Prediction Not checkable as stated
Rajesh Jain says India's modern startup wave is irreversible
“So, I think this wave, unlike the 99, 2000 wave, where it lasted for a very short time, This is really substantial and irreversible. And this is really what's going to make the future of India because government in India cannot solve problems. So whether it's …”
Insight
Rajesh Jain: Indian consumers will not pay for digital content subscriptions
“Because I realized Indians will not pay. They'll share the password and login and password, but they're not going to pay, even though it was just about 20 dollars at that time.”
Insight
Rajesh Jain: Knowing when to exit a business is crucial
“More important than knowing when to enter a business is knowing when to exit a business.”
Insight
Rajesh Jain divides India into Singapore, Poland, and sub-Saharan income tiers
“So I always look at India as there are ten million Indians who have the lifestyle of Singaporeans or you know, whatever, 50, 60,000 dollars, and a hundred million Indians probably of middle income like Poland. Then you have a billion Indians who are, of course…”
Assertion Contradicted
Rajesh Jain notes that more than 90% of Freshworks is investor-owned
“Because otherwise, like in Freshworks, more than 90% of the ownership is with investors.”
Assertion Partly supported
Rajesh Jain paused his tech career in 2012 to work for Modi
“In 2012, I stopped because I started, I was doing some work on the political side, which I did for almost six, six and a half years. So at that time, I didn't want to write anything which would I could not be candid about what I was doing, and I did not want t…”
Assertion Supported
Rajesh Jain: IndiaWorld was the first Indian internet website
“And it was the first internet website, first Indian, of course, internet website.”
Disclosure
Rajesh Jain increased IndiaWorld's valuation demand whenever an investor passed
“Because we were profitable, I could also be very choosy in talking to investors. We had a lot of inbound interest also. I mean, I never managed to raise money until I sold, of course, but I could afford to say no. To investors. I would tell them the valuation …”
Assertion Supported
IndiaWorld's valuation surged from $40M to $115M in just three weeks
“In the space of three weeks, our valuation went up from the forty million stock offer that mail.com had given, To a hundred and fifteen million dollar largely cash offer from DSP Merrill Lynch.”
Assertion Partly supported
Sify's market cap surged $700M overnight after announcing the IndiaWorld acquisition
“Their stock, After the deal was announced, that same night, went up by seven hundred million dollars, and kept rising on subsequent days, which enabled them to do a secondary offering, diluting very little, which then got them the additional money that they ne…”
Prediction Held up
India's digital transacting audience will soon reach 200 to 300 million
“So the hundred million audience, which is there today, transacting audience, will become 200,000,300 million.”
Assertion Supported
Rajesh Jain's bootstrapped startup Netcore reached 750 employees and $85M revenue
“And that has really helped us in the last three years build a business today, which is seven 50 people, which is eighty five million dollars in revenue.”
Insight
Rajesh Jain coined 'Proficon' for profitable, bootstrapped companies worth over $100M
“And I defined Proficon as a company which is private, profitable, promoter bootstrapped, and highly valuable. Highly valuable I would say is at least say over a hundred million dollars because you have a lot of private companies who are not sort of valued.”
Insight
Avoiding investors allows founders to prioritize long-term decisions over short-term returns
“You are not bringing on board investors, but building highly valuable companies, and that mindset is very different, ok, because you can now afford to take, for one example, you can take the long term view, ok, on doing business. You are not beholden to invest…”
Disclosure
Rajesh Jain says Netcore employees own 25% of the bootstrapped company
“Netcore is 25% owned by employees, which is I think one of the highest percentages that any company has today in the country.”
Insight
Rajesh Jain says every entrepreneur should open-source ideas via long-form writing
“I believe that I think every entrepreneur should write. It's not just the short witty posts on Twitter or LinkedIn. I think it should be deep thinking about the future. How is it that your mental models are? I mean, open source your ideas. Because when you giv…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
IndiaWorld managed 200 sites and hosted most large Indian corporates
“In those five years that I ran India World, we had two or 200 sites that we managed. Most of the large corporates were either created and hosted with us, or at least hosted with us.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Samachar.com became the primary start page for overseas Indians
“Samachar was just one page with hundred links, you know, more, more. Every five items per publication updated every 30 minutes. And that became the start page for most Indians outside of India.”
Assertion Supported
Satyam Infoway was the first Indian internet company to IPO on Nasdaq
“Satyam Infoway had become the first Indian internet company to IPO on Nasdaq.”
Assertion Supported
India averaged $100M per day in venture funding during 2021
“So in 2021, we had hundred million dollars come into India on average every day.”
Disclosure
Rajesh Jain says Netcore has never raised any external capital
“Because we've not raised any external capital in netcore either yet.”
Assertion Supported
EaseMyTrip went public having never raised a single dollar of capital
“If you look at, ah, ease my trip. When they did the IPO, they had not raised any external capital. And even for the IPO, it was the secondary offering, you know, promoters sold.”
Assertion Partly supported
Rajesh Jain wrote daily on his blog Emergic.org from 1999 to 2012
“So from 1999 till 2012,
I wrote every day.
Emergic.org was my first blog.”
