[skrao]

As long as we as a society value the collection of money by any means as a success we are doomed. The fundamentals of business will never change, build good products/services, have customers, get them to pay, have production cost below sales cost and have profits.
Violating any of the above principles is a mugs game and should be punished by markets.

In India the lack of fast and fair judicial remedies for everyone including consumers makes this even more tricky.

[Clouseau]

Originally Posted by harshaguduru

Their lack of humanity is quite clear. Case in point my maid, she has paid around 30K for one of these crooks because a salesguy came to their neighbourhood in a suit and car and told them that unless they want their children also to become daily wagers or household help they should buy this service. The evangelist and predatory nature of these guys is so terrible no amount of convincing was sufficient to change her mind in fact alluding to the fact that the wealthy don't want this service given to the poor because they can't bear them improving.

I reviewed the material they sent, it's nothing great, and govt schools have similar syllabi and material

The saddest part is those who knew Byju in the beginning know how good and genuine and helpful his content used to be. He's a fantastic teacher in his own way for a specific set of material and topics.
Regards.

The man does not necessarily mean the same as the company. The company showed it was going down the wrong path when complaints against White Hat's "Coding Programmes" and their modus operandi started doing the rounds. Expected a lot more than this from the man but he seems to have made himself unapproachable and surrounded himself with a coterie of shady dealers. Probably laughing all the way to the bank.

[revverend]

We now have another case of irresponsible hiring strategy with the brunt borne by aspiring employees. In the absence of an organic and sustainable growth strategy, whimsical decisions often have employees at the receiving end of quashed dreams and erratic career breaks. Ola is at the forefront of this kind of event on the business front, from cab aggregator to food to pre-owned cars to e-scooters to now EV cars and every other shiny thing on the horizon. Wonder where this mania would stabilize


https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bu...s-9197231.html

Ola has started handing over pink slips to employees across software teams. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that at least 500 employees are likely to be laid off across different software verticals of ANI technologies.

Ola, which launched its electric scooter in December last year, has been carrying out a restructuring exercise for the past few months. The company had earlier laid off close to 2,000 employees due to the closure of the pre-owned car business, Ola Cars, and quick commerce business Ola Dash

[Theyota]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/94251633.cms


The link is for a Byju "sponsored" article trying to be sneaked off as a news item by both "Byju" and the newspaper with a small disclaimer at the bottom. To me both Byju and the newspaper are lowlifes for trying to push ads in the guise of a news article. Many posts here indicate Byju founder was an exceptional teacher. A person without ethics cannot be an exceptional teacher.

I have been fortunate in my life to have been thought by some exceptional teachers. The foremost thing that comes to my mind when I think of them is their ethics and dedication to teach.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by Theyota

The link is for a Byju "sponsored" article trying to be sneaked off as a news item by both "Byju" and the newspaper with a small disclaimer at the bottom. To me both Byju and the newspaper are lowlifes for trying to push ads in the guise of a news article.

"Disclaimer: The article has been produced on behalf of Akash BYJU’S by the Times Internet's Spotlight team."

To be fair, I don't mind it as long as the disclaimer is mentioned. Could have been at the beginning of the article but that would be hoping for too much.

TOI is an entity which needs ad revenues to survive and as long as there is nothing untowardly deceitful, it really should be ok.

People who spend lot on ads on print get some leeway in terms of articles and that's not restricted to TOI. Oh well.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Theyota

I have been fortunate in my life to have been thought by some exceptional teachers. The foremost thing that comes to my mind when I think of them is their ethics and dedication to teach.

I would say he was a good teacher. My experience with him was with CAT coaching a decade ago where he used to handle the Quant and the Data Interpretation section. He had a few novel approaches to problem pattern identification which were pretty useful. I could not bell the CAT, though

I would not rate him as an exceptional teacher though. Even back in the days when he took sessions to a group of 300+ students in a auditorium, I remember him being pretty cocky and dismissive. He had a brand aura that people fell for(including me) and not an aura of a teacher. That one realized only after paying money and attending the classes

Now, it looks like teaching has taken a back seat and he is now a high grade conman. How things change in a decade!

[Theyota]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

"Disclaimer: The article has been produced on behalf of Akash BYJU’S by the Times Internet's Spotlight team."

To be fair, I don't mind it as long as the disclaimer is mentioned. Could have been at the beginning of the article but that would be hoping for too much.

TOI is an entity which needs ad revenues to survive and as long as there is nothing untowardly deceitful, it really should be ok.

The intent of that ad is clearly to push it as a news item from both parties. That in my book is a no no. Yes, there are other newspapers doing it as well and I would categorize all of them in the same group. But there are also a few like the "The Hindu" or "Deccan Herald" not doing it as far as I am aware.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Theyota

The link is for a Byju "sponsored" article trying to be sneaked off as a news item by both "Byju" and the newspaper with a small disclaimer at the bottom.

It is featured in the Spotlight section which is basically an advertisement-publishing section of the ToI website. Sort of like the Classifieds page in the printed paper.

https://timesinternet.in/advertise/spotlight

[condor]

Contrary to what that article says, here's something that doesnt give a good picture of Byju's:

https://tfipost.com/2022/09/byjus-is...0and%20capital.

But, after 18 months of delays, BYJU’s company has finally submitted its mandated financial statements and annual returns for the financial year 2020-21. In its statement, BYJU’s stated that it had earned Rs 2,428 crore in revenues and incurred a loss of Rs 4,588 crore in financial years 2020-21. The loss is reportedly 15 times higher than 2019-20. As in 2019-20, the education technology company had incurred a loss of Rs 300 crore.

[jetsetgo08]

A noob question.

While not being specific to anyone, but as a general question, why is there an urgency for most new entrepreneurs to raise quick money, race to the top?

Call me an outdated thinker, but as far as I know, it takes several years for a brick and mortar store (say a sweet shop or Grocery store) to break even. And sometimes they do fail too. But, the one's who could withstand time are profitable and stable for a much longer time span.

Is the aggressive approach, sustainable over a longer period of time?

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by androdev

A young Wharton MBA who represents the investor and calls all the shots

Rags to riches founder who attained celebrity status.

Young IIM MBA who runs the ambitious high risk high reward big budget sales and marketing campaigns
.

A lot of it is driven by the Chief Learning and Innovation office based in London. Made big money as an MD of Barclays Capital. Spent time in Bangalore funding companies. One of these was sold to Biju's who gave him a thick wad of money to move to London and attract investors and plan Biju's strategy.

Sold his apartment for 23CR in Bangalore - it made the news!

[neeraj0272]

Originally Posted by jetsetgo08

A noob question.

While not being specific to anyone, but as a general question, why is there an urgency for most new entrepreneurs to raise quick money, race to the top?

Call me an outdated thinker, but as far as I know, it takes several years for a brick and mortar store (say a sweet shop or Grocery store) to break even. And sometimes they do fail too. But, the one's who could withstand time are profitable and stable for a much longer time span.

Is the aggressive approach, sustainable over a longer period of time?

New enterpreneurs always desperately need and seek quick money for investments.
What is different today is that 'startups' has been made a buzz word by clever group of people including stock market brokers, media, rich manipulators and this group is not interested in a start-up becoming successful but rather cashing out on the success of buzzword of 'startups'. It's like 'dot com' scam or 'tree plantation scams' etc.
Whole effort is to manipulate valuations and then dump stock like in musical chairs.

[dailydriver]

A rather dull day at office became a lot more interesting after reading these remarks in Linkedin.

Whether or not you have seen the Bollywood blockbuster, I am sure you would have ‘seen’ our results. But have you seen the complete picture? Because just like for movie reviews, sensationalism results in more clicks than truth in this age of 280-character reading attention spans.

I have never had any problems with the stories written about us. In fact, the content of most of the report on our results is positive. But some of the headlines are another matter. It’s easy for forget that we are 18 months post FY21, and that BYJU’S has grown more than 4 times in this span. Or that our ‘widening losses’ in FY21 have been cut to half in FY22.

Let me explain this with five examples of what the headline was, what it should have been and why.


Article 1

Headline: ‘Byju’s reports widening losses after prolonged audit delay’

What it should have been: ‘Byju’s reports heavy losses for FY21 due to accounting change’

Why: Well, the summary of this article itself says ‘accounting change moved revenue to subsequent years’!


Article 2

Headline: ‘Byju’s FY21 losses surge 20 times….’

What it should have been: ‘‘Byju’s FY21 losses surge; clocks 10,000 cr FY22 revenue’

Why: The summary itself says BYJU’S has reported “nearly Rs 10,000 crore in gross revenues for the following year.”


Article 3

Headline: ‘India’s startup valuation race…’

What it should have been: ‘In our subjective opinion, BYJU’S is over-valued’

Why: Though the headline says ‘India’s startup valuation race’, the article singles out BYJU’S. The entire content reads like The Communist Manifesto. “This newspaper is not against companies earning profits on crucial services…”, they add this disclaimer in a Freudian slip. By the way, valuation is a function of future cash flows. We have clocked ₹1,000 cr+ in revenue every month this year.


Article 4

Headline: ‘Byju's lost Rs 12.5 cr every day….’

What it should have been: ‘BYJU’S reported Rs 4,500 cr loss in FY21 due to accounting change’

Why: The content explains the reasons why our losses were high in FY21. But to attract your attention, it had to be Rs 12.5 cr loss every day (with a !). By the way, we made Rs 27 cr in revenue per day in FY22!!!


Article 5

Headline: ‘Five red flags from BYJU’S auditor’s notes’

What it should have been: ‘BYJU’S receives clean and unqualified auditor’s report’

Why: Because that is the absolute truth. The number of red flags is zero. And that is also the marks I would give to this publication for their headlines.

You may ask why bother about such headlines in this annus horribilis of startups? Because I owe it to our 50,000 family members and 150 million plus students.

Let’s judge Brahmastra and BYJU'S after seeing the entire picture.

[sainyamk95]

Very interesting discussion here. Watching this video after ages reminded me of it:

https://youtu.be/P35M1jN8_4c

Mods, request you to delete it if OT.

[Chetan_Rao]

Recognizing revenue before it's actually realized, then adjusting the books to make them compliant for auditing, then expecting credit for doing what they should've done to begin with?

I hope these people aren't into teaching accounting. Are they?