Join a firm that doesn't treat you as employee id: Banerjjee of Tata Neu

Says knee-jerk reaction-driven startups get rid of their biggest assets--the very people on whose shoulders these businesses were built

At a time when startups are laying off staff as investors tighten purse strings, Sauvik Banerjjee, founding CTO, Tata Neu and Tata Digital said those being made redundant in the startup ecosystem, need to remain strong and humble and not ask for abnormal salaries, but importantly join an organisation that does not treat them as employee id.

“When it comes to unit economics and profitability questions, what do knee-jerk reaction-driven startups do? They get rid of their biggest asset. People. Wow! Growth and valuations inflated wrapper and its biggest victims are the great people on whose shoulders these startups were built. Shambolic,” he wrote in his LinkedIn post.

He added that Tata Digital, which has been building its e-commerce foray, has not sacked a single person in the past three years.

“Proud to say that in the past three years under Pratik Pal, not a single youngster or a leader was asked to leave and if you think we didn’t have pressure, you guys might be on a different planet called ZONG! With great power comes great responsibility,” he added.

He further wrote that when you’re building something from nothing you need great leaders and some great youngsters with an attitude to change the world. Those are true Change agents.

“Tata Digital and Tata Neu were built amidst circumstances which on a normal given day would have had a different definition. But it was always great human beings and due to them we could even dare to dream,” he wrote.

Tata Digital is a Cloud native, Agile native, Digital Native and a Covid Native organisation which is being built by phenomenal youngsters who are at the core - great human beings, he wrote. NP -> HP -> GP= GB Normal People (NP) pivoting into high performers (HP) lead to becoming the great people (GP) quotient which builds a great business (GB), he wrote.

With startups resorting to layoffs, very few founders or investors have come out in support of those who have been asked to leave. Rather letters from investors like Sequoia, YCombinator and others have asked their founders to cut costs, which for many has meant sacking people.