Passion over profit drives Zepto's $5 bn success, says founder Palicha

Speaking at NDTV World Summit, 22-year-old entrepreneur said that despite working 80-100 hours a week, the Zepto team is fuelled by excitement about the platform they are building, not financial gain

A passion for building a transformative company, rather than a mere pursuit of wealth, is what drove the success for Zepto-- the company with a market valuation of $ 5 billion, co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha said on Monday.

Speaking at the NDTV World Summit, the 22-year-old entrepreneur said that despite working 80-100 hours a week, the Zepto team is fuelled by excitement about the platform they are building, not financial gain.

"We love what we're building, we work like crazy, we just are genuinely so excited about what we're building. It's not really about money or personal wealth, because candidly, working 80-100 hours a week, we could have probably worked half of that with a lot less stress...

 

"At a certain point, money becomes inconsequential," Palicha, who is a Stanford University dropout, said.

He pointed out that while many global internet companies have scaled to valuations in tens of billions, India is yet to see similar outcomes.

Highlighting the stark contrast between India's startup landscape and that of cities like Shanghai, which currently boasts a larger market cap, he said he believes that Zepto has the potential to change this narrative, and aims to create a world-class internet company that generates significant cash flow and adds immense value to the startup ecosystem.

"We think we have a shot at really building out an exciting company, and if we do it, there's a huge amount of value that we'll add--not just to shareholders, capital markets, but to the startup ecosystem at large," he said.

Speaking further, he said the quick-commerce unicorn is working on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its search functionalities and customer service to provide personalised user experience to its customers.

"Search is one of the biggest things that we focus on. How can I, looking at your search history, personalise results for you so that you are getting relevant products? If you sit in Defense Colony versus if you sit in West Delhi, or if you've got an iPhone versus you have an Oppo phone there's a difference in what you want to see, right?

"If you've looked at feminine hygiene products that means you're probably a female customer, so maybe we can push products that are more relevant to you," he said, adding that the firm is constantly building on that relevance to make a user's buying experience better.

Palicha said this will add real value for the customers.

"As we speak, we're working on a Generative AI solution on customer support. Instead of waiting for 30-45 seconds for a human being to respond to you, why don't you (customer) wait two seconds, and then a generative AI chatbot will respond to you, and do a better job candidly than even a human could do in that format," he added.