In immediately’s startup ecosystem, the boundary between hustle and deceit is eroding quick. What as soon as handed as intelligent maneuvering is now breeding a tradition of normalised dishonesty — the place manipulating methods and exploiting belief are par for the course. Deception within the company world is not restricted to grand scams or elaborate frauds; it’s changing into embedded in on a regular basis work tradition.
A current Reddit thread has reignited the dialog, revealing simply how deeply this rot runs by way of Indian startups — from falsified reimbursements and ghost stock to weaponised media threats. And the worst half? A lot of society doesn’t appear to care.
A Reddit consumer not too long ago sparked a storm by exposing how deception disguised as hustle is quietly sabotaging Indian startups. Referencing a dialogue the place a founder questioned the necessity for background checks, the consumer noticed, “Most commenters didn’t even learn the total put up — they jumped straight into private assaults… Round 50% of the replies appeared weirdly okay with deception and conning corporations.”
The thread grew to become a mirror to a broader disaster. “Faux hustlers are rotting the system from inside,” the consumer added, pointing to a deeper societal shift the place tricking corporations is glamorised, and founders are routinely villainised.
The put up shared that a number of founders shared firsthand tales of this poisonous normalisation.
“A deep tech founder was blindsided when an worker stop instantly, then concerned a media contact to manufacture a labour criticism and threaten publicity. “There was no criticism filed anyplace. Simply manipulation,” the consumer recounted.
A D2C startup unearthed a reimbursement fraud operating into lakhs, orchestrated by a mid-level supervisor. “They let him go quietly. No case. Simply one other battle misplaced silently.”
One market founder found workers had been stealing returned items, stuffing the containers with rags and bricks, and promoting the actual objects within the gray market. “Fired the entire staff in a single day. All of them are working at one other market now.”
One other founder tracked a senior worker siphoning stock off the books — an operation so well-hidden it took a 12 months to uncover and prosecute.
These incidents not often floor on-line. “Founders simply take the hit, preserve constructing, and transfer on — principally in silence,” the Redditor famous.
In the meantime, reactions from the group had been combined. Some netizens blamed cultural flaws. “It’s the Indian mentality to get cash with any means vital,” one consumer stated. One other questioned hiring processes altogether: “Why aren’t we doing reference checks? That must be like hiring 101.”
Others struck a extra philosophical chord. “An moral individual stays that approach despite losses… And an unethical individual will likely be unethical it doesn’t matter what,” replied a consumer.
A former startup CEO echoed the sentiment. “Sure, we’ve normalised deceit. My conclusion is that individuals will cheat if they’ve the chance and the draw back is restricted… Lead by instance and set excessive moral requirements which it’s best to by no means compromise on.”
But for a lot of founders, the harm is already executed. Confronted with betrayal from inside, rising hostility from the surface, and a tradition that usually shrugs at dishonesty, they’re being pushed to extremes.
As the unique poster put it: “Truthfully, I received’t be stunned when founders cease hiring altogether and simply begin deploying AI… As a result of whenever you’re constructing in the course of a societal collapse it is slightly honest to not have unethical, misleading people altogether.”
