Henry Kirk and five other former Google employees are now working on launching their own software design and development studio. He has already announced his new venture in a LinkedIn post that went viral and garnered more than 15,000 reactions. Henry Kirk informed about receiving around 1,000 messages from people looking to work with his agency, apart from applauding his attempt to conjure opportunity from a setback.

The team has given themselves a deadline of March 2023 to finalize the business idea and the roadmap to implement it together.

“My back is against the wall because I have to get back on my feet,” Henry Kirk said.

However, he sounded energized about the new challenge as he remarked, “I actually am embracing the fact that this happened.”

By 2022 end, as the bubble burst phenomenon of the tech sector took a precarious shape and as per Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job losses in the industry, businesses laid off some 160,000 workers by the year-end.

As of February 2023, over 100,000 additional people have lost their jobs as well and the number is still going up. Twitter, Ola, Uber, Meta, Google, Microsoft, name any big company, you will be hearing the dreaded news about staff downsizing.

The same sector, whose professionals used to be subjects of envy, due to their high salaries and lavish job perks, are now spending their days in anxiety.

There are others like Henry Kirk, who are using their healthy severance packages to work up their own ideas, their passion projects.

“I just kind of felt this weird sense of relief,” said Jen Zhu, another laid-off techie. The professional is currently working on a health tech start-up called Maida AI, which automates healthcare administration tasks. Zhu lost her job in 2022 when the virtual care company Carbon Health let go of 250 workers. She took a chief of staff job at another company, but decided to follow an instinct and develop her own business idea, which came to her mind after coming across problems in the healthcare industry.

“It’s a grind. It’s really hard to turn off. There’s always more to do. You’re just so acutely tied to the outcomes and your company moving forward,” she said even as her start-up is among seven that got USD 100,000 in funding from Day One Ventures.

“The golden handcuffs are off, and I can do whatever I want now,” she remarked.

Start-up accelerator Y Combinator has seen applications increase by 20% in 2022, getting a total of more than 38,000, said company spokesperson Lindsay Amos. The number of applications filed in January 2023 has also increased fivefold.

Venture capital firms are also ready to pump massive money into these new ventures after years of low-interest rates that inspired investors to search harder for returns. However, scandals of unicorns have caused investors to investigate start-ups before putting their money there.

Market uncertainty is adding more fuel to the scenario.

“They’re being a lot more strategic and a lot more careful. It’s a lot more about market possibility and vision and also execution. One of the biggest things I’m seeing is you can’t raise capital on a slide deck anymore,” said Julia Austin, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, angel investor, and founder of ‘Good For Her’, a non-profit community for female business founders.

Also, start-up valuations have fallen in 2023. As interest rates are rising after every Federal Reserve meeting and tech stocks languish, venture capitalists are now holding tighter to their funds. Seed stage funding slumped 35% for start-ups by late 2022, Crunchbase data shows.

Despite these widespread layoffs, the US economy still remains in good shape, as per the latest government job data. Also, history suggests recessions giving rise to start-ups. Google launched in 1998, just before the dotcom crash; Airbnb started in 2007, followed by Slack, WhatsApp, and Square in 2009 (from 2007-09, the world witnessed The Great Recession).

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“Ola has obtained licenses to operate in South Wales and Greater Manchester, and will launch in South Wales within the next month,” said the official company statement. This will make it the only ride-hailing app in the UK to offer both private hire vehicles and black cabs.

In the UK, Ola will compete with Uber—a company that has been operating there for almost six years, albeit with its own share of challenges. Uber’s license was earlier revoked because it failed to report crimes committed by its drivers and used illegal tracking technology.

“Ola plans to offer better incentives to drivers, almost double,” says Yugal Joshi, vice president at Everest Group consultancy. “It understands the regulatory framework and must have done its financial modelling. But the outcome is still uncertain.” he stated.

“In India, Ola has achieved critical mass,” says Jaspal Singh, co-founder of Valoriser Consultants. “But to raise the next round of funding, it has to show revenue or trip growth. That’s why it is looking at global markets.”

Ben Legg will be heading Ola’s recently announced UK operations. He will lead and develop the senior leadership team, drive strategy and operations — and establish a UK nationwide presence by 2018 end. Ben joins Ola from AdParlor, the New York-based global marketing technology company, where he was CEO for two years. Prior to this, he was Group CEO of Adknowledge, the digital advertising technology firm, between 2011 and 2016. He has also worked as Chief Operating Officer for Google Europe, as well as previously holding senior roles at Coca-Cola and McKinsey.

The real test for Ola now though, would be to crack the UK’s biggest taxi market – London, which has seen heavy resistance by various units of Taxi Drivers. According to reports, a group of unions of taxi drivers are planning legal action against Uber over the drop in their annual income since Uber’s entry.

Ola’s entry into the UK follows its successful launch in Australia in February 2018, where it now operates in seven major cities. Over 40,000 drivers across Australia have registered since its launch in February, completing millions of rides. The company recently announced it has obtained licenses to operate in Greater Manchester and South Wales, with the launch of operations in South Wales in the coming weeks.

Ola now conducts one billion rides each year globally, with more than a million drivers and 125 million customers in over 110 cities.

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Built leveraging the recently-launched Progressive Web App (PWA) technology, Lite is extremely quick and nimble in functioning with lightening fast reflexes. Taking an obsessive approach to optimize every little element in the app, Lite makes the booking experience seamless by employing features such as mobile number based signup instead of email, the app brings all fares upfront allowing the user to choose what works best for them, a crisp and clear ride information screen, and offering navigation on demand to save on data loads.

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The new charging station facilitates speed and efficiency as EVs will get fully charged in less than 90 minutes. Proving to be of tremendous benefit to driver partners, fast charging stations will decrease idle time and help increase the operational time of vehicles on the platform with a direct and positive impact on their earnings.

Commenting on the launch Aravind G Raghavendra, Associate Director EV at Ola in Nagpur. said,“We are excited about the role electric mobility is going to play in shaping the future of transportation in the country. Strengthening the infrastructure for EVs will unlock immense opportunities, as well as positively impact the environment and quality of life in our cities. In our continued effort to bring about this transformational change, we are thrilled to partner with IOCL to launch India’s first fast charging station at a fuel station. We expect this to be a significant step towards improving the charging infrastructure network for EVs and setting an example for the EV ecosystem in other cities as the footprint expands. We look forward to partnering with other like-minded PSUs to further strengthen the EV ecosystem nationally.”

On this occasion Shri Murali Srinivasan, Executive Director IOCL , Maharashtra State Office said “We applaud Ola for building the Electric Vehicle ecosystem from a nascent stage in Nagpur and are happy to partner with them in their efforts. EVs have the ability to solve some of the key issues we are currently facing with respect to vehicular pollution and air quality; and as a large-scale mobility platform, Ola can bring about a catalytic change. As India’s largest commercial Petroleum organization, promoting ecological sustainability is core to our business. Thus, this partnership with Ola is the right step forward as we re-imagine how India will commute in the coming years.”

Ola commenced India’s first multimodal EV project in Nagpur in May 2017 with a 200-strong fleet, comprising of electric cars, e-rickshaws, electric auto rickshaws, and electric buses to lay the foundation of electric mobility in India. In line with the rapid adoption and demand from commuters, Ola has strengthened the fleet and is working to further to improve the electric vehicle ecosystem in the city.

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This will transform driver and passenger experiences with vehicle diagnostics, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, predictive maintenance of vehicles and more. Both companies will collaborate to take this platform to car manufacturers globally, to integrate with vehicle systems.

At the heart of this partnership is Ola Play, the world’s first connected car platform for ridesharing, that will leverage Microsoft AI and IoT to enhance driver experiences with telematics and navigation guidance; passenger experiences with cloud-based infotainment and productivity; and provide auto manufacturers with custom digital experiences for their customers.

Ola Play customers will be able to use productivity tools such as Office 365 and Skype for Business, as well as voice-assisted controls built using Microsoft Cognitive Services and Bot framework, in-car during their rides. The advanced telematics platform will transform the car into a high-performing, intelligent vehicle, capable of assessing fuel efficiency, engine performance, and driver performance. It will also enable smarter navigation and predict breakdowns, enhancing safety and security while creating new business models and opportunities.

“Today’s car is quickly becoming the ultimate computing device and together with Ola, we’re focused on providing more intelligent, connected and productive experiences to our customers,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “The combination of Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and our AI platform with Ola Play will deliver new customer experiences and business opportunities across the automotive ecosystem.”

Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Ola said, “Globally, the auto industry is experiencing a seismic shift as the definition of automobiles is increasingly changing from gas-powered vehicles to technology-packed, connected devices. With Ola Play, we have already set the tone for connected vehicles in India; together with Microsoft, we can make the new platform available to a larger, global audience and unlock futuristic experiences for customers worldwide.”

The platform is designed to continually collect, analyze, and learn from high volumes of data and user behaviour. This will allow for customised offerings to shape the nature of services and business models, such as usage-based insurance, amongst others. Microsoft and Ola also plan to build superior safety features and advanced driver assistance services, as well.

Launched in late 2016, Ola Play, in a short span of time has transformed the in-car experience for millions of Indians. With a range of connected experiences that the customers can seamlessly control through their smartphones as well as a tablet, Ola Play has made commutes more productive and enjoyable. With advanced telematics, productivity tools and intelligent cloud integrations as part of this partnership, Ola and Microsoft are together building the future of connected vehicles.

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Ola is currently present in 110 cities across the country with over 14 unique categories to serve the various transportation use cases for India’s 1.2 billion people. These include India-centric categories like auto-rickshaws and bikes, as well as vehicles equipped with the world’s only connected car platform for ridesharing, Ola Play. Ola has also pioneered sustainable transportation solutions in the interest of solving for long term problems in the country around congestion and pollution with solutions like Ola Share and Multimodal Electric Vehicles on its platform.

With its latest round of funding, Ola will be making strategic investments in supply, technology, and cutting edge innovations to build for the country’s unique transportation needs. The company will make significant technology investments into Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities to solve for India’s unique mobility problems. By doubling down on penetration, Ola intends to go deeper into the Indian market to serve the vast majority of Indians who are looking for affordable and reliable commute and transportation.

Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Ola, said, “We are thrilled to have Tencent Holdings join us as new partners in our mission to build mobility for a billion Indians. The transportation and mobility industries are seeing huge changes globally. Our ambition is to build a globally competitive and futuristic transportation system in India that will support and accelerate a nation on the move!”He further added, “Our new partners share our passion for building the future of transportation in India together and we look forward to learn and benefit from their global perspectives and ecosystems.”

Martin Lau, President of Tencent Holdings, said, “Ola’s unique local offerings are tailored to India’s burgeoning transportation needs. The strategic partnership with Ola makes it possible for Tencent to be part of the fast-growing ride-hailing space in the country. We look forward to helping Ola further develop India’s transportation solutions.”

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