Its a little known secret that a few IITs command the lion's share of startup success in India. But Kashyap does not only talk about that. He weaves the history of startups in India with that of Silicon Valley. And then traces the progress of startups and venture capital for the last 15 years to the present, when money is overflowing in the brick lined interiors of fancy startup offices in Bombay, Gurgaon, Bangalore. His own story is woven in very nicely. You are on the edge as his startup comes sooo close to competing with Flipkart, India's biggest e-commerce player.

Many, like me, would know a lot of the details in the book, but its like a great movie that you can watch again and again. Must read for anybody connected with or interested in startups.

If you are picking this book up to get the 'scoop' on the inside stories of well known Indian startups, this is not the right book.

If you are picking up this book to understand the mechanics of how hyper funded startups got there, the reasons behind the golden tap, what's wrong with that picture and what the future holds, this is a great read.

The author does spend a few chapters setting up the backdrop of this book with his storyline and cast of characters (if I can take the liberty of calling them that). During this time it reads more like a story book. However the pace picks up really in the second half where all pieces come together for the author to explain very crisply what is wrong with the hyper- funded startups: the untenable unit economics of ecommerce Giants in India, the hunger for funding for status sake rather than building a sustainable business.

Towards the end the author offers great insights on building businesses in India vs US and ideas for businesses in India.

A very engaging read overall.

The Golden Tap brings out rare insights by effortlessly connecting large global trends to specific events in the world of Indian startups. What makes it even more special is that Kashyap lived many of those events himself as a serial entrepreneur, and does not shy away from sharing deeply personal stories.

Kashyap recounts an incident early in his career where he allowed himself to be caught unawares by the macro environment, and a promise he made to a mentor to never be surprised again. The Golden Tap passes on all of his wisdom to any entrepreneur interested in building a sustainable company without either getting carried away by the bubble of the day, or being surprised when the bubble bursts. It is a terrific read!

Brilliant read! Kashyap is the poster child for tech entrepreneurship for an entire generation of Indians. He effortlessly jumps in and out of his personal journey over the past 15 years as he links it to the broader ecosystem in this part-memoir, part-history lesson, and part-guide for any one who is even remotely interested in the Indian startup scene. Written with global calibration and with macro developments as context, the book is also an illuminating read for outsiders looking in to India. The icing on the cake is his no-holds-barred assessment of the current environment and the future of the Indian startup scene. What is perhaps most fascinating throughout the book is his honest acknowledgment of the emotions and personal relations that are tested and strengthened along the way. Absolutely loved this creation from someone I have known and respected for a very long time!

I was searching book on Indian startups and venture capital and this book appeared and without a second thought bought it without knowing what a roller coaster ride it has turned out to be. From Internet wave to Globalization wave to the Smartphone wave, Kashyap introduces key players in the Indian startup race while maintaining personal touch with humor. It is fact based and well researched book. There is something about IITians writing books that keeps you on the edge of the seat while reading this. As the author says in the book and my favorite line, "Competitive IITians".

Golden Tap is a fascinating account of the major developments in technology-driven entrepreneurship in India over the last 15+ years. Kashyap layers in key insights around US/China macro trends and helps provide a deeper perspective on how these forces impact India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Kashyap, a serial entrepreneur himself, also weaves in insightful and entertaining anecdotes recounting his own journey as an entrepreneur in India and US, and couples them with intresting insights about consumer behavior, product thinking and business.

The book ends with Kashyap’s sharp analysis of the current state of hyper-funded Indian startups and the road ahead.

Overall, a must-read for anyone interested in the Indian startup ecosystem.

The Golden Tap is an engaging narrative from someone who has played a significant role in the short yet crucial validation phase of ecommerce in India. The book seamless weaves a personal journey with the rapidly changing technology landscape of the past decade through a mix of successes, challenges, and work-life balance. I am a medical device entrepreneur, and yet loved the tech-focused narrative since through discovery and logical assessment, Kashyap is able to separate the fundamentals of business that are centered around consumer behavior from various types of hype that surround these. I'd strongly recommend this book, especially for budding entrepreneurs in these especially volatile times.

The Golden tap is an awesome book on Indian startup eco-system with many first hand stories of the three startups the author (Kashyap Deorah) has built from India (Righthalf, Chaupati and Chalo). The book is very informative, inspiring, and entertaining at the same time. This book brings both local and global perspectives on current startup funding and exuberance in India. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in entrepreneurship and current technology startup eco-system in India.

The Golden Tap is a book for those wishing to understand the Indian start up scene. While detailing the timeline of events it introduces the reader to the individuals and companies who founded and funded the Indian start up scene. Well written and an interesting read!

I love entrepreneurship and am proud of how India is in the global spotlight for its scorching startup scene. In my search for knowledge about all things startups, I devour any information that comes my way whether via the mainstream media or via niche blogs. But there’s always been one major problem: startup journalism is an echo chamber. Everyday you’d wake up to news about a gazillion dollar funding round and how great startups and founders are and even how India is the new China. Amid the funding frenzy and the millions and billions being made or raised by twenty-something founders, I’ve found that there is a major part of this story that is not being told. Especially when it’s common knowledge that almost all of the celebrated startups are bleeding cash profusely without profitability in sight. And especially when it’s common knowledge that there are hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into Indian startups yet there are hardly any IPO’s or acquisitions to write home about. There was something about the whole story that I couldn’t fully understand. I desperately wanted to learn how we got to where we are today and where we are going. The more I read about startups in the newspapers and blogs, the more questions I had. But no answers.

And then I read The Golden Tap.

If there’s one word I could use to describe this book, it’s this: lucid. Kashyap Deorah is straight as an arrow and clearly lays out the history, key global events, players, reasoning and context that have led the Indian startup ecosystem to where it is today. Peppered with inside stories and unique insights about how and why things have unfolded the way they have, this book is a page turner. Kashyap takes us back two decades from when the internet as we know it began and walks us through how the highs and lows of the tech startup spaces in the US and China have impacted the frenzied pace of India’s startup scene. You’ll learn, among a ton of other things, about the motivations and strategies of global funds, how the Indian VC industry was attacked and how it fought back, Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal as a poker game, e-commerce unit economics (or the lack thereof), and the subtleties of growing a business in India versus in the United States.

Kashyap is brave in that he takes a clear stand and makes predictions about what he thinks will unfold in the days to come in the Indian startup scene with its hyper funded poster boys. His learnings as an entrepreneur who has done business both in India and the United States make for invaluable gems that any entrepreneur - young or old - could benefit from. He also offers a glimpse into some business ideas he thinks have massive potential in Indian and global markets.

While the book is gripping and entertaining, with interesting and hilarious anecdotes such as the author’s negotiation with Kishore Biyani or his Facebook chat with ex-Housing.com CEO Rahul Yadav, it is also dense with lots of history, dates and names to remember. For this reason, some of the narrative early in the book can be a bit dry. But it’s a tiny complaint I’m willing to overlook because, as Pearl S. Buck once said, “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”

When I read about startups in the media henceforth, I will now put it all in the context of what I learned reading The Golden Tap. That’s why I have no hesitation in giving this book five stars. It’s by far the best book I’ve read all year.

I was expecting this to be an insight into the hyper funded start ups of india but the author for most part talks about his journey to IIT and the companies he set up. He has made it look more like a marketing book for his companies and his initiatives. I did find the VC investment in Indian startups interesting and will now probably look to read a book that gives me more insight into this.

In parts like Shantaram for the Indian startup scene, in other parts like an economics lesson, perhaps even veering towards an Aakar Patel-esqe overload of numbers and facts but in all parts, an excellent excellent book by Kashyap, very well written and with a clear vision and thought for a first time writer. The writing style is breezy and you can almost feel the tension as he narrates, just all the amazing situations that he's already found himself at such an early age. The book requires no knowledge of how startups work, how money works, or how VC's and hedge funds work, and guides you expertly through an understanding of each of these. That's where this book stands heads and shoulders above being simply something that caters to the "IT" crowd.

Sometimes, the book almost seems like a solution to a problem, laying out the assumptions and facts, and ordering the timeline so as to give the reader a perspective into the unique times that we currently live in, in the tech world. At the very least, this book will introduce you to how VC money works and how the startup world functions (or ought to function!). However, the crown jewel for me is the ring-side seat that the reader gets to how Kashyap got to where he is, quite a surreal life so far!

Pick this book up and read about Shanghai wives, being trapped in gilded cages and how deals are made across the world. Intrigued? You should be - this book is a page turner!

The end felt a bit rushed, so I’ll take the one star away from that, but only because the ride until then was so fun!

If there is one book that you are going to read in 2015, it has got to be this Kashyap Deorah book.

I have been at [...] for more than a decade at a senior management post, and have been through the ups and downs of the waves that Kashyap talks about (albeit at much lower funding levels). And despite being intensely aware of almost all the happenings, the author's personal connections (Amit Agarwal was his neighbour, Rahul Yadav tried to hire him, Junglee founders were his mentors, Kishore Biyani was his boss etc) bring stories that you would have never heard of.

While few other reviews have praised Part 1, 2 etc (and they are worthy of it), I think the most important pieces that I liked were in the last part titled "Where do we go from here"?

Repeatedly through our own sales feedback and market knowledge, I can attest to what the author says in these sections. Some quotable quotes: "Unfortunately they (Indian startups/Indian entrepreneurs) will fail in doing so (delivering massive topline numbers) because India is not China."

"Unfortunately the local players have locked themselves in a corner. First they defined the company's identity as their US equivalents to drink from the golden tap. And now that the originals have entered....they are redefining the company's identity to be Indian or different from US equivalents."

"If I was a betting man, I would bet that the set of Indian Internet companies that would be publicly listed in the US markets in 2020 would be quite different from the current set of unicorns"

Lastly talking of books - most people who love books (physical) have switched to Amazon - as much as I know in Chennai, where I live and read a ton. At some point most of us used to buy from THE unicorn.... and it attests to some of the things that Kashyap talks about.

Losing $700 M in 3 years, Amazon India has wiped out THE unicorn from books... will it repeatedly happen in other categories? The author thinks so. (while being optimistic of 10 unicorns being there in 2020)

Loved the book!