While most startups were facing a reckoning earlier last year with mass layoffs, Licious, the meat delivery platform, was sitting proud, unaffected. Both the founders, Hanjura and Gupta, were giving interviews talking about how their company had made no job cuts and how they did not want that kind of bad karma. It became the anomaly in a market that was seeing a bloodbath that going on all around. 
 But to be honest, the  strategy of not laying off, didnt really help Licious. In fact, it saw some of its top talent at leadership positions leave the company. And now, as it turns out, it may not be all good karma for Licious founders after all.  The company has laid off 80 of its employees as a part of what its calling an operational reset.  What’s going on?  
Tune in. Recommended read: California users Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

Why Licious had to lay off after all

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In today’s special Friday episode, The Ken’s Praveen Gopal Krishnan (aka PGK) joins hosts Snigdha and Rahel to talk about India’s complicated relationship with 10 minute delivery apps. They talk about how these apps are shaping our economy and society at large, and more importantly how we, as users, are shaping them. Why do we pick a particular app, what makes us switch to another one and what makes us abandon them all together? PGK asked his readers just that in a recent survey he carried out in his weekly newsletter, The Nutgraf. You can check it out here. You can also check out the Bangalore floods edition Snigdha mentioned, here. Listen to Kabir Biswas talk about Dunzo and the quick delivery business on First Principles. If you're curious about the time everyone except Zepto assumed quick commerce was dying, click here. P.S Tell us what you thought of this episode. 
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You can write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Why we date, marry, or breakup with Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, Zepto & BigBasket

At the time of demonetisation, the country was desperately seeking an alternative to cash. And a payments regulator called NPCI or the National Payments Corporation of India, was our unexpected knight in shining armour.  
 The NPCI managed to launch UPI at just the right time. This was a revolutionary, once in a generation product that really put the NPCI on the map.  
 Over the years, UPI also became a huge political asset for the Central Government. That’s evident from the fact that political leaders, including the PM, have made it a point to repeatedly endorse UPI.  
 But nearly two general elections later, the pressure is on for the NPCI to come up with a new product, the next UPI. And the NPCI is really feeling the pressure.  
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

After UPI, NPCI feels the pressure to build its next hero product

New-age D2C mattress brands like Wakefit and The Sleep Company have successfully made orthopaedic mattresses into a mass product. They are changing the landscape of the mattress market in India with their innovative science and tech based approach and clever marketing techniques.  Wakefit, for example, literally offers a “sleep internship" where all you have to do is "sleep for 9 hours everyday for a hundred days and earn up to 10 lakh rupees." It's come to a point where even older and bigger mattress makers have had to adapt these changes and start selling these orthopedic mattresses. But is this really about the science or more about the selling? 
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

How Wakefit and other new-age mattress companies are selling you sleep

A couple months ago, Xiaomi released a new product – the SU7. This wasn’t a smartphone, or any other gadget that you would have otherwise associated with the Chinese company. The SU7 is actually Xiaomi’s first-ever Electric Vehicle.  
 Now, this is a major milestone for Xiaomi. It has become the first smartphone maker to successfully launch an EV. Funnily enough, this is something that many smartphone makers  and technology companies – from Apple to Samsung – have tried to do but failed at. Until now.  
 But what do smartphone makers have to do with EVs? 
Tune in to find out. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories. By the way, have you listened to The Ken's early careers podcast, The First Two Years? In the latest episode, the show's host Akshaya Chandrasekaran talks about how to navigate work friendships. You can check it out here. 

Can Xiaomi, a smartphone maker, be the next Tesla?

Indians have really been warming up to credit cards lately. More than a 100 million credit cards are in circulation in India as of now. And this rise has a lot to do with the benefits customers get: cash back deals and reward points that you can collect and redeem for anything from flight tickets to stays at fancy resorts. But between the two, cashbacks are a more straightforward method of making the most of your credit card. Availing reward points, on the other hand, requires a combination of skill and patience.  And between the two, there’s one that banks actually don’t like. Tune in to find out. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Why Licious had to lay off after all

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