[davidpayne11]

Vijayanand is moderately infamous for sheepishly promoting his in50hrs event (it is a PAID event organized by him) under the guise of such shallow articles and also on twitter

(EDIT: I've been his follower for ages, he sometimes misleads people into buying tickets for the event, falsely advertising that it's going to be 'sold out' even when no one has actually signed up).

[playhard]

Did he talk about in50hrs event in this article? He was talking about the Indian market because he understands it.Is it wrong to promote events on twitter? What is your problem?

Sidenote: Vijay Anand has done so much to Indian entrepreneurs and Indian startup ecosystem.

[davidpayne11]

This explains you haven't read the article in its entirety. Please read it again, he references it as the first link while citing examples about the superiority within the Indian Start-up eco-system.

That is a contradiction in a way that you cannot promote something as a valid citation while you stand to benefit from it.

>Sidenote: Vijay Anand has done so much to Indian entrepreneurs and Indian startup ecosystem.

There are many people who have done more than him (I personally know a handful) yet, don't advertise it explicitly as much as he does. He takes money for providing an office space in return. How does that contribute as doing 'much' to the Indian Startup Ecosystem? There are plenty of office spaces over here...

[playhard]

Well, I don't see any problem in plugging one's event in a blog post. If you don't like the idea of paid event, why bother following him in twitter and commenting on hacker news?

Where does he advertise about his contribution to the Indian startup ecosystem? It is entrepreneurs like us who say he does.

>He takes money for providing an office space in return

You want office space for free?

>How does that contribute as doing 'much' to the Indian Startup Ecosystem? There are plenty of office spaces over here...

He also runs accelerator which invests in startup. They have invested in 2 startups so far. He hosts free events like Chennai OCC, Chennai geeks at the startup centre. Also the space is free if you want to host any free event.

I graduated from college and worked from startup centre under Vijay for six months. I come from a small town and knew little about startups. It was Vijay who taught me lot about building a product and distributing it to users. The education i had at the startup centre was invaluable. You know how much he charged for the office space for the period of six months? ZERO(because he wanted me to succeed and i was a recent college grad)

Please understand what someone does before trying to bash them in public

[davidpayne11]

Your answer is vague, but I will try to be objective as much as possible.

>Well, I don't see any problem in plugging one's event in a blog post.

The problem here isn't plugging his own event in his post. The problem here is that he cites the successes of start-ups and links to it. That is un-ethical. He stands to benefit from it by falsely citing it as a valid example. Many people here on HN DO NOT know that he runs it. His intention was malicious, if not unethical.

>You want office space for free?

You are missing the bigger point - Offering office space for {insert rate here} is something that anyone can do and that doesn't make one a contributor to the start-up ecosystem, atleast not as much as to the proportions to which you blow it up.

> He hosts free events like Chennai OCC, Chennai geeks at the startup centre. Also the space is free if you want to host any free event.

I've heard of these events. One of my friends tells me about it. I've also heard horror stories about Vijayanand mocking young college guys interested in starting-up. I also heard from him that he isn't just the one behind it, there are a lot of active young minds involved.

>You know how much he charged for the office space for the period of six months? ZERO(because he wanted me to succeed and i was a recent college grad)

Your personal positive experience with him is best kept personal. Because we're talking about the rest of the Entrepreneurs from whom he collects money.

I understand your experience is so far positive with him. But, please don't try to dilute a valid argument using your individual opinion. I also understand that you have co-founded a company which you and Vijayanand have mutual interests in (like someone here commented). Please don't try to support him in public just for that reason - When someone is at wrong, it's best we let the others know about it, otherwise the purpose of such a vibrant community will be poisoned by such profit-motivated posts.

EDIT: Vijayanand has edited the link that went to his in50hrs programme. Maybe that's why you didn't notice it.

[fakeer]

I agree with the shallow part. Though cannot state the same about other allegations :-)

However, I think I've come across some blog spot detailing how some event portal do this - opening the sale of tickets with "sold out" page :-\