Right from its clutter breaking ad conceived in 2010-11 featuring kids, Flipkart’s commercials have throughout tried to address the issue of trust. Even in 2016, when this writer talked to Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal on the sidelines of India Internet Day, he held forth on lack of trust being the biggest reason why more Indians don’t transact online.

So, it is rather ironical that “trust” is what has come between the Flipkart founders and its buyers Walmart. The inside story of the ignominious exit of the other co-founder Binny Bansal is out in the open now, broken by Founding Fuel, a media platform aimed at entrepreneurs. It’s a messy tale of an extra marital affair gone wrong, followed by blackmail and extortion. From the report it appears that Bansal lost his head and made a glorious mess of the whole affair. But above all was his failure to disclose all this to Walmart.

Flipkart has always been a bit of a problem child in India’s start-up story. On the one hand, it has been a trailblazer of sorts, growing against all odds. When Walmart forked out $16 billion to buy Flipkart, the pair of Chandigarh born entrepreneurs were feted and lavished with praise.

But, behind the scenes, all through its growth phase, one has heard of the toxic culture that permeated this start-up. On the HR network, there have been whispers of the poor handling of talent and arrogance of its founders. With scale comes pressure, and it requires great mental toughness and maturity to handle stress. Clearly, the Bansals have been found wanting.

But it’s not just Flipkart. It’s the story of many start-ups today, be it the fall of Travis Kalanick after the dark culture at Uber came to light or Zuckerberg’s immature handling of privacy issues that plague Facebook.

All these hold deep lessons for Indian entrepreneurs. The importance of investing in building good culture cannot be underscored. Founders need to retain humility and honesty.

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