 "Finding the recipe for success")
Naveen Tandon (name changed) had recently bagged a job with a start-up in Gurgaon. He had clinched a deal with a 20 per cent rise in salary and communicated to his employer TinyOwl Technologies about his decision to quit.
But before he could put in papers, TinyOwl decided to hand over pink slips to its staff and news of the employees’ agitation broke.
Tandon’s future employer has since revoked the offer, leaving him in the lurch. “We did not hold anyone hostage. We only expressed anger at being laid off without notice. But what employees at other centres did, they have sullied our name and that of the organisation,” said Tandon. About 25 employees of TinyOwl at its Pune office had taken one of the five co-founders — Gaurav Choudhary — hostage in office. It took mediation from police officials to settle the matter and calm down angry employees.
Officials at TinyOwl said they have been from day one trying to provide job placement assistance to their employees but with the agitation they conducted, they have made matters worse. “We are trying to find them jobs, but after employees held Gaurav hostage, the employers are asking if the employees have any political affiliations or if they were part of the agitation in any way,” an official at TinyOwl said.
An e-mail sent by TinyOwl Chief Executive Harshvardhan Mandan to Ankur Warikoo of nearbuy.com reads, “As discussed, I am connecting you to the employees of my Gurgaon team. Please do look into their profiles and consider them for appropriate opportunities currently available with your company.”
TinyOwl employed a total of 118 employees — Delhi (52), Pune (25), Chennai (20) and Hyderabad (21). All or most of them were working in the middle or top level in the management structure.
Officials at TinyOwl told Business Standard that there could be a communication gap between the management and the employees. The demands that employees have commmunicated to the management are different from what they learn from media reports, officials pointed out.
Employees from the start-up’s Chennai office have demanded double the notice period gross pay, relieving letter (according to the requirement of the employee), settling full and final as soon as possible; paying salaries till the date they sign the papers; paying petrol allowances till papers are signed and assistance in job search.
The two-year-old food ordering app start-up was founded by five IITians — Mandad, Choudhary, Saurabh Goyal, Shikhar Paliwal and Tanuj Khandelwal.
TinyOwl last month raised Rs 50 crore. At the time, officials had said the funding would be used for automating the operations and paying off salaries.
In its existence of more than two years, TinyOwl raised about $28 million in funding from venture capitalists, including Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and angel investors like Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal (founders of Snapdeal).
In a blog on its website put out this week, Mandad said, “TinyOwl will be scaling back nationally. While TinyOwl will continue to operate in six cities, the new model will be initially tested in major metros Mumbai and Bengaluru.”
In the two years, that TinyOwl has been operational, it has not posted its balance sheet even once. Given the thin margin of one to two per cent in the business, TinyOwl, said employees, spent insanely on customer acquisition — nearly 100 to 200 times their returns.
TINYOWL IN BIG LABOUR TURMOIL
- TinyOwl decided to hand over pink slips to its staff and news of agitation broke
- 25 employees of TinyOwl at Pune office had taken one co-founder hostage in office
- TinyOwl said they have been trying to provide job placement assistance
