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He has set up one of India's most successful start-ups but Kunal Bahl, co-founder and chief executive officer of Snapdeal.com, has not stopped there. An avid angel investor, the 30-year-old was in Bengaluru to attend a 'corporate culture and spirituality' conference organised by the Art of Living Foundation. In a conversation with Itika Sharma Punit & Indulekha Aravind, he speaks on how he's managing amid fast growth and other issues on his mind. Edited excerpts:
E-commerce is going through a hyper-growth phase. How are you managing your time?
I spend 30 per cent of my time focusing on hiring leadership. Actually, whether or not we are hiring them, I spend time meeting smart people because you never know when you might want to work with them. Another 30 per cent is spent meeting new companies in our space, not necessarily direct competitors but ancillaries, and seeing where the system is going and what we need to do, inorganically or organically. The remaining time is spent on internal-facing activities with my team.
Your competitor, Flipkart, has raised several funds and is reportedly looking at a listing abroad. What are your financial plans for the near future?
We are very well capitalised. We probably have six times the money we have spent since the starting of the business in our banks right now. So, unless we want to do something truly ridiculously big or strategic, it doesn't make sense for us to raise any money as of now.
Several start-ups in which you have personally invested have a correlation to Snapdeal. Is that planned?
The companies we have invested in are running their businesses and we are running our business. If commercially it makes sense for us to partner, we will. But we don't invest with that mindset. Often Rohit (Bansal, co-founder of Snapdeal) and I discuss who we think is going to kill our business, and it's not going to be the other market players today, it's going to be someone who doesn't exist as of now. The only way for us to stay in touch with what's going on and what's building for the future is by being connected to the ecosystem through angel investments.
The e-commerce sector has faced several policy issues. What are you doing to sort those?
Some policies are very clear, like those on foreign direct investment. However, some policies around tax are being interpreted by certain states in certain ways. Clarifications are always necessary. Saying let's not talk about finding a solution is not a solution. But I don't think just policing is going to be really helpful. It never really helped any industry. As a business, we know what we need to do and as an enabler, the government can help us. But outside of that, it's our hard work that'll pay off. Our teams engage with government authorities on a case-by-case basis on wherever it makes sense.
Fashion is the fastest growing category currently and Flipkart has acquired Myntra to strengthen their presence in that space. What are your plans to expand in this area?
We don't want to acquire a company already doing what we are doing. We don't want overlapping assortments because then, what do you sell to whom? You end up competing with yourself! Also, it's not easy to have multiple platforms because everyone has separate technologies and separate marketing campaigns. We have to focus on building our company and I feel that if we run around trying to acquiring companies, it is going to get very tiring.
