Priyanka Sahay
Moneycontrol BureauIn an email interaction anonymous Twitter troll, Unicon Baba tells Moneycontrol.com, why there needs to be a course correction in the way the start-up ecosystem is running in the country. Edited excerpts:
Q: When and how did the idea of setting up an anonymous Twitter account occur to you? What was the sole purpose behind this?
A: The last 18-24 months have seen a tectonic shift in the Indian startup ecosystem in multiple ways. Everything moved north - money invested, foreign funds that set up shops, number of angel investors that joined in and of course attention received from tech as well as the mainstream media.
Everybody was trying to surf the wave with no long-term interest in the ecosystem and in the process inflicted irreversible damage to it.
There were lot of mafia deals or crony investments that happened in this period. Angel investors, seed funds and VCs worked closely like assembly line and tossed startups to the next stage every quarter. Honest investors across the stages remained largely inactive during this phase.
I believe silence equals death. I’m really vocal about how things are in the startup world in my real life too but with no real impact. Startup Jackson inspired me to try anonymous tweeting. I gave it a shot as a lazy weekend fun but response from Twitterati kept me going. I don’t have any vested interest to troll or sabotage any founder, fund or startup. I am here to provide a PR free, zero make-up side of startup world.
Q: What led to the name ‘Unicon Baba’?
A: Most of the unicorns or wanna be unicorns are actually ‘uni cons’, who con investors to raise funds.
Q: It is widely believed that you are an investor by profession. It also reflects so from many of your posts. Can you officially confirm this?
A: Yes, I am part of a Venture Capital fund.
Q: Have you ever run a startup?
A: No, I haven’t run a startup myself.
Q: What are the benefits of running an anonymous Twitter account?
A: I can say what I want to say without any fear of judgement and fear of losing relationships. Most of the times, I am congratulating funds and founders on their big PR or marketing campaign in my real life. At the same time, I rip them apart on Twitter anonymously.
Also, I believe anonymous accounts enjoy more credibility. It’s very difficult to perceive information independent of our biases and prejudices for source. These biases are much lesser for anonymous accounts.
A lot of insiders are more comfortable to share information with an anonymous handle than regular journalists.Also read: Why Baba is the topic of beer table chat in startup world
Q: Do you have a team to run your account or is it solely manned by you?
A: I do it myself. It’s not a business activity for me. I will Tweet anonymously till the time I am enjoying it. The moment I feel I have lost spunk and am not able to connect with ecosystem, I will move on.
Q: What is your educational qualification and age?
A: Engineer, MBA, 36
Q: There is a lot of kick in being anonymous. But are there any challenges as well?
A: I don’t see any major challenge in being anonymous. However, it is a trade-off wherein I can write openly. People I write about sometimes get easy way out too as I’m anonymous. Media can play a key role here if it follows up these stories, back them with more evidence and bring malpractices to light.
Q: Between your main profession and tweeting, are you able to take time out for your family?
A: Venture Capital is a very taxing profession that requires long working hours and travel. So there is hardly a balance between work and family life. I try to utilise non–productive interstitial time between activities like commuting for tweeting. I don’t let tweeting eat-up my family time.
Q: What should be the role of an investor in the life of a startup? Do you think they should have an equal say in the operations of the company?
A: Investors should definitely mentor founders without an exception. Increasingly, founders in early 20’s are getting funded who don’t even have a graduation degree. In such cases the responsibility of investors goes up drastically.
Most funds are helping companies in hiring, on-boarding key partners, closing big customers and even in getting speaker slots in conferences. But investors need to draw a line somewhere and back off. If a company needs support more than this, the investor should take a deep breath and mentally write-off the investment.
Q: Multiple startups have been accused of malpractices and corporate frauds. Even before an official verdict is out, some of them face trials on social media – do you think such trials are justified?
A: This is neither a media trial nor any official verdict comes out ever (on the Twitter handle). I see this as a crowd-sourced whistle blowing platform which can put necessary restraint on founders and investors in the absence of corporate governance.
Companies share cooked up (hyperboled) PR stories with media and expect them to publish it without providing them with any supporting data or evidence. But, if anyone publishes a negative story about the same company – all hell breaks loose.
Q: You post a lot of insider stuffs on different companies. Do you try meeting your sources or it usually happens over chats and messages?
A: No, I don’t meet or speak on phone with anyone. I keep getting lot of direct messages on twitter and emails.
Q: Are you in touch with other startup trolls? Is there a sort of camaraderie amongst 4-5 of you as we see them tagging each other in tweets?
A: I don't tag anyone.
priyanka.sahay@nw18.com
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