What replaced “growth at any cost” as the standard investors use to judge startups? Two specific, calculable metrics: the Rule of 40 and the burn multiple. The Rule of 40 says a healthy SaaS company’s revenue growth rate plus its profit margin should add up to at least 40%. The burn multiple measures how much […]
What is “quiet cutting” and why are startups using it instead of announced layoffs? Quiet cutting is an actual, named workforce strategy — not startup slang — where companies reduce people costs through hiring freezes, role consolidation, delayed increments, and non-renewed contracts rather than formal terminations. The term emerged in 2023 to describe a US […]
Why have Indian startup founders stopped talking about valuations and started talking about survival? Partly it’s the funding data — Indian startups raised about $11 billion in 2025, down roughly 8% from 2024, with investor participation dropping sharply. But the shift isn’t only financial. Founder mental health surveys from 2025 show the human cost behind […]
