Razorpay co-founder and CEO Harshil Mathur has called out a fellow entrepreneur for posting a fake story for engagement. Mathur’s rebuke came after Omentir founder Vansh Yadav claimed that a Y Combinator partner told him to pay $250,000 for acceptance into the next batch of the startup accelerator programme.
What Omentir founder claimed
On Saturday, July 11, Vansh Yadav took to the social media platform X to claim that he had been guaranteed acceptance to the prestigious startup accelerator programme Y Combinator — for a fee of $250,000.
“A Y Combinator partner (very active on X) asked me for $250k with a guarantee acceptance to their next batch,” Vansh posted on X.
“He said you'll raise few millions after batch anyways so 250k will be nothing. What happened to YC,” added the founder of Omentir, an AI sales agent.
Razorpay CEO refutes incident
Harshil Mathur, 35, refused to buy Vansh Yadav’s claims and emphasised that Y Combinator does not work that way.
Razorpay, incidentally, was part of the Y Combinator (YC W15) batch in 2015 and went on to become YC’s first Indian unicorn.
Mathur claimed that Vansh Yadav was posting fake stories for engagement. “I know Twitter incentivizes bait and engagement but founders: don’t do this,” the CEO of Razorpay said in response to Yadav’s post.
{{/usCountry}}Mathur claimed that Vansh Yadav was posting fake stories for engagement. “I know Twitter incentivizes bait and engagement but founders: don’t do this,” the CEO of Razorpay said in response to Yadav’s post.
{{/usCountry}}“Your engagement lasts a few days. Your reputation lasts a lifetime,” he added.
Harshil Mathur went on to say that Y Combinator does not accept payments in exchange for a seat in their programme.
“Every YC founder knows this isn’t how YC works, Y Combinator and Garry Tan have already clarified that. A viral post is never worth damaging your own reputation or the reputation of the ecosystem you represent,” he concluded.
Razorpay at YC
The founder of Razorpay has earlier spoken about his time at YC in San Francisco, California.
“Spending the full three months of YC in Mountain View was one of the best decisions we ever made,” he had said. “It was a good call to stay in US and not fly back and forth to India, because if we had, we'd have missed out on the full benefit of YC — spending valuable time with the other founders in our batch, meeting successful alumni and building relationships throughout the YC community, and getting mentored by YC partners and other investors.”
(Also read: Ashneer Grover once shut down his pitch with ‘Tu baith jaa yar’. Now he’s headed to Y Combinator)