June 2023 (1) – A Whodunit Tale for Startups!

The characters in this blog are purely fictional.

The crime scene was gory to most spectators in the room, but not to ace private investigator Ms. Mentora Shelly Gomes. She seemed to have expected everything that she was seeing. Her eyes, though were taking all the details and transferring them to various memory pockets in her brain.

The local police chief Mr. Raghu Letor had a look of resignation on his face as he surveyed the scene. “As expected! What a mess! It always end up like this, when you try to outsmart the laws of the land! The victim was badly reneging on several fronts. It looks like it was payback time for him!” His remarks betrayed that he considered the crime to be banal and all that was left for his team was to do a post-mortem and report on what legal non-compliances resulted in the tragic demise of Mr. Unni Khan.

“I am afraid, Sir, there is more to this than meets the eye. The deceased was mercilessly murdered by a villain who endeared herself smartly to Mr. Unni Khan and killed him when he found it hard to keep up with her demands!”

Mentora seemed to reprimand Raghu Letor for his dismissive attitude. She proceeded to reconstruct the crime scene as though she had actually witnessed it.

“Yes Sir, there are many small evidences that appear to point out that Unni Khan was double-timing his supporters and reneging on about two dozen matters such as MRR (monthly recurring revenue),  LTV (life time value), MCR (monthly churn rate), BR (burn rate). I am sure your post-mortem will reveal these in due course. But even the most vociferous of his detractors were not worried about such foibles. In fact you will be surprised that they were happy as long as Mr. Unni Khan kept lubricating the broader system with his grand announcements of acquisitions and funding.”

“No sir, all such evidences will not help you find the murderer. The compelling evidence which can point you in the direction of the true perpetrator of the crime hides behind two slimy characters - DAU (daily active user) and MAU (monthly active user). They are slimy because they are so ambiguous to identify, but mark my words they are the villains who killed the victim.”

“You see Sir, MAU and her daughter DAU realized very early that Mr. Unni Khan’s success depended on them being somehow adorned and paraded with very attractive numbers. The enchantresses knew they held the switch for every other success parameter, and so demanded to be constantly appeased. This meant that Mr. Unni Khan’s co-founders, platform partners, technology vendors and other senior team members were coerced to play along. As you can infer, it was only a matter of time before some of these players began to demand their pound of flesh. Soon enough, they stopped from helping with adorning the enchantresses; in fact the duo ended up being named and shamed through leaked reports, and then all hell broke out. DAU and MAU struck back with venom. The result is a very dead Mr. Unni Khan.”

Mr. Raghu Letor doffed his hat at Ms. Mentora Shelly Gomes. The ace detective had not just solved the case, but had shown where to search and how to read evidences in such new-world cases.