Indian-American founder suffers brain injury in brutal attack, then co-founder quits startup
The co-founder of a startup is facing flak for leaving the company months after her fellow founder Vishnu Hari suffered injuries in a brutal attack.
The co-founder of a Silicon Valley startup is facing flak from a section of the internet for leaving the company months after her fellow founder suffered injuries in a brutal attack. Peggy Wang took to social media on Friday to announce that she had stepped down as the co-founder of Ego and was launching her own startup.
She mentioned that she remained “incredibly bullish” on Ego co-founder Vishnu Hari — whom she referred to as Vish in her post — and the rest of the team.
The attack on Indian-American Vishnu Hari
Wang did not mention the brutal attack that had left Hari hospitalized. On January 18, the Indian-American tech entrepreneur was found bleeding after being violently attacked in San Francisco. He then spent two weeks in the ICU, recovering from a traumatic brain injury.
In an X post shared on February 1, Hari said he had been discharged after the ICU “after traumatic brain injury due to a man hitting me on the back of my head with a metal pipe, completely unprovoked, in the mission in San Francisco.”
“As a result of his attack, I’m partially blind in my right eye and can’t hear well out of my left ear. He attacked me when I was walking home from the corner store for absolutely no reason. He did not end up stealing my phone or wallet but he did rip off all my jewelry and piercings,” he revealed, adding that he had no memory of the attack.
Peggy Wang steps down
Wang, in her X post last week, indicated that she was launching her own startup which had already been accepted into the startup accelerator Y Combinator. Incidentally, Ego — an AI-native simulation engine for users to create and share 3D animated characters — was also backed by Y Combinator.
“A couple months ago, I stepped away from my role as cofounder at Ego due to differing visions for the company's future. I remain incredibly bullish on Vish, the team, and the space they're building in,” Wang announced.
Wang explained that she co-founded Ego with the belief that gaming and interactive media would become the next generation of social spaces. She said the rise of humanlike AI agents makes this vision even more powerful, opening new ways for people to interact online.
After a short break, she added that she is ready to build again as part of YC’s F25 batch. This time, her startup will focus on the consumer AI space.
Peggy Wang faces flak
Wang faced immediate backlash as dozens of people accused her of ‘betraying’ her co-founder Vishnu Hari.
“Screwed over her co-founder while he just got out of hospital after getting attacked in SF, then applied to YC with a competing idea. You’re a trash human being, Peggy,” read one particularly vitriolic post.
“In a normal world, this should have very stringent criminal penalties. There are insufficient words in the English language to describe this level of evil,” another person wrote.
The abuse got so bad that Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator, stepped in to defend Wang.
“Let me say if you are coming after Peggy and verbally abusive and disrespectful, I am watching. It’s not OK and there will be consequences,” Tan said on X.
Vishnu Hari’s reaction
Hari also reacted to Wang’s post, claiming that she made him sign a non-disparagement clause when she left the company and while he was still healing from blood clots.
“there's a non-disparagement clause i was asked to sign by my forbes 30u30 co-founder when she left the company while i was still healing from the blood clots in my brain. So I can’t say anything at all,” he claimed.
Asked why he signed the clause, Hari said he was asked to do so by Wang’s lawyers and he wanted to focus on his healing. “Aas asked to by her lawyers. i wanted to go back to healing and just focus on rebuilding the company with what little cognition I had back then. Thankfully everyone else in the team stayed and was deeply supportive. I hold no ill will against anyone,” he said.
