1/ Be like an elephant that runs like a cheetah. ~ @Nithin0dha (Notes from conversations with @SharmaShradha) @zerodhaonline @ZerodhaVarsity @YourStoryCo
2/ Karma plays out much faster in the social media world. What goes around comes around. ♻️
3/ Build a business with trust and it will grow with referrals. (No need of SEM & SEO). You don’t need a lot of money if you don’t advertise.
4/ Have a moat. It can be deep pockets or being competent. Or both. 💪🏼
5/ With money comes obligation. Choose not to take in money if possible. 💰
6/ It hard to build a business based on money without trust.
7/ Cold calling and sales skills are important. Rejection builds character. 📞
8/ Don’t hire IIT or IIM people. Lol. (No he didn’t really say that).
9/ Passion and love for product means nothing if users don’t use it. 💔
10/ Raising funds doesn’t mean that you can get users. (Or retaining users). Be the first user for your own product. Build what you need for yourself.
11/ (Side Note: is Nithin an INTJ? looks like an architect.)
12/ Give yourself a runway to make things work but also have a stop loss and know when to exit. 🛫
13/ Be an eternal optimist but also have a partner that gives you a reality check. 🌟
14/ Non tech guys shouldn’t interfere with the tech guys. Let them do what they do. Trust them on their process.
15/ Experiment with a lot of product features and kill the ones that don’t. Everything is a hypothesis that can be proved right or wrong. There is no perfect product. (Test features in the market lab, not the mind lab.) 🧪
16/ Not having investors gives flexibility to experiment and iterate fast with features (sometimes also leads to trending on Twitter for the wrong reasons). No board meetings - an edge!
17/ Indian masses don’t have the maturity to handle the volatility of the market. Wealth management is a huge opportunity in India. Banks will not lend easily so savings / FD won’t be a good vehicle for Indians.
18/ Zerodha doesn’t do marketing / PR / Advertising because no one wakes up one day and decides to invest. It is usually influenced by friends / personal network.
19/ The customer should want you more (the business) than you wanting the customer. Marketing won’t give real customers. Marketing makes you needy. Basically be the “Alpha” in the business-customer relationship). 🤯 #ffkk!!
20/ Low cost = low quality is the general perception. Justify low cost by saying that we don’t spend money on marketing. (Which is a branding in itself). Word of mouth is the best way to market. (Very very Tesla-ish!).
21/ A flashy front page ad on a newspaper will disconnect existing customers who believed in the story of what Zerodha stands for.
22/ India is a country with a lot of numbers that don’t matter. Markets are shallow. Tax filing Indians are just 5 crores. Out of which 2 crore invest in equity markets. Which is not a bad number.
23/ Zerodha has a runway of another 6-7 years 🤯 👏🏼 (Money is not a motivator for Nithin). Do best for customers, team, self. Money becomes a distraction. Chase money and it runs away from you.
24/ One of the things Zerodha has never done is give stock tips / advice. Problem with advice is that people don’t follow it. (Protection against bad word of mouth).
25/ Nithin takes climate change seriously. RainMatter invests in startups working on climate change. 👏🏼 🌳 ☀️ Thank you guys. Amazing conversation. @Nithin0dha @zerodhaonline @SharmaShradha
