Someone on Reddit asked what does Zerodha do differently, how are we profitable, why don't IPO etc. This is what I replied:
Hmmm... so you forget that we have spent 15 years getting here. And maybe another 10 years, before Zerodha, I was involved in the markets in some form. So, 25 years in all. Things in business compound over time, especially if you like or love what you are doing and if you are lucky to be in the right place and time.
When we started Zerodha, we started off as a partnership firm because the exchange deposit requirement was lower, Rs 90 lks compared to Rs 1.5 cr. The start was mainly enabled thanks to the NSE Now trading platform, which came free of cost if you were an NSE broker. For the backoffice piece, sending contract notes, maintaining ledgers, etc., we signed up with a vendor who basically gave it at almost 0 cost. This was provided that we tested out his platform.
So the money we have spent on Zerodha is maybe ~Rs 10lks, and that is all the money that has gone into the business till date. Rs 2.5 lks for our website, Rs 5lks for our office interiors (we had an office before), and Rs 2.5 lks for miscellaneous. So, we came from an extremely middle-class background and had no rich uncles. 😀 Dad was a bank manager, and Mom taught Veena.
Our rise coincides with India's rise. We were present at the right place and time with the right products and initiatives. Any gyan any founder gives, eventually comes down to getting timing right, and this has got everything to do with luck. 😀 I was just reading about Jensen Huang from Nvidia, he survived in the business for 30 years until he hit the right place and time. For a long time, people might have questioned what he was doing until very recently. 😀
Now that there is no pressure to give any exit to any investor, we can continue doing what is right for the customer, sometimes even at the cost of the business. For example, our no spam or no tracking policy. I believe that the philosophy with which we run Zerodha will be our real moat as a business. It is very tough to stick to it as a public company.
I don't know why I love this man. Might be due to his honesty, humbleness and keeps customers problems as more priority than money. Money is a byproduct of every problem that you solve. Zerodha varsity, daily brief, Chatter all you do is to educate the people with zero fee which in turn bring more awareness about capital markets to people which in turn improves every one's networth with proper investment decisions. Kudos to you Nithin and more power to you brother. 🙏🙏🙂
ZERODHA is an amazing platform to explore Equities and Investments. The concept of 🧺 Basket buying is cool and the narrative by Shri Nithin Kamath is adorable. Indeed 😊 "👍 Luck is when Preparation meets Opportunity 🤞 😊".