A small startup from Bangalore has completely refuted the outdated notion of corporate culture. The audio-social platform FRND, founded in 2019 by two IIT Kanpur graduates, granted its employees complete freedom over their time. This company lacks both a biometric clock-in system and vacation tracking.
The foundation of this culture was laid by IIT Kanpur graduates Bhanu Pratap Singh Tanwar (CEO, Interact Group) and Harshvardhan Chhangani (Co-founder and CPO). Tanwar believes that instead of confining talented specialists within rigid rules, they should be given the freedom to make decisions independently.
Influenced by the famous Netflix book 'No Rules Rules,' Tanwar asserts that the company's philosophy has always been about providing the team with a high degree of autonomy. The goal is to create an environment free from unnecessary restrictions, where people can deliver their best results rather than being tied to a fixed work schedule.
This raises the question of how companies can know that work is being done if there is no record of entry or leave. The answer in this company is extremely simple: only results. Tanwar explains that as an organization, they measure only victories, and when this affects user engagement, the result becomes obvious.
Acknowledging that some individuals might abuse this trust, the company does not tighten rules for everyone. Instead, it evaluates the performance only of those employees who constantly violate the system, gradually removing them from the team.
Experts and research support this model. According to a field experiment published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, when employees were given the option to choose their own start and end times, their productivity increased by up to 50 percent.
Furthermore, a meta-analysis of over 113 studies conducted in the Journal of Organizational Behavior in 2025 involving more than 88,000 people showed that flexible working hours significantly improve job satisfaction and work-life balance for employees.
Anil Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of the HR and recruiting service InCruiter, notes that every person has their own way of working, and equating everyone to the same hours assumes that everyone works the same way.
However, Anil Agrawal warns that flexibility should not lead to chaos. If goals and deadlines are not clearly defined, this freedom can lead to longer working days and delays for colleagues. This model may succeed for tech or creative companies with self-motivated talent, but its application will be complex in manufacturing, retail, or fixed-schedule positions.
The future of the office is not about abolishing all rules, but about defining the rules that help people work better and those that merely measure their physical presence. The Bangalore startup has proven that with trust in employees, the office atmosphere not only becomes less stressful but also yields outstanding results.