My board knows we run a clean ship: Deepinder Goyal
Deepinder Goyal on his chemistry with Blinkit founder Albinder Dhindsa and trigger to invest in the company, the heady IPO success and how and what has changed in him as a founder
Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO, Zomato
On the investment in Blinkit
We are a minority financial investor. We (Albinder Dhindsa and I) have known each other for 20-something years. He left Zomato long ago and we have a professional relationship. Nothing more, nothing less. My conscience has to be clear. And as long as that’s clear, nothing matters. People are going to say what they’re going to say. India is a trust-deficit market. As long as my board knows what is happening, it is fine. I am good. I’m basically answerable to my board. My board knows that we run a very clean ship. That’s all that matters.
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There are a lot of companies across the world that are finding a great product-market fit in quick commerce. So that’s where and when we started digging: Why does it make sense? Why is this going so fast? What do customers like about it so much? What is the use case? How is it different from next-day use case?
On making money in grocery
It’s only until someone does it... there has to be somebody who does it one fine day. It may not be us, but there is always a first time. Four years ago, we used to hear that food delivery will never make money; now it does.
On what has changed in him as a founder
I don’t know. I think I’m still the same person. My motivation stays the same. My behaviour stays the same. I think my tolerance for bullshit has gone up. I used to expect everybody to work at my pace or at a pace higher than mine. I know that’s not true.
On allegations of charging a high commission
Aggregators are responsible for the growth of the sector. We have invested billions of dollars into this. There are going to be people who only look at the margins and don’t look at the net dollars being made. A lot of people don’t understand that if the business grows 5x at the cost of hurting the margin by 20 percent, it’s actually a big thing. It’s a good thing.
On success and hunger
I don’t think of success. I don’t have a definition. I don’t consider myself as a successful founder. I think dissatisfaction drives me. And if there is something that drives me, I want to stick to it.
On competition & rivalry
Earlier, competition was a bad and scary word. Now, it’s a good [word]. We know how to manage our psychology when it comes to competition
On people writing him off
I think there are still a lot of people who write us off. If I start paying too much attention or become too serious about people writing you off, there is no forward motion or momentum left in life. So it’s cool.
On loss-making & IPOs
There are some businesses that have to go through a loss cycle. They have to get scale, only then they start making a profit. Food delivery is one such business. A lot of people and investors see that, and a lot don’t. There are always two camps. And both are right in their own ways.
On resilience & rebounding
We’ve seen insanely tough times during Covid. So there is enough resilience. And it doesn’t come from having all the answers. It comes from the confidence that we’ll figure out the right answers. I know they’re not always easy to find. But if you dig hard enough, they’re there.
