An Indian-origin UC Berkeley graduate has claimed that he was able to attract the interest of nearly 30 venture capitalists by sending cold emails using a fake persona and keywords like “Stanford,” “AI,” and “Palantir.”
In his post, Bhavye Khetan criticised the startup and venture capital (VC) ecosystem, claiming that investor interest can be generated with just the right buzzwords and credentials—even when there’s no real product, pitch, or plan.
“I made a fake founder persona. No product. No pitch. No deck. Just: Stanford CS, Ex-Palantir and used the word “AI” 3 times. Sent cold emails to 34 VCs. 27 replied. 4 asked for a call. This game is rigged in ways most people don’t understand,” he wrote.
Khetan explained that he invented a startup founder and, without a business idea, product, or even a presentation deck, he received responses from a majority of VCs simply by leveraging a prestigious academic background, a hyped tech company, and a trending buzzword.
He claimed that the startup game isn’t always about what you build—sometimes, it’s just about who you appear to be.
‘This is stupid’
The post received over 330,000 views, and many were shocked by the results.
“Who would have thought having shiny logos on resume makes people more likely to wanna talk to you,” joked one user.
Another wrote: “I heard about a guy who faked his CV with similar founder, tech nonsense and landed major consulting and then executive jobs this way. Entire climb up the ladder he delegated key tasks he had no idea how to do himself to underlings. Now he’s CFO at a Fortune 500, clearing 500K a year.”
However, some argued that using actual prestigious institutions and companies on your resume does lend credibility and that a lie like this wouldn’t hold up for long.
“This is stupid. You lied. Stanford is meaningful. Palantir is meaningful. AI is meaningful. The only person acting inappropriately is you,” remarked one commenter.
“I don’t think it’s rigged, if you lie of course they will take your call but I think you won’t get past that when they figure out you are lying pretty quickly,” added another.
