In a tweet, a Bengaluru entrepreneur has shed light on the stark difference in mentorship styles between Indian and US-based founders. He claimed that when he reached out to two high-profile founders for guidance, he received starkly different responses. He posted while the Indian founder reportedly became “super angry” over product access and used derogatory language; the more successful US founder, however, offered words of encouragement and a follow-up call.
“What’s with Indian founders and their Ego? Story time – In the last 6 months, I’ve reached out to countless founders and CEOs I admire for advice. Most of the time, they’re willing to help – but there seems to be a massive difference between the ego levels of Indian founders and the ones outside,” Shubh Agrawal, whose LinkedIn says he currently works at a New York-based company, tweeted.
He shared two screenshots claiming they show strikingly different responses from an Indian founder and an American one. Adding context, he wrote, “Founder one: Indian, you’ve seen him on podcasts, company does $40mil in yearly revenue. Founder two: Based in the US, has built two unicorn companies, company does >$400mil in yearly revenue.”
Agrawal claimed that while the India founder got angry and called the “founding team ret*rd”, the American peer “spent a good 60 minutes asking questions and diagnosing the issue and offered to hop on a call if needed”.
“I might be wrong in attributing this to their origin, but it’s clear that the founder with 10x higher competence was a lot more humble and willing to help out,” he continued.
HT.com has reached out to Shubh Agrawal, this report will be updated when he responds.
What did social media say?
The post prompted a series of remarks. While some agreed with Agrawal, others had different opinions. An individual posted, “I guess when someone goes through hard steps and then makes it work, they feel it’s worth the journey, so they would rather watch others suffer to get to the same level than offer a helping hand. Maybe that’s how the Indian mindset works.”
Another commented, “I think this is very specific. I reached out to people in India and outside, and the experiences were completely different. So I don’t think this is a general thing. It’s very, very specific to the people.”
A third expressed, “Same with managers. Literally Indian managers s**k!” A fourth wrote, “Humility comes with higher competence because you know your worth and do not need constant validation from others.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)