For over a decade, startups have been religiously pursuing hockey stick growth.

But in 2025, we’ve discovered that’s not true anymore. Startups aren’t growing like they used to—so we’re discovering newer, more unfamiliar curves. Most strikingly, we now know what the shape of the downward curve looks like.

How startups and companies respond to the pressures of a new environment where growth is no longer easy can be represented through a melting ice-cream curve. And it has three distinct stages.

Praveen Gopal Krishnan explains in this episode of The Nutgraf. Tune in.

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You can also read this edition here: The melting ice-cream curve

Earlier edition referenced here: Founders are choosing respawning over resistance 

Earlier this week, Blusmart informed customers that it was temporarily pausing operations.

What Sebi discovered in its investigation or the arcane methods of how Blusmart’s founders orchestrated this scheme is, frankly, less interesting.

Instead, it’s the broader response to this that’s much more fun to talk about. As Youtube view counts often demonstrate, reaction videos can often be much more enthralling than the event itself.

And the response to news about the Blusmart collapse has been strikingly consistent.

In some ways, Indian businesses, startups, and media personalities have built and monetised a content economy that’s ultimately conformist, unremarkable, and post hoc.

Praveen Gopal Krishnan explores how in this week's The Nutgraf.

You can stream the full episode on The Ken app with a Premium subscription or on Apple Podcasts for just Rs 299/-.

The Ken - https://the-ken.com/podcasts/the-nutgraf/

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-nutgraf-premium/id1808596991

You can also read this edition here: https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/stories/

Read 'Blusmart’s relationship with co-founder’s listed company could prove costly' here -  https://the-ken.com/story/blusmarts-relationship-with-co-founders-listed-company-could-prove-costly/

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This is the audio edition of The Ken’s popular weekend newsletter, The Nutgraf. Every Saturday, author and host Praveen Gopal Krishnan reads aloud his latest edition, where he synthesizes and tells a story about the most interesting thing that happened that week in India’s business, tech and startup scene.

How many vehicles does Ola Electric actually sell in a month?

Nobody knows the answer.

In February 2025, the firm sold 25,000 scooters, but only 8,390 were registered on the government’s VAHAN portal. This discrepancy exists due to a renegotiation of contracts with two firms that carry out registration of vehicles for the EV maker.

If you are a public company in the business of making automobiles and you’re in the middle of a bad narrative—as Ola Electric is—the timing of this seems… unnecessary. Most people are already spooked about your company’s performance. Now, you’re messing around with the one reliable source they had to track how you’re doing and creating room for all kinds of conspiracy theories to take root.

For Ola Electric, this is the definition of a self-goal.

So why do it?

Praveen Gopal Krishnan explains in this week's edition of The Nutgraf. Tune in.

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You can stream the full episode on The Ken app with a Premium subscription or on Apple Podcasts for just Rs 199/-.

The Ken - https://the-ken.com/podcasts/the-nutgraf/ola-electric-didnt-stop-digging/

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ola-electric-didnt-stop-digging/id1794924619?i=1000703240087

You can also read this edition here: https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/ola-electric-didnt-stop-digging/

'Are Trump's tariffs a crisis or an opportunity for India?' - https://the-ken.com/podcasts/two-by-two/no-easy-moves-is-india-facing-a-crisis-or-an-opportunity/

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This is the audio edition of The Ken’s popular weekend newsletter, The Nutgraf. Every Saturday, author and host Praveen Gopal Krishnan reads aloud his latest edition, where he synthesizes and tells a story about the most interesting thing that happened that week in India’s business, tech and startup scene.

On Thursday, Piyush Goyal, India's commerce minister, kicked the hornet's nest with his comments on the country's startups.

Essentially, Goyal’s main complaint was… “why are Indian startups like this? Just look at China."

As the minister’s remarks went viral, India’s startup leaders, executives, and thought leaders took a break from making Studio Ghibli-style AI images and decided to hop on the next trend—posting their thoughts on Goyal’s comments on Linkedin and X. 

Most of them are variants of—“Don’t blame startups, look at how many jobs we created”, or “China also started with food delivery before they built deep-tech companies”, or the more aggressive version: “Maybe you should help startups instead of blaming them.” A few leaders, quite predictably, even agreed with the minister and exhorted startups to take it as “constructive criticism”.

These are all valid points of view, but they don't answer the most intriguing part of it all—why did Goyal say what he said?

Praveen Gopal Krishnan explains in this episode of The Nutgraf.

Mayhem rules as India’s ad agencies get raided over alleged price-fixing—three days before India’s biggest marketing event.

Praveen Gopal Krishnan explores why in this week's The Nutgraf.

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You can also read this edition here: https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/stories/

Earlier edition referenced: 'Jiohotstar is not content' -  https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/jiohotstar-is-not-content/

On Tuesday, Airtel announced that it had reached an agreement with SpaceX to distribute Starlink’s high-speed internet service to customers in India.

By Wednesday morning, the business papers were in a predictable frenzy. The development was described as a masterstroke orchestrated by Airtel to get the upper hand over Jio, its competitor.

A few hours later, Reliance Jio came out with an announcement of its own. Jio was also partnering with SpaceX for the same purpose.

One of the oddities of India’s duopolistic telecom market is that when one company does something, it’s declared as a masterstroke, but when both companies do the same thing… well, nobody is sure what to make of it anymore. 

So, what do we make of it? What does this mean for Starlink, Airtel, and Jio?

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You can also read this edition here: https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/starlinks-toe-hold-in-india/

Earlier edition referenced: 'Elon’s Monsoon Hungama moment' - https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/elons-monsoon-hungama-moment/

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This is the audio edition of The Ken’s popular weekend newsletter, The Nutgraf. Every Saturday, author and host Praveen Gopal Krishnan reads aloud his latest edition, where he synthesizes and tells a story about the most interesting thing that happened that week in India’s business, tech and startup scene.