CEOs, founders rally behind Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal who was trolled for $400 Burberry t-shirt
Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal has found support from the startup community after he was trolled for wearing a $400 t-shirt while announcing no salary hikes.
Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal has found support from the startup community after he was trolled for wearing a $400 t-shirt while announcing no salary hikes for employees. Gaurav Munjal appeared at the company’s virtual town hall in a Burberry t-shirt. In his address to employees, the CEO of edtech firm Unacademy said they had not met their growth targets and therefore would not be holding appraisals for the workforce.
His choice of apparel did not sit well with a section of the internet. However, Munjal has now found support from fellow CEOs and leaders of the Indian business community.
(Also read: Unacademy CEO announces no appraisals for employees while wearing ₹33,000 T-shirt. Watch)
Zeta Suite co-founder Bhavin Turakhia criticised the media for sensational headlines. “Had Gaurav's wardrobe comprised of t-shirts worth $4 versus $400, could this situation have been avoided?” he asked in a lengthy post shared on X.
Turakhia, a serial entrepreneur, said that Gaurav Munjal had owned up to the mistakes made at Unacademy, which spoke more than his wardrobe. “This is a Founding team who have on several occasions slashed their own compensations, taken paycuts, aligned their incentives to the performance of the company, and toiled towards the betterment of access to education in the country,” he pointed out while acknowledging that the news of no appraisals must have been disappointing for staff.
Sumanth Raghavendra, founder of Presentations AI, took a more humorous approach as he tweeted about booking a Zudio appointment. “Need to replace all my Burberry T-shirts with cheap shit before some media publication makes it front page news,” he posted on X. His post has now been deleted.
“Those criticizing @gauravmunjal for his experience T-shirt have no idea about his journey. Starting from almost nothing, he built everything with hard work and determination. He earned every bit of his success, and nothing was handed to him on a silver platter. He deserves it,” wrote Anshul Agrawal.
Parag Mehta, CEO of Positiwise Software, also spoke out in support of Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal.
“It’s been tough, and that’s why I have one bad news that we won’t be able to do any appraisals this year,” Munjal had said while announcing no salary hikes in 2024. “I know I said that we will do appraisals two, three weeks ago, but when we started the process, we realised that we made a mistake.”