Byju Raveendran voted as 'worst' founder; Sridhar Vembu 'best'

Byju Raveendran, co-founder and CEO of ed-tech company Byju’s, has been voted as the “worst” Indian founder by a Reddit community.

Several users of the social media platform Reddit shared their views on why Raveendran is “worst” and there were other names like Rahul Yadav of Housing.com and Ola’s Bhavesh Aggarwal too being discussed for the “worst” title.

The Reddit users voted Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, as the “best” founder.

Also read: Will Tenkasi model reach North India? Is AI a threat? Hear it from Zoho's Sridhar Vembu

“He (Vembu) created a company in his village providing so many jobs to people in his hometown. Although Zoho pays less compared to the industry standards, still their products are great,” a user said.

“Undoubtedly Vembu. He operates from a village in Tamil Nadu. He scaled it to global level and is now giving tough competition to Google and Microsoft. He made his startup unicorn without even taking VC funding,” another one said.

On Raveendran, a user wrote, “He is greedy and followed stupid practices to sell his product. (Many parents stuck in debt and cried). He put so much pressure on his employees and treated worst. He picked a fight with investors instead of being supportive who supported him in initial stages. He brought bad name to Indian startup system. He is WORST because he brought worst experience to customers, employees, Investors, Vendors and to country (sic).”

Also read: Byju Raveendran on tenterhooks as appeals tribunal to decide on insolvency process

“He put so much pressure on his employees, this is an understatement. Many of his employees when confronting senior management, end up being sued and harassed by the police (sic),” was another comment on the forum.

Byju’s, which was launched in 2015, was once valued at $22 billion but the reopening of schools after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions led to its unravelling. Earlier, this year, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, slashed its valuation to $1 billion.

The company's troubles began when it missed financial reporting deadlines two years ago and fell short of revenue projections by more than 50 per cent.

In February, a group of investors in Byju's parent firm Think & Lean, including Prosus and Peak XV, voted to remove Raveendran as CEO during an extraordinary general meeting, citing allegations of "mismanagement and failures". Raveendran had denied all allegations.

Byju’s is currently facing insolvency proceedings.