Recently, there was a spat on social media between a celebrated startup founder and a standup comedian. At the heart of it was a post from the comedian saying the startup’s electric bikes had product issues but customer complaints were not being addressed promptly or efficiently. This escalated and, before anyone could say ‘Ola’, both individuals began attacking each other in public.
There are multiple issues here. The comedian had earlier tweeted positively about a competing electric vehicle brand and, hence, this post seemed commercially triggered. On the other hand, there are many product complaints from genuine customers that are in the public domain and need redressal.
Over the years, I have observed many young and successful startup founders with serious behavioural issues. Earlier generations of entrepreneurs, including those in the dotcom boom and bust phases in the late ’90s, are warm, approachable, humble and polite, irrespective of their success. The grace adds to their success and, as I never tire of telling entrepreneurs, “Feet always firmly on ground”.
However, in the past 10-15 years, I have been astounded by the brashness of entrepreneurs, especially the first-generation ones. It’s almost as if they believe bad behaviour is essential for success.
Unsurprisingly, startups founded by such entrepreneurs have built a reputation for having toxic workplaces. Attention from regulatory authorities for financial jugglery, poor corporate governance practices, legal complaints for rabid behaviour in personal life, and #MeToo allegations at the workplace are some of the other troubling reports that have surfaced about them in the media.
Entrepreneurship is a hard profession. There is relentless pressure on storied founders who have built larger-than-life personas and raised large sums of capital to show strong growth and profitability metrics; they do not need useless public spats as distractions. As an entrepreneur, I have faced my quota of irate customers, logistic challenges and even incompetence from my staff, and I have always treated customers with humility and politeness. Some of them may not have been fully satisfied with the resolution but never has anyone suggested that I was rude or impolite. Customers understand things will go wrong and all they seek are prompt resolutions. But no paying customer, however small, signed up to be treated rudely. Similarly, employees in startups always defer to the founders, but this does not mean they are fine to work in toxic environments.
As entrepreneurship explodes in India, we need iconic founders the ecosystem can look up to: folks who not only build sustainable firms but also behave with humility. There’s no better example than Ratan Tata, who passed away recently.
(The writer is a serial entrepreneur and best-selling author of the book ‘Failing to Succeed’; posts on X @vaitheek)