Indian-Origin Man Fools 27 Investors using Fake Founder Persona
By using cold emails and faking a founder profile, with no real product, pitch, or plan he claimed to have received replies from 27 investors and 4 calls
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2025-06-03 13:27 GMT
Bhavye Khetan, an Indian-origin and a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, faked founder profile to fool 27 investors. In a viral post on X, Bhavye Khetan claimed to have fooled dozens of venture capitalists (VCs) using a fictional founder identity packed with popular keywords like “stanford”, "Palantir" and "AI." By using cold emails and faking a founder profile, with no real product, pitch, or plan he claimed to have received replies from 27 investors and 4 calls. There was no company and no idea, just a made-up resume with the right names in the right places.
In the X post he wrote “I made a fake founder persona. No product. No pitch. No deck. Just: Stanford CS, Ex-Palantir, and used the word ‘AI’ 3 times... This game is rigged in ways most people don’t understand.” Khetan criticised how even without a solid product, pitch, or plan the startup and venture capital ecosystem can generate interest and emphasizing how it's less about what you build and more about who you appear to be. The post ultimately went viral and caused divided opinions all across the internet.
A user replied and wrote “I heard about a guy who faked his CV w/ similar founder, tech nonsense & landed major consulting & 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”
Although not everyone was impressed, another user commented “This is stupid. You lied. Stanford is meaningful. Palantir is meaningful. AI is meaningful. The only person acting inappropriately is you.” Another commented “If you lie, of course, they’ll take your call. But you won’t get far once they realise you’re faking it.”
While it is controversial, Khetan’s experiment casts a revealing spotlight on the culture of venture capital, especially in an era where certain universities, companies, and buzzwords act like cheat codes to attract attention.
This article is authored by Kripa C Saji as part of internship program with Deccan Chronicle.