‘I spend ₹96 lakh every year on employees who make zero money’: Indian CEO’s hiring logic sparks debate

Most founders are obsessed with one thing while hiring: “Will this role directly make money?” If the answer is yes, the hire gets approved quickly. But one startup founder is now going viral online for admitting that he spends nearly ₹8 lakh every single month on employees who, technically, bring in zero direct revenue to the company - and he says he has absolutely no regrets about it.Pratham Jindal, founder and CEO of Praper, recently shared his thoughts on LinkedIn, challenging the common startup mindset around so-called “non-revenue” employees.In his post, the Chandigarh-based entrepreneur explained that founders usually divide hires into two categories - people who directly generate revenue and people who support operations behind the scenes.According to him, revenue-generating roles are easy to justify because their impact is visible almost instantly. Sales teams close deals, designers create client work, editors produce output - the business can directly measure what they contribute.But support teams often don’t get the same respect.Roles like HR, admin, IT support, operations, founder’s office staff, and content coordination are usually seen as “extra expenses” rather than business-critical hires. And honestly, many founders keep postponing these hires because they don’t immediately show numbers on a spreadsheet.Pratham admitted he used to think the same way too.That changed when he realised how much of his own time was disappearing into everyday operational chaos. Instead of focusing on scaling the business, he found himself handling payroll issues, coordinating interviews, chasing vendors, and approving invoices late at night.That’s when he reframed the problem completely.For him, the question stopped being “Does this role make money?” and became “How much founder time is being wasted without this role?”He shared a simple method he now follows. Founders, he said, should list every task they personally handle during the week and calculate how much time each one consumes. If admin-heavy work is quietly eating up 8–10 hours weekly, it’s probably time to hire support staff.Because according to him, the most valuable thing a founder owns isn’t money - it’s bandwidth.The entrepreneur also posted a photo with the text: “I pay ₹96 lakh/year for roles that bring in zero revenue. And I don't regret it at all.”The post quickly sparked discussion online, especially among startup employees and founders who related hard to the struggle.One LinkedIn user pointed out that recruitment coordination alone quietly consumes hours every week for early-stage founders. Another said support teams only get noticed when something breaks - like payroll delays or operational issues.Someone else added that while builders and revenue teams drive visible growth, support teams are often the reason companies continue functioning smoothly in the background.And honestly, that seemed to be the bigger takeaway from the conversation. Sometimes the employees who don’t directly “make money” are the exact reason everyone else is able to do their jobs properly in the first place.