Amid massive layoffs across the global tech sector, entrepreneur and Anupam Mittal has shared his own experience of losing a job during the 2001 dot-com crash, while warning against the growing trend of glorifying entrepreneurship as the only solution.
In a post on LinkedIn, Mittal recalled being laid off in Washington, D.C., during the collapse of the dot-com bubble.
“I still remember that walk back. Felt like a free fall,” he wrote.
However, he drew a sharp contrast between the layoffs of 2001 and those taking place in 2026.
“But in 2001, jobs were being eliminated to save companies, so it didn’t hurt as much. In 2026, Oracle is fine. Revenue up. Stock up,” he said.
Referring to recent job cuts, Mittal added, “The 12,000 were not cut because the ship was sinking. They were cut because the ship is learning to sail itself.”
The Shark Tank India judge also dismissed the popular advice being circulated online that people affected by layoffs should simply start their own companies using AI tools.
“The advice going around right now is ‘start a company, become a founder, build with AI.’ Fortune cookie wisdom. Trash! Let’s be real — 12,000 people are not and should not become founders,” he wrote.
Calling entrepreneurship “brutal”, Mittal said the survival rate for startups remains extremely low.
“Founder life is brutal and the survival rate is dismal,” he added.
Mittal further urged professionals to rethink their role inside organisations and understand where they stand in a company’s profit-and-loss structure.
“The real lesson is uncomfortable but useful. When your employer reads the P&L, where do you show up? If the answer is the cost column, you are in the line of fire and need to start taking action. If the answer is the revenue or profit line, AI is your leverage, not your replacement,” he wrote.
Notably, more than 92,000 tech workers have reportedly lost their jobs globally in just the first five months of 2026. April alone saw over 45,000 layoffs, making it the worst month for tech job cuts in the past two years. Companies including Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon and Snap have announced layoffs this year, citing AI-driven efficiencies and post-pandemic over-hiring.
