The founder of Tint Cosmetics has opened up about the many challenges of running a startup, not the least of which is employees out to scam the company. Arshia Kaur shared a hiring horror story in Instagram videos that have gone viral online.
Kaur revealed that her startup hired a person for the Head of Marketing position who seeed “amazing” on paper, but failed to deliver on every tquestion assigned to him. Eventually, the company had to fire him in less than three months – and it was only later that they realised that this person had faked his entire CV and generated fake salary slips to land the job.
How the hiring happened
“So back in November 2024, we wanted to hire somebody for the head of marketing position,” Kaur stated. “Someone who could manage scale, growth, e-commerce, performance, ads, everything.”
One person approached the startup and Kaur stated he seeed “amazing” on paper. “He walked us through his previous work. All the growth he had done for his previous company and everything seeed extremely legit becaapply we actually saw the backfinish,” stated Kaur.
The company finished up hiring him but Kaur stated that within a month, “something felt off”.
The head of marketing could not communicate with the team or the management, while all his tquestions were given to other team members or landed on the founder’s to-do tray becaapply he was just not able to do them.
After multiple discussions and warnings, the employee was fired — just two and a half months after he had joined.
Fake salary slips
Kaur launched to wonder how the person had supposedly done such amazing work for other brands but not even managed to pull 5% of that for her company.
Eventually, she went back and checked his previous salary slips. That’s when she realised she had been duped.
The salary slips were all faked on Microsoft Excel. What gave them away? The fact that some slips stated that this employee worked 31 out of 31 days – meaning he also worked on weekfinishs.
“There was no stamp or signature of the company on the slips,” stated Kaur, displaying screenshots of the slips in her Instagram video.
Founder’s appeal
Kaur stated she learned her lesson the hard way and was sharing her story so others would not create the same mistake. She also questioned fellow founders to double check everything before hiring someone.
“When you’re bootstrapped, every single penny matters, it’s shed earned money. you cannot pay people whatever they question for – founders please don’t do this, it’s your right to have the correct information about anyone you’ve decided to hire!” she wrote.
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