Stanford-educated CEO slams 'unreliable’ Indian employees: ‘I might never go to India again’

1. Stanford-educated CEO slams 'unreliable’ Indian employees: ‘I might never go to India again’

Stanford-educated CEO slams 'unreliable’ Indian employees: ‘I might never go to India again’ BySanya Jain Feb 27, 2025 11:45 AM IST Share Via Copy Link Entrepreneur Hari Raghavan criticized the work ethic of Indian employees after a recent visit, suggesting they require constant monitoring. 

Indian-American entrepreneur Hari Raghavan has spoken in defense of the much-derided AI startup Optifye, built to monitor factory workers, by saying that Indian employees are unreliable and need constant tracking.

Autograph CEO Hari Raghavan says Indian employees are unreliable and need monitoring.

Optifye.ai, co-founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs Vivaan Baid and Kushal Mohta, uses computer vision technology to track workers on assembly lines and provide factory managers with productivity data. The startup came under fire after its product demo for Y Combinator went viral online for all the wrong reasons.

(Also read: Why an AI startup by Indian founders has sparked global outrage after Y Combinator demo)

In the US, thousands of people slammed the AI startup, calling it a “dystopian” product to promote sweatshop slavery. But one Indian-American CEO begs to differ.

Hari Raghavan, co-founder and CEO of Autograph and a Stanford alumnus, took to the social media platform X to slam the work ethic of Indian employees, implying that they are lazy, don’t like to work, and need constant monitoring.

Raghavan said that the startup might appear tone-deaf to Americans, but is a much-needed product in India where workers often cut corners, take leaves, lag behind on their work, and generally do not work the way Americans do.

“I grew up in India and I don't think y'all understand how unreliable the work ethic of the average Indian employee is,” the Indian-American CEO wrote. “I don't think it's an accident that the company has a bunch of Indian founders and my guess is that they're targeting the manufacturing base in India. I think their biggest mistake was not realizing that it would be seen as tone deaf when marketed to a US audience on X or LinkedIn.”

Raghavan said that the lax work ethic of Indian employees is apparent in both physical labour and knowledge work.

Speaking from his own experience, he said that the same exact work that Boston Consulting Group did in three days would take two months if done at BNP Paribas Chennai.

Referring once again to the Optifye product demo that caused a furor in the United States, Raghavan said: “If you show that video to literally anyone, in almost any walk of life in India, they will nod furiously and say ‘yes this is what we need.’”

“If you are managing a group of workers in India, you have to breathe down every single person's neck every 10 minutes... and then, if you're lucky, they will get about half as much done as an average US worker,” he opined.

The Indian-origin CEO said that on average, an Indian worker is 10 times less efficient than an American worker.

The entrepreneur continued his rant saying he visited India a few weeks ago and is still fuming from the “million small unprofessional and incompetent interactions” he had there.

He went so far as to say he may never visit India again.

“I just got back from India a couple weeks ago, and I'm still frustrated remembering the million small unprofessional and incompetent interactions that define the daily experience. I might never go to India again because I can't deal with it,” the CEO, who holds a master’s degree in management science and engineering from Stanford University.

Finally, he concluded his rant with a three-point summary.

First, according to Raghavan, the Indian economy is held back by lack of work ethic. As such, India needs more tools for holding workers accountable.

Second, monitoring factory workers is not exploitation, he said, writing: “monitoring factory worker capacity in a culture like that doesn't make it ‘exploitative’, stop projecting.

Finally, he said that people who care for rapid development and modernization of the Indian economy should be rooting for a more performance-oriented culture in India.