- Published on July 1, 2025
- In AI Startups
Indian Startup Founder Reviews 1,000 Engineer CVs, Finds Less than 5 Worth Hiring
The startup was hiring backend developers with ₹50 lakh base pay, relocation, food, and a shot at working with top-tier talent. Yet, the hunt continues.
Image by Nalini Nirad
- By Mohit Pandey
While Meta, OpenAI, and Google compete fiercely, paying millions and billions of dollars to attract top talent, Indian companies continue to struggle to hire even a single qualified individual. While this has been the case for the longest time, the situation is only worsening with the rise of AI.
“India seriously has a big f***ing talent problem,” said Umesh Kumar, co-founder of Runable, a platform where anyone can build AI agents. “We got around 1,000 applications for a backend engineering role in just the last two to three days, and guess how many were actually decent? [Less than five].”
Kumar’s startup was hiring backend developers with a no-nonsense offer: ₹50 lakh base pay, relocation, food, and a shot at working with top-tier talent. The hiring process involve
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Mohit Pandey
Mohit writes about AI in simple, explainable, and often funny words. He's especially passionate about chatting with those building AI for Bharat, with the occasional detour into AGI.
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