Official Blog of GTM360 Marketing Solutions
Every month, when I pay my credit card bills, I sigh to myself “if only there was a way to pay this bill with another credit card and earn rewards…”. Others are more vocal with their wish. See Why can’t I pay my credit card bill with another credit card?. As a credit cardholder, I … Read more
The common man hears about Google Pay, PhonePe and PayTM while making UPI payments – rather than State Bank of India, HDFC Bank or ICICI Bank. Ergo there’s a widespread belief that banks have lost the UPI plot. Take this tweet for example: The statement on NEFT with stanchart applies to the HDFC as well. … Read more
Every time a shiny new fintech product or service enters the market, finsurgents immediately predict the death of traditional banks. But traditional banks always go laughing all the way to the – ahem – bank. We saw this when mobile wallets were the rage 8-10 years ago. Finsurgents predicted that they’d kill credit cards. Didn’t … Read more
This is a slightly edited version of my answer to the following question on Quora: How is it that Amazon doesn’t make a profit, yet Jeff Bezos’ net worth is in the billions? The question is temporally flawed since Amazon does make profits today. But there was a time when Amazon made losses and still Jeff … Read more
This is a slightly edited version of my answer to the following question on Quora: I had a similar experience recently. I scanned the Merchant’s QR code at a restaurant with my PayTM app. PayTM asked me to link my bank account to complete the payment via UPI. I refused to do so because I wanted … Read more
One or the other startup founder regularly asks on social media whether angel investors can steal their ideas. This question on Quora is a recent example. Yes, angel investors can steal ideas. Whether they actually do is a trade secret and you’re unlikely to find any mea culpas in an open forum! What you’re likely … Read more
Entrepreneurs are driven by idea, originality, product, problem solved, team, technology, and so on. But, for VCs, they’re merely means to an end. As we saw in Teardown Of The VC Investment Model, the goal for venture capital is to earn multibagger returns in the short-to-medium term. While the exact numbers could vary from one … Read more
In continuation of Part 1, here are three more situations in which the old adage, “something is better than nothing” is critically flawed. #3. DARK STORE INVENTORY The way ecommerce works, you place an order on the website of an ecommerce company (e.g. Amazon) and the company ships the ordered good(s) from a central warehouse. … Read more
According to the old adage, “something is better than nothing”. This has become common wisdom because it’s often true. But there are a few critical situations where it’s fatally flawed. In this post, I’ll give a few examples. #1. CACHE MEMORY Back in the day, the IT hardware company I worked for launched two models … Read more
I made the case for taxing digital companies on the basis of gain in their valuation in Valuation Tax – If Tech Startups Can Disrupt, So Can Taxman. Since then, I’ve heard many objections to the notion of Valuation Tax. I’m giving my rebuttals below. Valuation Tax is a tax on the growth in valuation, … Read more