🚨 27 VCs Showed Interest in a Startup That Didn’t Exist
And it wasn’t a mistake — it was an experiment. 👀
Bhavye Khetan, a UC Berkeley grad, created a fake startup filled with all the usual buzzwords:
🧠 AI-powered solutions
🔗 Web3 integrations
📦 Decentralized data pipelines
✨ Scalable everything
The site was sleek. The pitch deck looked real.
But the truth?
❌ No team
❌ No product
❌ No business model
Within weeks, 27 venture capitalists expressed interest. Some even wanted follow-up calls — based solely on the landing page and jargon-filled deck.
What does this say about the state of early-stage investing?
In an ecosystem that claims to back bold innovation, too many investors are chasing trends, not traction.
Pattern-matching > Due diligence.
FOMO > Fundamentals.
Khetan’s stunt didn’t just expose cracks in VC behavior.
It held up a mirror.
🔍 And what about the real founders?
The ones:
✅ Solving boring but meaningful problems
✅ Building without Ivy League networks
✅ Prioritizing real traction over flash
Are they being overlooked in favor of high-polish, high-hype decks?
💡 Khetan’s not building the fake startup. That’s not the point.
He’s asking a bigger question:
Can we fund the future without falling for fiction?
👉 If you’re an investor: What guardrails do you have in place to avoid being swayed by hype?
👉 If you’re a founder: Have you ever felt pressure to “speak VC” rather than build real value?
Let’s have an honest conversation. The future of innovation depends on it. 👇
