Article · Short read (about 8 min)

I'm Proud That At Zerodha We Don't Have Growth Targets

Nithin Kamath (interviewed by Forbes India) · Forbes India Free Beginner India

The founder who built a profitable, bootstrapped Indian giant to over a crore customers with zero venture funding and zero marketing says out loud that he never set targets for users, revenue, or profit. His metric is simply 'get better each day in some form' over a 5 to 10 year horizon. It is the sharpest local proof that raising huge rounds is one path, not the scoreboard, and that an Anywhere Founder can quietly run their own race and win.

  • A crore-plus customers reached with no funding and no advertising: the biggest number on your feed is not the only way to build something real
  • Kamath's chosen metric is daily improvement over a 5 to 10 year horizon, not quarterly or fundraising milestones, which frees him from the pressure treadmill
  • Doing right by the customer every day, and trusting it compounds, beats chasing predetermined growth benchmarks set to impress outsiders
Open on forbesindia.com ↗

It answers 3 questions

  1. Everyone around me is raising huge rounds and posting wins on LinkedIn. How do I run my own race without spiraling?
  2. How do I make peace with the constant uncertainty and stop needing to know how it all ends?
  3. How do I decide what to ignore, not just prioritize, when everything genuinely looks important?

Read with it

  1. Graham surveyed 100+ founders on what surprised them most about starting up, an honest, de-romanticized picture of the... paulgraham.com Article · medium What Startups Are Really Like Paul Graham
  2. This is the practical answer to 'define your own two or three metrics.' Tabb splits numbers into vanity metrics (downloads,... First Round Review Article · Medium read (about 15 min) I'm Sorry, But Those Are Vanity Metrics Lloyd Tabb (via First Round Review)
  3. Graham's answer to "how do I plan when I can't know what's coming" is to stop treating the future as knowable at all. He argues... paulgraham.com Essay · ~10 min read How to Be an Expert in a Changing World Paul Graham
  4. This is the framework for acting decisively without certainty. Duke, a former pro poker player, teaches founders to judge the... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read The Tactical Guide to Making Better Decisions When Starting and Scaling Companies Annie Duke (via First Round Review)
  5. This is the cleanest statement of the exact skill you are missing: not ranking your list, but killing most of it. Sivers' rule... sive.rs Essay · 3 min read If you're not feeling 'hell yeah!' then say no Derek Sivers
  6. This is the operating manual for the cut you are avoiding. Pick the single number that defines this stage, over-focus on it... Lean Analytics Article · 10 min read The One Metric That Matters (OMTM) Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →