Vidit Aatrey
Co-founder and CEO, Meesho · 1 appearance on the record.
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founderexecutiveinvestor@viditaatrey ↗LinkedIn ↗meesho.com ↗
Vidit Aatrey is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Meesho, which he founded in 2015. He previously worked at ITC and InMobi before scaling the e-commerce company through Y Combinator.
30statements → 17claims → 6claims resolved → 67%fully supported → 3.9/5average certainty → 1.77/5average debate potential →
4 supported 1 partly supported 1 contradicted 11 not checkable as stated how the 17 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
2 predictions · 15 assertions · 1 opinion · 10 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 17 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, and 11 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Vidit argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Everything Vidit Aatrey said on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Aatrey: Meesho solves trust deficit via community social sellers
“What we end up using is we leverage trust of people in your own community who come and start these social stores and then start selling to people around them, especially in unbranded products where you have no idea what will happen to this product after a mont…”
Endlessly scaling customer support indicates underlying product flaws
“If, for example, if you keep scaling customer support, if you need customer support, that means there's something wrong with the product, right? So you have to go back to the drawing board and understand why are people calling me, right? And then you start opt…”
Facebook will fail if it attempts hands-on commerce operations
“Even if they start doing, it'll have to stop at some time, because this is one of the few things that are going to happen on WhatsApp. It's not the only thing that's going to happen.”
Aatrey: First-time founders err by letting VCs dictate product direction
“It's the biggest mistake most first-time founders do, right? They think, hey, they are going to fund us. Like, if you just listen to them, things are not going to work out. But it's never the case. You have to believe in what you're doing.”
Aatrey: Most Indian startups will build for Tier 2 and 3 audiences
“Especially, I think for the next 10 years, most products that we built in India will be built for tier two, tier three audiences. Right? And most of these people who will be building startups will come from Metro, will come from IITs. And they will not be them…”
Aatrey: Western-inspired products cannot work for Tier 2–4 Indian users
“They don't behave in the same way as Western users do. So you can't get the same in Western inspired product into India and get, make it work for them.”
Aatrey: Almost all Meesho users became entrepreneurs through the platform
“Almost everyone who is using our app today has become an entrepreneur because of us. They were not doing this offline, like almost everyone.”
Aatrey: Major Indian marketplaces have not solved selling unbranded goods
“If you see like all big destination marketplaces in India today, mostly sell brands across all categories. None of them have figured out how to sell a lot of unbranded products.”
Aatrey: Tier 2 and Tier 3 Indian consumers buy mostly unbranded products
“And these people were buying mostly unbranded products because they're monthly income is generally much lower than metros. They can't afford brands. They tend to buy more and more unbranded products.”
Aatrey: Indian consumers have embraced online fashion commerce
“Like about 10 years ago, everyone in India thought that no one could buy a fashion online. You want to touch and feel the product. Which is not the case anymore, because everyone has tried it, people are okay with easy returns, and they are buying again and ag…”
90% of Meesho users are women and 80% live in smaller cities
“90% of our users are women, and more than 80% of our users are tier two and tier three in below cities”
Aatrey: Meesho sets up supply chain from China for cross-border sourcing
“Now we have even set up a supply chain from China.”
Aatrey: Platform Giants Like Tencent Cannot Build Every Use Case
“If you look at, for example, China, like Tencent invests in so many use cases that are happening on WeChat, because they can't do everything themselves. It's impossible. And it's not in their DNA as well, right?”
Aatrey: In fashion retail, product selection matters far more than fulfillment speed
“In fashion fulfillment is like the third thing that is most important. The first thing is selection, which you can never have around you.”
Aatrey: Second best startup idea solves problems for people who cannot
“The best thing to do is build a product that solves your own problem. The second best thing to do is build a product that solves problem for someone who can't solve their own problem.”
Meesho hired its first product manager after its Series A round
“Ah, we hired our first product manager after we did our series A. And we hired our second product manager after we did our series B.”
Phone support builds trust in India because users trust individuals over companies
“We have seen if you speak to a user on phone, suddenly the trust level goes up. Because they think they're speaking to a person, not a company. And they trust a person more than a company.”
Aatrey: ShareChat is among few startups truly built for Tier 2/3 India
“ShareChat because they're one of the few other companies who have built a product for India, right? Building out for the tier two, tier three, like a lot of people are coming and spending all their time in ShareChat.”
Aatrey: Most Indian unicorn founders graduated from IIT Delhi
“If you see most of Unicorn founders in India are from IT Delhi, you look at Flipkart, Zomato, and a lot more, right?”
Meesho has nearly 500,000 monthly active social store owners
“What has happened over the last three years is now we have close to half a million monthly active such social store owners who are making some income per month.”
Vidit Aatrey: 90% of Indian commerce occurs in mom-and-pop stores
“90% of total commerce happens in these small mom and pop stores.”
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Vidit Aatrey on Building Meesho, India's Top Reselling Platform, with Adora Cheung · Y Com | May 22, 2019 | 36m |