Introduction
In a revealing conversation, Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato, shares insights into his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges faced along the way, and the innovations that have driven Zomato's growth in India's competitive food delivery market. With experiences ranging from near-bankruptcy to becoming an industry leader, Goyal’s story is one of resilience, adaptability, and vision.
The Zomato Journey: Challenges and Triumphs
Early Struggles
Zomato's path was not easy, as Goyal recounts numerous moments where the company faced dire financial straits. "We had funds to survive for only four months, and each month brought new uncertainties," he recalls, highlighting the continuous battle for funding and stability.
- Funding Issues: Goyal explains how Zomato almost went broke several times and how he managed to rally support and resources to keep the company afloat.
- Strategic Decisions: The decision to divest from the UAE market yielded $170 million, which played a crucial role in maintaining Zomato's operations in India.
- Focus on Core Values: Despite the pressures, Goyal maintained a focus on culture and innovative marketing as cornerstones of Zomato’s strategy.
Competitive Landscape
Goyal acknowledges Swiggy as a persistent competitor. "Swiggy was a problem for us, especially when they raised significant funds," he admits. However, rather than allowing competition to dominate his strategy, Goyal emphasizes a different mentality:
- No Competition Mindset: Goyal aligns Zomato’s strategy with its unique identity rather than viewing rivals as threats.
- Innovation Over Imitation: Zomato took bold steps towards innovation, enhancing user experience through creative notifications and constant engagement with the app's interface.
Business Model Breakdown
Revenue Generation
Understanding Zomato's revenue stream is crucial for grasping its operational strategy. Goyal explains, "How does Zomato earn? The answer lies in our commission from restaurants and delivery charges from customers."
- Commission from Restaurants: Zomato charges around 17-20% per order.
- Delivery Charges: Typically, an average charge of about ₹20-25 is billed to customers.
- Average Order Value: Goyal details that when a customer spends ₹400, Zomato's blended commission is around ₹80, making the overall profit per order quite slim but scalable at volume.
Marketing Strategy
Zomato's marketing ethos centers on creating joy:
- Positive Engagement: Goyal emphasizes crafting messages that bring smiles. The marketing team operates on the principle of making people smile, signaling a connection to the brand that resonates with consumers.
- Push Notifications: High engagement through effective notifications has also become a significant marketing advantage for Zomato.
Zomato's Culture: The Driving Force
Importance of Culture
One of the key takeaways from Goyal’s narrative is the role of company culture in Zomato’s success:
- Culture-Led Organization: Goyal believes that a strong organizational culture is crucial and that how people behave determines the effectiveness of the company.
- Self-Growth Mindset: New employees are encouraged to embrace a mindset aimed towards personal and professional growth, aligning their path with Zomato’s evolving objectives.
Insights on Workforce Dynamics
Goyal shares insights on the changing workforce landscape:
- GenZ Hiring: He recognizes that today's workforce, particularly GenZ, possesses intelligence and potential, although sometimes lacks the patience that older generations have.
- Poaching Talent: Goyal discusses strategic hiring practices, emphasizing that the best talent often does not actively seek jobs but is approached based on their skills.
Looking Towards the Future
India’s Economic Landscape
Goyal expresses an optimistic view of India's future, believing it will emerge as a major economic power in the coming decades. "India is developing rapidly, and with it, the food consumption trends will change, offering vast opportunities for growth," he states.
Sum of Lessons Learned
Reflecting on mistakes, including the tendency to expand internationally too soon, Goyal advises entrepreneurs to focus on their core market.
- Power of Focus: "Stay in India and chill. There’s a wealth of opportunity right here," he remarks, emphasizing the importance of concentration and understanding local markets.
Conclusion
Deepinder Goyal’s insights reveal the intricate balance of innovation, resilience, and culture that have defined Zomato's journey. As they continue to navigate challenges and seize opportunities in the evolving food delivery landscape, Zomato stands as a testament to the power of adaptability in the face of adversity. Goyal’s reflections not only inspire budding entrepreneurs but also provide valuable lessons in understanding the dynamics of competitive industries. The future certainly looks promising for Zomato and for India's growing startup ecosystem as a whole.
I want to ask you a weird question. Do you personally write
Zomato's notifications? Was Swiggy a real problem?
Swiggy has forever been a problem
for us. People don't know that Zomato
had almost gone broke multiple times. And everytime he has gone out there
and brought money back or made it unbroke.
I actually want to know about those phases
We had funds to survive for 4 months only. There's no money, what will
you do? Will you bring the money? No, right. Then solve it.
If you don't want to solve it,
then you can go out. Someone else will solve it.
Was the journey hard? The journey was fun.
Challenges are fun.
Pain is pleasure.
-Yes. BDSM of business. Exactly from one delivery,
how does Zomato earn?
What have you learnt about India's
present and future? Especially when it comes to workforce.
-The kind of people we want, they don't look for jobs.
-Ohh.
You believe in Poaching.
Poaching or approaching. What are you running away from? Slavery.
Expand... We do very little business oriented
conversations on TRS because honestly not all of you watch entrepreneurship
conversations, but today's guest is
Indian entrepreneurship legend,
Zomato founder, Deepinder Goyal. We've discussed psychological side of
business in a very relaxed manner. We've spoken about failure and
struggling phase.
If you want to open big businesses
in life, do a lot of things, watch this podcast till the end from a
business or start up oriented perspective. I know the entire start up community will
watch this podcast but I want
the students in the interiors of India to
watch this podcast till the end. It's a very nice conversation
with Deepinder Goyal. Learn about Zomato.
Learn about Deepinder's mindset
and about future of India on this episode of TRS. Welcome Deepinder Goyal to TRS.
How are you, Sir?
-All well, very nice. Should I call you Sir or Bro.
-Whatever you want to call me. You have too much of a bro energy.
-Is it?
But that's because I don't
work for you. Asking a strange question. Do you yourself write
those Zomato notifications?
I write a few.
-Seriously? A few.
-Cool! Was this your idea to have
trippy notifications?
We didn't plan for something like this,
but it happened by itself. We tried a few things which worked
and it all happened organically. Did something else, that also worked,
then people said your brand is like this
and we continued to do it. Were there any phases where you wanted
to give up or felt very low? Many a times.
-When did you feel the lowest?
Many a times. I felt like quitting
every two-three weeks. Even now?
-Yes. Ok.
I do research before every podcast. I asked a lot of people in the
business community what to ask you. Many people said that
in the business community,
there is different chatter
than what the public knows. There is a lot of respect for
your work. But they say people don't know that
Zomato almost went broke multiple times.
Everytime you went back
and got back the money. And managed the situation.
I actually want to know about those phases What was happening from human perspective?
What happened in the company?
What did you solve as a human and
what did you do for the company? Let's say we've four months of money left. Let's round up and say we had ten million
dollars for four months.
Our burn rate was very high back then.
-Ok. When the next month is over
we should still have 4 months' money left. Then we used to reduce the burn rate.
This month we spent 2.5 million.
We were left with 7.5 million. Next month burn rate should have
been less than 2. Like this, we always kept
four months' money in the bank.
So, if you always have 4 months' money
with you, then you have an infinite life span
in a way. How does a day in your
work life look now?
Wake up in the morning. Go to gym.
Get to office. Back to back meetings
for 8 to 9 hours. Talk about those 8-9 hours.
What do you do?
How do you handle such a big company? I don't. Team is very good nowadays.
-How do you handle the team? My work is more or less putting the
right people in right places.
Ok. So if the team is good.
If people are solving the right problems. Then it's done.
As the company
upgrades at each stage. you have to hire a new set of
top level hires. Or do the same guys get promoted
or is it a mix?
It's better to grow from within. So you continue with the old people.
Why? Zomato is 15 years old. If you get
an external hire,
We have enough people
who are 5-6 years old in the system. The context gets changed. If we were a two year old company,
we had no choice but to get external hires
But now if I have to
bring someone from outside... Let's say we hire someone. Either I have to be very sure that he's
really good or that he has a unique skill.
Let's say I have a head
of marketing position. If I hire from outside, it will
take six months to bring someone. First you'll interview for 3 months.
then he'll have to serve 3 months notice.
He'll join in 6 months and there'll
be induction for 3 months. Then, after a year's time you'll know
his performance. You've lost 2 years. Isn't it?
It's easier for me to pick someone from
inside, spend 3 months to grow him and put him in that role. He/She knows the business
and that works.
If you hired a top level person Do mess ups happen in that level too? Absolutely.
Then how do you deal with that? Same mentality as dealing
with mess ups from 2008? -Yes. Ok.
Has it been a difficult journey? Problems are fun. Pain is pleasure.
-Yes. BDSM of business.
Business BDSM.
It's like the gym. Pain is fun. I respect you a lot for multiple things
but I respect you the most for Product skills which manifest
as a growth of a business.
I know you're a product person.
Nithin Kamath was on the show 2-3 years back and he'd said that
probably the most valued thing in the start up
ecosystem are the product people.
because product people
think in the creativity domain. They build the present on basis of
what they think the future should be. Can I take the name of a rival?
-Doesn't matter.
I think common man notices this
about Zomato vs. Swiggy. People feel Zomato is way more innovative
and I know you don't consider competition. I completely agree with that mentality
that there is no such thing as competition
as long as you're creating your
own journey. This is what I love about you. I think all the GenZ's and people on my
team, they notice innovation on Zomato app
Do you agree?
-Yes. I would like to
tell you a brutal truth. I personally feel reading habit
is dying out in the world.
because of short content and podcasts. The world culture is changing and
when you say this to an author they don't agree.
But it's true.
I represent internet and I understand
the thinking of youth. I know you've written a book
about culture in Zomato. Many listeners would not
read the book ever.
Crunch down the book in this response. Please break down the book you
wrote about culture. It's quite simple.
We don't have a process led organization.
Ours is culture led organization. And if people and culture is right then the organization works
otherwise it doesn't work.
What is the meaning of culture
being right? Culture is how people behave. Ok.
Response to stimuli and pressure. What do they think about their growth
and quality of work? All this is culture. Culture book was more of a
handbook for employees.
If a new person comes to an
induction, give him the book. Let him read it for 4-6 times. And if he works in the company then he'd
hopefully read it
because we're paying the person
to read this book. You're giving them a
roadmap for growth. Of self growth.
-Ok
How to think? How to behave? Its a roadmap for that. Chikki saw this on my desk and
insisted to publish it as it was good.
I said ok, do it. Is culture the reason for you
being able to scale to this extent? This book is about 80% of the core
principles.
I've been working on this book
for a decade. Finally I was able to isolating
the important things. There'll be some more too.
They'll be on the version 2. Is that your secret sauce? -How can it be
secret sauce in a company of 10,000 people Ok. Do you think you could scale up
due to culture or there are other factors?
I think it is culture.
-At least after a certain point? No, I think from the beginning.
-From the beginning. Ok.
Do you want to elaborate
more on culture? Specifically what does self growth
mean for a person in Zomato? I believe that mind set is everything.
You experience doesn't matter, whether
it is 5 years, 10 years or 15 years. If you are facing any unique problem, even
if you are fresh out of college, You can solve the problem as well as
someone who is doing it since 20 years.
Probably better than the person who's
doing it since 20 years as you don't come with a baggage. It's about how you unlearn and
bring freshness.
And determination to the thing
you're trying to solve. Ok. Usually where do you hire from
in India? Do you hire from a metro?
Or you hire randomly?
-No rules. Do you get a bird's eye view
of India? When it comes to workforce, what did you
learn about India's present and future?
The kind of workforce we hire
is very different. Ideally we don't hire
people who are looking for jobs. The kind of people
we need, they don't search for jobs.
So you poach them. Poaching or approaching. Wow.
I like your illegitimacy.
But go on. We look for good people, then we work
on them; atleast the mid to senior Level. Hiring process is very long.
It's like quoting, dating for 6-12 months.
Then we're able to get people. It's a difficult work.
Ok. Do you hire GenZ?
-Definitely.
Have you learned about GenZs? Is it very
different than working with older people? GenZ's are way smarter than
we were at that age. And.
Potential is huge, but they've less
patience than us at that age. And patience is a virtue
which is required at work. I ask ambitious people like you this
question. Perhaps it's a rude question.
But I'm not asking this rudely,
so sorry. But I will still ask. The question is,
what are you running away from?
What am I running away from? Slavery. Expand.
That's it.
-That's it? You just want to say this? -Reason
why you do this is you need freedom. In different forms. You won't get
absolute freedom no matter what you do.
There is no absolute freedom
in this world. But if you get different types
of freedom, then it's nice. My research team suggested me to ask you
ONDC related question.
Will you talk about it? Easiest way to explain ONDC is that
it's government's Zomato. Until now you were playing SmackDown vs.
Raw. Now ECW came in.
Do you watch WWE?
-During childhood. You got the reference. Anyway. ECW came in.
Are you tensed?
No? How will you deal? What's ONDC?
Is it even a problem to you? I don't know.
-Is it too early to say?
It's risky to say,
it's too early to say. Because you can be lazy about it
and stop watching it. So, I don't know. I don't want to call it a competition,
because it isn't a competition yet.
But you must be studying them. It keeps going. But you already have strategies.
-I don't know. I don't think we have.
We'll see when that problem
becomes real. Then you take a week-long timeline,
put the gun on your head and solve it. This is the mentality.
That if it becomes a real problem
then solve it. Was Swiggy ever a real problem
at some point? It has forever been a real problem
for us.
This is WWE vs. WCW. You're Vince McMahon. Swiggy once raised a billion dollars.
We had nothing in our bank at that time.
How did you go further
from there? We sold our UAE business. We got 170 million dollars from there.
We slowly kept fighting.
Kept working hard. Again same approach. There is only so much money.
We have to reach here. You have so much time.
Gun to your head, solve it. So it's more important to have
a base level blueprint.
There should be protocol. Gun to the head. I think we must have a determination
mind set that we must do it.
Now you must solve this.
There is nothing else to do. Either you can start blaming that if you
have this, only then you can solve it. But there is no money.
What will you do?
Can you do something? Will you get money? No. Then solve it.
If you can't, you leave.
Someone else will solve it. Have you ever met Swiggy's founders?
-Many a times. What do you talk?
Friendship. Brotherhood.
You're playing a cricket match. Shaheen Afridi vs. Virat Kohli.
We gauge the future. It's a nice friendly relationship.
We don't talk business. It is not legal to talk
current business.
Is it because of public listing? I might get to know about their
strategy Competition should be fair.
We do not get to the competition.
We gossip about future. How will drones operate in five minutes? Ok
Do you take motivation
from each other on some level? I don't know about him. But I
definitely take inspiration from him. Ok.
Have you ever used Swiggy? Never.
-This was a tricky question. I've used it for experimental
purpose many times.
But haven't used it for
real purpose so far. Only when you have to use
the app to learn. Ok.
To compare Zomato and Swiggy,
I order the samething on both apps. I will openly say something. I use Zomato to order food but
I use Swiggy a lot to order groceries.
That's my use case. If I want to order groceries,
I'll automatically open Swiggy. I use Swiggy because it was already
installed on phone since beginning.
That was my mentality as a user. I'm sure you constantly study
user mentality. When you open Zomato app
yourself
What do you think as a founder? As a product person,
I watch my emotions in a way. If I can do my work seamlessly and
calmly. That's a very good thing.
Without having to think. If app irritates me,
I get irritated. That's when I know it is not right.
You call, what did you put in the app!?
Sorry. We've created a product feedback group
on slack where we add these issues. How do you talk?
I say,
I think this should be this. Do you shout at people?
-Rarely. No?
-Rarely.
I'd like to know when. When giving feedback to someone And when his mind
doesn't stop running.
When people don't listen. I think then I've to sometimes raise
my volume to get my message across. Has that been a good strategy?
Works half the times. What happens when it
doesn't work? Nothing. Person has so much noise in their
heads that they don't even hear me shout.
This is a random intrusive question. Do you know Ankit Bhaiyanpuria? Fastest ever grown Instagram account.
Fastest ever grown social media account.
Have you heard his name?
-Yes. Recently he has
seen very fast growth. He vlogs everyday and shows
his fitness journey every day.
Ex-Zomato rider. Isn't it?
-Yes. I've heard about him.
I've seen his Instagram profile. Ok.
According to me, he should be
one of your brand ambassadors. I think so. I'm giving you a very big
input here.
I think so. We did more than five hundred podcasts. Dr. Jaishankar, Priyanka Chopra,
Ashish Chanchlani, YouTuber. They were all 1/3rd of the speed in
growth of views compared to Ankit. It's that much.
All the best. But coming back
to Zomato delivery partners. Did you ever think there would
be so many lives impacted? I want to know more about
Zomato delivery partners.
When you were creating
the entire plan I remember when Zomato
was just a review app. I read your interview back then.
Beer Biceps, the word
started off as a Zomato review page. Very nice. In college.
It's true. I'm not lying. I wanted a creative name. I used to be a... Thank you, Bro.
-It's a nice name. Thank you.
I remember that you said in this interview that at some point
we'll turn into a delivery app. How long did you have this plan for?
That's one question. Second is
I'm sure when you thought
you would become a delivery app You'd have by then thought about
delivery partners too. I had never thought
about delivery partners.
Swiggy did it first. And customer love for Swiggy was very
high compared to our service. So, it was almost a forced move
for us to do it.
This delivery app had
to be made in the future because in 2005, I made
one out of college. So my first start up was a
food ordering app. -Really!?
Actually that was my third start up. But my first serious start up
was a food ordering app. That didn't work.
The scanned menus and reviews were
a trimmed down version of that start up. Then you went back to it? I had to. Because the whole goal was
whenever the market was ready,
people will do those things. You had this goal from the beginning. It was a dream.
Not too serious about these things.
Will see if this can be done. But if you can do it,
then it will be fine. If it works out, it's good and if it
works out successful, it is even better.
And how do you feel now?
Detached? That it's done. I'm still working. The bigger it gets,
the more harder it is.
When Zomato delivery partners'
stories are shown in media or when someone had a bad interaction
with a customer. Someone becomes
a big Instagrammer.
Zomato is getting marketing from there. I don't think that way.
-Why? People say all marketing is
good marketing. I don't believe that.
I think good marketing is good marketing
and bad marketing is bad marketing. People say that all publicity is... Is good publicity. I don't believe that.
-Really?
Tell me. Karma is Karma. If you get marketing by doing
bad activities then it'll catch up.
Marketing should leave a good taste
in people's mouth. You should associate
it with positive emotions. Negative emotion marketing
is not marketing. -Ok.
What is the core marketing strategy of
Zomato? People from agencies tell you that
this is all over the place. Even then people know about the brand.
So your core mentality must be
some what right. What is your thought process?
Especially your marketing branding team... Is it one team?
-Yes, a small one.
A small one?
-Yes. What do you tell them? They say it.
I don't say anything.
I think the principle they've narrowed
down to is, we must make someone smile. Whenever you see any of our marketing
message or notification or Insta post there should be a smile on people's faces.
-Positive energy.
So they try to do that. Just that? First principles thinking.
-Yes. So you try to make as many people
smile as possible.
You can also narrow down and
send non relevant notifications. So we try to achieve generic smiles. Ok.
Do you keep hiring for that team? to bring in humor, to bring in... Yes, it is ongoing.
Ok. I'm assuming you're hiring
GenZ's there. -Yes. Has Zomato's marketing changed
over the years?
I think distribution channels have changed but the tonality and what we've been
able to achieve we try to achieve consistency in that.
Distribution channels mean Facebook first,
then Instagram, twitter. And what's the hot thing now? Now hot thing is Insta
and push notifications.
Our push notification
distribution is pretty high. And many go viral too. And that's a thought out process,
a strategy.
Not just something
that happened by itself. It actually happened by chance, but it
worked. So we sticked on. Ok.
Many delivery partners of Zomato
are listening to this podcast. What would you like to tell them? There is a big range in the
Zomato delivery partners.
Range of quality of work,
of quality of people. Largely I'd say thank you. Continue
doing good work and drive safe. Take care of your health and exercise.
Don't break your backs.
It's a hard job. So please
take care of yourself. What would you like to say to the
top level delivery partners? I'd like to tell them the same thing.
So thank you, take care of yourself. Ok.
Alright. There's a lot of fraud at the bottom too.
I would like to tell the bottom ones
Don't do that. Relax, chill.
Do good work. You'll eventually
make more money if you... Do they try to make money?
Why do you order from Zomato?
You can directly tell us. They run away
after picking up customer's food. They tell customer that their online
payment didn't go through,
you'll be refunded, give me the cash.
Some random things. Does it happen all over the country? It happens less than bottom 1%.
I think it happens less in Mumbai. We don't let that happen. What happens if it happened?
Rider is terminated. So if I ever tweet on Twitter
or post something on Insta I get many comments.
Sir, please reactivate my ID. They are all caught due to fraud. It's 98% accurate.
2% of the times, we're at fault
by putting them in a box
where they shouldn't be put. Did you anticipate there would be
such a problem in food delivery? It happened since Day 1.
-Is it?
You knew this was going to happen.
-Yes. It happens more in India. In which cities is it happening?
It happens every where. It happened everywhere.
Does it happen in Mumbai and Delhi too? Mumbai and Bangalore too?
-It happens everywhere.
Ok. What is their mentality? Whether they want to make money
or have food?
Or just want to have fun? They think no one will know.
This is an app. Generally new riders do this.
Around 20 to 30 thousand new riders
join every month. A small percentage out of them think
this is just an app. How will they know? But eventually we get to know
about it.
This is f****** question.
Sorry for the language. How does Zomato make money
from one delivery? There are some customer charges.
And we get commission from restaurants
because they're getting orders. In a way this is a marketing fee
for them. We must pay the rider.
So some money is coming in,
some money is going out. The whole goal is that the money coming in
must be more than the money going out. If a customer spends Rs. 100
on Zomato.
On food or on delivery charges? Let's say total spend of
customer is Rs. 200. We don't make money
on the order of Rs 200.
Ok What about thousand? We make a decent money on
thousand rupees. -How much?
At thousand Let's come to three hundred.
That's the average. Depending on the city the average
is around 300 to 400.
Let's consider four hundred as the
average value. So our blended commission
comes upto Rs. 80. Blended commission is around 20%.
It's lesser than 20%. Must be
somewhere around 17-18%. Let's consider Rs. 80. And customer
delivery charges are Rs 20-25. So the revenue is around Rs. 100.
There's nothing else. And cost of delivery is around Rs 50-60-70
depending on the city and distance. If the distance is more cost is more.
If it is less cost is less.
Then customer support charges.
If you chat, the cost of the agent. Payment Gateway fee. If you didn't like the food then a
refund has to be made.
Ok. How do you give
such big discounts sometimes? The discounts are very less.
They were given initially. It was less before too.
Just feels like they were more. 50% off upto 80.
It's not 50%. It's Rs.80 off.
Order is worth 400. It's just 20%.
Isn't it? Nice.
-I want to change it, but I don't call this discounting honest.
If you're telling something to your
customer, it should be honest. It should be Rs. 80 off. It should'nt
be 50% off up to Rs. 80. If the competition continues like this,
I will not be able to change.
Because you are saying
on the internet people's brand trust on Zomato
is increasing. Because the founder is saying
things openly.
Are you aware of that?
-I don't know. Ok. You are very unprocessed. You just say it.
I like it.
This is what the audience also likes.
-I'm like this since childhood. If I want to talk a little more about
orders, You're roughly making Rs. 80-100 per order
and with scale across the country.
That's revenue. From that the rider... All the cost is taken away. Hardly you
make Rs 5-10. -Profits.
Five to ten rupees across the country. Not even Rs. 5. There are fixed costs of entire team, the entire
tech, server cost, and rest of stuff.
It is difficult to make
one to two rupees. -Wow. But at scale. From the core profit of Rs. 1 or 2,
how have you become profitable?
When we started making this Rs. 1 to 2,
we became profitable. Really? Because the scale and the
orders are very big.
Initially our costs were
more than revenue. When this balance tipped
we became profitable. Is this the long term
VC money game?
Like taking VC money... I don't know VC money, but businesses like
ours have fixed costs which is quite high. Fixed cost is the engineering team's cost.
Product Managers, Ops. team etc. Now the cost of fixed team will
be the same whether my business is 1/3rd size or
if it is 10X size. This will remain same.
If I check the team's cost per order when my orders increase,
the cost per order of the team will fall. And it is a heavy cost.
It's not easy.
If my scale becomes 10X,
then my cost per order reduces. So if I don't move anything and the
revenue also remained the same. And the rest of my costs remain same and I
scale up, my profitability increases.
Is this the reason you're expanding
in other countries? We're not expanding to more countries.
We're India only business. But you purchased some businesses.
I did earlier, they were all closed down
during COVID. Oh ok. How did that feel?
Bad
-Bad. How do you deal with that? How much money was spent
on them?
That's the mental health.
-It's done now. Can't look back. Sunk cost.
Coming back to India. Just by being a YouTuber.
I am just making content. I have a little silo of my audience.
It's a big silo. But it's not very big. May be 20-25 million, as compared to
billions of Indians.
And yet I feel, I've got a
sample size. We get the data. So I can see a little bit of the future
with that data.
Ok. Do you feel the same about Zomato because you're serving so many people
all over India.
Have you learnt something about cities,
small towns? I think people are making more money.
India is developing very fast. I'm excited about India.
Ok. Very optimistic. I don't even want to go out of India
and expand this business.
There's so much in India
for the next decade. If hundred percent is saturation point,
then how far have you reached now? Not us, India might have reached up to 10.
India has reached ten.
Is it potential wise? -Potential. I think India will become next economic
super power in the next 10-20 years. Like China and US scale.
I can feel it.
Spending power will increase.
-Yes. and people will be able to eat better. Food is one of the things.
For ex- There is Blinkit also.
There's Hyperpure too.
We've multiple things. You've to just focus on India
and scale up here. Our goal now is to focus on
India and Indians.
I'm assuming in phase one you targeted
metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc. Right. 900 cities. I would like to know about
the 900 cities.
Can you name some of those 800-900 cities? I don't know.
-The smallest towns My home town Muktsar is also one of them.
If I'm not wrong, it is a 956th
city by population. Do people spend there also?
-Absolutely. What have you learnt about those cities?
Zomato's use case there is unique
because they don't have many things
to spend on. What? -How will you go to watch a
movie? There are no shopping malls.
If you have money, you want entertainment
or something new in your life. Now, at this point, September 2023, What is Zomato's challenge?
I think growth and profit. That's kind of external. Internally we focus on team quality and I
think that's my big area of work now.
I act a lot like HR these days. The scale at which you are working, you
must care about culture much more than... As I said, right people
at the right places
and they are working on right problems
then we're sorted. I've to make sure, we're the right people,
they've been trained and coached well. So, that's about it.
Is this easier than your previous
business phases? That you're focusing on HR now? I think
this is a phase in life
where I am able to do it. I don't know whether this phase will last. Tell us about your three-four
biggest mistakes in short.
Not specifics, but general learnings
from those mistakes. For your entrepreneurs. I have one big thing.
In 2013-14-15,
we did a lot of international expansions. At that time, I felt India is small.
India does not have a market size. Let's go international.
I should have focused on India,
stayed in India. Power of focus? Is the learning power of focus here
or to focus on India?
Focus on India. I think right now there are lot of start ups
who want to go international.
My advice to them is to stay in India
and chill. Why? Every market is different.
Regulations, people you work with,
culture will change with every country. The culture with which
you are working in India, it's not the same in Middle East,
the US or Europe.
If you go to multiple countries, it
becomes harder to run an organization. Compliance, legal bills,
regulations are complex. People say that the market
size of India is not big.
That's why they want to go outside. I tell them if not today,
after ten years it will be too much. And like me, we closed
all the international markets.
You will too. You say that India has 90% of your
business. Why should I spend 50% of my time
for 10% business?
Doesn't work. Isn't it? We shut down international when
India was hitting 93% of our revenue.
But so much effort was going into it. I didn't have time to talk to
Country Manager of Australia over phone. Why do it?
You're just one percent.
It was prudent to shut it down.
-Ok. What was your growth mentality
before expansion? You wanted growth?
-Scale.
You wanted to hit the ball. There should be some ball to hit. If you were 22 years old today and you
want to enter into startups
Would you do something like
Zomato style again? It's a very hypothetical question. But if you were a young
entrepreneur today
which type of business would
you do in India? I don't know. It doesn't matter
if I am 22 or some other age. If I had a brilliant idea, I'd have chased
within Zomato even today!
Ok. If someone snatched
everything from you today. and left you a bare minimum.
Then what would you do? Start again. Start Zomato again?
No, start something new. What new would you like to start?
I don't know. You'll take time off to learn.
-Yeah.
How'd you learn? Wander. Travel?
No, wander mentally. Do you do mental wandering? How?
-Yes. I'd read. Reading is my thing.
What do you read? Random books.
-Ok. Really? About? -Chemistry, Physics, Biotech.
I read everything.
Just like that?
-Yes. To exercise the mind? Which is the best book you read?
There's nothing like that.
-Which was the most impactful book? Which was the most impactful book? I should have the answer to this,
but I don't have it.
What's the book you gift the most? Nowadays I gift culture. Apart from your book.
The Art of Thinking Clearly is
what I gifted the most, outside of that. First principles thinking based. I'm assuming.
-Human biases.
How to read your own mind? Tell me a little. Humans have a lot of biases.
We're not rational.
We take a lot of
emotional and stupid calls. I think there are around 70-80-100
heuristics in that. So if you can internalize them,
you can take better calls and decisions.
Why do you read chemistry books? I think it's all the same.
It's all first principles thinking. Chemistry also teaches you
a lot of things.
Physics also teaches you
a lot of things. That you can apply on Zomato? You can.
You could at some point in time.
I don't know how. Basically you're saying learn something,
you never know when it will be useful. Atleast you'll become smart.
-When you need something, you don't know
what should be the solution to
this, what should I learn to solve this? Life is not that easy. More the information you download into
your brain, you're able to use it sometime
Constant learning process is
necessary for business career. I don't know.
-For you? I operate like that.
Ok, next time I'll ask
you chemistry questions. Deepinder Goyal, thank you.
It was fun talking to you. Thank you, Sir.
-Lots of love, lots of good wishes.
Reign India. What's going to happen in India
in the next ten years, let a lot of this money reach you
and Zomato delivery partners.
Thank you, Sir. Appreciate your time.
Thank you so much. So this was today's episode. I like
business conversations very much. But we do very few business conversations
because
honestly, we don't get views
on business conversations. So you tell me
from business perspective which business legend
would you like to see on TRS?
Send guest recommendations
and keep following TRS.
Heads up!
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