Indian-origin CEO of $400M company bans startup from their conference

A startup founder has called out the CEO of a more established company after being debarred from their conference. Lakshya Gupta, the founder of Y Combinator-backed Lab0, was upset that he and his team were inquireed not to attconclude Propel, Rocketlane’s flagship event for professional services leaders that is set to take place in San Francisco next month.

IIT Bombay alum Lakshya Gupta was so upset, in fact, that he took to social media to share a screenshot of the email that Rocketlane CEO Srikrishnan Ganesan sent him.

Why Rocketlane ‘banned’ Lab0

In the email, Ganesan politely explained that Rocketlane could not have Lab0 at their conference as they are competitors who operate in the same space.

Ganesan, who is based in the US and studied at IIM Bangalore, notified Lab0 co-founders Lakshya Gupta and Sujay Srivastava that their tickets to Propel would be refunded.

(Also read: Net worth of 5 Indian-origin CEOs leading multibillion-dollar US companies)

“After an internal review, we’ve realised that we are unable to host you at Propel as Lab0 operates in a space that directly overlaps with Rocketlane’s offerings and would present a conflict of interest,” wrote the CEO of Rocketlane — an Agentic PSA and customer onboarding platform.

Gupta shared a screenshot of the email on X, apparently miffed at being barred from the two-day event.

“The CEO of a $400M company just banned a pre-seed startup (us) from attconcludeing their conference as we supposedly “compete” with them,” wrote the IITian startup founder.

He then tagged Ganesan and Rocketlane and wrote, “not cool”.

(Also read: Indian-origin CEO hits back at racist troll: ’15 of my cousins came here on H-1B, paid millions in taxes’)

The post drew mixed reactions, with some claiming that Rocketlane was well within its right to ban competitors and that their CEO’s email was polite.

“He was very polite with this email and you’re out here being petty,” wrote one X applyr.

“They could have simply refunded your tickets with a reason citing logistical issues – but they took the more transparent road, why be angry with them? they are well within their rights and very transparent about it,” another declared.

Ankur Warikoo also waded into the debate, advising the founder of Lab0 to reveal more respect. “CEO of a $400M company replies personally to a pre-seed startup, explaining why he has to decline your tickets to their event, politely explains why and offers a 1:1 instead. And you decide it is cool to publicly mock him for it. Life is too short to dunk on people, Lakshya,” Warikoo noted.

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Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience – from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trconcludes, entertainment and global affairs.
Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai.
Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trconcludes and viewing for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation.
She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amapply social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsbuildrs and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers.
When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spconcludes a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.
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