India’s Viral Rejection Becomes Silicon Valley Redemption: Rounak Adhikary’s Startup Story Inspires Founders

Jyoti Rathi - Kolkata Bureau May 31, 2026 1,400 Views

Rounak Adhikary, founder of ProjectX, went viral after sharing a 2022 clip of Ashneer Grover dismissing his pitch with the now-iconic phrase "Tu baith jaa yaar." Four years later, his cloud startup has been accepted into Y Combinator's Spring 2026 batch, turning one of India's most public rejections into a remarkable revenge arc.

In 2022, a young Rounak Adhikary was sitting in the audience at a public event where BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover was speaking. When Adhikary raised his hand to pitch his startup idea, Grover cut him off with a blunt "Tu baith jaa yaar," drawing laughter from the crowd. This week, Adhikary posted a throwback video of that interaction, and it promptly racked up 10 million views in a single day.

From Dismissed Pitch To Y Combinator

The clip, captioned "Baith gaya bhai" by Adhikary himself, juxtaposed that 2022 brushoff with snippets from his current life in the US, where his startup ProjectX has been selected for Y Combinator's Spring 2026 batch - one of the world's most coveted startup accelerators. The irony was not lost on the internet, nor on the thousands of founders who flooded the comments with solidarity.

What ProjectX Actually Does

ProjectX, also known as ProjectX.Cloud, is a cloud-based operating system designed to eliminate hardware dependency by allowing users to run computing tasks remotely from any device. The startup had already secured $200,000 in Google Cloud infrastructure support and was eyeing $3 million in seed funding, signalling serious institutional interest well before the Y Combinator acceptance.

The Rejection That Rewired Him

Adhikary has spoken about how the public dismissal by Grover became a defining moment that pushed him to work harder rather than step back. His startup had already received grants from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Ministry of Electronics and IT, alongside recognition from Microsoft Founders Program and AWS Activate Founders Program. The Y Combinator selection now caps a four-year journey that began in a crowd where he was told to stay seated.

Founder Journey Highlights

Rounak Adhikary publicly dismissed by Ashneer Grover at a startup event in 2022
Posted a throwback video of the rejection in May 2026, which went viral with 10 million views
ProjectX accepted into Y Combinator Spring 2026 batch
Startup is a cloud-based OS built to eliminate hardware dependency across devices
Google Cloud has provided $200,000 in infrastructure support
Startup also holds grants from government ministries and recognition from Microsoft and AWS programs