Everything about running a STARTIONS startup.

Roles and teams

Every STARTIONS startup is run by students in four roles. Each seat belongs to a department and a sub-team, so everyone knows what they own.

Founder

Sets direction, leads the team, owns results. Sits on the Finance Committee and approves spending with the Co-Founders.

Co-Founder

Owns a function end to end: sales, marketing or operations. Also on the Finance Committee; can create, price and edit packages with Founders.

Teammate

Delivers the weekly work inside a department: calls, campaigns, onboarding, support, finance or tech tasks.

Intern

Learns on a live startup with guided tasks. A starting point for students early in their journey.

Only Founders and Co-Founders create and price packages; Teammates and Interns can view them. Only STARTIONS invites people to a startup.

Startups and startup types

Each startup runs one ready-made software product (for example Soyzo, Boista or Arbitaly) that it sells to customers as subscription packages. STARTIONS builds and hosts the product; the student team runs the business: sales, marketing, onboarding, support and finance. A startup's type decides how many seats it has.

Solo startups are the student stores of the Amoox and Jyoox platforms: one Founder (who alone approves spending) and up to five Interns. Seat limits are enforced by the system; a seat activates only when its payment is confirmed. The readiness discount is explained on the Readiness Score page.

How a startup earns

A startup earns when its customers pay for subscription packages. STARTIONS keeps a monthly profit and loss statement (P&L) for every startup, on a cash basis: money counts in the month it is received.

• GST (18%) is added on top of the package price and tracked separately. It is never revenue.
• Students' seat fees are STARTIONS income, not startup revenue.
• Students get the product free, so COGS and OpEx are only real, approved spending: upgrades, mentors, consultants, sales and marketing.
• The tax reserve is the anticipated tax STARTIONS keeps aside; its percentage is set by STARTIONS' accountant.

Your ROI

Your return on investment compares what you earn from the startup in a year with what your seat cost you.

Example (an illustration, not a promise): a Major startup makes ₹30,00,000 net profit in a year. The Co-Founder pool is 45% = ₹13,50,000, shared by 6 Co-Founder seats = ₹2,25,000 each. A Co-Founder seat costs ₹72,900 + 18% GST = ₹86,022. ROI = (₹2,25,000 − ₹86,022) ÷ ₹86,022 ≈ 162%, before TDS on the payout.

Real results depend on how many customers your team wins and keeps. Each startup's landing page on startions.cloud has an earnings calculator with its own prices.

Profit sharing

100% of a startup's net profit goes to its students. STARTIONS takes none of it.

• Each pool is split equally among that role's seats.
• Join mid-year and you get a pro-rata share for the days you held the seat.
• An empty role's pool and unearned pro-rata amounts go to the startup's funds, which can pay approved OpEx and carry over year to year.
• Paid once, after the financial year ends (April to March), as "Startup Execution Remuneration", with TDS deducted. There are no monthly or minimum payouts.
• If the year makes a loss, nobody is paid and the loss carries forward against next year's profit.

Performance and profit

Today each role's pool is shared equally among its seats. STARTIONS plans to weight shares by performance using a performance tracker in Bitrix24: the tasks each role is given, completed on time, with their checklists. When this starts, the measures and weights will be published here before they apply to any payout.

• What is tracked already: every role's recurring tasks in Bitrix24 (daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly), their due dates, checklists and completion.
• What it rewards: showing up consistently, finishing what you own, and moving the startup's numbers.

Ownership

Students who stay earn a stake in the startup they build.

• Hold your seat for five consecutive completed, paid years (the seat still active) to earn ownership.
• Your dashboard certificate grows by 20% at the end of each year, reaching 100% after year five.
• Ownership set aside: Founders 11% in total, Co-Founders 11% in total, Teammates 11% in total (33% overall). Interns do not earn ownership.
• Renew yearly by hand or turn on automatic yearly renewal so your streak never breaks.

The kit tracks streaks and who qualifies; the legal transfer of ownership is done separately, outside the platform.

Startup loan and repayment

A startup can borrow from STARTIONS to fund approved operating expenses.

• To take the loan, every seat the startup type defines must be filled and every seat holder must vote yes. One "no", or one empty seat, and there is no loan.
• The loan is used for OpEx, such as marketing or tools.
• It is repaid from the startup's results, spread over up to three years if one year is not enough.

Expenses and the Finance Committee

• Students pay an expense from their own pocket first. It is recorded in the startup's books only after the Finance Committee approves it; an unapproved expense stays the student's own cost.
• The Finance Committee is the startup's Founders and Co-Founders, chosen yearly by the students. Teammates and Interns are never on it.
• Approval needs at least half of the committee's Founders (at least one) and at least half of its Co-Founders (at least one). In a Solo startup the Founder approves alone.
• Each expense is logged as COGS or OpEx.

Customer payments: where they go and how to track them

Your customers pay for their subscription to STARTIONS' Razorpay account, never to a student's account.

Why STARTIONS' account

STARTIONS LLP issues every GST invoice (with your startup's name and logo), files the GST, handles refunds and credit notes, and keeps one verified record of every rupee. That is what makes the profit shared with students exact and fair, and keeps everyone compliant.

Only verified payments count

A plan starts, renews or changes only when Razorpay's signed confirmation arrives. There are no manual or offline subscription payments.

How to track yours

In Nirmata, your startup's dashboard shows its customers, invoices and the monthly P&L (Financial Tracker). Paid customers and invoices also appear in Bitrix24 as contacts, deals and invoices for your sales team.

Your customers' customers

When a customer's own clients pay them (bookings, events, courses), that money goes to the customer's own payment gateway. It is their business, not startup revenue.

Bitrix24: your startup's workspace and CRM

Bitrix24 is where your team works every day: customers, deals, tasks, chats and meetings in one place. When your seat is paid, STARTIONS invites you to Bitrix24 in your startup's department.

CRM

Leads, contacts, companies and deals in pipelines (funnels) with stages you can drag deals through; quotes, invoices and products.

Automation

Rules and triggers that move a deal, create a task or send a message when something happens.

Contact Center

Connect your website chat, CRM forms, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Telegram so every enquiry lands in the CRM.

Marketing

Email and SMS campaigns to CRM segments, and syncing customer lists with ad platforms.

Tasks and projects

Tasks with checklists, subtasks, deadlines and reminders, in list, Kanban or Gantt views.

Collabs

Workspaces for working with people outside the company, such as a customer or a partner, with their own chat, tasks and files.

Messenger and meetings

Team chat, group channels and video calls.

Drive

Shared files for your startup's documents.

CoPilot

Bitrix24's AI assistant helps write messages, summarise calls and fill in CRM records.

Bitrix24 adds features often; the menu you see may differ slightly. Your startup's customer data stays in your startup's product, never in STARTIONS' Bitrix24 reports about students.

Using Bitrix24 for sales, ads and deals

• Capture every lead: put the CRM form on your landing page and connect your ads' lead forms so new enquiries arrive as leads automatically.
• Work the pipeline: qualify each lead, convert it to a deal, and move it through stages such as Contacted, Demo booked, Proposal sent, Won or Lost. Log every call and message on the deal.
• Never miss a follow-up: add an automation rule that creates a task when a deal sits in a stage too long.
• Run ads with focus: send campaign leads to a dedicated pipeline, compare cost per lead and conversion by campaign, and stop what does not convert.
• Report weekly: deals won, revenue in the pipeline, conversion by stage, and reasons for lost deals.

Projects, collabs and tasks

• Each startup has its own private Bitrix24 project (workgroup) where STARTIONS posts the team's tasks.
• Role tasks are set once, daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, with a due day and time (IST), a checklist and subtasks, for each student or shared by the role.
• You get a reminder before a task is due (two hours by default), unless it is already done.
• Use a Collab when you work with someone outside the team, like a pilot customer, so they see only that space.
• Keep decisions in the project chat and files in its drive, so the next student who joins can pick up the history.

How STARTIONS supports and monitors startups

• STARTIONS generates every role's recurring tasks in each startup's Bitrix24 project and sees which are done on time.
• Nirmata shows each startup's seats, customers, invoices and monthly P&L, so progress is visible from the top.
• Every quarter, an AI-assisted Lean Strategy review reads that quarter's customer feedback and numbers, gives a verdict and suggests pivots to test; students agree or differ with reasons.
• Mentors and the STARTIONS team step in where a startup is stuck: on sales, product questions, or team issues.

Startup terminology

MVP

Minimum viable product: the smallest version that real customers can use and pay for.

Product-market fit

When a clear group of customers keeps buying and recommending your product.

ICP

Ideal customer profile: the customer who needs you most and can pay.

Pivot

A deliberate change of customer, problem or model, based on evidence.

Bootstrapping

Growing with your own money and revenue instead of investors.

Runway

How many months the money in the bank lasts at the current spend.

Burn rate

How much money a startup spends each month beyond what it earns.

MRR / ARR

Monthly or annual recurring revenue from subscriptions.

Churn

The share of customers (or revenue) lost in a period.

CAC

Customer acquisition cost: what it costs to win one customer.

LTV

Lifetime value: the gross profit a customer brings over their whole time with you.

Unit economics

Profit or loss on one customer or one sale.

Valuation

What investors agree a company is worth. Pre-money before new investment, post-money after.

Equity and dilution

Ownership in shares; dilution is your share shrinking when new shares are issued.

Term sheet

A summary of an investment's main terms before final contracts.

Cap table

The list of who owns what share of a company.

Unicorn

A private startup valued at US$1 billion or more.

GTM

Go-to-market: how you reach, sell to and onboard customers.

Startup funding

Bootstrapping

Your savings and revenue. Full control; growth limited by cash.

Friends and family

Small early cheques from people who trust you. Put terms in writing.

Grants and schemes

Government and institutional support, such as the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme through incubators. No equity, but eligibility rules apply.

Angel investors

Individuals investing early, usually for equity, often with mentoring.

Seed and pre-seed

The first institutional rounds, to find product-market fit.

Series A, B, C

Larger rounds to scale a model that already works.

Venture debt and revenue-based financing

Loans or advances repaid from revenue, with little or no equity given away.

Crowdfunding

Many small backers, often for a product launch.

A STARTIONS startup does not need outside funding to start: the product is built, and the startup loan can fund early OpEx.

Startup financial formulas

Startup finance basics

• P&L shows whether you made a profit; cash flow shows whether you can pay your bills. A profitable startup can still run out of cash.
• Cash basis (used for STARTIONS startups) counts money when it is received; accrual counts it when it is earned.
• GST is collected for the government, not earned. TDS is tax deducted at source on payouts.
• Budget every month: expected revenue, planned spend, and the result. Compare with actuals and explain the gaps.
• Price from value and competitors, then check your margin can pay for the customer you have to win.

KPIs and KPAs by team

KPAs are the areas you are responsible for; KPIs are the numbers that show how you are doing.

Startup skillsets

Founder

Vision and focus, decision-making, leading people, selling the idea, money sense.

Co-Founder

Owning a function, execution, coaching teammates, numbers for their area.

Teammate

Consistency, communication, CRM discipline, learning fast.

Intern

Curiosity, reliability, asking good questions.

Everyone

Customer conversations, writing clearly, using Bitrix24 well, basic spreadsheets, teamwork and ownership.

Startup myths

"You need a unique idea."

Execution beats novelty. Most winners improve something that already exists.

"You need investors to start."

You need customers. Many startups grow on revenue first.

"Build it and they will come."

Distribution is half the work. Plan how you will reach customers from day one.

"Founders work alone."

Startups are team sports; roles and ownership make them work.

"Students are too young."

Students have time, energy and networks. What they need is a structure and mentors.

"Funding means success."

Funding is a tool, not a result. Profitable customers are the result.

"Failure is the end."

Every failed test is data. Pivots are normal.

"Overnight success."

Most "overnight" successes took years of quiet, consistent work.