Steve: Hey Shiv, you saw the news? Softbank has finally invested in Flipkart and it has $4 billion in bank right now.. What do you think of this move? Is Indian e-commerce back in the game?
Shiv: Intrestingly flipkart is one of the most heavily funded startups in the world right now, dude you think Amazon can’t match that money? And Softbank investing is not exactly a validation of any kind.. 2 years after amazon invested heavily India, Snapdeal is out.. I don’t think Indian ecommerce is in any good shape..
Steve: Why do I think that Softbank investing in Flipkart is a payback for Amazon..? All Masayoshi needed was 7 more billion to touch his 100 billion vision fund.. If Jeff had contributed there, instead of India funds, then the whole 2.5 billion could have been put elsewhere.. ?? Also, why do you say Snapdeal is out? 2 years after Amazon invested heavily in India, Snapdeal stopped saying ‘will become in profitable in 2 years’ and went ahead with their Snapdeal 2.0 and 1 year profitability instead.. ?
Shiv: Haha, just forgot to mention the sale in 1 year as well ? Very curious about how things will go ahead with snapdeal and flipkart with the new funding..
Steve: I guess Flipkart is jinxed when it comes to more than 2 Bansals working in leadership roles.. ? let’s see if Snapdeal’s position hikes in the coming years.. Interesting difference between Silicon Valley and India is while Snapdeal’s initial investors are backing the founders, Uber’s investors are suing it’s cofounder.. ? Do you think Travis can comeback from this situation? ?
Shiv: Dude I am thinking if Uber can come back from this situation.. Today for the first time ever I saw that cars were not available on Uber to pick me up.. ?
Steve: Who would’ve guessed that Uber can become driverless so soon ?? Repercussions of Softbank planning to invest in Uber’s competitors? ? Anyway, what’s your thoughts on Tesla’s latest fundraising move? Can they stick to targets now and launch model Y soon? ?
Shiv: Haha.. After travis gone, isn’t Bezos and Musk our only hope to save the world? And for that I hope things go well for Tesla.. ?
Steve: Hope you’re not insinuating that taking humans out of the earth is literally saving the world ? Gradatim Ferociter.. ? Btw, I think we need to add another feather to Musk’s hat (not the feather in Blue Origin).. OpenAI is beating DOTA players like crazy.. ? I just hope it doesn’t get to play Mortal Kombat anytime soon and consider ‘Finish Him’ in literal sense.. ?
Shiv: For all we know that could be the only solution left with us.. OpenAI defeats Dota player, AlphaGo defeated go players long time back, Facebook bots develop a new language.. They know that robots are going to take over the world, that’s why building rockets for humans to fly away to a land of caves!
Starts Googling ‘Land of Caves’
Steve: By any chance you were binge watching all sci-fi about humans leaving earth on Netflix? ?
Shiv: Nope just watching tech news all day.. No difference ? Talking of Netflix, did they pay the ransom yet?
Nothing else has leaked..
Steve: No idea about the ransom, but I am pretty sure someone forgot to pay Disney its fees.. Disney shows are going to leave Netflix before human beings leave earth.. ? At least Disney could’ve given them a memo and then fired them.. ?
They then start binge-watching all Disney shows on Netflix as they are gearing up to leave in 2019.
(Disclaimer: This is a funny (okay, not so funny) take on what happened in the technology and startup space. The conversation is purely fictional and does not reflect any personal opinion. For more such round-ups on the latest happenings in the startup space, check out TechStory every Sunday)
Image Credits: pixton
