Recently, the founder of a leading food delivery startup announced a key open position in his company, offering close access to the entrepreneur, a great learning opportunity and an annual package of ₹20 lakh… wait for this… to be paid by the “lucky” employee to the company. After strong pushback on social media, the founder managed to position this into a winning social media campaign, although everyone was sure the founder was dead serious about the “offer”. A few days later, the co-founder of a leading quick commerce startup recommended “work-life balance” to his competitors, probably in response to an online post by a current employee detailing the toxic work culture at the company. These are not isolated incidents, and such media reports about startups surface regularly.

I don’t have data to support this, but I feel employees are treated badly in well-funded ventures with storied founders compared to smaller, lesser known startups, where the employee culture is much better. Indian entrepreneurs create important jobs for aspiring youth, but all this becomes pointless if employees are treated with disdain. Before you think that startups treating employees poorly is the norm, let me list a few instances where the management has shown remarkable empathy.

When I was forced to let go of a small team due to financial pressures, the affected employees wanted to remain on the rolls with a token compensation, so they could use the company’s health insurance coverage till they landed a new role. Several months later, the mother of one of them met with an accident that left her in a wheelchair for a while. I felt humbled when, a year later, the son told me tearfully that had we not extended the company’s medical coverage his mom would have died, because he could not afford the treatment on his own.

Two of the guards appointed at our office through an agency wanted to take up some other role for career growth. Months later, after self-learning computers and lots of hard work, both were promoted to handle invoicing and warehouse inventory.

A lady software engineer from a low-income family fell in love with a boy from a similar background and they wanted to marry, but their respective families objected. The woman, who worked at an SaaS firm founded by my friend, approached him for help. Though she was new at the firm, he lent her a significant amount without interest or collateral. Today, the happily married woman leads a large team at the firm.

I think founders who have experienced remarkable financial success at a young age ascribe their success to individual effort but, in reality, hard-working employees contribute significantly and must be treated with more empathy. This is an important factor to build a strong startup ecosystem in India.

(The writer is a serial entrepreneur and best-selling author of the book ‘Failing to Succeed’; posts on X @vaitheek)