'Used the word AI 3 times': UC Berkeley grad tricks 27 VCs, exposes startup world’s shiny résumé trap

A fake founder. Zero product. And a résumé packed with buzzwords. That’s all it took for Bhavye Khetan, an Indian-origin UC Berkeley grad, to bait 27 venture capitalists—and ignite a fierce debate about the startup world’s priorities.

In a viral post on X, Khetan revealed he created a fictional persona boasting a Stanford CS degree, a Palantir pedigree, and a casual mention of “AI” three times. Then he cold-emailed 34 VCs. Twenty-seven responded. Four wanted a call.

“This game is rigged in ways most people don’t understand,” he wrote.

The stunt laid bare what many in tech already feared: branding often trumps substance. Khetan’s social experiment—no pitch, no product, no deck—sparked both applause and outrage online.

“Who would have thought having shiny logos on a résumé makes people more likely to wanna talk to you?” one user quipped. Others cited similar cases, from fake résumés to executives who climbed ladders with nothing but confidence and buzzwords.

Critics, though, weren’t amused. “You lied. Stanford is meaningful. Palantir is meaningful. AI is meaningful,” one commenter snapped. Others argued Khetan’s game wouldn’t survive a second round of VC scrutiny.

Still, the post raised deeper questions. Do top-tier logos and trendy tech terms outweigh raw innovation in early-stage funding? Can a résumé cheat code beat an honest, well-thought-out business model?

Some believe the episode exposes a broken system, where image dominates first impressions. “Once people have some work experience, it's a mistake to judge them solely by the name of their college,” a commenter noted.