'Influencers make poor founders, they are driven by instant gratification', says Bombay Shaving Company CEO

Bombay Shaving Company founder and CEO Shantanu Deshpande has sparked debate with a blunt critique of influencer-led startups, arguing that influencers are ill-suited to become serious entrepreneurs.

In a post on LinkedIn, Deshpande wrote, "Influencers make poor founders. They are driven by instant gratification — views, engagement, and popularity. Today. This instant.”

He said their dependence on immediate feedback and social media trends makes them emotionally reactive and overly reliant on distribution platforms they don't control.

"Good founders know this is a game of decades," he said, adding that meaningful companies are built with patience, discipline, and the ability to ignore short-term hype. "They build their own distribution over time,” he added, contrasting the quick wins of influencers with the long grind of building real businesses.

Deshpande also took aim at global celebrity entrepreneurs like Logan Paul and Kylie Jenner, calling them “aberrations” who inflate brand value without adding substance. 

"Worse, they've been taken for a ride by Mr Beast Logan Paul and Kylie Jenner type abberations from the west which pump false printed dollar-value into non-COGS elements of businesses (plagiarized from Adheet Gogate)," he said.

He further warned that these influencer-led business models would eventually be "shaken down by China,” as sustainable businesses will always require “real time, blood, sweat, and tears." 

"Doing some idiotic dances/60 sec gyaan videos for an audience for free ain't getting you valuation or business. Just false sense of competence".

Deshpande didn’t entirely shut the door on creators in the startup world. He advised influencers who want to build businesses to “find operators, structure equity that reflects fair value added, and see if that works."

"Influencers who want to build business? Find operators, structure equity that reflects fair value added, and see if that work," he added.