BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover criticizes tech firm for releasing employees, advises founders to choose salary cuts instead

BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover has been grabbing all the headlines in the media lately. No, not because of his departure from the Judges panel from Shark Tank India Season 2 but because of his startup. He is known for being vocal about things he doesn’t like. This time he is commenting on the recent layoffs going on in major companies. If you look at his latest LinkedIn post, he stated he never finds a reason to fire employees just because of a bad market.

Ashneer Grover’s Slam Tech Firms for Layoffs

Commenting on the reason, Ashneer Grover stated that he has always hired in “considerately”. He wrote, “It’s sad to hear about firings every day. I am thankful that I’ve never had to fire people because of bad markets- because I’ve always hired considerably. As a founder, you’ve to think about the long game.”

The judge of Shark Tank India season 1 says reducing the salary by 25% to 40% can be more suitable for companies than firing employees. In the same post, he also mentioned he doesn’t relate to why founders can’t make this decision instead. “I had posted about 25-40% salary reduction a while back as an alternative to mass firings. I just don’t get why founders won’t go down that path. Everything gets repriced- energy, capital, technology. Why not people?” His post read:

He further added, he has made a markup of keeping only 50 employees in his next startup called ‘The Third Unicorn’. He wants his employees to just focus on their work and the company’s overall growth. “Glad I’ve put on myself a max cap of 50 people in The Third Unicorn. People joining me will have to worry only about building and growth- I’ve got my team’s back,” Grover wrote.