DarwinBox CTO: Worst Interviewer Ever

Hi everyone, I wanted to share a very disappointing interview experience I had recently with the CTO and co-founder of an Indian HR tech company called DarwinBox

From the start, he introduced himself with a very brief “I’m the co-founder of this company, that’s all you need to know,” and asked me to introduce myself. The technical part of the interview began okay, but it quickly became clear that he was looking for the exact answer he had in mind — there was no space for open discussion or alternative solutions.

What really bothered me was his tone and attitude. At one point, he even started calling me “beta” — literally saying things like:

“this is not how it is done, Bete” “You don’t know this, I know this.”

I found that incredibly unprofessional, patronizing, and inappropriate in a professional interview setting.

Then, he said if u have anyqueations and I starter like ‘the HR tech domain has limited innovation scope and companies like #Eightfold and #Rippling’ he cut me off mid-sentence without even listening to my question and said

“These companies are dying.” “They’ll be gone in 2 years.” “They don’t exist.”

And he said, ok now complete your question, i resumed ‘these companies are doing innovations, how about Darwinbox’.

He went on to say things like:

“We are the first company building MCP servers.” “You should have read our LinkedIn before coming.” “You didn’t do your homework.”

He also claimed they have no competitors in India and don’t consider anyone competition globally. The arrogance in his tone was unbelievable. There was zero humility or willingness to listen. Every challenge or innovation I tried to share from my current work was dismissed with comments like:

“This is very normal.” “This is not a challenge.”

By the end of the conversation, it was clear he wasn’t interested in dialogue, collaboration, or even basic respect. It felt like a one-sided monologue filled with superiority and ego.

I genuinely went into the interview excited about the opportunity, but I walked away completely disillusioned. I’ve had interviews that were tough, but this one felt demeaning and toxic.

Has anyone else faced something similar with startup leadership? Is this kind of dismissive, ego-driven behavior becoming common in early-stage companies? #darwinbox #interview #cto #HRtech #hrms