Aadit Palicha: Passion for profit drives Zepto’s $5 billion success: Founder Aadit Palicha

A passion for building a transformative company, rather than the mere pursuit of wealth, is what drove the success of Zepto, the company with a $5 billion market valuation, co-founder and CEO. Aadit Palicha he said Monday. Speaking at the NDTV World Summit, the 22-year-old businessman said that despite working 80 to 100 hours a week, the Zepto The team is driven by enthusiasm for the platform they are building, not financial gains.

“We love what we’re building, we work like crazy, we’re really excited about what we’re building. It’s not really about money or personal wealth, because frankly, working 80 to 100 hours a week, we could have done it.” He probably worked half as much with a lot less stress…

“At a certain point, money becomes inconsequential,” said Palicha, who dropped out of Stanford University.

He noted that while many global internet companies have reached valuations in the tens of billions, India is yet to see similar results.

Highlighting the stark contrast between India’s startup landscape and that of cities like Shanghai, which currently boasts a larger market capitalization, he said he believes Zepto has the potential to change this narrative and aims to create an Internet company of world class that generates significant cash flow and adds immense value to the startup ecosystem.

“We think we have an opportunity to really build an interesting company, and if we do that, we will add an enormous amount of value, not only for shareholders, the capital markets, but also for the startup ecosystem in general,” he said.

Going further, he said the fast commerce unicorn is working to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in its search and customer service functionalities to provide a personalized user experience to its customers. “Search is one of the most important things we focus on. How can I, by looking at your search history, personalize the results so that you get relevant products? If you sit in Defense Colony versus if you sit in West Delhi, or If you have an iPhone and you have an Oppo phone, there is a difference in what you want to see, right?

“If you’ve looked at feminine hygiene products, that means you’re probably a female customer, so maybe we can push products that are more relevant to you,” she said, adding that the firm is constantly leveraging that relevance to make the experience better. of user purchase.

Palicha said this will add real value for customers.

“As we speak, we are working on a generative AI solution for customer service. Instead of waiting 30-45 seconds for a human to respond to you, why don’t you (the customer) wait two seconds and then a “The generative AI chatbot will respond to you and do a better job candidly than even a human could do in that format,” he added.