A single hiring mistake can ripple far beyond payroll. A Chandigarh startup executive recently revealed that bringing on a candidate who allegedly misrepresented his credentials led to financial losses exceeding Rs 2 lakh and months of disruption.
Ashutosh Gupta, Chief Business Officer at Praper Media, recently revealed on LinkedIn that his company suffered losses exceeding Rs 2 lakh after onboarding a candidate who allegedly falsified key details on his rsum.
“We hired someone who lied about everything on their resume. By the time we found out, we’d lost 2 lakhs,” Gupta wrote.
According to him, the incident took place when the company was still tiny and did not prioritise formal background verification.
“Back when Praper was tinyer, background verification felt unnecessary. So we hired based on interviews and gut feeling. If someone seemed good in the interview, we brought them on,” he stated.
The candidate, referred to as ‘Chirag’ in the post, reportedly presented himself as an experienced professional earning Rs 40,000 at his previous agency. The startup offered him Rs 45,000. However, Gupta stated red flags launched appearing within two months.
“We assigned him a reaction video edit. Standard work. Our junior editors handle 3 per day. Chirag took 2 DAYS. And the output was unusable,” he wrote.
“For someone who claimed 3 years of experience and Rs 40K salary at their last agency? That built no sense,” Gupta added. The company then reached out to the candidate’s previous employer to verify his claims.
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Gupta detailed the financial fallout: Rs 1.35 lakh in salary over three months, Rs 40,000 spent on training time and Rs 25,000 on hiring a replacement. “Plus: Delayed client work, affected team morale, wasted time. Total: Rs 2L+ and 4 months lost,” he stated.
Following the episode, the company introduced mandatory background checks, including HR verification, manager calls through official channels, LinkedIn cross-checks and salary slip validation, a step Gupta states is now non-neobtainediable.
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