The Indian startup world has a curious sense of justice.

A co-founder of a now-defunct fintech company, who once employed over 500 people and raised more than $100 million, now spends their days rewriting resumes and gazing at online job portals. Another, who had raised $10 million for his farm-to-fork company, has spent a year trying to impress hiring panels—only to be met with silence.

The Ken spoke to 17 founders—12 of whose companies had a collective valuation of $1.2 billion and created over 10,000 jobs—and eight other stakeholders, including venture capitalists and executive-search firms. Almost all of them point to a clear trend: failed founders rarely land new roles.

To be fair, this isn’t an India-only phenomenon. For instance, people with “founder experience” received 43% fewer callbacks in interviews than non-founders, according to an experimentYale InsightsStartup Founders Are at a Disadvantage When Applying for Jobs conducted by the Yale School of Management in 2022. The hiring managers were reportedly concerned that an experienced founder wouldn’t be as “committed to the [new] company, and was unlikely to fit in a traditional workplace culture”.

The situation is worse in India, the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, considering the sheer speed and scale of the boom-bust cycle. Over 30,000 Indian startups have shut shop since January 2023—that’s a five-fold increase from the over 6,000 closures between January 2019 and December 2022, according to market-data provider Tracxn.

Some founders, desperate for a job, want to move to senior positions in product or strategy. Some want to be co-founders in newer, better-funded ventures. A few are even ready to be internsMintIndian-origin co-founder ‘looking for internship’ after selling firm for $1 billion. Here's why and do it all from scratch.

But the problem is the market doesn’t always believe in second chances.

“If your startup shuts down due to irrelevance or poor execution, why should the market treat you equally?” said a senior partner at a VC firm. What’s more, recruiters are concerned about fit, autonomy, and the “founder ego”—and rarely know what to do with someone who once called the shots.