Shantanu Deshpande, the CEO and Co-Founder of Bombay Shaving Company, often uses social media to discuss topics related to startups, leadership, and entrepreneurship.
He is an active member in the startup community, and is known for his content creation on social media platforms. He frequently shares his insights on entrepreneurship and industry trends, making appearances on marketing platforms like the podcast ‘The Barber Shop‘.
In his most recent LinkedIn post, Deshpande issues a cautionary message against seeking online entrepreneurship lessons from individuals who portray themselves as growth advisors, LinkedIn Top Voices, or startup evangelists, but lack actual founder experience.
“The number of non-founders giving advice on entrepreneurship with authority pisses me off totally. I honestly don’t care if you seek attention or want likes. It’s human. But innocent people tend to listen. And when the advice is poor, it can put someone’s hard work and capital at risk,” he writes.
Desphande emphasises that the path of entrepreneurship is a challenging endeavour, where starting from scratch and establishing one’s brand is far from easy. Every founder, particularly in the early stages, experiences feelings of insecurity and is susceptible to succumbing to it without question, he added.
“If you haven’t been a founder, then the right to advise has to be earned – founding team, or years of investing experience or operating expertise. You can’t be a ‘growth advisor | LinkedIn Top Voice | startup evangelist | Yada Yada’ and give broad brush-stroke gyaan,” he notes.
According to Deshpande, resorting to gaining likes and influence on Instagram through dance reels, particularly to seek validation, is not only careless and harmful, but also reflects a need for attention.
Shantanu Deshpande is known for his straightforward communication style, and 2022 marked a significant moment when one of his LinkedIn posts ignited a strong reaction. In the post, he expressed his opinion that young individuals starting their careers should dedicate themselves to working 18 hours a day and avoid excessive complaining. This viewpoint immediately led to Deshpande facing online cancellation and backlash.
During an interview, Deshpande acknowledges, “I realized the weight of my words and how people perceive them, especially those who know me directly or have been following me on social media for a long time. They can grasp my intentions. However, once your circle of influence expands significantly beyond that, you no longer have the luxury of providing context to everyone.”
Nevertheless, as the founder of a consumer startup, he strongly believes in the significance of founders, management teams, and companies stepping forward to share their stories.
“Consumers are very smart, and they want to know where their product is coming from. They are not going to be guided by advertising beyond a point. They want to know,” he shares.
“But if you are authentic, and even if you are someone who has a strong point of view that people will disagree with, as long as you are consistent, authentic, and can back it up, it is great for founders to be out there and talk about their businesses and brands. Once in a while, you will get into a storm, it is fine. Eventually, public memory is fickle, public love is permanent,” he says. Deshpande has been among the startup founders who have been actively creating content on social media. He appears on marketing properties such as the podcast ‘The Barber Shop’ to talk about entrepreneurship and trends.
