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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Some expat Indians are moving back home to launch companies of their own.</li><li>India's booming market size, internet growth, and post-pandemic spending is driving their decision.</li></ul>Nithin Hassan, 41, has always been fascinated with building something of his own.As a child in India, he would get in trouble for dismantling electronics around the house just so he could peek inside.In college, in true <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startups-to-bet-your-career-on-in-2024-2024-2">startup</a> fashion, he started working on a small business out of his parent's garage in Bengaluru, assembling computers for friends and family.It was the early 2000s and the internet was not the trove of knowledge it is today — Hassan was relying on books to learn. Finding mentorship and the right guidance was a challenge, too.Everyone around Hassan told him that going to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/resume-tips-google-software-engineer-skills-experience-careers-software-tech-2024-3">US for a master's degree</a> was the next big opportunity. So he did.Over the next 16 years, he put his startup plans on hold and worked at some of the world's biggest companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta.<div type="image" title="Nithin Hassan" height="2450" width="3266" msid="113831978" hostid="261" sizebytes="215682"></div>But the pandemic felt like a turning point. And its aftermath made India look like a lab-designed business environment: It had just become the world's most populous country, the pandemic had created <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/private-consumption-continues-to-be-supported-by-pent-up-demand-finance-ministry/articleshow/99069973.cms?from=mdr">pent-up demand</a> for consumer products, and growing internet adoption made commerce more scalable, he said.So Hassan left behind about $500,000 in annual pay at Meta to move back to Bengaluru in December 2023 with his wife and two children. He has since launched two startups.Hassan is part of a group of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-moved-back-to-india-after-living-abroad-for-decade-2024-9">expat Indians moving back</a> home to venture out on their own. As such, he's also part of a decades-long trend of reverse migration back to India.The trend began in the 1990s and picked up at the turn of the century, driven by the economic collapse in 2008, said Binod Khadria, the president of Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism. Many of those who returned to India for work were largely working for multinational companies.Today, the impetus for the move often looks a bit different: It's driven by factors like unstable visa policies and economic recessions, which lead to uncertainty when it comes to jobs and duration of stay in these destinations.Many returnees find work in tech, but the finance, retail, and climate sectors also absorb a large number of expat Indians, Khadia said. And some of the returnees are heading back to India to start companies of their own.India is undergoing a startup explosion. The country reported over<a target="_blank" href="https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2043805"> 140,800 recognized startups</a> at the end of June — nearly 50,000 more than last year — and credited them with creating 1.6 million direct jobs.To be sure, not all of these companies will make it big — and some do still stumble, like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://inc42.com/features/what-are-the-current-problems-being-faced-by-oyo/">Oyo </a>and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-hsbc-funds-byjus-startup-valuation-zero-edtech-india-raveendran-2024-6">Byju's</a>. But the chaos, where even established startups are trying and failing, makes India a fair playing field for new entrants, Hassan said.Business Insider spoke to six <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-vc-wants-see-5-traits-new-founders-fundraising-antler-2024-8">first-time founders </a>about why they have recently returned to India after spending several years, or even an adult life, abroad.<h2 id="0e4a3c47-ba19-4690-8b52-c6bfece1c81d">Fastest-growing economy</h2>The health of the economy and interest from investors are fueling the entrepreneurship boom.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-billionaire-karan-adani-plans-challenge-china-dominance-seaports-2024-8">India's economic growth</a> in 2023 — 8.2% — was the fastest of all large economies worldwide. That's led to greater purchasing power, which lets companies, including startups, sell more.India's inflation rate of about 3.5% is well below its annual wage growth of 9.6%. This makes inflation less of a challenge than it is for slower-growing peers, where consumer-focused businesses have been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/economy-jobs-report-sentiment-consumers-elections-recession-inflation-mortgage-rates-2024-9">hurt by high prices</a>.Investors are getting in on the action.From 2015 to 2021, the number of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sequoia-capital-vc-firm-split-china-india-2023-6">unique investors in India</a> nearly quadrupled, though the number is tracking much lower this year, per PitchBook."Other than a slight downturn in 2022 and 2023 due to global macroeconomic factors, VC funding has been consistently growing in India," said Ben Mathias, a managing partner at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia &amp; India.Besides funding, domestic developments have encouraged founders and VCs too, Mathias said.The Indian government's Universal Payment Interface system has spurred consumers and businesses to pay online, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bcg.com/press/2june2022-digital-payments-in-india-projected-to-reach-10-trillion-by-2026">40% of all digital payments</a> globally happen in India today, the partner said.Programs like Startup India, which provides founders benefits like tax exemption, easier compliance, and funding support, have made creating a company smoother.Devyani Parameshwar worked in the microfinance and fintech space in India in the 2010s before heading to the UK and Africa. She returned to India in 2022 to launch a financial management venture."It's changed dramatically. I remember standing in line at various ministries in Delhi trying to get meetings and then trying to get answers and it wasn't easy in the past," she said of her memories of India.Now, she can use an online platform to ask the country's central bank and banking regulator questions.It's easier than ever for foreign companies to invest in India, which means startups have a clearer exit path through acquisition — something VCs think hard about before entering new markets or writing checks.<h2 id="e5dd7b6f-a09f-4ff2-84c1-5907de96dc5e">Market ripe for the taking</h2>For Rohan Bhide, who spent most of his college and professional life <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/worked-in-big-tech-before-launching-my-own-startup-engineer-2024-9">preparing to launch something of his own</a>, a trip home in 2017 while he was studying in the US was a turning point.Indian telecom giant Reliance had recently launched a cheap unlimited data plan, which spiked Indian internet adoption. India was charting among the countries with the highest online transactions."That really, really drew my attention," said Bhide, who worked at Meta after graduation. "It was my dream come true — a huge market, a huge user base, and at the same time, the ability to adopt technology was incredible."Bhide returned to India in January, leaving behind about $580,000 in total compensation at ticketing platform StubHub. He and a cofounder are working on launching a consumer tech product later this year.<div type="image" title="Rohan Bhide" height="2304" width="3072" msid="113831979" hostid="261" sizebytes="218468"></div>Most Indians grew up wanting to work at a multinational company — but that's changing, Bhide said.Freelancing, running your own business, or working for a startup is much more socially acceptable now, because people see the success of other Indian startups. The country has the third-largest number of "unicorns" — companies worth $1 billion or more — with 64, per PitchBook.<h2 id="7f423804-745b-4e04-a250-839e01663f09">Boom in entrepreneurship culture</h2>A lot has changed since Hassan first wanted to launch his hardware startup in the early 2000s.Tech hot spots like Bengaluru and Gurugram have seen a boom in entrepreneurship culture in the last few years, with meet-ups, networking mixers, and even morning walks with like-minded builders.<div type="image" title="man standing in front of mountains in USA" height="2268" width="3024" msid="113831980" hostid="261" sizebytes="141132"></div>Dhruv Anand, who left Google in the US to move back to India in 2021 to launch an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-startups-most-promising-2024-9">AI startup</a>, said that there were lots of other founders and mentors to help guide him."If you want to figure out who's the right chartered accountant to talk to, who's the right lawyer to help you draft agreements, all of that stuff is very easy," Anand said."It's been a really, really supportive community," Bhide said. There are people "telling you about their entire lives just because they want to help you and they're hoping that you pass the favor onto the next person who moves to India and wants to start their own company."<h2 id="3c8bff36-e855-4530-9b44-bcc7f36b0825">Not everything is perfect</h2>Although these founders made the decision to return to India, that doesn't mean they no longer see the benefits of operating in the US.Ruchit Garg founded an agriculture startup in Silicon Valley in 2016, with a focus on supporting farmers around the globe. In 2019, he returned to India, where his late grandfather worked as a farmer.Garg has been building in India ever since, but he says its startup ecosystem cannot yet compete with the Valley's decades of experience."The overall ecosystem was more mature back in Silicon Valley. It's still one of the best places for entrepreneurs. India isn't there yet, although it's growing pretty drastically," he said.Despite efforts to digitalize key processes, many bureaucratic challenges persist.For most founders, after living in US cities where populations are a fraction of those in Mumbai and Bangalore, congested roads and poorer air quality are also everyday annoyances.But India provides some big perks, including affordable domestic help and the appeal of building solutions for problems they witness firsthand."It's a different joy to be able to build for problems that you feel for very personally," Parameshwar, the fintech founder, said. When she worked in Africa, she needed translators. Now, she can speak with her users herself.Bhide said the general sentiment among local founders is shifting from "Build from India" to "Build for India."For some founders, being surrounded by family and the culture they grew up in was another selling point.Niranjan Vemulkar moved back to India in 2015 and later founded a digital legacy planning platform.He said that he never fully felt at home in the US, where he lived for over a decade."For us, it was the fact that we wanted to raise a family in an environment where the children would have access to the grandparents and Indian culture," Vemulkar said. "The fact that you could come back to India, start something of your own and figure things out in an ecosystem which was potentially booming for startups, was just a cherry on the cake."Are you in India and have a story to share about the tech and entrepreneurship landscape? Please reach out at shubhangigoel@insider.com

Some techies are leaving cushy Silicon Valley jobs to launch startups at home in India

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Jason Bennett, 46, moved from San Francisco to Medellín, Colombia in 2018.</li><li>Bennett quit his job at Banana Republic to move abroad and launch two startups.</li></ul>Jason Bennett had a successful career in San Francisco but didn't see a future for himself in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/quit-job-after-rto-mandate-never-work-office-again-2024-9">the corporate world</a>.Bennett, 46, worked as a senior marketing director for Banana Republic. He earned a good salary and received great bonuses but <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/american-employees-disengaged-work-meaningless-fake-email-jobs-2024-6">felt unfulfilled</a>."I started to feel a disconnect with both my job and my city," Bennett said. "I started to wonder if I really wanted to spend the rest of my life in an office working for other people."In 2015, Bennett <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millenniall-quit-job-start-business-shares-advice-entrepreneurship-networking-mentor-2024-9">quit his job</a> at Banana Republic and founded True Star Consulting, a marketing firm that specializes in strategic planning and creative direction for brands. He said he had saved enough for the future and was ready to start a new adventure at the age of 37.At that time, Bennett moved to Lisbon and began running True Star Consulting as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-retired-parents-digital-nomad-family-live-abroad-cheaply-2024-8">digital nomad</a>. In 2016, he visited Medellín, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-xer-moves-from-california-to-columbia-for-cheaper-retirement-2024-9">Colombia</a>, and said he envisioned it as his future home. He relocated there two years later.While many Americans are <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomer-financial-independence-retired-age-60-puerto-vallarta-mexico-2024-9">moving abroad for retirement</a>, Bennett is among the working professionals <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-four-day-workweek-netherlands-chiropractor-high-skilled-visa-2024-9">seeking a career</a> outside the US. According to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.fvap.gov/uploads/FVAP/Reports/2022-OCPA-Report_Combined_Final_20230925.pdf">data</a> from the Federal Voting Assistance Program, which helps overseas citizens vote in US elections, 429,674 US citizens lived in South and Central America and the Caribbean in 2022, up from 374,241 in 2012."It was one of, if not the best, decisions I've ever made," Bennett said. "It always felt like home."<div type="image" title="Photo shows Jason Bennett, 46, looking over Medellín, Colombia, where he moved in 2018" height="853" width="1280" msid="114013025" hostid="261" sizebytes="301036"></div><h2 id="ecf25e36-8f0b-40e5-a4ac-8b941ed2b04d">Building financial independence started at a young age</h2>Bennett was born and raised in San Francisco. He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Oregon in 2000.After college, Bennett worked in marketing at the department store Mervyn's before joining Banana Republic in 2004. Over the next decade, Bennett ascended through the corporate ranks, becoming a director of marketing in 2013 and a senior director shortly after.While Bennett enjoyed his job, he said he felt unsatisfied with his day-to-day work. He wanted to take ownership of his schedule and career growth."At the end of the day, I wanted to be my own boss," he said.Bennett said the prospect of quitting his job at Banana Republic seemed reasonable because he had been actively saving and was diligent about his finances."Very early on, my grandparents told me to max out my 401(k) and then go have fun, and that's what I did," Bennett said. "The lesson of compound interest should be topic No. 1 for anyone thinking about one day charting their own path."In 2012, while still living in San Francisco, he bought a one-bedroom, 700-square-foot condo for under $400,000. Bennett said he chose a 15-year mortgage to accelerate his home equity and lock in a lower interest rate.Bennett also grew his wealth through investing in stocks, index funds, and fixed-income securities like certificates of deposit. He's been keeping detailed track of his finances since 1995, when he was 17 years old.Bennett said he felt confident to quit his own job to earn a fraction of the salary at his own company — and he felt confident to move abroad. He declined to share what his company books in revenue."I didn't know I was going to do this when I was 25," Bennett said. "But I did know it was important to save."<h2 id="70ee5480-51eb-4164-ab61-205bbf2d0ddc">Life in Medellín compared to San Francisco</h2>Bennett said life in Medellín is incredible, from the weather to the culture and food.He said his cost of living is much lower than in San Francisco. For example, he said he can have "excellent meals" for less than $10, and a cup of "the world's best coffee" for less than $2. He also said public transportation and Uber are inexpensive<div type="image" title="Photo shows a cup of coffee in a café in Medellín, Colombia." height="1695" width="1440" msid="114013028" hostid="261" sizebytes="189744"></div>Bennett is single and child-free, which also keeps his daily costs down.He feels so passionate about Medellín that he founded a tourist company, The Paisa Plan, to help people plan their visits to Colombia and the city. However, Bennett declined to share what his company books in revenue.He also volunteers his marketing strategy services for the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra."It reflects my love, respect, and appreciation for my adopted home, and aims to help visitors really discover the magic of Medellín," he said.<div type="image" title="Photo shows Jason Bennett, 46, in Medellín, Colombia, with his mother." height="3024" width="4032" msid="114013030" hostid="261" sizebytes="2150056"></div>He said he is still smart about savings, despite having a lower cost of living.Six years into his life in Medellín, Bennett said he has a better work-life balance than he ever experienced in San Francisco. Additionally, he said the city is full of energy."I also take every opportunity to explore the city and immerse myself in what it has to offer," he said. "There are so many excellent restaurants and cafés. More stunning parks than you can count. And there is always something happening culturally."Are you an American who moved abroad for work? This reporter wants to hear your story. Please reach out at <a target="_blank" class="" href="mailto:jtowfighi@businessinsider.com">jtowfighi@businessinsider.com</a>

A Gen Xer quit his corporate job in SF and moved to Colombia. He said Medellín is more affordable and he's been able to launch 2 startups.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Donald Trump's win is reducing uncertainty, boosting some employers' confidence about posting jobs.</li><li>Hiring experts anticipate a "Trump bump" for now despite concerns over tariffs and immigration.</li></ul>If you've been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/finding-job-awful-right-now-drop-in-openings-tough-search-2024-9">looking for a job</a> and haven't had any luck, that could be about to change.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wins-presidential-election-race-2024-11">Donald Trump's decisive win</a> ends some uncertainty about the broad direction of the US — and extinguishes worries that there will be a drawn-out fight over the outcome.Executives focused on hiring told Business Insider that the newfound clarity is already making some employers more willing to post jobs."Our phone was basically ringing off the hook with companies looking to hire," Lief Larson, CEO of Salesfolks, a staffing firm focused on sales roles, told BI. "Regardless of your political persuasion, there is no doubt that the market is anticipating a Trump bump."Knowing who will occupy the White House is a help to employers, employment experts told BI, even as questions remain about the fallout from a potential <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tariff-threat-john-deere-economists-baffled-2024-9">increase in tariffs</a> or a reduction in immigration."Having the uncertainty behind us will prompt many — and encourage many — to start looking at increasing hiring," Tim Glowa, founder and CEO of HRbrain, which develops artificial intelligence tools for human resources, told BI.<h2 id="931ab304-0c3f-4e07-9067-9bcae5537e6c">Demand in tech</h2>It also helps that in the fourth quarter, some employers push to bring on people before the end of the year. Others prepare job descriptions to go up in January, said Michelle Volberg, a longtime recruiter who's founder and CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.withtwill.com/">Twill</a>, a venture-backed startup that pays tech workers to recommend peers for key jobs."We're seeing a pretty healthy number of roles planning to be posted in January, probably more than we even expected," Volberg told BI. Volberg said she's seen an "upward trend" in the past 12 months that's now continuing."I don't see anything currently on the horizon that will challenge the US economy in any way," Volberg said.She said some of the demand is in tech, particularly from companies focused on AI looking to hire in engineering, product, sales, and marketing.That's welcome news because while the overall US unemployment rate remains low, some tech firms have been cutting in some roles and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-job-cuts-indicate-tech-companies-like-recurring-layoffs-2024-10">slow to hire</a> in other areas — much to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/job-seeker-applied-more-than-2000-roles-2024-9">frustration of job seekers</a>.Kathleen Lin Hurtubise, CEO and founder of Aloha Hospitality Professionals, a staffing firm focused on hospitality and light industrial workers, told BI that uncertainty over tax and immigration policies had led some of the company's customers to wait out the politics."We had a handful of clients who put us on pause until the elections," she said. Many employers, Hurtubise said, wanted to know how business decisions they had already made would likely play out once it became clear who would take the White House.<h2 id="11219916-ac03-49a8-ae71-be52cee6d5bf">More employers could turn to automation</h2>Jason Leverant, COO and president at AtWork Group, a staffing firm focused on areas including advanced manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing, told BI that a focus on bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US — so-called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-manufacturing-production-boom-economy-made-in-america-trade-war-2024-10">reshoring efforts</a> that are already underway — could further help boost momentum in hiring for workers <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/employers-dropping-degree-requirements-slow-to-hire-for-skills-2024-10">without college degrees</a>.Yet, Leverant said, reshoring could be more expensive for employers and, when combined with talent shortages, could push more <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-wont-take-as-many-jobs-as-feared-altman-2024-9">companies to automate</a> where possible.Reduced immigration could also harm industries like construction and agriculture, where immigrants often fill many roles, he said."Do we start seeing a skills gap or a talent gap there?" Leverant said. He said such a chasm could eventually push wages higher in those areas if employers grow desperate for workers.Leverant said a focus by some in Trump's inner circle, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, on areas like workplace <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-optimus-humanoid-robots-robotaxi-day-2024-10">automation</a> could mean as some aspects of jobs go away, workers who get the right training could take on "more complex roles that even advanced robotics can't touch right now."<h2 id="efdae223-ce1f-4c24-b0c3-4c4f63bde68d">A postelection rush to hire</h2>Aaron Cleavinger, a managing partner at Murdoch Mason Executive Search Group, told BI that he's been "inundated" with new search requests from clients since the election.He said that likely reflects a mix of the typical end-of-year ramp-up and also several months' worth of demand by employers, particularly in areas like manufacturing, that held off posting jobs because of political uncertainty."Anything that they've been delaying for the last couple of months, they're finally releasing," Cleavinger said, referring to employers and job postings.Cleavinger said that in many cases, employers might have been agnostic about which candidate won and instead just wanted to know which way it would break."They say, 'Hey, just tell me what I can count on, and then I can build a plan around that,'" he said.Cleavinger said demand for hiring will vary by industry, as it often does. Yet he said for small and medium-sized companies, optimism that there could be tax cuts could help boost budgets for hiring.<h2 id="dfe0f4e6-90ea-4cf9-bd4f-582908e761ca">Obstacles could emerge</h2>Even as some employers look to increase hiring, getting — and keeping — a job might get harder for some workers. Peter Rahbar, an employment attorney and founder of the boutique law firm The Rahbar Group, told BI that he expects to see an erosion of protections afforded to federal workers, including those seeking jobs.If enforcement of antidiscrimination laws becomes deprioritized, Rahbar said, that could make it harder for some people, including women and minorities, to land and retain jobs.Rahbar said reductions to immigration could hurt industries beyond agriculture and construction, including tech. That's because some tech companies needing workers rely on skilled immigrants to fill some roles.For now, though, Cleavinger, from Murdoch Mason Executive Search Group, expects demand for workers will generally heat up."I expect a pretty significant uptick in hiring. We usually see that anyway at the end of the year, but I think it'll be a little more pronounced now," Cleavinger said.

What Trump's election victory means for job seekers

For Saumya Bhatnagar, being the only woman in a room is far from a novel experience. An engineer by training and currently the co-founder and chief product officer at AI sales rep startup Jeeva, she remembers being the sole girl in her high school's 170-person <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5-tips-women-career-coding-twilio-2020-8">coding class</a> — and that none of her male peers would sit next to her."I had to make space for myself, and there were plenty of micro and macro aggressions in the grand scheme of things that I had to talk my way through," she told Business Insider. "At the end of the day, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/women-left-out-of-the-ai-investment-boom-risks-bias-2023-10">it's a man's world</a> in the VC, startups, and AI space."Bhatnagar isn't alone in her journey. Although the number of women-founded startups has increased, less than 3% of venture capital funding went to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capital-decline-hurts-female-founders-gender-gap-startup-funding-2023-12">female-only founding teams</a> in 2022, according to PitchBook.A handful of women who are well-known as leaders in the AI space — including "Godmother of AI" <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-like-khosla-and-a16z-backing-robotics-that-use-ai-2024-7">Fei Fei Li</a>, Anthropic president and co-founder Daniela Amodei, and OpenAI's former chief technology officer Mira Murati. But others building startups report facing various gender-related obstacles to success, including bias in the fundraising process, limited mentorship opportunities, and difficulty building meaningful business relationships with men.In the AI sector specifically, which has surged in popularity since the release of ChatGPT two years ago, the challenges for female founders are even more pronounced. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-18-women-who-made-partner-vc-firms-in-2023-2023-11">AI continues to attract significant VC interest</a>, but women in the space face additional barriers compared to their male counterparts, starting at the education level.While a degree in engineering or computer science isn't a requirement for launching an AI company, it's often a prerequisite for techies building foundational models to tackle complex machine-learning problems. Women accounted for just 22% of AI and computer science PhD programs in the US in 2019, according to a Deloitte study.Women in 2020 made up an estimated 26% of data and AI positions in the workforce, per a World Economic Forum report. And <a target="_blank" href="https://www.uktech.news/diversity/ai-funding-women-founders-20240319">recent data from the UK </a>shows that only about 4% of AI startups in the country have women founders.Although Bhatnagar is among the small group of women in the space with advanced technical chops, she says she still notices the gender imbalance in the AI world — and that it, at times, has led to her feeling impostor syndrome and burnout.Developing relationships with other women working in the AI space has become a vital lifeline, she said. An active member of online and in-person groups, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.womenandai.com/">Women and AI</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://thewomenweadmire.com/">Women We Admire</a>, Bhatnagar said that she's made connections that support her in navigating difficult business dynamics, connecting with female investors, and finding solace in shared experiences."Women are not comfortable asking for help, and there's this idea that perfectionism needs to be showcased at all times," she said. "Finding a community of women has helped me take risks and realize that I'm actually doing okay," she said.Vivien Ho, a partner at early-stage fund Pear VC, has watched the meteoric rise of buzzy AI startups during the last two years and noticed that many are run by men, she said. But as a longtime community builder in the Bay Area tech scene, this didn't jive with what she was seeing on the ground. There were plenty of women interested in building AI companies, she said. Many just didn't know how to start.This observation was the catalyst for the Female Founder Circles, a community for women engineers interested in building AI startups. Each FFC cycle welcomes a cohort of around 50 women for two months of programming that includes fireside chats with existing female AI founders, company-building workshops with Pear investment partners, and other in-person events designed to help women build meaningful relationships with one another, such as pitch competitions, spa days, and public speaking practice.Demand for FFC has exploded, Ho said, with more than 500 women applying for the most recent cohort that kicked off last month. And the program has already been a success: more than 70% of participants end up incorporating their startups, and at least five women have matched with another female co-founder in their cohort, she said."Three of our FFC founders have already raised Series Bs, which is pretty incredible," Ho told BI. "We first meet them, and they're really shy, and then three years later, they're running a 100-person company and making eight figures. It's incredible to see how we can build a community that makes a difference."As women in AI create opportunities that could help them succeed, their work parallels women in another once-white-hot subsector of the startup world: at the height of the crypto craze, female-led blockchain startups earned about 6.4% of venture dollars in the third quarter of 2022, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bitget.com/blog/articles/bitget-report-the-gender-gap-in-blockchain-startup-funding-press-release">according to data from Bitget</a>.Funding in the space has dropped off dramatically during the last two years, and women continue to struggle when it comes to connecting with investors and closing rounds, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/08/29/what-web3-data-reveals-about-gender-inequality-in-the-crypto-industry/">Forbes recently reported</a>.For Shreya Rajpal, Pear VC's FFC was one of the first times she felt genuine, positive support from the people around her. As a software engineer who cut her teeth in startups and on Apple's machine learning initiatives, she was accustomed to being the only woman whose work was judged with more scrutiny than that of her male coworkers."There are a lot of men who aren't very supportive, and being the only woman on a team means that they're often an undue level of attention on your work, so you stand out, for better or for worse," Rejpal told BI. "Pretty early on, it was obvious that I kind of needed to justify my space in the room a lot more compared to other folks."Fast forward to today, and Rajpal is the CEO and co-founder of Guardrails AI, which builds risk and reliability systems for generative AI programs. As she's progressed in her career, she's made an effort to build community with other women in tech. It's work that takes significant time, but it's been "life changing" in terms of succeeding as a founder and well worth the effort, she said.Guardrails earlier this year raised a $7.5 million seed funding round led by Zetta Venture Partners with participation from Pear, Bloomberg Beta, and GitHub Fund.In addition to participating in bigger groups like FFC, Rajpal has sought out mentorship opportunities with other women in engineering, machine learning, and project management."I became friends with a woman who is five to six years older than me and in the industry for that much longer, doing the things that I wanted to do," she said. "Hearing from her and what worked for her, in terms of changing jobs and talking to her about how she made those decisions, was the stuff that ended up being really impactful for me."Stephanie Guo, a partner at Sapphire Ventures based in San Francisco, is constantly iterating on community events for women interested in AI that strike the right balance between informational – think fireside chats and panel discussions – and informal ways for women to form connections that turn into mentor relationships.These events aren't just for would-be founders: Guo says that while the number of female-funded AI startups can sometimes seem "abysmally small," she's encouraged by the number of women who hold leadership positions at AI startups, funds, and bigger companies."We're creating both the space to have dialogue, but also a networking opportunity," Guo told BI. "These relationships stick, and there are business opportunities that actually form from them."

For women building AI startups, finding community has been the key to success

<ul class="summary-list"><li>This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.</li></ul>Happy Veterans Day, and thanks to all those who have served! Diet starts Monday, as they say, so why not take some advice from Super Bowl-winning quarterback Drew Brees. He spoke to Business Insider about <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/drew-brees-simple-wellness-rules-2024-11">five simple wellness rules he lives by</a>.In today's big story, Silicon Valley is getting excited about what Donald Trump's second term <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-could-help-deregulate-tech-amid-a-trump-victory-2024-11">could mean for its businesses</a>.What's on deck:<ul><li>Markets: The Wall Streeters advising Trump's transition team <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-advisor-trump-lutnick-schwarzman-warsh-federal-reserve-2024-11">on key economic appointments</a>.</li><li>Tech: Check out our Tesla salary database that shows how Elon Musk courts 'hardcore' workers <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-salary-database-elon-musk-pay-strategy-2024-11">with potentially lucrative stock grants</a>.</li><li>Business: The anxiety over high prices has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retirement-saving-inflation-cost-of-living-crisis-investing-401k-pensions-2024-11">some Americans oversaving</a>.</li></ul>But first, time to get things going again.If this was forwarded to you, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-today">sign up here.</a><h3 id="7fa5f018-5b05-4a37-a8dc-d3f89138bcb3">The big story</h3><h2 id="5fd547b9-ec52-41fc-8e08-4f4b27dd8097">United States of Startups</h2><div type="image" title="Photo illustration of laptop, stacks of coins, stars and stripes" height="960" width="1920" msid="115186105" hostid="261" sizebytes="101980"></div>The startup community is ready to be let off its leash.VCs and founders are hopeful about what they anticipate to be a much looser environment for building and dealmaking under President-elect Donald Trump.Tech was always viewed as a beneficiary of the deregulation expected in Trump's second term. But Elon Musk potentially playing a role in the Trump administration means <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-could-help-deregulate-tech-amid-a-trump-victory-2024-11">Silicon Valley could benefit even more</a>, writes Business Insider's Samantha Stokes, Riddhi Kanetkar, and Helen Li.One VC compared Musk streamlining the government to a "chainsaw through calcified butter."Even those who weren't rooting for Trump <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-trump-return-startups-venture-capital-2024-11">see benefits to a potential hands-off approach to their space</a>, which has faced turmoil in recent years.After years of big funding rounds, high-profile deals, and flashy IPOs, the startup environment has been much more rocky recently. There are many reasons for that — high interest rates, an uncertain economy, the market being somewhat overvalued — but a Biden administration that took a hard line on M&amp;A played a key role.FTC commissioner Lina Khan's attempt to block multiple deals has chilled the industry. Acquisitions are startups' most viable exit opportunity with the IPO window largely closed.The industry became somewhat stuck in place. Money tied up in startups couldn't be reinvested, and employees working at young companies waited for a liquidity event.<div type="image" title="Trump in shadow" height="1279" width="1920" msid="115186097" hostid="261" sizebytes="20896"></div>Trump's impact on the industry's hottest segment — artificial intelligence — isn't as clear.The space is already evolving as some of the biggest companies in the world are picking sides and consolidating power with partnerships and investments in high-profile startups. That was evident last week with a report that Amazon <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-gaining-on-openai-ai-market-2024-11">was considering investing in Anthropic again</a>.The US is already investigating Microsoft and Nvidia over their AI dealings. Trump's deregulation approach could free up the space.But regulators launched investigations and filed lawsuits against Big Tech during Trump's first term. The president-elect also has a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-presidency-affect-big-tech-2024-11">complicated relationship with tech giants</a>, even threatening to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-mark-zuckerberg-sent-prison-elected-truth-social-2024-7">send Meta's Mark Zuckerberg to jail</a>. And Vice President-elect JD Vance previously said Khan is "doing a pretty good job" in her antitrust enforcement.Musk has also had run-ins with Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and OpenAI's Sam Altman, and his AI startup, xAI, is looking to compete in the space.And then there's Trump's immigration policy. The president-elect pledged to conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. It's unclear if and how he might reshape the legal immigration system <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-immigration-policy-ai-tech-worker-shortage-2024-11">that places high-skilled workers from outside the US in tech jobs</a>, including those in AI.<h3 id="77f31a4c-8462-4e3d-a71f-838cb79493fb">News brief</h3><h2 id="1fcd294b-3f53-425f-9f20-4093e8623b59">Top headlines</h2><ul><li>The coming <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coming-reign-only-child-americans-fewer-babies-siblings-costs-2024-11">reign of the only child</a>.</li><li>Elon Musk has named his <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-pushes-rick-scott-for-senate-majority-leader-2024-11">top choice for Senate majority leader</a>.</li><li>Forget swing states. Here's how the generations <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-generations-voted-trump-harris-gen-z-gen-x-boomers-2024-11">flipped on Election Day</a>.</li><li>What needs to go right for Intel, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intel-dow-jones-ai-chip-lag-2024-11">and what happens if it doesn't</a>.</li><li>Trump's plan for Social Security will help baby boomers in the short run and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tax-cuts-social-security-boomers-benefit-fund-depletion-2024-11">cut benefits for anyone younger</a>.</li></ul><h2 id="8120060b-ae66-48dc-b149-f0489a30ffa2">3 things in markets</h2><div type="image" title="Donald Trump and the Wall St. sign" height="1500" width="2000" msid="115186103" hostid="261" sizebytes="227372"></div><ol><li>Who Trump is turning to on Wall Street for advice. Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick is co-chair of Donald Trump's transition team, and he's looking to his Wall Street peers for help. Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, and Charles Schwab are reportedly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-advisor-trump-lutnick-schwarzman-warsh-federal-reserve-2024-11">some of the people lending their expertise to Lutnick</a>.</li><li>Citadel Securities just poached a 20-year Microsoft vet. Herb Sutter is joining Ken Griffin's market maker <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-citadel-securities-hired-coding-expert-microsoft-herb-sutter-2024-11">in a new tech leadership role</a>. Sutter is an expert in C++, the coding language that underpins most of Citadel Securities' technology.</li><li>Bitcoin's big hopes for Trump 2.0. The self-described "crypto president" flipped from cynic to cheerleader during his campaign. Now that he's headed back to the White House, crypto supporters hope for <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-crypto-industry-donald-trump-election-reserve-regulation-sec-2024-11">regulatory overhaul and an expanded mainstream role</a> for the digital currency.</li></ol><h2 id="f4b54806-7f81-450c-ba32-92560d4fae9b">3 things in tech</h2><div type="image" title="Elon Musk" height="1500" width="2000" msid="115186106" hostid="261" sizebytes="652194"></div><ol><li>Inside Tesla's high-risk, high-reward compensation strategy. BI secured access to an internal Tesla salary database covering nearly 100,000 employees as of December 2021. The data reveals Elon Musk's pay strategy: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-salary-database-elon-musk-pay-strategy-2024-11">Lower salaries, bigger stock grants</a>.</li><li>How Reddit went mainstream. Not long ago, Reddit wasn't for everyone. It was a dark, weird little corner that prided itself on free speech but could quickly get ugly for users. Today, Reddit's community-driven content attracts users who would rather rely on human input than AI. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-mainstream-google-traffic-stock-revenue-human-users-2024-11">In that sense, it's a bit like the new Google</a>.</li><li>Behind Nvidia's plans to build robot brains. Nvidia robotics executive Rev Lebaredian told BI about the chipmaker's plans to tackle its newest frontier, bridging generative AI and physical robotics. The secret? <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rev-lebaredian-spearheads-nvidias-omniverse-push-in-ai-and-robotics-2024-11">Visualize the future, then build it</a>.</li></ol><h2 id="9260fa45-d397-4b3c-b4f8-4bb193976216">3 things in business</h2><div type="image" title="woman anxious in a pile of money with a house on top." height="846" width="1128" msid="115186104" hostid="261" sizebytes="133984"></div><ol><li>The high cost-of-living has some Americans going overboard with saving. Plenty of people in the US live paycheck to paycheck, but a growing cohort is doing the opposite. Despite having solid finances, anxiety about high prices has them <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retirement-saving-inflation-cost-of-living-crisis-investing-401k-pensions-2024-11">saving more than is recommended</a>. Stockpiling cash could ultimately cost them as they miss out on investment gains.</li><li>Don't poll the election; bet on it. In the weeks leading up to his victory, polls showed a virtual tie between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Yet prediction markets showed a solid Trump lead, proving what proponents have long argued: they can be more accurate than traditional polling. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/betting-markets-polls-trump-election-win-polymarket-kalshi-2024-11">Prediction markets' biggest cheerleaders explained why</a>.</li><li>Economists say Trump will give Americans the very thing they voted against. High prices helped Trump get elected. Experts say his proposals of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-election-win-high-inflation-risk-tariffs-deportations-taxes-2024-11">lower taxes, higher tariffs, and mass deportations will be inflationary</a>. It could also make the Fed's recent rate-cut relief painfully short-lived if it's forced to hike rates again in response.</li></ol><h2 id="9f5d80ac-3466-429f-a50a-2ffbb70c65ff">What's happening today</h2><ul><li>It's Veterans Day. The nation's largest commemorative parade takes place in New York City.</li><li>The World Meteorological Organization releases the "State of the Climate" update at the UN's climate-change summit in Azerbaijan.</li></ul>The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Ella Hopkins, associate editor, in London. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York. Milan Sehmbi, fellow, in London.

Startups are ready to thrive under Trump, but some uncertainty remains in a key corner of the space

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The tech industry is anticipating an upswing thanks to Trump's election this week.</li><li>VCs expect possible deregulation to boost innovation, with Musk potentially influencing government policies.</li></ul>Some venture capitalists <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-trump-return-startups-venture-capital-2024-11">expect US President Donald Trump</a> to dial back regulation, potentially making it easier to develop new technologies and do business in Silicon Valley. Many of these hopes are pinned on Elon Musk's involvement in the new administration."The most exciting thing of all will be putting Elon in charge of government efficiency," Ben Narasin, founder and general partner of Tenacity Venture Capital, told BI of the election outcome. "He's going to take a chainsaw through calcified butter, and it's going to be awesome to attack the bloat and overreach that we've had in the government."Trump is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-could-be-donald-trump-advisor-wsj-reports-2024-5">reportedly considering Musk</a> for White House roles, including ones that would audit various federal programs and organizations.Musk, in turn, has proposed creating a "Department of Government Efficiency" — cheekily nicknamed DOGE, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/history-elon-musk-love-affair-dogecoin-2022-7">a nod to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin</a> — that he said would remove dealmaking regulations that have slowed M&amp;A in the tech sector in recent years.While many in Silicon Valley dislike Trump, many VCs and startup founders crave more freedom to pursue riskier new technologies unburdened by regulation. In short, tech is stoked about this."Trump-Vance ticket is the first unabashedly pro-tech presidency in our Nation's history," said Augustus Doricko, CEO and founder of cloud seeding startup Rainmaker. He expects an onslaught of tech innovation during the Trump administration.In conversations with more than a dozen VCs and Silicon Valley executives following the election, many have echoed this sentiment — including those who supported Kamala Harris in the election."With a major push to remove unnecessary red tape and over-regulation in key areas, we could really have a century of crazy building, innovation, and acceleration," Aaron Levie, the CEO of cloud company Box and a Harris supporter, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://twitter.com/levie/status/1854237056287060266">posted on X Wednesday. </a>"Excited for Elon's efforts here."Mark Pincus, an early Facebook investor and the founder of Zynga, responded on X, "Effective accelerationism! E-acc," referring to the recent Silicon Valley movement that wants <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/effective-accelerationism-humans-replaced-by-ai-2023-12">technological advancements in AI</a> to move as fast as possible, without any guardrails.<h2 id="04af9d99-2642-43c3-875c-92cb63b01ca9">Regulation has held Silicon Valley back in recent years</h2>VCs during Biden's presidency have complained about how tough it's been to get deals done. The outgoing administration was an antitrust enforcer and put many tech mergers and acquisitions on hold that it deemed anti-competitive. This is particularly galling for VCs because they rely on selling startups in M&amp;A deals for many of their exits and returns.Limits on tech M&amp;A have "caused the rate of venture capital return of distributed proceeds to fall drastically, making new capital formation near impossible," said Louis Lehot, a top tech lawyer at law firm Foley &amp; Lardner. Silicon Valley is looking for a relaxation in the government's stance here "to enable exits and new capital formation, which is the cycle of innovation," he added.For example, regulatory pressure had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-23/google-s-aborted-deals-for-wiz-hubspot-show-antitrust-s-shadow-over-tech">dampened deal-making at Google</a>, with the tech giant abandoning two potential purchases this year, including cybersecurity startup Wiz, which would have been one of the tech giant's biggest-ever acquisitions.The US also opened antitrust investigations into <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-acquihire-deal-inflection-ai-antitrust-probe-us-regulators-competition-2024-6">Microsoft</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-backs-justice-department-nvidia-antitrust-investigation-2024-9">Nvidia</a> earlier this year over their dominance in the hot AI space. The Federal Trade Commission is probing Microsoft's aqui-hire of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-hired-inflection-team-amid-board-concerns-about-openai-2024-3">Inflection AI,</a> and the Department of Justice is investigating Nvidia's acquisition of Israeli AI startup Run:ai.While some lawmakers say that allowing a few companies to influence the majority of AI research, development, and monetization poses an economic risk, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-vcs-in-silicon-valley-2024-7">many VCs have cried foul and accused FTC commissioner Lina Khan</a> — who has frequently sued to block mergers — of an anti-business bent and say it's tricked down to closing fewer startups deals, too.Investors were also critical of what they call <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-influence-election-trump-harris-2024-10">unclear rules for cryptocurrency under the Biden regulation</a>. Many VCs and founders in the space donated to Trump and other Republican candidates, which they consider more favorable toward crypto technologies and markets.VCs are now hopeful that Trump <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-presidency-affect-big-tech-2024-11">could roll back</a> some antitrust and crypto policies that a Harris administration may have continued, although nothing is certain about the new administration's approach.Trump's running mate and former VC JD Vance has <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4491363-vance-biden-ftc-chief-is-doing-a-pretty-good-job/">publicly said</a> that Khan is "doing a pretty good job," referring to her antitrust enforcement for Big Tech companies. At the end of Trump's first term, regulators under his administration launched antitrust investigations into Big Tech companies, including Amazon; and filed antitrust lawsuits against Google and Meta."At a high level, we expect Trump to cut corporate taxes and regulations, helping startup M&amp;A and investment," said Mason Angel, general partner at Industrious Ventures. "We may see new acquisition efforts by big tech with a new FTC director."Musk's influence could also help slim down the government's involvement in tech deals, these VCs told BI."Elon is a positive force who's had to run multiple companies that are heavily regulated, so he has a realistic view; since he's lived it, he can be influential," Narasin said of Musk's track record of building Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. "He's pro-startup, pro-business, pro-everything that will help the US population. A good, healthy economy is good for everybody."<h2 id="a31623cb-2e54-4906-802e-37c294e98064">VCs anticipate an innovation boom</h2>America is a country of entrepreneurs, and that's especially true in Silicon Valley. Some VCs and founders say that having an entrepreneur like Musk influencing the Trump administration and potentially wiping away regulations will bring prosperity to the industry.Indeed, <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trump-trade-us-presidential-election-dollar-treasuries-stocks-crypto-djt-2024-11">the stock market responded exuberantly</a> to Trump's decisive win on Tuesday night, which could eventually be a boon to venture firms seeking investments. Limited partners such as pensions and endowments have been choosier recently thanks to high interest rates and few exit options for startups. But their return to funding venture firms would, in turn, mean that more founders are building and getting funded."I would like to see the President given the power to unilaterally remove, or at least streamline, regulations around major projects or economic areas that will make it possible to actually build new things," tech blogger Ben Thompson <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://stratechery.com/2024/president-trump-take-two-big-tech-little-tech-chips-and-hardware-elon-musks-triumph/">wrote after the election.</a> "There needs to be a way to cut through all of the red tape that has accumulated.""I think the next four years will be imbued with aspirational mega-projects and visionary initiatives without precedent," Rainmaker's Doricko said. "New cities. Lunar and Martian colonization. Free electricity. Weather control."Angel, whose VC firm invests in the space, industrial, and defense sectors, says that those industries will experience strong growth."Trump created the Space Force in 2019, and his close relationship with Elon Musk will bring renewed attention and government investment into the field," Industrious Ventures' Angel said. "Same goes for the US industrial and defense bases."As various sectors within the tech industry ebb and flow, VCs say they're optimistic about the idea of having one of their own helping to call the shots at the federal level."Elon's going to be an enormously positive monster who delivers a cleaned up, slimmed down, pro-business government, and there will be prosperity for everybody," Narasin said.

Silicon Valley is betting a Musk-inspired Trump could unleash a startup boom

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mario Vasquez Zuniga cofounded a consulting business last year after leaving his full-time job.</li><li>Vasquez Zuniga said it was daunting at first, but networking and finding mentors helped him.</li></ul>Mario Vasquez Zuniga, 29, got a taste of entrepreneurship three years before he launched his own business.In 2020, he helped his mother and stepfather open Petals Florist Shop, a brick-and-mortar flower and gift shop in Palmdale, California. They managed the store while Vasquez Zuniga helped them with marketing, in addition to balancing his full-time job as a digital consultant at Lucas Public Affairs, a communications firm. But he craved something more."I was kind of feeling stagnant in my growth and really just wanted something more," he said. "It made sense for me to take a step back on work and try to recalibrate where I wanted to be, where I saw myself in the next couple of years, and who I wanted to be."In 2023, Vasquez Zuniga quit his job and cofounded Collective, a consulting firm, with former colleague Thea Appling. Their business focuses on creative and strategic communications for business owners, advocacy groups, and nonprofits in the Sacramento area.After a year in business, the duo booked $400,000 in revenue, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider.Vasquez Zuniga is one of many people trying their hand at entrepreneurship in recent years. According to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/small-business-and-entrepreneurship-in-the-post-covid-expansion">Treasury Department</a>, there have been over 19 million business applications since 2020, when the pandemic spurred an entrepreneurship boom.To be sure, business applications don't always turn into successful companies. And about one in four US-based businesses fail within the first year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Vasquez Zuniga said taking a chance on entrepreneurship was daunting, but there were tangible steps he took to determine if his idea was fit for execution."It was a really hard decision to leave a comfortable salaried job for the unknown," he said. "But I was able to find some work and potential clients to work with, so it gave me that sort of confidence to be able to leave my job."In fact, he said talking to and leaning on others for advice is key to entrepreneurship.<h2 id="3f3456a3-c66b-432c-8d4a-0265734cbc49">Get your ducks in a row before launching</h2>Vasquez Zuniga and his mother moved to the US from El Salvador when he was a child, and he said they were a low-income household as he grew up.Vasquez Zuniga is a first-generation college graduate who earned his degree from San Francisco State University in 2016. After finishing school, he pursued a career in communications and public affairs.He said he enjoyed working for a large company but desired more flexibility and wanted to pursue something more creative. But he knew entrepreneurship wasn't a surefire way to make money — in fact, his mother and stepfather shuttered their floral business three years after launching."The financial part was scary," Vasquez Zuniga said. "I probably had enough savings to get me through four months, but I was also thinking about health insurance and how expensive that was."Vasquez Zuniga said it was essential to "get his ducks in a row" before starting his business. That meant talking to trusted friends and colleagues, doing thorough research, and leveraging publicly available resources from the Small Business Administration to craft a detailed business plan."Immediately when I decided to do this, my first phone calls were to a bookkeeper, a CPA, and a friend who's a lawyer," Vasquez Zuniga said.He said completing rigorous research about product-market fit and business management is consequential to succeeding as an entrepreneur.For example, he works with a mentoring program through Sacramento Valley Small Business Development Center."I can ask these kinds of questions where I'm trying to figure out a pricing model or trying to understand how I put a value to my hourly rate," he said. "A lot of those things you can research but they're not very clear, and it takes conversations."Additionally, Vasquez Zuniga was part of an entrepreneurial program through Immigrants Rising — a nonprofit organization that provides mentorship and business resources — that included courses on how to start a business and connected him with HR and legal experts.<h2 id="013c7fcb-30f4-4fd8-b3a0-9c2d7898441f">Seeking advice from friends and colleagues can lead to business opportunities</h2>Vasquez Zuniga said that aspiring entrepreneurs should take time to talk honestly with trusted friends, colleagues, and advisors about their business ideas.For example, a mentor advised Vasquez Zuniga not to undervalue himself or his work, and make sure he was earning what he should.When he left his job at Lucas Public Affairs, Vasquez Zuniga said his bosses were supportive of his decision and helped him find contract work for Collective.What's more, these conversations can lead to finding clients."I joke sometimes that my job is lunch because I go to lunch with a lot of people in my network," Vasquez Zuniga said. "Just to check in, let them know what I'm up to, try to figure out what they're up to, and if there's any way that I can help them, or if there's any overlap, or if they've heard of any projects or people."Vasquez Zuniga also said he hasn't shied away from offering pro-bono consulting work to establish his credibility with a potential client."We're still very much at the infancy stages of marketing our own company, yet we have been able to make a lot of these connections through people in our network," he said.Vasquez Zuniga has another advantage: He's a native Spanish speaker, and he said nearly all of the people he works with are bilingual."I think that has been a huge asset in the work that we do because we're able to translate the work, communicate the work, and even work with a lot of our clients and help them shape a narrative not just in English, but also in Spanish," Vasquez Zuniga said.Vasquez Zuniga added that setting milestones is also key for new entrepreneurs."If you don't have goals, you're just kind of aiming at nothing, and that can make you feel stagnant and unhappy with the work that you're doing," he said.Are you a small-business owner or entrepreneur? Please reach out at <a target="_blank" class="" href="mailto:jtowfighi@businessinsider.com">jtowfighi@businessinsider.com</a>

A millennial left his job to start a consulting business and booked $400k in revenue in the first year. He shares his advice on launching a startup. 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ivan Maryasin founded Monite after moving from Silicon Valley to Berlin.</li><li>He said building a business in the US is expensive due to hiring and living costs.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Ivan Maryasin, 31, about moving from the US to Germany and launching his startup, Monite, in Berlin. The following has been edited for length and clarity.In 2014, I left Russia to do my master's in international business at the Hult International Business School in Massachusetts.I had a background in marketing from jobs in Russia and wanted to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/work-visa-moved-usa-canada-immigrants-2024-7">work in America</a>. While studying, I started working in the IT industry, doing marketing. It was a great introduction to innovation and startups.During my course, I transferred to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-new-york-london-tech-where-to-live-2024-8">San Francisco</a> campus and then stuck around working for multiple tech companies, designing and implementing growth strategies.But in 2017, I <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/surprising-things-moving-to-germany-from-us-2024-9">moved to Germany</a> to be closer to my then-fiancée, who I'd met in Moscow. We found it challenging to find a visa pathway that allowed her to move to the US and work as a dependant, so we both moved to Berlin. I got an EU Blue Card, and she was able to come with me as my partner with permission to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/german-vs-american-work-life-differences-according-to-us-mom-2024-4">work in Germany</a>.I already had plans to start my own company. However, as the cost of living in the US was starting to climb, I thought Europe would be a great location for a new business.I planned to continue working for startups in Europe before launching my company. I worked in HR tech and fintech, and in 2020, I cofounded <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/monite/company_financials">Monite</a>, a company that enables SMB platforms like Neobanks to embed automated features for things like invoicing to support their clients.I built the startup from the ground up to a 45-person team and raised over <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/monite-german-fintech-startup-raises-6m-funding-from-valar-ventures-2024-2#:~:text=The%20startup%20has%20raised%20a%20top%2Dup%20to%20its%20seed%20round%2C%20led%20by%20Third%20Prime%2C%20in%20March%202023%2C%20taking%20its%20total%20funding%20to%20%2417.4%20million">$17 million</a> from investors.I like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/things-to-do-in-berlin-germany-best-activities">Berlin</a> because it's a more affordable place to live and build a business, plus it's well connected to the rest of Europe. Here's how its startup ecosystem compares to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dating-silicon-valley-big-tech-hard-want-marriage-kids-2024-7">Silicon Valley</a>.<h2 id="e195bed4-45cb-4bba-ae91-f1e151fc0492">Berlin was a more affordable location to start Monite</h2>When I left the US, I visited multiple places in Europe and spoke to people in several cities, including Zurich, Barcelona, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-surprises-moving-to-london-according-to-american-2024-10">London</a>, to help me decide where to move. Part of the reason I chose Berlin is because its tech scene was really on the rise.There were a lot of founder meetups, pitch events, and accelerators in the city. Local funding was also available. At that time, I felt German funds had strong institutional support and seemed the most forthcoming in Europe. It's very common to speak English in Berlin, and I feel this is an advantage for startups because it attracts talent from the US, UK, and beyond.The cost of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-start-and-grow-a-business-founders-advice-2023-1">building a business</a> in the US is high due to the cost of living and hiring. As long as I could still fundraise in the US, which became easier because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I preferred Europe. My journey in the States made it easier for me to know how the US market worked when it came to fundraising.The cost of living in Berlin is lower. When I lived in San Francisco and the Valley, I paid more in rent and needed a car to get around. In Berlin, I mostly get around by bike. Everything is a few minutes away, and there's less traffic.Berlin is well-connected to Europe. You can get almost anywhere in Europe in a few hours. Having moved from California, it was wonderful to be able to see family members in Europe and go on getaways more easily.<h2 id="42d233d4-0ad7-46eb-b81a-fdfde2cf12fc">There are some downsides to living in Berlin</h2>It's difficult to find US-level talent in Europe. A lot of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-best-cities-work-life-balance-ranking-2023-6">Europeans are focused on work-life balance</a>, but I'm a workaholic.It's hard to find people with the same values or who'll know what you're talking about when you say, "Silicon Valley benchmark." This refers to the strong emphasis on rapid scaling, competitiveness, and continuous self-improvement. In the US, I had friends working for LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Facebook, so I could see this benchmark in front of me.The European investment ecosystem is much more risk-averse. In America, failure is seen as part of the game, with a strong focus on the potential upside.In Europe, the approach tends to be more cautious and conservative, with more emphasis on mitigating risks. I do think that's now starting to shift, but historically, that's been one of the hardest things to overcome in the market.I feel lucky and grateful to have raised money and for the support I've had. However, it's not easy to be a founder without a background in Germany because having local connections has traditionally been valuable. In the US, it isn't unusual to be a foreign founder.While <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/german-vs-american-parenting-relocation-berlin-kids-independent-helicopter-parenting-2024-10">living in Berlin</a>, I think it's necessary to be strategic about getting the assets I need from other places. Monite is headquartered in Berlin, and I mostly live here, but I also travel a lot to places like the US and London to meet people and get inspiration. We also have a couple of employees in the States.<h2 id="bc7c8b3f-e6df-4494-bc91-d8696a768513">I like living in Europe, but wouldn't rule out returning to America</h2>Most people in Silicon Valley are focused on startups and innovation. If you're all about work and want to focus 24/7, Silicon Valley is the place to be.But that also depends on whether you can be there. It's not accessible to everyone due to the high visa barriers. For example, the H-1B visa has a lottery system, and I know people who went to MIT and Harvard who either didn't want the hassle or didn't win the lottery, so had to leave.Living in the Valley wasn't for me because it meant compromising on family relationships and the ability to see friends in Europe.That said, I won't say I'd never go back to San Francisco. If the business required me to be in the States, I'd find a way to make it work for my family. But my preference is to live in Europe and be in the States often enough to get the benefits.Do you have a relocation story you want to share with Business Insider? Email <a target="_blank" href="mailto:ccheong@businessinsider.com">ccheong@businessinsider.com</a>

I left Silicon Valley for Europe. Here's why I chose to launch my startup in Berlin.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Before he was the vice president-elect or a senator, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-vice-president-jd-vance-career-facts-2024-7">JD Vance</a> was a venture capitalist.</li><li>He maintains ownership stakes in several funds, according to his disclosure forms.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/election-results-congress-historic-firsts-2024-11">JD Vance</a> is a man of many careers: attorney, author, senator, vice president-elect, and, perhaps less well-known, venture capitalist.For about six years between graduating from law school and becoming a United States senator from Ohio, Vance held various positions in the space before eventually starting his own fund, Narya Capital.Over his career, Vance has been involved in investments across a broad range of business areas. Through Narya, he continues to hold a portfolio of investments in several startups, though he gave up his role as a partner there in 2022 and doesn't actively run or advise any of the companies.<h2 id="4b0a6db6-89d6-4a96-93e8-e561475e4b10">Vance's early VC career</h2>After a brief stint at a now-defunct biotech startup, Vance got a job at his benefactor <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel">Peter Thiel's</a> venture fund Mithril Capital.He went on to work as a managing partner at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-of-the-rest-steve-case-jd-vance-2018-1">Rise of the Rest</a>, part of Steve Case's Revolution venture firm. The fund's mission is to invest in companies outside major tech hubs — New York, Silicon Valley, Boston — and Vance, whose outsider persona was cemented by his memoir <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-transformation-trump-vice-president-2024-7">"Hillbilly Elegy"</a>, was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-venture-capital-opioid-nonprofit-tech-record-ohio-senate-2021-8">seen as a perfect fit for the fund</a>.Vance was active in a number of deals for the firm, including leading investments in storage-sharing startup Neighbor, agtech company AppHarvest, and AI outfit Pryon, Rise of the Rest confirmed.<h2 id="114f37cf-0035-49cd-8b40-1bd02d5bdb6c">Vance co-founded Narya Capital in 2019</h2>After two years, Vance broke out on his own, cofounding <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hillbilly-elegy-jd-vance-launches-vc-fund-backed-by-thiel-2020-1">Narya Capital</a> in 2019 with investments from Thiel, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and VC veteran Marc Andreessen.Vance still owns pieces of the funds that he helped advise. According to his vice president and senate disclosure forms, he has a stake in Narya Capital Fund I, Narya Capital Fund II, and Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.His stake in Narya Capital Fund I is worth between $500,001 and $1 million. His holdings through Narya's Capital Fund II and the Rise of the Rest's Seed Fund are smaller, worth as much as $15,000 and $250,000, respectively, according to his disclosure forms.Through all three funds, he holds a portfolio of investments in dozens of startups. He doesn't actively run or advise any of the companies, and gave up his role as a partner in Narya in December 2022 after winning his senate seat, according to disclosure forms.It's not entirely clear which Rise of the Rest companies Vance has a stake in. The fund has two $150 million investment vehicles and did not disclose which portfolio companies are in which fund.Narya, meanwhile, has only completed one fundraise so far — its $120 million Fund I. The fund has a dozen active investments, according to its website, and because Vance has a stake in the fund, he technically owns a stake in each.The companies vary in their mission: One is a gene therapy company founded by Vivek Ramaswamy's brother, while another is a Catholic meditation and prayer app. Thiel, one of Vance's mentors, is listed as a separate investor in many of the companies, per PitchBook.Some are the type of companies that could work with the government.True Anomaly, an aerospace company for which Narya participated in two rounds of funding, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.trueanomaly.space/newsroom/true-anomaly-selected-for-30m-space-systems-command-contract-in-support-of-victus-haze-tactically-responsive-space-mission">won a $30 million government contract</a> from the US Space Force in April. ValueBase, a property valuation software, lists local governments among its customer base on its website.Nayra has had two exits: <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-rumble-conservative-video-youtube-competitor-joe-rogan-2022-2">Rumble</a>, the conservative-leaning social video platform that went public in 2022, and AppHarvest, which went public in 2021.Criminal conflict of interest laws do not apply to the president and vice president.Luke Schroeder, a spokesperson for the vice president-elect, said that Vance has complied with all required disclosures and is not directly involved in the funds.<h2 id="883278a9-d442-4e81-aeb4-b282861515b7">Here are Narya's current portfolio companies</h2>Deal details, unless noted with a comment from the company, come from PitchBook.<table style="width: 652px"></colgroup></colgroup><tbody><tr><td>Company</td><td>Industry</td><td>Deal Description</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">AcreTrader</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Farmland investment</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya contributed to AcreTrader's $12 million Series B round in 2021. "Senator Vance has no involvement in AcreTrader's operations or strategic direction," the company said.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">AmplifyBio</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Biotech</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya took part in the company's $200 million, early-stage investment round in 2021.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Atomic Industries</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Manufacturing</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">In 2023, Narya contributed to a $16.5 million early-stage round.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Branch</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Insurance</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya took part in Branch's 2022 $147 million Series C. During his time at Rise of the Rest, Vance led an investment in Branch.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Chapter</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Medicare advisory</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya contributed to three of Chapter's fundraising rounds: A 2021 $17 million Series A round, 2022 $42 million Series B round, and 2024 $50 million Series C round. Peter Thiel is also an investor in Chapter.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Hallow</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Religion</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya invested in Hallow's 2021 $40 million Series B round."We worked with another partner at the fund on the investment - not with JD at all," Alex Jones, Hallow's CEO, told BI. Thiel is also an investor in Hallow.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Kriya Therapeutics</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Gene therapy</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya contributed to three of Kriya's funding rounds, including a $87.6 million Series A in 2020, $100 million Series B in 2021, and $430 million Series C in 2023. Kriya Therapeutics is founded by Shankar Ramaswamy, the brother of Vivek Ramaswamy.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Realm Alliance</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Security services</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Earlier this year, Narya took part in Realm Alliance's seed round.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Strive</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Asset Management</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya invested in Strive's $20 million seed round in 2022 and $30 million Series B earlier this year. Thiel is also an investor in Strive.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">True Anomaly</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Space</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya contributed to True Anomaly's $100 million Series B in 2023 and $17 million Series A in 2022. The company won a contract from the US government earlier this year.</td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">ValueBase</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Property valuation</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Narya took part in ValueBase's $6.3 million seed round earlier this year.</td></tr></tbody></table>

Before politics, JD Vance had a career in venture capital. Here are the startups he's invested in.

<div type="image" title="Founder Mode is the new buzzword in town" msid="113456356" hostid="261"></div> Silicon Valley is usually buzzing with new catchphrases every now and then. Earlier this year, the phrase “unbossing” captured corporate America’s imagination. The trend seems to be spreading in India as well with a few examples of companies firing middle managers. You can read more about the ‘unbossing’ trend in India here: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/article/whats-with-all-unbossing-talks-are-indian-companies-also-embracing-this-global-trend/articleshow/113395706.cms">What’s with all “Unbossing” talks?</a> Now, lo and behold, we've got a new trend straight from the minds of Silicon Valley's finest: <keyword id="23219793" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="founder-mode" source="Orion">Founder Mode</keyword>. It's like a superhero cape for CEOs but without the spandex. <keyword id="20064348" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Y-Combinator" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Y Combinator" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Y Combinator">Y Combinator</keyword> co-founder <keyword id="20555672" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paul-Graham" source="keywords">Paul Graham</keyword>, inspired by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s talk at an event, penned a blog post about Founder Mode and it got the entire startup world talking. According to Graham, when Chesky scaled Airbnb, he initially followed the widely accepted strategy: hiring skilled professionals and giving them autonomy. However, this approach felt like running a marathon in flip-flops, it simply didn’t yield the desired results. So, he decided to go full-blown "Founder Mode," which is basically being the CEO, the janitor, and the motivational speaker all at once. <div type="image" title="Paul Graham’s blog post went viral" msid="113456577" hostid="261"></div> Graham’s post points out that this experience is not unique to Chesky — many other founders have faced similar challenges and come to similar conclusions. The result is a growing recognition of ‘Founder Mode’. <h2><keyword id="23219794" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="what-is-founder-mode" source="Orion">What is Founder Mode</keyword>?</h2>Founder mode is a mindset that allows entrepreneurs to remain deeply involved in their companies’ day-to-day operations, even as they scale. As we have seen in many Hollywood movies and real-world examples like Jobs, Musks, Zuckerbergs, and Murthys, founders operate (a bit too) differently from trained executives and managers. They're like the kids who built their own fort and refuse to let anyone else touch it. On a serious note, anecdotal evidence does support that founders focus on the vision, processes, and details of the business in ways that managers typically do not. Graham's post suggests that it’s a different way of running a company — one that involves a hands-on approach to leadership, where founders engage with more than just their direct reports. <div type="image" title="Founders are different from managers" msid="113456522" hostid="261"></div> Unlike traditional corporate structures, where the top management is expected to delegate and step back, Founder Mode requires more personal involvement. Basically, when the CEO of a company is in Founder Mode, where founders bypass layers of management to interact directly with lower-level employees, they can just walk over to a junior employee and ask “What’s up?”, something that <keyword id="19903807" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Elon-Musk" source="keywords">Elon Musk</keyword> reportedly has been doing for a while. One of the core aspects of Founder Mode, according to Graham, is that founders can make decisions with a level of intuition and insight that professional managers often lack. This is largely because they’ve built the company from the ground up and have an intimate understanding of its operations, culture, and customers. In contrast, professional managers are typically brought in to optimise and scale systems that are already in place, which might often lead to decisions that feel disconnected from the original vision of the company. <h2>Steve Jobs and Apple: The classic example of Founder Mode</h2> <div type="image" title="Many experts agree that Steve Jobs is a peak example of Founder Mode" msid="113456730" hostid="261"></div> A key example that Graham used is Steve Jobs, who famously ran Apple with an almost obsessive focus on product and design. Jobs didn’t simply delegate these responsibilities to his team; he was known for being involved in the minutiae, often directly challenging decisions and leading initiatives that others might consider too detailed for a CEO. Graham drew a parallel between this approach and what Chesky realised at Airbnb — that stepping back too much can actually harm the company. Founders, Graham wrote, are often “gaslit” into believing that they should adopt a more hands-off style, only to see their businesses suffer as a result. However, many experts also believe that Founder Mode is often disastrous for companies, except for rare examples, and a balance between founder and manager modes is necessary. <h2>Founder Mode VS Manager Mode: Experts weigh in on the debate</h2> <div type="image" title="Debates around Founder Mode have been rampant across social media since the beginning of this month" msid="113456800" hostid="261"></div> Debates around Founder Mode have been rampant across social media since the beginning of this month when Graham’s blog post came out. The philosophical divide between Founder Mode and Manager Mode often compels people to choose sides, while industry veterans and experts say that it’s important to understand both approaches and companies must try to achieve a balance between them. Sonica Aron, Founder of HR advisory firm Marching Sheep, recognises the importance of managers and says that it is important to have good people in the team and empower them. Talking to Business Insider India, she says, “As a founder, I find myself to be very purpose driven and passionate about my firm. As a result, sometimes decisions tend to get driven by the heart rather than the mind. Therefore it is essential to have bright and committed people in your team, empower them, involve them in decision making. Also, as the founder, I am responsible not just for the health of my business but overall well being of my team. If they do well, we all do well.” On the other hand, Mr. Srinivasa Addepalli, founder and CEO of GlobalGyan Leadership Academy, feels that the debate of Founder Mode vs Manager mode shouldn’t exist in the first place. He told Business Insider India that according to him, “all good leaders, whether startup founders or corporate executives, must be capable of both modes and switch between them depending on the context.” He added, “The Founder Mode leader tackles problems with passion and ownership, without concern for hierarchy, precedents, or due process. However, founders must remain humble about their fragility. To ensure sustainability, the Manager Mode—focused on developing others, building structures, and codifying knowledge—becomes essential, even as it requires them to relinquish some control and accept inefficiency. For instance, Steve Jobs’ decision to set up Apple University was a classic Manager Mode action by one of the best-known founders.” Ayush Singh, Founder of MaplePods, a smart-technology business, says, “Founder Mode may inspire new entrepreneurs, but seasoned founders know building something meaningful and scalable requires more than motivation—it's about solving problems, staying resilient, and seeking real support along the journey.” <h2>The downsides of Founder Mode</h2>While there are many people who believe that entering Founder Mode is healthy, some experts argue otherwise. They say that since founders are deeply connected to their vision, staying too hands-on can lead to micromanagement and hinder the growth of a leadership team. This creates a culture of dependency and can cause chaos when a founder steps into too many areas, leading to inefficiency and fear among employees. Mr. Ankit Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Unstop, told Business Insider India, “While Founder Mode can foster an entrepreneurial culture and drive rapid growth, it comes with significant challenges related to scalability, accountability, and founder burnout. As companies scale, Founder Mode can lead to bottlenecks, as founders may find it difficult to delegate. This limits the development of a strong leadership team and may stifle creativity from other employees.” Further, he adds that intense involvement can lead to founder burnout, negatively affecting both the individual and the company. “In the long run, while Founder Mode may work for early-stage <keyword id="6362513" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups" source="Orion">startups</keyword>, founders must recognise when to step back and 'devolve'. Devolving to allow the company to grow through more traditional structures, without succumbing to excess hierarchy. Balancing innovation with scalability is key to long-term success, allowing founders to focus on strategy while empowering their teams.” Meanwhile, Aleksandr Yampolskiy, cofounder and CEO of SecurityScorecard, said in a LinkedIn article that the Founder Mode has both pros and cons. He highlighted the value of founder mode in providing visionary leadership and empowering CEOs to challenge their teams and boards when necessary. However, Yampolskiy also wrote that overstepping and micromanaging can create chaos and a culture of fear. He said that founders must learn to evolve with the company’s growth, delegating and making themselves dispensable over time. <h2> Why are people talking about Founder Mode now?</h2> <div type="image" title="Why are people talking about Founder Mode?" msid="113456851" hostid="261"></div> So, why did Graham’s blog post go viral and why are people talking about Founder mode? Discussions around Founder Mode vs Manager Mode might have been around for a long time, but Graham’s post helped a great deal in popularising the confusion that millions of founders go through. Risa Mish, a management professor at Cornell University’s Johnson College of Business, told Observer that it is “no surprise that Graham’s message has resonated with founders for whom the conventional wisdom hasn’t worked.” “It comes down to something very basic, which is that one size never fits all.” Do you have insights or personal experience to share on start-ups or latest corporate buzzwords? Contact us at businessinsider@timesinternet.in.

SIMPLY PUT: Founder Mode — the secret sauce to startup success or fancy term for hustle and micromanagement?

How many times have you stared at your (sometimes overflowing) wardrobe in horror and yelled “I have nothing to wear”? Speaking for myself when I say this: way too many times. Have I bailed on plans for this reason? Also yes. And this is why when I first came across <keyword id="23077982" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Slikk" source="keywords">Slikk</keyword>, I was more than a little intrigued. “If you can have groceries delivered to you in a few minutes, why shouldn’t the same apply to clothes?”, the app’s advertisement taunts. Slikk promises to deliver clothes in just 60 minutes in <keyword id="19895037" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bengaluru" source="keywords">Bengaluru</keyword>, where it already operates. Today’s <keyword id="20246469" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="GenZ" source="keywords">GenZ</keyword> and young millennials are highly impulsive shoppers, making them a key target group for <keyword id="23077981" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fast-fashion-brands" source="keywords">fast fashion brands</keyword>, says founder <keyword id="23077987" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="akshay-gulati" source="keywords">Akshay Gulati</keyword>. Their impulsiveness is fueled by the constant influx of new trends and designs, alongside faster delivery options. Slikk aims to address this by offering fresh collections from emerging fast fashion brands every week, along with a <keyword id="23077983" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="60-minute-delivery" source="keywords">60-minute delivery</keyword> window, providing a unique shopping experience compared to traditional fashion platforms, he adds. He did not have to call us out like that. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112681980" title="Online vendors generated 15.8 million jobs in India: e-commerce report" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Anyways, I wasted no time in downloading the app and picking out some pieces of clothing. While the sizing charts weren’t as detailed as I would’ve liked and there weren’t too many options to choose from, it seemed to do the job — considering the <keyword id="19913824" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="startup" source="keywords">startup</keyword> began operating only recently. But what really caught my attention was that not only did Slikk offer a 7-day return, it also had a “Try and Buy” option. Here, the user would have to pay Rs 50 in addition to the standard delivery fee and Slikk’s delivery executive would wait for 10 minutes at your doorstep so you could try on the products and return what wasn’t to your liking immediately. Pretty neat, no? However, my love affair with Slikk ended sourly almost as soon as it began. After I’d added some pieces of clothing, selected the “Try and Buy” option and applied the first-timer discount coupon, it wouldn’t let me make the payment. I tried selecting both — the Cash on Delivery and Online Payment modes — several times. But the page wouldn’t budge. I even tried using the website, in case there was a glitch with the app, but that didn’t work either. While I was a little disappointed, the experience gave me the impression that Slikk needs a little more time to optimise its user interface and maybe collaborate with more brands before I can start relying on it as a chronic last-minute shopper. Meanwhile, reports suggest that Slikk has already raised $300K in its pre-seed round led by <keyword id="23077985" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Better-Capital" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Better Capital" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Better Capital">Better Capital</keyword>, with participation from <keyword id="23077986" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Untitled-Ventures" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Untitled Ventures" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Untitled Ventures">Untitled Ventures</keyword>. The startup will be using the sum to scale to over 100 brands, a dark store — a retail outlet or distribution centre that exists exclusively for online shopping, and expand delivery coverage to 70% of Bengaluru’s pin codes. Further, Slikk also aims to broaden its offerings to other metropolitan cities in the country and also include beauty, personal care and home decor to its collection. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112444934" title="This new &amp;#39;Shazam&amp;#39; for fashion app could change the way the world shops online" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>

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