In Today's Siam Sixers
🚀 State of Indian Startups FY23
📺 A video on CRED’s love-hate product design
💡 Essential Reading for Product Leaders
🎧 Podcast: The Introvert who founded Spotify
🔍 Cracking SEO in the Age of AI Search
😂 The problem with startups…
1️⃣State of Indian Startups FY23
FY23 has been a year of ups and downs for Indian startups. Some (most) may say it was more down than up. Here’s my analysis so far from reports and insights that I’ve obtained over the course of the last three quarters.
Diverse Performance📊: The FY23 financials of Indian startups exhibit a wide range of performances. Few startups are profitable, most are incurring losses, and others have experienced significant changes in their financial situations in the last three quarters. Startups should be prepared for variations in financial performance and remain flexible.
Focus on Profitability💰: The challenging economic environment in FY23 led many startups to focus on controlling expenditures and achieving profitability. This highlights the importance of a sustainable business model and cost control.
Revenue Growth vs. Losses💸: Several startups, such as Nykaa and Moglix, have demonstrated impressive revenue growth. However, it's important to monitor losses, as they can widen significantly if expenses are not managed effectively.
Diversification and Innovation🆕: Several ‘aggregator’ startups have diversified and launched their own unique offerings, like Acko venturing into life insurance for instance, after finally getting their license approved. This shows that innovation and diversification can be strategies for growth and adaptability.
Marketing Expense Management📢: A lot of startups reduced their marketing expenses while maintaining or increasing revenue. This suggests that startups should carefully evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and seek cost-efficient strategies.
Profit in Niche Markets🎯: Some startups, like drone manufacturer DroneAcharya, have found profitability in niche markets. Identifying and catering to specific customer needs can lead to profitability.
Economic Resilience💪: Despite challenges in FY23, several startups managed to adapt and continue pushing for growth. This resilience is essential for startups to navigate uncertainties and economic downturns.
Public Listing Impact📈: Being publicly listed does not guarantee revenue. Even some publicly listed startups reported huge losses and more scrutiny. Startups should manage investor expectations and focus on achieving sustainability.
Financial Reporting Transparency💼: Investors and stakeholders increasingly value transparency in financial reporting. Startups should prioritize accurate and timely financial disclosures.
Evolving Customer Behavior🧐: Changes in consumer behavior and market dynamics can impact a startup's performance. Stay agile and responsive to shifts in customer preferences and needs.
Prediction: Based on the trends, it's likely that the Indian startup ecosystem will continue to evolve in FY24. Startups will face ongoing challenges, but those with a focus on financial sustainability and adaptability are expected to thrive. The trends of diversification, cost management, and niche market profitability are likely to persist as strategies for growth. Additionally, startups will continue to innovate in response to changing market dynamics and customer behavior. Publicly listed startups may experience greater scrutiny, requiring them to manage their financials meticulously.
Sources for my insights
📜Indian Startup FY23 Financial Tracker
📜Indian Startup Sector Sees Significant Drop in Deal Activity
2️⃣Video: Design Lessons from the Man Who Ate Lunch With Steve Jobs
Jony Ive, the former Senior Vice President of Design at Apple was perhaps the second most important person at the company after Steve Jobs. The enigmatic founder of Apple even quipped once, "If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it's Jony. He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me."
This video showcases Jony Ive’s collaborative relationship with Steve Jobs, his Bauhaus design philosophy, and his legacy at Apple.
Key Segments in the video:
Jony’s Bauhaus design philosophy influence
Designing the first Macs
Pushing the boundaries of innovation at Apple
Jony's touching letter about his friend
Why Jony was unhappy working with Tim Cook
3️⃣Essential Reading for Product Teams and Leaders
Here are the latest articles from Siam Computing and the ProdWrks publication that I feel will be useful for product teams and product leaders.
💰EmbedUR’s 500Cr Bet to Transform Chennai to Embedded Systems Hub
🛒Discovery Gap in E-Retail: Reimagining the Online Shopping Experience with Chatbots & LLM
🆔Demystifying India Stack: Part 4 – Aadhaar – India’s National Identity Program
📖The Importance of Storytelling Skills for Managers
🛠️Tips & Tricks for Optimizing Laravel Performance for RestAPI with MySQL
🐱The Art of Strategic Feature Adoption and Avoiding Copycat Pitfalls
🧲From Clicks to Connections: Unveiling the Secrets of Digital User Stickiness
📦Elixia’s Grand Plan to Become the Zoho of Supply Chain and Logistics Tech Space
📱Navigating Challenges of Designing a Social Media App’s News Feed
🧩Decoding The Ideal System Design For A Social Media App’s News Feed
4️⃣Podcast: Cracking the GenZ Savings Enigma
One of the hardest problems to tackle in the world is to get the GenZ to save money. And Manish Maryada, CEO Fello seems to have cracked this enigma.
This clever founder has disguised his savings app as a real money gaming app - giving all the thrills of gaming but also giving the long-term benefits of saving money. In this podcast, he discusses his unique thesis behind the product and the zero-to-one journey of building a fintech product.
5️⃣Cracking SEO in the Age of AI Search
Product discovery on the internet, especially on Search is undergoing a massive shift with the advent of AI search results. We all knew that it was inevitable. The question now is, “How do you crack it?”
The good people at Search Engine Journal have revealed interesting insights about this topic by interviewing Bing’s Principal Product Manager Fabrice Canel.
📰Read More on SEJ
It’s kind of like a long interview…. So, here are my 10 cents to save you time.
AI Search Clicks Are Valuable: Qualified clicks from AI search engines are considered more valuable than standard clicks from traditional search engines.
Contextual Links: Contextual links, such as those found in Google's SGE and newer AI search engines like Perplexity AI, play a significant role in AI search results pages (SERPs).
Better User Experience: AI search focuses on understanding user queries in-depth, providing better answers, and, in turn, generating qualified traffic.
Understanding User Queries: AI search engines gain a deeper understanding of user queries, resulting in more accurate search results and improved user satisfaction.
AI Search Is Not About Keyword Matching: AI search technology focuses on understanding the context of a query and user intent rather than just matching keywords.
Role of Verbs and Keywords: Keywords help AI search engines understand what a webpage is about, with verbs playing a crucial role in determining user intent.
The Connection Between AI and Search Algorithms: While the underlying technology may be similar, AI search, especially in chat, involves more complex queries and interactions with users to provide better results.
The Persistence of Ten Blue Links: Ten blue links still have a place in AI search, particularly for navigational queries where users prefer direct links to specific websites.
Preparing for AI Search: Focus on making product content easily accessible for indexing and include structured data to help search engines understand content.
Avoiding Disruptive Changes: Unlike Google, Bing aims to avoid major disruptive changes in rankings and instead focuses on continuous, ongoing improvements.
6️⃣The problem with startups…
I hope you enjoyed this week's curated stories and resources. Check your inbox again next week, or read previous editions of Siam Sixers for more insights. To get instant updates, connect with me on LinkedIn.
Cheers!
Khuze Siam
Founder: Siam Computing & ProdWrks