[helterskelter]

Two biggest red flags nowadays are ‘funded/backed by sequoia’ and ‘ Forbes 30 under 30’.
Run as fast as possible.

[sea_eagle]

My two cents:

1) For every GoMechanic, there are many Zerodhas & Zohos. So, let's not paint the entire start-up community with the same brush.

2) Mistakes happen. Driven by greed and/or pressure to deliver; Let's leave them to defend their actions to courts, stake-holders, families & most importantly their own conscience.

3) Governance arrived very late at the start-up party. Funding rounds should mandatorily include a playbook on good-governance which teaches the founders what is Okay and what seems okay but is definitely NOT OKAY. Many of the current generation founders need to be told stories about Satyam; Enron; WorldCom; Toys R Us; and the likes to build awareness.

4) No shortcuts on the way up. It's not worth it.

[Bhargav7]

Originally Posted by sea_eagle

My two cents:

1) For every GoMechanic, there are many Zerodhas & Zohos. So, let's not paint the entire start-up community with the same brush.

Zerodha and Zoho have shown the world how to run a startup and scale it big. They have a great business model and are focused on making profits - just like how a business must be run.

We can't compare them with the present-day cash-burning funded startups. I would be curious to see how many startups funded in the last 5-7 years will break even.

Selling is easy. Selling at a price sufficient to earn a profit is tough.

[skrao]

The issue is that we are a culture that celebrates wealth at all costs and when people fail we pile on like a ton of bricks.
It is hard to run a business, especially a startup and the burden of expectations makes it even worse. That is no excuse, you cant violate rules willy nilly.
I too run a start up, you will need to dedicate time for compliance no matter which country you are from. In India, being "smarter" by taking shortcuts or not getting caught is celebrated and that needs to change.

Originally Posted by Bhargav7

Zerodha and Zoho have shown the world how to run a startup and scale it big. They have a great business model and are focused on making profits - just like how a business must be run.

We can't compare them with the present-day cash-burning funded startups. I would be curious to see how many startups funded in the last 5-7 years will break even.

Selling is easy. Selling at a price sufficient to earn a profit is tough.

Sure you can, if you prioritise normal business needs like profitability, customer satisfaction etc. There are literally hundreds of these, ( including my own ) which are profitable, scaling and under the radar. The whole name and fame thing needs to tone down.

[kiredd1005]

I really feel sorry for the unfortunate employees at GoMechanic. All said and done, it is easy for the founders to wash their hands off, but I sincerely hope the affected employees get absorbed in the market. Time and again it has been proved that not all industries can sustain in the aggregator model. The automotive service industry can never be as profitable via the aggregator model. It is purely a brick and mortar model that will be sustainable and profitable in the long term. When the company goes to a VC, it is almost like the final nail in the coffin. I don't think these VCs don't understand the industry too well to make such bets. They can't expect 10x or 100x from an industry which needs lot of capital and appropriate infra. I have seen quite a few such aggregator companies shutting shop because it is not sustainable at the pricing they offer.

[Newtown]

Funding money should be used to better the offering at the beginning. In this greed for expansion, the plot is lost.

Train people like never before. Select candidates like a needle from a haystack, send them abroad to learn. You want to have contractual obligations for tenure, do so but this would have changed the offering completely.

High end cars, limited availability of good people and good infrastructure. Instead, they roped in every corner garage and made a hash of it. Just plain sad.

[DevilzzzzOwn]

The fact is, if you are an employee or a customer, you have to be vigilant of what is going on around you in the market.

As an example, here is a screenshot of an order I just placed some time back. As we see, I got 2 ice creams, MRP total of which is INR 180, delivered to my doorstep at less than INR 140.

Goes on to show the margins that everyone has to play with as well as the amount of discount these Apps can give *If used the right way* for your benefits.

[Legal_Eagle]

The problem with such start ups is that they do not have a sustainable business development plan. They initially start to do something but do something else completely down the line. But if we observe carefully, all start-ups that are going south has the same failure template, fudging of financials and customer data, even the most successful one's like Byjus and Unacademy are staring down the barrel with tightening of purse strings from VC's. Also it is extremely difficult to fix accountability as there is almost zero govt regulations or laws specific to such operations. And this has led to the mushrooming of many fly-by-night operators in the start-up business.

Go(ne)Mechanic.

[anupam00]

Originally Posted by GTO

Errors in financial reporting is a polite way of saying, we lied / committed fraud. Read on Economic Times that an audit by E&Y unearthed lots of fudged data, including inflating the revenue numbers, fake garages & higher payments to "favoured" garages (make of that what you will).

End of the day, with threads like these - fake customer reviews & fake AC services - how can any brand survive? If I hear from 10 people about GoMechanic, 9 are complaints & 1 is satisfied. How can you survive with a 90% dissatisfaction rate?

In the midst of all the fancy degrees from top institutions, renowned board members, millions of dollars in funding, "big ideas" and out of the box thinking, some startups get the basics horribly wrong & die.

1. Offer a top quality product or service.

2. Keep your customers, employees & yourself happy.

3. Manage your finances properly.

4. Keep it real, ethical, honest.

I feel sad for all those who have been laid off & vendors who haven't been paid in months.

By the way, this is yet another Sequoia-backed company caught in fraud. Makes me wonder if the Sequoia dudes need some more QC & monitoring of their companies.

You described it very well sir,
The bottom line what i feel is :
1. The greed to make big without realizing*the fact that whether business model is sustainable or not,(if the business is not making enough money to even be paying opex -forget the capex - then*one surely needs to check house in order)
2. It's unfortunate when you have highly dissatisfied customer - no matter even if you hire advertisement company to make fake reviews- then also things would not work in longer run,
3. The aggregator model itself is questionable as it neither has complete ownership for product or services - then it becomes more and more important to ensure that services are top notch and that would come with satisfied customers only rather than just inflating the numbers and running for investment.Unfortunately in this case someone who has lost money is investor and also this gives a complete bad name to start up model and becomes a trust factor.
4. Financial*irregularities*cannot be an excuse for growth*and so is the employees who joined you and ultimately what i foresee is - investor's are unhappy, employees are unhappy,vendors are unhappy and above all customers are unhappy,*
5. I would rather do small and make all my stakeholder's happy,

Feel sad for employees,at the same time would definitely like to help them in my personal capacity,

Thanks & Regards
Anupam00

[kkunal.shah]

Well in the startup world “fake it till you make it” is the mantra, many are smart/ plain lucky to not get caught others in this case GoMechnaic don’t.

GoMechanic was a decent idea to organise the FNG model but just could not do it well due to quick grow aspirations. Don’t understand why startup’s don’t scale up in a few markets, get the profitability model right & then go for expansion just the way most successful companies around have grown.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by poloman

Who ever have habit of ordering online or using such apps, please check the offline prices once in a while to understand that you are getting cheated. This includes amazon, Swiggy, zomato or any xyz third party app or market place.

Most items available on amazon are available 10-15% cheaper offline or order directly from the vendor website.

Swiggy and Zomato prices are different from restaurant price by atleast 20% Add delivery charges and tax you are paying 30% more. No discounts either. Walk or drive to the restaurant and pick the food yourself if you are averse to dine in.

The offline/direct vendor prices are cheaper for sure but then if the middleman/dealer(Amazon,Zomato etc.) are good, paying the premium is worth it. There are few issues dealing with vendor- Shipping/return is not always seamless, you have the flexibility of getting stuff from distant stores(you save on travel time/fuel) etc. Problem with GoMechanic I found is they don't show same level of responsibility/accountability as say Amazon/Zomato.

[sunilarkt]

I remember using service called bumper dot com and their app to get dents removed on my car, Despite my skepticism it was a pleasant experience and service was top-notch at a reasonable price. They had similar setup like go mechanic, Unfortunately they couldn't keep up with VC expectations/business targets and the company shut down after a while

[ritesh_44]

Originally Posted by vamsi_k_b

I am not really sure what the VC's have done here. Sure, they will exert pressure on the founder to show hockey stick growth curve. But I am 99% sure they will not tolerate financial fraud. Aren't they one of the parties that got scammed ?

VCs look the other way when their interest is alinged. Yearly audits happend for the accounts and it was also flagged couple of years ago. This time a new investment was being done by Softbank hence this issue came up.

Just look at what happened with Ola electric/Bharatpay or Byjus.
VCs couldn't care less as long as they can make the profits.

[Cephalix]

Originally Posted by bullitt1

Another day, another story. I had booked a Spark routine service with them, but after talking to one of them, didnt have even the slightest of confidence to let car go, eventually backed off.

My only experience with GoMechanic was a funny one. I was driving a Duster then (2021), which developed a problem; the engine would die suddenly, without any warning, mostly as I shifted gears. I now know this is a fuel pump issue and have since read that this is not uncommon in Dusters once you hit the 60K mark on the odometer (did not know it then). Strangely, the authorized service centre, Renault Mount Road, could not identify or fix the issue. I then took it to a GoMechanic outlet in Nungambakkam (Chennai). The mechanic there took it for a test drive; he came back and told me there was nothing wrong with the car, and that the problem was that I did not have good hand/foot coordination when changing gears. I asked him 2 questions: 1. I have been driving regularly since 1989. How is it that I had no "hand/foot" coordination problems ever in all those years? and 2. How is it that I had this "hand/foot" problem only when driving the Duster, but not my second car (a Punto). He had no answer to either one. I then took the car to Renault Ambattur, who identified the issue after a test drive and fixed it

[srini1785]

I think part of the problem is with users too who just go online to get any services they want without giving a thought as to the nature of service that they are buying. For them settling on an eye surgeon takes just about the same time as getting a Kg of potato online. Certain services are best left to traditional style of operation. Car service is not a type of service that you can trust to any random name that pops up in a google search. I am not sure if GoMechanic comes with a 100% money return policy. Most of these services come with a terms and conditions (written in legal jargon) that many users simply ignore and simply check the "I agree" check box. So you are basically on your own. Its not like FNG's and ASC's offer unmatched service. This very forum is filled with horror stories of people getting a raw deal but the matter is between the user and the garage with no in between like GoMechanic.