Hyderabad, Aug. 8 -- A city-based startup founder's LinkedIn post about hiring a 9th-pass taxi driver with no English-speaking skills as his company's first employee a decade ago has gone viral, drawing widespread praise online for what commenters are calling an example of leadership beyond credentials.

Sravanth Gajula, co-founder of digital out-of-home advertising firm AdOnMo and a former Microsoft employee, wrote that he hired the driver in Hyderabad ten years ago despite the man having only graduated from class 9 and having no command of English and no corporate background. Gajula said the decision baffled people around him at the time, but he was drawn to what he described as the driver's hunger and honesty rather than his paper qual...