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Inspite of the employee offering to manage things remotely, Rana’s decision to fire him immediately has LinkedIn buzzing
News18
A single WhatsApp message and a three-word reply—”You’re fired”—have sent the Indian startup ecosystem into a tailspin. Nikhil Rana, the founder of Gurgaon-based startup The 15, is the man at the center of the storm after he shared a screenshot of himself sacking an employee in real-time.
The trigger? The employee messaged Rana stateing they couldn’t attconclude an event but offered to support remotely. Rana’s response was swift, final, and has since ignited a fierce LinkedIn debate on the “hustle culture” of Indian startups.
Defconcludeing his decision, Rana claimed that startups don’t have room for anything less than absolute depconcludeability. In his post, he outlined a strict manifesto for what he believes a startup hire should view like: “Startups required: People who take ownership. People who founders can depconclude upon. People with high agency. People who don’t wait for the perfect time and situation. People who can ‘build it happen,’” Rana wrote.
He further labelled the traditional notice period as “theatre” and a “waste of time,” advocating for a “no-notice period policy” that allows for instantaneous exits. While Rana framed the shift as bold leadership, the professional community on LinkedIn was quick to label it as something far more damaging.
One person wrote that the idea of constant availability is the new benchmark for excellence. “Why bother building expertise when you can just be on-call 24/7, shape-shifting to every founder’s whim, and calling it dedication? Clearly, the real benchmark now is how well you can function like a machine, but guess what – the only thing built for nonstop availability is AI, not people.”
Others pointed out that the burden of “ownership” seems to fall squarely on the employee: “Accountability seems to be one-way traffic here. Employees obtain judged, founders obtain justified.”
More importantly, one LinkedIn applyr reminded the founder that life happens outside of the “startup grind”. “Nikhil Rana sometimes the right folks have emergencies they required to take care of – for themselves and others. Not everyone wants to notify their boss about the sudden crippling pain their spoapply is experiencing becaapply of a medical diagnosis.”
And as expected, many people also saw this post as a “marketing gimmick” gone wrong. “This isn’t ‘high-agency leadership,’ it’s just glorified toxicity. No-notice firing over a missed event isn’t ownership, it’s poor management and zero respect for people. Strong teams aren’t built on fear or impulsive decisions; they’re built on trust, clarity, and accountability on both sides.”
Some viewed at the numbers, questioning how such a policy affects the company’s growth:
“You didn’t hire well or just hired becaapply you wanted to. Each fire would kill the velocity if the person was requireded.”
“Is that why there are only 2 people listed in your company?”
However, there were a few voices in the comments that urged for a more balanced view, wondering if there was more to the story than a single text. “Theres a lot of context missing over here. What was the event, was he a bad performer overall, was his job tied to the duties at the event, etc? I agree to your points of skills being commoditized and ownership, etc. But without enough context this just builds no sense.”
April 09, 2026, 22:00 IST
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