[Weekend wrap] About hustle & disruption and other startup lingo

Hustle, disrupt, innovate, pivot -- these are but a few of the words (not necessarily in this order) that every entrepreneur swears by. This week, that is what pretty much everybody talked about. 

 Like him or hate him, but you cannot ignore him. That’s Uber’s Travis Kalanick for you. This week, the resignation of Travis shook the Silicon Valley ecosystem and tremors were felt here too.

His decision to go on a leave of absence last week following a personal tragedy had made big news earlier. Thus, the resignation this week made for bigger news. Reportedly, his decision to step down was taken under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber’s investors. The CEO of one of the most valuable startups in the world has left with no real line of succession in place. The San Francisco-based unicorn, valued at $68 billion, is now going to be run by 14 of its senior executives.

In our story titled, How much hustle is too much, and other lessons from the Travis Kalanick saga, Sindhu Kashyap analyses the fallout of Travis's downfall. She writes, “Half a world away, we look at the tragic character flaws and circumstances that served up a near-Shakespearean tragedy. Was it the #DeleteUber campaign? Was it Susan Fowler’s catastrophic blog post? Was it the Waymo lawsuit? Was it the ‘Hell’ or ‘Greyball’? The medical records saga? What went wrong? Which of these was the tipping point?”

Read the full story here to make sense of all the hustling that got Travis and Uber to this point. You may also want to see how and why this year is proving to be Uber’s annus horribilis in the story titled, 'A year of ‘Hell’ for Uber'.

This week, there was some cheer too, when OnePlus launched its latest OnePlus 5 phone in Mumbai. Increasingly, phone launches have come to resemble mega unveiling events associated with new car models -- a lot of fanfare and Bollywood glamour.

In Mumbai to capture all the glitz of the OnePlus5 launch were Harshtith Mallya and Sindhu Kashyap, who elbowed their way through the crowd to capture this story for you. In the article titled, ‘After 1,284 days in the making, OnePlus 5 sees a mega India launch’, besides giving you the launch details, they point out how India is an important market for OnePlus. As the title suggests, you may also like to read, ‘Everything you need to know about the OnePlus 5’.

Talking about glamour reminds me if you have checked out what Flipkart launched this week though with much less fanfare. Athira Nair brings the story of Divastri in the story titled, ‘Will Flipkart’s gamble with new private label fashion succeed?’ She writes, “Flipkart is betting big on fashion with the launch of its private label ‘Divastri’ that includes 1,500 styles focused exclusively on women’s ethnic wear.” In e-commerce, if electronics is the king of GMV, fashion is the king of margins. Find out how Flipkart will fare in the Indian online market for fashion, which is estimated to be worth $12-14 billion by 2020 from the current $4 billion.

It is clear, businesses have to constantly innovate to stay relevant. Which brings me to out next story that you should definitely read, ‘The future is in IoT, but why are Indian CIOs still waiting in the wings?’ In the story, Vishal Krishna, explores what is it that is keeping large corporates still content with legacy IT over cloud infrastructure, making IoT the last thing on their mind to change business processes.

Nobody has seen tomorrow, but if there’s a way we can better our today, there would be no need to worry about the future. This was pretty much the message of this Q&A between Chief Editor Shradha Sharma and Samara Mahindra, the Founder of CARER. Her venture ensures that cancer patients receive more than just medical treatment at an affordable cost. 

After she lost her mother to the dreaded disease, Samara had two choices in front of her. Either she could cry and complain about it or do something meaningful. She chose to do the latter and is helping many cancer patients and their families to go through the most testing times of their lives with affordable care. Read and watch the full interview in the story titled, ‘Cancer is a pause, not the end of the road: Samara Mahindra lights the path’.

It is that time of the year, when we gear up to host the most definitive startup event, TechSparks.

If you still haven't forgotten the power-packed and high-energy event of last year, then be ready to double that this year as we bring an enviable line-up of speakers and the most-promising Tech30 list this year. Get all the details here: 'TechSparks 2017'. Book your early bird seats for September 22-23 here.

If you know of people who are doing selfless and inspiring work that needs to be shared with the world, do write to me at [email protected]. We also welcome your pat and slap on the back.

Till next Sunday then.