Intern Says AI Startup Fired Them After Asking for a Raise

Overview

• The intern posted that after four months at a six-person AI startup they asked for a performance-based raise by WhatsApp and were then told their internship was terminated for a “mismatch in expectations.”
• They say their work included building the company's Small Language Model infrastructure, cutting inference costs by about 95 percent, and helping bring in more than seven clients.
• According to the post, the CEO later lectured the intern for roughly 30 minutes, called them “money-minded,” and said the message had “broke the manager’s heart.”
• Coverage in Indian outlets reproduced the Reddit account and widespread social reactions but noted the claims are user-generated and have not been independently verified, and the startup has not issued a public statement.
• The episode has prompted discussion about the risks junior tech workers face when negotiating pay at early-stage firms, how small teams assign credit for technical work, and the role of social media in surfacing workplace disputes.