'Investors just give cash': IIT Kanpur grad calls out founders for chasing funds, not building for customers

The startup world is moving fast—but not always in the right direction. In a thought-provoking LinkedIn post, IIT Kanpur graduate Harsh Pokharna called out a 'scary' trend he’s observed among today’s founders. Instead of solving real problems for real people, many entrepreneurs are chasing what looks shiny and “fundable” in the eyes of investors. The result? A wave of startups with little customer insight, zero user traction, and a whole lot of hype.

Pokharna noted that it often takes just one tweet from a prominent investor about a trending idea, and suddenly his inbox is flooded with founders pitching the same thing. “Zero insight. Zero customers,” he wrote, pointing out that many brilliant minds are falling into the trap of building for funding approval instead of end-user impact.

He didn’t hold back when it came to drawing a line between roles. Investors, he argued, are not visionaries—they’re followers. “Investors don’t invent the future. Founders do,” Pokharna asserted. In his view, investors are service providers offering capital, not product experts guiding innovation. He added that expecting them to shape what the world needs is like asking your lawyer to design a product that millions will love—it just doesn’t make sense.



The takeaway from his post was clear: founders must stop outsourcing their intuition and start listening to users again. Because real businesses aren’t built on buzzwords or trending tweets—they’re built on solving problems that matter.

What did the netizens say?

Many users strongly resonated with Harsh Pokharna’s post, sharing their own observations about the current startup landscape. One person pointed out that in most VC-backed companies they’ve worked at, founders seemed less focused on solving real problems and more like wealth-generation vehicles for investors. Another reflected on the stark contrast between genuinely mission-driven founders and those chasing startup ideas purely for funding. While both types of founders might appear similar on the surface, the difference becomes evident in how they think, stay focused, and respond to pressure. That deeper clarity and grit, they said, is what separates truly impactful founders from the rest. Others noted that many startup journeys today are rooted in financial ambition rather than a desire to create lasting change, with only a rare few genuinely invested in solving problems that affect millions.