'Founder’s Curse': The Case of Ashneer Grover

Shreya Mukherjee; Shreya Mukherjee

“Founder’s Curse”: The Case of Ashneer Grover

Soumi Rai

NICMAR Business School (NBS), NICMAR University, Pune, India

Shreya Mukherjee

Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, India

Volume 16: 2023, pp. 107-120; ABSTRACT

This case study outlines the dilemma of the Co-founder of BharatPe, Ashneer Grover from his perspective of standing his ground as the founder or accepting the allegations of the Board on controversial financial irregularities attributed to his tenure at BharatPe; eloquently termed by Grover as the “Founder’s Curse”. The case looks at the situation from the context of certain aspects of Organizational Behaviour – leader personality and effect on start-up; perception issues and errors; leader communication across levels; organizational trust and commitment; and ethical leadership. The case highlights situations of conflict between founders and the board, and the impact of culture on the start-up ecosystem including the investors’ and founders’ leadership styles.
Keywords: start up, ethical leadership, personality, culture, conflict