Dukaan is not the first. Are there other founders that people should be wary of?

I am Thankful to the funding winter it has revealed true colors of so called Founders, who would not stop talking about culture, Growth, scale etc on Twitter and LinkedIn Take Byjus, for instance, they claim to be revolutionizing education, it's all a facade! All they care about is squeezing every penny out of parents' pockets. Putting large amount of people in debts they didn’t even signup for. And let's talk about Dukaan, shall we? The absolute 🤡 of a founder with zero empathy( 90% staff laidoff and the guts to project it as some AI ML innovation) These startup founders have lost touch with reality. They've become obsessed with valuation and funding rounds, completely forgetting the essence of why they started in the first place. It's all about becoming the next "unicorn" and impressing investors, while the customers and sellers are left in the dust. Gone are the days of genuine innovation and passion for solving real-world problems. It's all about the money now, and they don't care who gets hurt along the way. The startup ecosystem has become a rat race, with everyone trying to outdo each other and sacrificing ethics and integrity in the process. It's sad to see the true colors of these startup founders shining through, and it's high time we demand more transparency, accountability, and genuine value from these so-called "disruptors." Enough with the facade, At the end all these founders will get an exit with generational wealth, the employee and people who have built it will be left in Dust. My laanat to all such founders and company. May the boat sink and hopefully someday we have accountability in place for these people.

Hasn't done anything worth mentioning than some stupid stunts in tech and business.

Why do people like Dukaan's founders receive funding so easily? Don't we have brilliant minds or promising startups in India, or is it the fault of short-sighted VCs who have money but lack vision?

Most startup’s are not founded with great altruistic purpose to elevate human condition. Most startup’s are founded where founders know they can make money or earn status points through little schemes of leveraging their network of investors. Most of them know they can earn more income by just raising some money from friends or VCs. Build a small tech tool and burn through money trying to acquire and retain customers. All this while hiring 100s of employees selling false narratives. What bugs me the most isn’t the thousands of people getting laid off, salary corrections or bankruptcies, it is the mafiaesque organisation built to “create wealth for some by exploitation of countless others” Most startup founders use brute force of content and media coupled with ignorance of people to perpetuate this cycle. It’s the virtue signalling and holier than thou attitude of most founders and VCs justifying all their mindless brutality in the name of strategy and growth which destroys aspirations and outcomes for the many. It’s more relevant in India because of large scale ignorance about money and large scale trust on educated individuals with the right college tags! If you have seen sopranos, most founders are like Anthony soprano - summarily violent, manipulative and ruthless behaviour primarily driven by selfish greed but juxtaposed with moments of vulnerability and struggle justifying his action with a facade of providing for his family. *Replace Anthony soprano with your founder/ceo name* 1. VSS was playing fast and lose with rbi regulations resulting in stock crash and layoffs 2. Byju’s systematically destroyed his own company and wealth of his employees just to ensure he retains majority control 3. Ashneer G and his wife manipulated company books 4. Zerodha founders cheated in chess match or lied about their system failures which lost a lot of capital PS: I refer to most founders because there are few exceptions who don’t fit into this narrative.

Compiling a couple of ways people can understand a toxic founder from a distance, before they start working with them actively I've now met with a lot of them over the last couple of years, here are the ones that stand out the most to me: 1) Narcissism: They'll love to have fame through random things. Stuff like Forbes 30u30 or some random award. Even if it means nothing. They'll show how great business is doing on social media, even when it may be nosediving. You'll never know things are messed up on the inside. 2) Masochism: They're super likely to enjoy pain: be it messed up working hours, or bad health, or just really hard times. This almost allows them to thrive during adversity. This is usually coupled with sadism, they'll typically love that they can take pain well, but you cannot. 3) Overemphasize on the carrot: In your first couple of meetings with them, once they like you, they will over emphasize on the benefits you will have if you work with them. They'll keep repeating how your career could skyrocket, or how you could be a star in other ways. This is also a typical red flag. These are just 3 of the ones that I feel summarize what I have seen in known toxic founders. Happy to debate/know more if somebody else has had the lovely experience too :D

I've been observing a concerning trend lately on this platform, and I believe it's high time we rethink the way we treat startup founders. Take a moment to consider the dedication and courage it takes to leave a secure job and venture into the world of entrepreneurship. I feel Companies like Dukaan, AppX etc were unnecessarily mocked here based on one side of opinion, I've had the privilege of working closely with a startup's CTO for the past two years, and it's been an eye-opening experience. Startups are like fragile ecosystems where every member plays a crucial role. However, what I've noticed is that sometimes employees who find it challenging to keep up with the dynamic startup environment tend to cast blame on the founders and the company culture. Let's remember, every startup is a journey of learning, growth, and innovation. Founders make mistakes, learn from them, and strive to create something meaningful. They invest their time, energy, and resources into building something from scratch. Instead of mocking them, we should applaud their courage and determination. But, what's even more disheartening is the toxic behavior exhibited by some employees here on Grapevine. It's disheartening to see individuals intentionally targeting someone's reputation due to personal grudges. Instead of resorting to negativity, let's try to understand the challenges startup founders face. Put yourself in their shoes; empathize with the pressure, uncertainty, and sleepless nights they endure to bring their visions to life. We should strive to be a community that supports and uplifts one another, especially those who are trying to make a difference in the business world. Let's promote constructive criticism and empathy, recognizing that we all have our unique journeys, struggles, and successes. #SupportStartups #EmpathyMatters #GrapevineCommunity 🌟

Who are the most toxic or unprofessional founders that you guys have heard of?

There is so much negativity around startups right now due to the market cycle since 1.5 years and because of a few bad names but I think overall startups have created massive opportunities in terms of wealth creation, up skilling and giving major breaks to people to learn faster. I think this is largely a founder driven issue as they simply want to be cool and startup for the sake of it but I’ve also seen founders that are committed and passionate however is getting difficult to recognize them and find companies actually building a good product that is solving good problem statement AND not get toxic culture. Can people share some examples in the last 5 years of such founders/startups so we can discuss them more and get some positivity on this platform?

The company had more than 6 layoffs in the past 10 months. Right from office boys to the company COO was affected by the layoff. The recent layoff happened 10 days back, where the company didn't pay their employees a single dime and instead gave them their value less esops to keep their mouth shut. The company is being run by 2 arrogant adamant co-founders along with their 10 other close ally so called the CORE team. The employees were on 30% salary cut since 10 months in the name of deffered and were promised that everyone would get it back with 8% interest on the cut. In every layoff employees were asked to leave within a day or two without even paying them for their notice period. Nobody was vocal about it as the founders had threatened some ex employees that they would make their life miserable and they will find it difficult to get jobs anywhere in future.