India, May 1 -- Harsh Pokharna, CEO and co-founder of OkCredit, says he was "broke" and living paycheck to paycheck in 2019 despite raising Rs.120 crore for his startup. In social media posts shared earlier this week, the IIT Kanpur graduate blamed venture capitalists for keeping founders in dire financial straits.

He also offered a piece of advice to all founders and entrepreneurs - "VCs want founders to stay poor. So if you're a founder, don't let anyone shame you into staying poor," the co-founder of bookkeeping app OkCredit wrote.

Bengaluru-based Harsh Pokharna launched OkCredit in 2017 along with co-founders Gaurav Kunwar and Aditya Prasad. He says that in 2019, his startup raised Rs.120 crore.

Despite this, Pokharna was basically...