Half a decade ago, I was the owner of mobile (led both android and iOS) for a 200 million dollar start-up in India. There used to be talks of an upcoming IPO every other day on paper.

1 year later the 2015/16 fundraising drought happened. The company decided to focus on offline.

I left because I could not see a future for me. 6 months later the entire design and PM team got laid off along with around 80% of the engineering team.

I went from dreaming about becoming the success story of a future unicorn to applying for jobs in a tough job market.

What I am getting at is that valuation is a leading metric pumped by investor enthusiasm. And there are boom and burst cycles that are a function of interest rates.

I love that this enthusiasm will lead to more people starting up. People taking risks. Getting liquidity.

Inspite of what happened in 2015, our ecosystem is so much more matured now. So many amazing startups, founders and even early employees building world class products.

But it is too early to celebrate valuations.

Stock market and even private market valuations does not reflect the economic reality of India.

With stagnating growth, record high covid cases, there is a long way to go for startups to justify their valuation.

For now I am happy that people will get some liquidity.

More options for employees too. Salaries are at an all time high.

Let's just hope this ends well.

/end