Bengaluru Founder Prohibits Team from Interacting with Indian Clients, Ignites Controversy Over ‘Skip India Movement’

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Bengaluru: Paras Chopra, the founder of AI research lab Lossfunk and widely known for his previous venture Wingify, has stirred controversy after publicly announcing a ban on his team from engaging with Indian customers. The statement, made via social media, aligns with a growing sentiment among tech startup founders dubbed the “Skip India Movement”.

The movement criticizes the Indian startup ecosystem’s customer culture—where multiple unpaid proof-of-concepts (PoCs) are often demanded without converting to paid contracts. Chopra’s post was in response to a broader discussion initiated by investor and entrepreneur Utsav Domkundwar, who highlighted that a growing number of AI startup founders are refusing to engage with Indian clients due to unproductive leads and expectations for free services.

“AI founders are finally skipping selling to Indian customers after doing PoCs after PoCs and then being requested for even more ‘free’ PoCs. There is a limit to this,” wrote Domkundwar, adding that even unicorns are exploiting high-quality startup talent for unpaid work.

Echoing this, Chopra added, “I have banned builders at Lossfunk from talking to Indian customers. It’s a tiny tech market, but a comfort zone. Many times, founders end up optimizing for the Indian market and realize they can’t scale further.”

The debate has since ignited a wave of reactions within the startup community. Some supported the sentiment, describing Indian customers as hard to convince and hesitant to pay for innovative products. “Indians are 2x hard to convince and 1/4th willingness to pay. Not worth it at all,” said one founder. Others highlighted similar struggles in niche sectors like new-tech hardware, citing a lack of early adopters and purchasing power.

However, not all responses were supportive. Critics argued that avoiding Indian customers could backfire in the long run, especially for startups aspiring to build global products. “Skipping your home market may be a mistake when building a global startup,” one user commented, noting the importance of learning from local user behavior.

The incident underscores a critical conversation in India’s tech ecosystem: how to balance innovation, value creation, and fair customer expectations in a rapidly evolving digital economy.

Sources By Agencies