scenario where there is no option but manual labor to step in. 
 
To scale quick, you have to automate certain processes. Repetitive things can actually burn human resources. Artificial Intelligence can anticipate how much information is worthy enough to process a decision. 
 
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