Aadit Palicha has nothing but praise for Indian talent. The Mumbai-based CEO of Zepto recently sat down for a conversation with his counterpart at Y Combinator, where he delved into everything from his startup’s beginnings to the transforming quick commerce space in India. When Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan asked him about the unique advantages and challenges of building a startup in India, Palicha highlighted the country’s talent pool, counting it as a big advantage in his entrepreneurial journey.
Zepto was launched by Stanford computer science dropouts Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra in 2021. What began as an idea in a WhatsApp group is today one of India’s most popular grocery delivery apps that has over 3,000 corporate employees.
He acknowledged that it would have been unlikely for him to recruit the same level of talent in San Francisco as he had been able to in India.
“So the big advantage is you just have such an incredible talent base. And although it’s very competitive, it’s still a lot less competitive to get such high quality talent than it would be sitting in San Francisco,” said Palicha.
As one of India’s fastest growing startups, can Zepto be called a success? Not according to its CEO.
“No, absolutely not. Not even close to it,” Palicha told Y Combinator’s Garry Tan when asked if Zepto is a success. “I think we’ve got couple of decades before we can realistically say that we’ve won.”
Benefits of building in India
Talking about the benefit of building a startup in India, Palicha said: “I think the advantage is that the talent is incredible. I initially didn’t realise this deeply, but you know we interviewed American engineers – and they’re exceptional – but we said hey, the guys that we have here are as good.”
“I think a lot of people underestimate that. That’s why you know a lot of great internet startups set up offices in Bangalore and hire people there,” the Zepto co-founder told Tan on YC’s How To Build The Future podcast.
