Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto, analyzes the psychological headwinds facing Indian founders and investors following the global venture capital reset in 2022–2023.
Insight
Palicha: 10-Minute Delivery Has Better Economics Than 2-to-4-Hour Models
“The insight was, yes, let's do 10 minute delivery, but also let's build out the full stack of commerce where we're able to run the logistics, we're able to Have a much better sense and selection on quality control and sort of that audacious thinking Put us in …”
Insight
Palicha: 10-minute delivery in India is a necessity, not just convenience
“Now, obviously at scale, the insight is that it's not just important because people are used to it, but it's just, it's a necessity because you've got a lot smaller household sizes in India. You've got a low penetration of four wheelers. You've got much more p…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Palicha: 70% of Zepto markets profitable, mature markets at 4-5% EBITDA
“70% of our markets are profitable. The most mature markets are touching four to five percent EBITDA.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Palicha: Zepto can easily reach $20B to $30B in top-line revenue
“We've got an opportunity to build, you know, the largest, you know, grocery player in India, which it's, is a seven hundred billion dollar market, right? And so if I'm in that position, we can easily build 20, 25, thirty billion of top line,”
Opinion
Palicha: Radical candor is rare in the Indian startup ecosystem
“The push basically came from a lot of just like radical candor, right? And I think that you don't really find a lot of that, you know, candidly in, in India so far, which is why obviously YC was as valuable as it was”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Palicha: Zepto scaled to a $200M run rate in six months
“We went from basically, like, close to zero in scale to, like, two hundred million in, in run rate scale in, like, six months, right?”