A recent poll on Reddit revealed the ranking for Indian start-up founders and what redditors think about the work environment in all these companies. The poll voted Byju Raveendran, CEO and co-founder of Indian edtech firm, Byju’s, as the ‘worst founder’, following allegations of encouraging a toxic environment at work and engaging in unethical business practices.
The poll, conducted by the ‘Startup India’ community on the social media platform, began widespread discussions amongst users regarding the way Raveendran handles his company, employees, customers, and investors.
Users called out Raveendran for damaging the reputation of the entire Indian start-up ecosystem. One of the users noted, “Byjus Ravindran He is greedy and followed stupid practices to sell his product. ( Many parents stuck in debt and cried ) He put so much pressure on his employees and treated worst He picked a fight with investors instead of being supportive who supported him in initial stages He brought bad name to Indian startup system He is WORST because he brought worst experience to customers, employees, Investors, Vendors and to country. Atleast others didn't disappoint atleast one stakeholder but he disappointed every stakeholder associated witht the company. So He is THE WORST.”
Meanwhile, the community voted Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s founder, as the ‘best founder’. The CEO was applauded for generating more employment opportunities in his hometown, developing a successful business model, and bringing a competitive product in the market without depending on venture capital funding.
One of the users shared, “He operates from a village in Tamilnadu. He scaled it to global level & giving tough competition to google and Microsoft He made his startup unicorn without even taking VC funding No PR BS Most unconventional conventional founder.”