Jr. Developer gets multiple hikes on an offer. Ends up as a VC in the Startups that wanted to hire him.
VCs insisted for an IITian in the team. The only way was to offer him equity and a board seat.
In a first, but rather unsurprising turn of events, Punya Prateek, a recent graduate from IIT Ghazipur, saw more inflation on his offer than what my jeans saw post the wedding season binge-eat.
Punya Prateek or PeePee, as he signs his cheques nowadays, applied to a seed-funded startup and got through, he took the offer and pushed it to a Series A funded one for a 50% hike. He took the Series A offer and applied to a Series B-funded startup and got a 100% hike on the last offer.
The plan was simple, either I run out of alphabets to put after Series, or they run out of borrowed money.
The final offer ended up being bigger than the entire valuation of the first start-up. When PeePee was finally able to get his 'fair market price for his skills, he went back to all the startups that offered him and became an investor in all of them.
With a grin on his face, PeePee shared - "I truly believed in the vision of all the startups of hiring an IITian for the job. I have worked my ass off in Kota to get to the stage I am at. If I can't reap the benefits of it for my entire lifetime, I would rather work for a couple of years more, crack UPSC and then reap the benefits of that for an entire lifetime."
"Our hiring philosophy is pretty simple. Engineers from IITs, Product Managers from ISB, and Marketers from people trending on the hashtag #GrowthHacking on Linkedin." The founder of ChhataBook, a startup that helps friends share their umbrellas while keeping records of it, commented for better reach.
"I am thinking of moving our entire tech team to Africa. But the major roadblock being, there are no IITs in Africa. Which is quite surprising! All the new IITs have opened in pretty remote locations, and what's more remote than Africa!?" The founder of SayTm, a startup that lets you promise you'll pay the money tomorrow to mom n pop stores, was quoted exploring new avenues.
"We could hire from Tier 2 colleges or even really talented non-pedigree folks as well. But then we have to have IITians to cover up for the lack of a business model while quoting an unquotable valuation. I never went to IIT and I know how it feels to not have the IIT brand associated with you. I can never do that to my startup." The founder of WonderBro, a startup that lets you send uplifting stolen quotes of J Shaw, to your Bros, was quoted sharing his clarity of thought.
"What can I say - not everyone gets it, hence they hate it. At times, even I don't get it. But I am fine, till the investors don't get it too." The founder of PHIL, a startup that is actually a Chinese fortune cookie masquerading as a lifestyle brand, was quoted without context or sense.
Startups in the past have seen early employees becoming VCs post mega exits, but this trend is even more exciting to watch. It's almost like an uncapped IPL player getting an offer and then buying the IPL team that offered him. Engineers are the Pandyas of the startup world, covering up for the MBA Unadkats. OyoyoMG!
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