Byju Raveendran has been voted the worst Indian founder by a Reddit community for fostering a toxic work culture, ‘scamming’ customers with unethical business practices and bringing a bad name to the Indian startup ecosystem. The co-founder and CEO of edtech platform Byju's is currently embroiled in several legal and financial issues, with allegations that he fraudulently transferred $533 million to offshore accounts linked to him - a charge that he denies.
His company Byju's has also defaulted on significant debt obligations in the US and India, and is currently facing insolvency proceedings. These issues have translated into large-scale layoffs, pending salaries and a substantial drop in the firm’s valuation.
Worst Founder
The “Startup India” Reddit community has been polling public opinion on Indian startup founders. The ongoing voting process has so far decided on the most underrated, most overrated, the best, and the worst Indian founders.
Byju Raveendran, 44, was unequivocally voted the worst founder in India, with Reddit users disparaging his treatment of employees, customers and investors.
{{/usCountry}}Byju Raveendran, 44, was unequivocally voted the worst founder in India, with Reddit users disparaging his treatment of employees, customers and investors.
{{/usCountry}}“He scams families of their savings under the pretext of education,” wrote one Reddit user.
“He screwed everyone whom he hired… he spoiled Indian startup reputation abroad,” said another. “He is greedy and followed stupid practices to sell his product. (Many parents were stuck in debt and cried),” a third Reddit user pointed out.
One Reddit user made a long list of his shortcomings which included “Toxic work culture with employee exploitation,” “Lack of transparency in corporate governance,” and “Failure to disclose critical information about operations,” among other things.
It was, however, a close contest between Byju Raveendran and Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal, who, in recent times, has come under fire for poor service to Ola Electric customers.
Best Founder
Meanwhile, Reddit users also voted for the Best Founder, with Sridhar Vembu of Zoho taking the honour. Reasons for Vembu being named the best Indian founder included his role in creating jobs in his hometown, launching a good product and creating an impressive business model.
“He created a company in his village providing so many jobs to people in his hometown. Although Zoho pays less compared to the industry standards, still their products are great.
“Undoubtedly Vembu. He operates from a village in Tamil Nadu. He scaled it to global level and is now giving tough competition to Google and Microsoft. He made his startup unicorn without even taking VC funding,” another said.