India, June 2 -- An Indian-origin UC Berkeley graduate has claimed that he was able to attract the interest of nearly 30 venture capitalists by sending cold emails using a fake persona and keywords like "Stanford," "AI," and "Palantir."

In his post, Bhavye Khetan criticised the startup and venture capital (VC) ecosystem, claiming that investor interest can be generated with just the right buzzwords and credentials-even when there's no real product, pitch, or plan.

"I made a fake founder persona. No product. No pitch. No deck. Just: Stanford CS, Ex-Palantir and used the word "AI" 3 times. Sent cold emails to 34 VCs. 27 replied. 4 asked for a call. This game is rigged in ways most people don't understand," he wrote.

Khetan explained that...