Chasing the unicorn

Its been some time since my last blog. I was on my way to the airport and had an interesting talk with my taxi driver - CS

CS had been a driver with a taxi aggregator in chennai (one of the biggest). A couple of years back, like everyone else, he had joined an app based  aggregator only to return to the regional aggregator a little sober.

The app aggregator has been the news recently due to strikes done by uber drivers in recent parts of the country. CS point was simple, the app aggregator was paying Rs. 20 per kilometer but was charging the customer Rs. 6. Doing this the aggregator had burnt through 3000 crores in two years. The figure is mind boggling. What type of business economics justifies burning through 3000 crores in cash? Then i recollected that an e-commerce company also had burnt through 4000 crores in cash, all in the name of capturing market.

I also read recently that another e-commerce firm was laying off people, delaying appointment letter to graduates.
All i can say is, we are at the cusp of change, every idea needs critical mass to be a success, but its definitely time to start incorporating sound business practices and stop burning cash.

There was a saying - chasing the dragon which referred to chasing the vapours of opium. Well, its time to stop chasing the unicorn.