Startup founder resignation letters (3 samples)

This blog post will show you samples of “Resignation letters for a startup founder.”

Writing a “startup founder resignation letter.”

When writing a “startup founder resignation letter,” these are some of the things that you need to keep in mind.

• The first step is to tell the board or other co-founders about leaving the job and the final work date. Keep it short as the essential part of the letter is the Last Date of your work.
• Indicate the reason you are leaving your job. It would be best to be polite as you will leave a positive impression on the organization. Maintain your composure when drafting the letter.
• Finally, thank the board for the position and the opportunities you have enjoyed during your work period.
• Ensure you proofread your letter before sending it to the board. You can send the letter to your family and friend to check for grammatical errors.

Sample 1:

“1st March, 2022

I write this with a heavy heart as today I am being forced to bid adieu to a company of which I am a founder. I say with my head held high that today this company stands as a leader in the fmtech world. Since the beginning of 2022, unfortunately, I’ve been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks on me and my family by a few individuals who are ready not only to harm me and my reputation but also harm the reputation of the company, which ostensibly they are trying to protect.

From being celebrated as the face of Indian entrepreneurship and an inspiration to the Indian youth to build their own businesses, I am now wasting myself fighting a long, lonely battle against my own investors and management. Unfortunately, in this battle, the management has lost of what is actually at stake — BharatPe.

People who know me and have worked closely with me know that I believe in building – whatever the odds may be. I am an IIT Delhi — IIM Ahmedabad graduate, the best of what Indian education system has to offer. I am the child of middle-class parents who’ve imbibed in me the values of hard work, integrity and honesty. I am a professional with an impeccable track record who has been instrumental in building two unicorn businesses, i.e. Grofers and BharatPe from scratch. I have not only encouraged the youth of this country to follow their dreams but have also created an arena of job opportunities for tens of thousands of India’s gig-economy workers. I am proud that my journey and growth has not only been limited to me but has also encompassed within its fold people associated with me, professionally and personally. In my endeavor to promote and grow the start-up ecosystem in our country, I have invested back what I have earned and have helped many along the way.

I have nurtured BharatPe as my baby. I’ve built it along with my co-founder and an amazing team of individuals. Most times the circumstances were hostile (to say the least) but it did not stop me. BharatPe was the last entrant in UPI space and competed with goliaths like PayTM, PhonePe and GooglePay — but it still emerged as a leader in the industry. I had the vision to disrupt payments with ‘0% MDR’, lending with shopkeeper ‘loans against payments’, P2P with ‘12%Club’ and BNPL with ‘postpe’. With my efforts and hard work, the Company has created a network of more than 1 Crore (10M) shopkeepers who transact more than ₹100,000 Crores (US$ 16B) annually and lent out more than ₹4,000 crores (US$ 0.5B) as loans. It is indisputable that BharatPe loans have helped lakhs of small businesses fight organized e-commerce and COVID.

Most importantly and the only time for any Fintech in India — with my constant efforts the Company has acquired a Small Finance Bank license to create ‘Unity Small Finance Bank’. I’ve shown the gumption and intent to find a solution for PMC Bank and Ten Lakh of its depositors to give them back their hard-earned funds.

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The height at which BharatPe stands today is the result of the hard work of the last four years. With a team of less than Five hundred on-roll employees, an aggregate spending of less than US$ 150 Mn, and by raising US$ 615 Mn from ten of the marquee investors without using a single banker, the success story of BharatPe is for everyone to see. While scripting the commercial success of BharatPe, the Company was also affording liquidity to our employees of more than ₹100 crores against their ESOPs and giving at least Eighty times returns to each of its twenty-eight angel investors. While the Company was valued at ₹20,000 crores (US$ 3B) as per the Series E round; today it would be valued at ₹40,000 crores (US$ 6B), within a span of less than a year. No other startup of similar valuation has been able to achieve what BharatPe has achieved today that too by utilizing less than ₹1,000 crores. Clearly, BharatPe’s success story is for the world to see.

Am I perfect? As every other human being does, I am sure I have my follies. I have been told that I am too straight forward, headstrong, and have very demanding standards when it comes work. But it is these qualities that have resulted in BharatPe’s exponential growth in becoming an industry behemoth.

Unfortunately, what has happened in the recent past seems to be a battle of egos being played to the gallery of the media under the charade of “good governance”. The fundamental fact is that all of you as investors are so far removed from reality that you’ve forgotten what real businesses look like and have no appreciation for what it took to run this enterprise day in and day out. Your outlook towards BharatPe has been limited to the small window on your Zoom Meetings application, far removed from the sweat of the brow that goes into making BharatPe the business leader that it is. None of you, including the ones based in India, have ever been to our office even once, since the pandemic turned our lives upside down and sought to suffocate the economy. Not even once. Not Micky. Not Harshjit. Not Mohit. Not Tern San. Not Rahul. Not Deven. No one. None of you even turned-up despite an invitation for the inauguration of our new office. This is how connected you are to BharatPe.

Your views of businesses and problems on the ground are so colored by the windows of the Ivory Tower in which you all reside that you have no connect whatsoever with the human element of the business. It is sad that you have even lost touch with the Founder. You’ve lost touch with me. For you, the Founder of this company has been reduced to a button to be pressed when needed. I cease to be a human for you. Today, you have chosen to believe gossip and rumours about me instead of having a frank conversation. You are so easily spooked because you have no touch with reality.

The fact of the matter is that today you believe that I have served my utility and so incrementally I am just becoming a liability. And since the investor template to make an unwanted Founder go away is to make them the villain of the piece, that’s what you have gone ahead and done —”Lets invoke the SHA. Let’s put him on leave under the pretext of a governance review. Let’s terminate his wife’s employment. Let’s viler his whole clan. We as investors are on top of the food chain — let’s cut him down to size and make an example of him.” When you wanted to leverage my personal network, you were very happy to do so — today I am being vilified and treated in the most disgraceful manner.

You treat us Founders as slaves — pushing us to build multi-billion-dollar businesses and cutting us down at will. Investor-Founder relation in India is one of Master-Slave. I am the rebel slave who must be hung by the tree so none of the other slaves can dare to be like me ever again. Unfortunately, I refuse to walk that path and refuse to tolerate this continuous and shameful vilification of me and my family. I have been the one who founded this company and built it up to its enviable position today, no wonder you want to oust me for your vested interests.

So when do we end this? We end this now. While I maintain that you will not find a single act of impropriety against me, I will not be participating in your charade. Since you clearly believe you can run this Company better without me — I am leaving you with this challenge. Build incrementally even half of the value I created so far — I am leaving you with three times the funds I’ve utilized till date. I hereby resign as the Managing Director of BharatPe, effective immediately. I also resign as a Director of the Board. I will continue as the single largest individual shareholder of the Company.

I have founded and built BharatPe into what it is today, and this identity, none of you can take away from me. Best regards,

Ashneer Grover”

Sample 2:

“Hello team.

After almost 16 years of having a role at our company..from co-founder to CEO to Chair to Exec Chair to interim-CEO to CEO…I decided it’s finally time for me to leave. Why?

There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a company being “founder-led.” Ultimately I believe that’s severely limiting and a single point of failure. I’ve worked hard to ensure this company can break away from its founding and founders. There are 3 reasons I believe now is the right time.

The first is Parag becoming our CEO. The board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag. He’s been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around. He’s curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul, and is someone I learn from daily. My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep.

The second is Bret Taylor agreeing to become our board chair, I asked Bret to join our board when I became CEO, and he’s been excellent in every way. He understands entrepreneurship, taking risks, companies at massive scale, technology, product, and he’s an engineer. All of the things the board and the company deserve right now. Having Bret in this leadership role gives me a lot of confidence in the strength of our board going forward. You have no idea how happy this makes me!

The third is all of you. We have a lot of ambition and potential on this team. Consider this: Parag started here as an engineer who cared deeply about our work and now he’s our CEO (I also had a similar path…he did it better!). This alone makes me proud. I know that Parag will be able to channel this energy best because he’s lived it and knows what it takes. All of you have the potential to change the course of this company for the better. I believe this with all my heart!

Parag is CEO starting today. I’m going to serve on the board through my term (May-ish) to help Parag and Bret with the transition. And after that…I’ll leave the board. Why not stay or become chair? I believe it’s really important to give Parag the space he needs to lead. And back to my previous point, I believe it’s critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction.

I want you all to know that this was my decision and I own it. It was a tough one for me, of course. I love this service and companyand all of you so much. I’m really sadyet really happy. There aren’t many companies that get to this level. And there aren’t many founders that choose their company over their own ego. I know we’ll prove this was the right move.

We’ll have an all-hands meeting tomorrow at 9:05 AM Pacific to discuss it all. Until then, thank you all for the trust you’ve placed in me, and for the openness to build that trust in Parag and yourselves. I love you all.

jack”

Sample 3:

“Dear Co-founders:

I hereby resign my position as the co-founder of ABC Industries, Inc. effective upon the appointment of my successor. It has been an honor to lead ABC Industries these past 3 years and to serve the millions of customers who use our software products all over the world. I am proud of what we have accomplished as a team on behalf of our customers and employees as we pursue the interests of the company and bring value to technology users on a global level. I am convinced that ABC will continue to be an increasingly strong force in the technology industry and will bring innovative ideas and create pioneering technologies for our customers worldwide.

It has been my great privilege to work with an exceptionally dedicated and skilled team of executives and managers who lead the most talented group of customer representatives I have ever seen in all of my years in the technology industry. I am exceedingly grateful for all of the long hours and hard work ABC’s employees have put in to boost the company from a small regional technology firm to a global industry and contender for the world’s top seller of advanced technology. These are not accomplishments a founder makes alone. These are achievements that require a committed team of gifted, tenacious individuals who come together to work relentlessly for a common goal.

As many of you know, one of my passions is the development of alternate energy sources to provide power and fuel for vehicles, homes and industries. I believe in the future of clean energy and greatly desire to be a part of advancing this incredible technology. I am fiercely committed to finding a way to bring affordable, clean energy to every home and business in America. For this reason I have decided to start a new company, XYZ Clean Energy, a new, groundbreaking company that will make great strides in the field.

It has been my pleasure to lead the team at ABC Industries. I could not have asked for a more supportive board of directors and I treasure the friendships I have cultivated with each one of you. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your leader these last 3 years.

With gratitude and warm regards,

Allen White

Allen L. White”

Frequently Asked Questions:

What to say when you’re resigning?

When resigning you will need to first express your gratitude to the organization for the opportunities you have enjoyed. You can then indicate your last working day and confirm if you are completing a two-week notice period.

What is the best reason for resignation?

The best reason for resignation is a better opportunity. You can mention personal reasons for your departure from the company. Whatever the reason, you will need to mention this politely and professionally.

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Citations

https://www.livemint.com/companies/people/bharatpe-co-founder-ashneer-grover-s-resignation-letter-full-text-11646107830635.html

https://africa.businessinsider.com/tech-insider/read-the-letter-jack-dorsey-sent-to-twitter-employees-announcing-his-resignation-as/c8929ee

https://www.greatsampleresume.com/letters/business-letters/ceo-resignation