Indian man ls himself as CEO of US startup in prime example of gaslighting

: Nov 20, 2025 02:46 pm An Indian man led himself as the CEO of Anysphere on LinkedIn and managed to gaslight even financial data provider PitchBook.  An Indian man led himself as the CEO of Anysphere on LinkedIn and managed to gaslight even financial data provider PitchBook, underscoring how not everything you see on the internet is true. Ashish Bagade led himself as the CEO of Anysphere on LinkedIn. Ashish Bagade is a Pune-based man who has put himself down as the chief executive officer of Anysphere, the $29 billion company behind AI coding assant Cursor. Ashish Bagade calls himself CEO of AnysphereHis blatant act of misdirection was first noticed venture capital Zach DeWitt, who posted about it on the social media platform X. “A random guy (Ashish Bagade) from India ls himself as Co-CEO of Cursor (Anysphere) on LinkedIn,” DeWitt pointed out, sharing a screenshot of Bagade’s LinkedIn profile. The real CEO of Anysphere is Michael Truell. Truell launched the San Francisco-based startup in 2022 along with his MIT batchmates. While LinkedIn has no checks and verifications, which means anyone can l themselves as an employee at any company, Bagade managed to fool even a respected database like PitchBook. DeWitt, founder of Firefly and now a partner at Wing Venture Capital, noted how PitchBook — a website checked most venture capitals — ls Bagade as a co-CEO at Anysphere. Internet amusedAshish Bagade’s blatant lie left many amused. Some called it a prime example of gaslighting, while others called him a successor to Soham Parekh. (Also read: Indian techie Soham Parekh accused at least 5 US CEOs of moonlighting: ‘Holy sh*t, we hired this guy a week ago’) “It always felt weird to me that on LinkedIn anyone can just set any job title they want. No verification at all,” one X user said. “LinkedIn has zero verification when it comes to titles and job experience. Anyone can claim to be anything over there. But Pitchbook including it is stupid. Basically they have no credibility anymore if they can’t even verify anything,” another agreed. “Lemme add myself as Co-CEO of OpenAI,” X user Priyanshu joked. “This is insane – one can just do anything with their digital presence,” a person added. News / Trending / Indian man ls himself as CEO of US startup in prime example of gaslighting See Less