By the numbers
- Starting investment
- ₹40,000
- Time to first sale
- 3 weeks
- Revenue today
- ₹500 crore a year
- Team size
- 2,000+
- Biggest mistake
- Discounting early to win customers; it took two years to undo
Key takeaways
- Started with ₹40,000 borrowed money in a 200 sq ft shop
- Reinvested nearly all profit for the first eight years
- Now sells in 900+ cities with 2,000+ employees
In 2009, a twenty-three-year-old walked into a rented 200 square foot shop with ₹40,000 in borrowed money and a notebook of ideas. Nobody in his family had ever run a business. Banks refused him a loan. Suppliers asked for cash upfront.
Fifteen years later, the same brand sells in over 900 cities, employs more than 2,000 people and closed the last financial year at ₹500 crore in revenue. The founder still carries the same notebook.
The idea nobody wanted to fund
"Every investor told me the same thing: the market is crowded, you are too small," he recalls. "I stopped pitching and started selling. Customers, unlike investors, always said yes or no in five minutes."
Capital is a result of trust. Trust is a result of delivering when nobody is watching.
That philosophy shaped every decision that followed. The company reinvested nearly all profit for its first eight years, resisted discounting, and built a loyal customer base through word of mouth.
Three lessons for first-time founders
First, sell before you build. Second, hire for attitude and train for skill. Third, treat marketing as the engine of the business, not an expense line.