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Less success, more ego: Shubh Agrawal lambasts Indian founders
Agrawal spent close to six months reaching out to multiple CEOs and founders he admired and noticed the difference in his experience with them.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Wed, 14, Jan 2026
- 01:40 EST
- 15
Shubh Agrawal / Shubh Agrawal via LinkedIn
Entrepreneur and Head of Growth at New York based tech company Valley, Shubh Agrawal, has stirred a lively discussion among netizens after he shared the differences in how Indian CEOs and American CEOs respond to people seeking advice. He questioned, 'What’s with Indian founders and their Ego?'
Agrawal shared that he had spent the last six months reaching out to founders and CEOs whom he admired. However, he noted, the experience led to the realisation that there exists a significant difference between "the ego levels of Indian founders and the ones outside."
ALSO READ: Entrepreneur warns Indian professionals in U.S. to rethink tech careers
What’s with Indian founders and their Ego?
— Shubh Agrawal (@ShubhAgrawal26) January 12, 2026
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… pic.twitter.com/OcZAfb7g6C
The young entrepreneur shared snippets of two conversations he had to drive in his point. The first conversation was with a founder he describes as "Indian, you've seen him on podcasts, company does $40mil in yearly revenue." He remarked that this founder "got super angry because there's no free access to Valley and the fact that he'll have to pay to experience the product," the founder event allegedly went on to call Valley's founding team "ret*rd and barely helping."
In stark contrast, the second founder, whom he describes as "based in the US, has built two unicorn companies, company does >$400mil in yearly revenue." The American founder, according to Agrawal "spent a good 60 minutes asking questions and diagnosing the issue and offered to hop on a call if needed." He also encouraged the young man and told him that they are 'they are the same, just at different places on their timelines'.
Agrawal summed up his experience saying, "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."
As his observations reached more and more netizens, it split readers into two distinct camps. The first group supported Agrawal's arguments, while many others said that the experience was very subjective and should not be used to bring about a broad categorization of all entrepreneurs.
Discover more at New India Abroad.
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