Last updated:November 22, 2024, 3:07 PM IST

When a Bengaluru-based man quoted his professional fee of Rs 25,000 per hour, Sharan Hegde’s 1% club replied that they do not pay experts for online sessions.

Sharan Hegde’s 1% Club offers experts “branding on their app” as compensation in lieu of payment for hosting sessions for its members. (Image: X/@financewsharan and @ankitv)

Fin influencer Sharan Hegde, who founded the 1% Club to help people achieve “financial freedom”, has faced backlash after offering an expert a barter deal. Bengaluru-based professional Ankit claimed that the company asked him to host a free online session and offered “branding on the app” as compensation instead of paying a professional fee.

Ankit took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share that a representative from Hegde’s financial startup reached out to host an online masterclass for members. “Shortest meeting ever. Sharan Hegde’s 1% Club Representative: Hi, we want you to do a master class on ‘Building Your Personal Brand Online’ for our members online sessions.”

When Ankit quoted his professional fee of INR 25,000 per hour, the representative replied that the company does not pay experts for online sessions and instead offers “branding on its app” as compensation.

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Ankit declined the offer saying he was not interested in branding and needed his fee. Despite this, the company reiterated its policy of not paying experts for online sessions. Frustrated with the meeting, Ankit wrote: “It’s almost 2025. Why does a startup as well-funded as Mr. Sharan’s 1% club that ‘teaches’ people how to invest their money expect free hours from experts?”

He ended his post by calling out the company’s “poor mechanisms” and asking: “Why can’t they just pay?”

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A few weeks ago, Sharan Hegde laid off 15 percent of the 1% club workforce as part of the company’s first “cost-cutting exercise” aimed at supporting the long-term growth of the company he and Ragav Gupta founded.

“I just laid off 15% of my workforce and I received many messages from my friends and the media that I was going out of business. As a financial influencer who built his career around financial education, the irony is not lost on me,” Hedge wrote LinkedIn.

Hegde said the 1% Club currently generates $8 million in annual revenue with an EBITDA margin of 35-40%. “We have almost 85,000 active paying customers and are working on new financial products and services some of which have already been launched and have also achieved profitability,” he underlined.

Read also| Questions about laid-off employees Sharan Hegde’s ‘financial literacy’, 1% Club CEO answersa

He acknowledged “excessive spending” and the mistakes the company made in hiring employees. “I started this company from my bedroom with just 5 interns 2 years back and fast forward today we have almost 200 employees. Needless to say when you grow that fast you are going to make some hiring mistakes and excess expenses.” He further mentioned that the company had identified AI-driven cost-saving opportunities that could improve “profitability” and “efficiency”.