IITian founder's viral reply to engineer who bailed for better offer: ‘Reasons seem a bit off'

Hindustan Times

08-07-2025

The co-founder of Fuze Finance has revealed his reply to a candidate who accepted a job at his startup, only to back out a couple of days before he was supposed to join. Srijan R Shetty, the IIT-educated co-founder of the fintech company, shared a screenshot of his email to the employee who bailed for a better offer. A co-founder shares his reply to a candidate who backed out days before he was supposed to join (Representational image)
His response has been going steadily viral on X, where it has sparked a discussion on workplace etiquette and the ethicality of job hunting after accepting an offer.
Engineer backs out before date of joining
'One of the engineers who was due to join today sent a message over the weekend that they won't join,' Shetty wrote in his X post on Monday. The Dubai-based entrepreneur acknowledged that he felt a 'bit let down' by the engineer's decision.
'I sent them across the following message,' he said, sharing a screenshot of the email he sent to the candidate.
In his email, the co-founder of Fuze Finance began by acknowledging the reasons presented by the engineer for not going ahead with the job offer.
The engineer apparently said that he had received a 'better offer' from a different company, and that he could not confirm his date of joining due to 'personal reasons' – due to which he was backing out.
What the co-founder said in his email
Shetty began by assuring the engineer that his workplace is a flexible one, and that they could have come up with a solution if he had chosen to approach them rather than refusing to join outright.
He then told the engineer that the reasons he provided for backing out seemed 'a bit off'.
'The two reasons you provided seem a bit off. You're free to shop for offers in the market - it's a free market after all. But you could have come back to us and we would have been happy to have a chat about the new offer that you have,' wrote Shetty.
The co-founder acknowledged that the job-seeker had the right to shop for better offers. However, he pointed out that his startup would have been open to negotiations.
'I believe that life is a positive sum game, and that's how we treat everyone at Fuze. A lot of my folks at Fuze have worked with us over the years in different startups and we have ensured that we do what's best for them, even if it means joining another company with a much better offer,' said the IITian.
He ended his email with a rebuke, informing the engineer that bailing reflected poorly on him. 'The action of rejecting an offer a day before joining reflects very poorly on the person partaking in the action. I hope you do not do the same with any other company and choose to prefer open communication instead,' wrote Shetty.
Social media weighs in
The post sparked a discussion on X, where many viewers sided with the engineer.
'You're the top 0.0001% that would've done what you mentioned,' wrote one X user. 'In most places this dude would have instantly lost this offer to someone else had he shared he was exploring for other offers.'
'I understand and kind of agree to what you proposed, but as a candidate it's pretty difficult to do open conversation,' another X user named Sanket Jha said.
'I think everyone that's arguing againt this is missing a critical piece of information. As far as I understand this person accepted your offer and decided to bail one day before. Everyone shops for offers. That is perfectly fine to do. But if this was me once I've agreed to an offer there's no way I'm shopping around for an alternate offer,' an X user named Abbas countered.