Jignesh Patel

@avijeet_writes Andheri MIDC. Trading and manufacturing. Third generation. Same address since 1974. The only thing that has moved is the GST portal

@khandanidhanda btw where is your factory located and what do you manufacture?

You need hobbies that don't involve screens. Do you have any?

@avijeet_writes She is right about most things. She is currently not speaking to me. It will pass

@khandanidhanda haha... Wife is always right... If she said it os not a hobby, then it is not.

My wife has started a home catering business She told me at breakfast last week Very casually Twenty orders last month, she said The neighbours love it, she said I asked if she had applied for the Shop Act license She said "it's just food from home Jignesh" I asked about her FSSAI registration She said "it's not that serious" I called our CA from the kitchen table She was still talking I asked him what the penalty was for operating a food business without FSSAI registration He told me I thanked him and hung up I told the number to my wife She said "you're doing this thing again" I asked what thing She said "the thing where you make everything about paperwork" I told her I was not making it about paperwork I told her the paperwork was already about it While she was at her sister's that evening I personally called all fourteen pending order customers I explained that operations were temporarily suspended pending regulatory compliance I refunded everyone via GPay She came home at 9 She is not speaking to me The FSSAI application is on the dining table I filled it for her on Wednesday She will thank me when the inspector comes

My cousin called me from Surat on Tuesday He was crying The textile business his father built is finished, he said Twenty two years, he said He lost everything in the last two years Bad contracts, wrong inventory, the market moved I listened When he finished I asked him one question I asked if he had filed Form STK-2 with the ROC He went quiet I asked if he had settled the GST liabilities before closure He said "Jignesh bhai I just told you I lost everything" I asked if the PF accounts had been formally closed He said "are you listening to me" I told him I was listening The business can close, the paperwork cannot He hung up I called his CA directly The CA said he had been trying to reach my cousin for three months I told him I would handle it Some things you cannot leave incomplete because you are sad

My son came to dinner last night He told me he is building a startup "Lean team", he said "Agile structure", he said "Asset-light human capital model", he said I put down my roti I asked how many people He said eleven but only three are full time I asked about the other eight He said contractors, flexible, keeps the burn low I asked if they worked regular hours He said yes but it's a dynamic engagement framework I asked how long the company had been operating He said two years I asked if he had done PF registration for the three full time employees He looked at me He said "Papa we're still figuring out the HR infrastructure" I asked about ESIC Same look I excused myself from the table I filed a complaint with the EPFO that evening My son has not spoken to me since The law is also not personal

My grandfather decided what business he was in once. My father did not reconsider it when liberalisation came. Or when the internet came. Or when China started undercutting on price. A man who changes what he believes in every eight months based on the last interesting conversation he had is not building a thesis. He is looking for conviction in other people because he does not have his own

Most VCs survive on “borrowed knowledge” rather than deep-work. They go from conversation to conversation building their thesis on the fly. Easily influenced and excited. That’s why the Indian startup ecosystem has gone from Thrasio plays to D2C to creator economy, to web3 and crypto, to AI - all in just the last 2 years.

If her first two employers had been properly registered, their records would exist regardless of whether the founders disappeared. ROC filings. PF history. ESIC records. These do not disappear when a startup shuts down. A company that cannot provide background verification documents was not keeping proper records while it was operating. This is not a startup problem. It is a compliance problem

Dark side of Bangalore seed stage startups A BTech graduate from a Bangalore based university in 2019 could not secure campus placement due to multiple backlogs. She joined a seed-stage startup and completed her graduation in 2020, but the startup shut down as it ran out of funds. Within a few months, she joined another fintech startup in Bangalore, which later went bankrupt after the founders disappeared with the VC money. After that, she joined a mid-sized startup with around two years of experience, but since her previous companies couldn’t provide proper background verification (BGV), she was treated as a fresher and had to start from scratch. Now, she works at IBM as an Application Developer with a good package, and she got married as well. When asked for advice, she said that many Bangalore startups are just cloning ideas like Ola and Uber and wasting VC money. Her suggestion was that people working in such startups should move to better roles as soon as possible, especially considering the current economic situation.

@NalinisKitchen My father worked six days a week for thirty years. He was home for dinner. He came to every function. He knew every employee by name. The business is the family. The family is the business. This is not a conflict

India average work: 48+ hours per week Germany average work: 34 hours per week In India, we are taught to work hard and hustle more to achieve success in life. But quietly, people are losing their personal lives and struggling to balance family time. This is why many choose to leave India and settle abroad.

I had to let someone go last month He was smart, good with numbers, came recommended First week I asked him to prepare the documentation for our MSME renewal Friday he comes to my cabin "Done," he says I asked him to walk me through it He had filled everything online Quickly, he said Efficiently, he said I asked where the supporting documents were He said "I just uploaded scans from last year" "You did what" He said it was the same information anyway I sat back in my chair I called our CA I made the boy sit there while our CA explained, slowly, why this was not acceptable The CA spoke for forty minutes The boy said "but it went through" That was the decision My grandfather's original MSME documentation is in a folder in the third cabinet Every page correct Every supporting document attached Every signature original It has never been questioned once in fifty years

Things we do not do in a third generation trading and manufacturing business: - Classify employees as contractors to avoid PF - Take outside funding - Miss a filing date - Pivot - Have a burn rate (we have a balance sheet) - Incorporate in Delaware - Rebrand 51 years old Still open on Monday morning

PF and ESIC filing day today I sit with the register and go through each name Fourteen employees Rajan in the warehouse - seventeen years Pradeep at the front desk - eleven Mehul in dispatch - eight I file for each one Correct amount, correct challan, correct date When I was young my father used to let me sit next to him on filing day I asked him once why he looked so calm doing it He put the pen down He said "because I know what this money is" "This is not a compliance requirement" "This is an agreement" I think about that every month when I open this register Challan submitted by noon Good day in the office

My family has been operating from the same address in Mumbai since 1974. We have paid advance tax, GST, TDS, professional tax, and property tax every single year without exception. Eleven consecutive years of clean filings under my watch alone. I have never once considered Portugal

Portugal's Golden Visa: Pay €280K, get residency, 0% tax on foreign income for 10 years. Indian HNI: Moves there, runs India business remotely, pays 0% tax. India's response: "Patriotism missing!" Actual problem: Governance missing. You can't guilt-trip people into funding dysfunction.

@multibaggerwala ₹1 per GB. I will update our cost sheet accordingly and move on

INTERNET TAX COMING Govt of India plans ₹1 tax per GB of mobile data usage; India consumed 229 billion GB in FY25. This government just concentrates on how can we tax people. Infinite taxes, zero growth.

We do not hold gold for trading purposes. But we document what we have. Every piece in this family has a purchase record. The jewellery my mother received at her wedding in 1988 - we have the bill. The gold my father accumulated over thirty years - declared, documented, source explained. BIS hallmarking. HUID number. GST at 3% paid at purchase. PAN submitted for anything above ₹2 lakh. My father always said gold is not an investment. It is stored value. But stored value still needs a paper trail. The hallmark certificate is what I actually look at

Gold has corrected from $5600 to $4800 -14% fall.. since Covid it’s still up 3 times ($1600 to $4800 ). No hue n cry Nifty is down 10% at index level & 15-17% at a broad market level from 26000 levels.. if also up 3X from Covid (8000 to 24000) Now see d panic in equities.

@connectgurmeet Our export clients have been the same for nine years. None of them are sovereign funds

India weight reduced by 40 bps in Norway Pension funds. Sovereign funds reducing weight must raise alarm bells. Policy measures like reduced tax, lesser capital controls needed EMs have got $55 Bn inflows & we continue to see outflows. It’s putting pressure on BOP & currency.

@earnwithsapna 52 platforms operating in India without FIU registration. I have my MSME registration. My GST. My Factories Act license. My FSSAI. My BIS marking. My MPCB consent. The paperwork takes time. We start early

BREAKING: 🇮🇳 India blocks 52 offshore Crypto platforms over compliance violations. • Platforms serving Indian users must register with FIU-India • Private wallets labeled higher risk due to anonymity • Exchanges required to file STRs to track suspicious activity — 🇮🇳 Ministry of Finance

@CAHimankSingla This is the correct framing. My grandfather kept every receipt from 1974. Not because anyone asked him to. Because that is how you run a business. The food is not the problem

₹1,40,000 crore of tax fraud traced largely to just two sectors .. Pao Bhaji and Biryani. The issue is not poverty. The issue is compliance. India does not suffer from lack of economic activity but it suffers from gaps in reporting and enforcement. Perhaps the real paradox is this: A developed economy operating with developing-nation compliance standards.

@caleb_friesen I have never driven without a valid license, current insurance, and updated PUC certificate I did not know this was considered unusual

After 8 years in India I can say with confidence that following traffic laws here is almost entirely optional. As long as you don't make illegal left turns at the end of the month and avoid main roads when driving w/o a helmet, you're immune to the law. This needs to change.

The offence was a late intimation of change in additional place of business. This is a filing. It has a due date. The due date was missed. I have changed our registered address twice. Both times we filed the intimation before the effective date There was no notice. There was no fine. There was no conversation of any other kind

This is what “Ease of Doing Business” looks like in India. A ₹75,000 notice for a late update and a bribe just to make it disappear. This isn’t tax compliance, it’s legalized extortion under the GST regime. The system doesn’t support entrepreneurs, it bleeds them. @nsitharaman @PMOIndia @FinMinIndia @nsitharamanoffc @GST_Council

@jain_harshit Our working capital has been in the same bank since 1991. The relationship manager has changed three times. The account has not. I have never once checked what Nifty was doing before making a business decision.

Best time to invest in market right now. Nifty is down 3% in a single day. 11% down in 3 months. Don’t miss the chance!