NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
A social experiment by Bhavye Khetan, a Berkeley graduate, has sparked heated debate in the startup and venture capital world. In a now-viral post on X (formerly Twitter), Khetan claimed he created a fake founder persona with no product, no pitch, and no deck. All he included were three things: a Stanford CS degree, a stint at Palantir, and the word “AI” repeated three times.
He sent cold emails to 34 venture capitalists. Twenty-seven responded. Four asked to jump on a call.
“This game is rigged in ways most people don’t understand,” he wrote.
The post touched a nerve and quickly spread across tech circles online, with many questioning how much weight the startup world places on pedigree and buzzwords.
Some pushed back, defending the VC process. One popular response read, “Your point may be valid, but your example is useless. People complain VCs don’t take cold inbound. So don’t complain if they try to. Most VCs take thousands of meetings a year. Taking a meeting isn’t a very big sign. My guess is that a Palantir alum is a good signal.”
Others were more blunt: “What exactly does this prove? VCs will literally get on a call with absolutely anyone, especially if they’ve never heard of you.”
Another commenter shared a real-world parallel: “I heard about a guy who faked his CV with similar founder/tech nonsense and landed major consulting and executive jobs this way. Now he’s CFO at a Fortune 500, clearing $500K a year.”
Some saw the post as evidence of deeper biases in the industry. “Yeah, and Americans don’t even realize the degree of how much easier it is for them to secure funding or even just a client compared to euro/Indian/Asian folks.”
One hiring manager chimed in with a similar story from the recruitment world: “We’ve received requests for sales positions where graduating from a top-tier school is a non-negotiable requirement. Candidates from other schools won’t even be considered, regardless of work history.”
But not everyone believed Khetan’s experiment proved the system is broken. “That isn’t proof the game is rigged. It’s pattern recognition, not funding,” one response read. “VCs use signals to filter risk, not to guarantee capital.”
Another added, “The game of VCs is to make calls. They want to know what’s up, don’t miss, get to know you as much as possible before they invest… They just waste your time with pointless meetings to log it in their CRM.”
While opinions vary, the post has clearly reopened old wounds in the startup world—about who gets seen, who gets funded, and how much of it depends on substance versus status.
Bhavye Khetan’s photo courtesy of Bhavye Khetan/X.
