Video

On Starting and Scaling Meesho

Vidit Aatrey · Y Combinator Startup Library Free Intermediate India

Meesho's co-founder describes how the company's first idea (a hyperlocal shop-discovery app) failed and how the real business came from noticing women already reselling on WhatsApp in small towns. It's a direct, first-person account of pivoting on what customers were already doing rather than what the founders had planned to build.

  • A failed first product can still hand you the real insight, if you watch what users do instead of what they asked for.
  • Meesho's model came from observing existing WhatsApp reselling behavior, not from a customer survey.
  • Building for Tier 2 and Tier 3 India meant designing around cash on delivery and regional language, not copying metro e-commerce.
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The question it answers

  1. How do I run customer discovery as an Indian founder building for Indian users?

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