A Halloween of Firings & Losses??

Not starting this newsletter with a Happy Halloween because clearly, this Halloween was anything but happy for many.

In the month of dressing up as monsters, we saw some real-life monsters who wrecked havoc. Whether it was for the good or bad depends on where you stand. For now though, let's check out some real life nightmares that came true!

The Grim Reaper ?? arrives for Twitter employees

Elon Musk is now the top guy (the Chief Twit) of Twitter. Let that SINK IN! (pun credit: Elon himself!)

After going round in circles about his Twitter acquisition, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk finally acquired Twitter for around $44Bn (based on the $54.20 per share price estimate). This development came as bad tidings for many as Elon entered as a Grim Reaper in their lives!

Alright ok, to be more ‘clear’, let’s look at what’s a Grim Reaper first. The Grim Reaper is a literal personification of death. It carries a Scythe (a big blade) to slice up humans and ‘reap’ their souls. Being a mysterious figure (a skeleton dressed in black), people nowadays associate it with every bad news, not just death.

Just like the Grim Reaper slashes humans, Elon slashed out the workforce by firing even the bigwigs like Parag Agarwal (CEO), Ned Segal (CFO), and Vijaya Gadde (Chief Legal Officer) among others. If that’s the condition of the top management, we can only imagine the sheer terror other Twitter employees might be facing.?

This acquisition puts an end to a series of clashes between Musk and Twitter. The former claimed a prevalence of bots and fake accounts on the platform while Twitter called it a mere way to bargain for a lower price. Twitter ended up suing Musk for not honoring his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders. But Elon bows to no one!

Instead of giving up and paying a $1Bn termination fee, Musk waited for things to play out. After a long and delayed trial culminated in October this year, Musk proposed to complete the deal. This was a complete reversal of the months long effort to terminate the agreement.

And this is how the Reign of Terror of Elon Musk began! (not for us, for the Twitter employees!)

Killer Slashes?? ?for Insta Creators

Seems like all the ghosts were hellbent to terrorize social media!

Not just Twitter but even Instagrammers had their own Grim Reaper. This time though, it wasn’t any person but a bug; a glitch.?

Well you see, Instagram suffered a massive glitch on Monday, delivering a killer slash to the subscriber count of?

Classplus News ??

This Halloween may have been scary for many but that was not the case at least for Classplus. Instead, we got a big boost to our morale when we saw the impact our idea had, worldwide. The idea to digitally empower educators and creators to create their own online brand.

See the map above? Each dot represents the location of a student who has downloaded an app made by us. There are around 4 Cr+ dots in there! ??

These spread out across multiple nations and continents, especially the US, Europe, and all of SEA and more ?? Countries like Vietnam (in green) are also beginning to light up i.e. adopt the e-learning ways. This is the impact our tutors are making in the world ????

This map is a living proof that people are using our Indian apps across these geographies ??

Our global growth is beginning to show up.

Classplus is showing up.

All over the globe ??

Sifaarishein ??(Recommendations)

This week while we rally to support our Men in Blue, let’s also take a moment to appreciate the builders and makers of the new Bharat. That’s why the recommendation this week is a podcast that deserves attention and applause.?

Build for Bharat Podcast is an extension of the Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII) led by Sanjay Jain (Partner at Bharat Innovation Fund and Chief Innovation Officer at CIIE.CO). Apart from that he can also be credited for the creation and launch of Google Map Maker - a crowd-sourced mapping product that is responsible for Google Maps data for 170+ countries (including India).

The podcast features bite-sized conversations with influencers and makers, who have pioneered innovative technology solutions. These are people working towards ensuring financial and technological inclusion and thus, are the frontrunners of the new Bharat.

?The Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII) is an Initiative to bring the benefits of technological progress to underserved populations. It does so by supporting and backing start-ups that work in areas such as financial inclusion, livelihood, skilling, and health.?

Do check out their podcast here!