Essay · 6 min read

Why 'a nice place to work' doesn't just happen

Nithin Kamath · Nithin Kamath (Zerodha) on Substack Free Intermediate India

India's most respected bootstrapped founder admits that until 2019 he was answering email at 3 AM, staying late, and working weekends, and then consciously rewired his own habits: going home early, dumping stray thoughts into Google Keep instead of firing off a 3 AM email to the team. It is the rare Indian founder writing honestly about defending his own pace, and it proves the point that structure is something you impose on yourself, not something the always-on default gives you.

  • Kamath ran on a 3 AM-email, weekends-at-the-office pattern for years before recognizing it as a real burnout risk and stopping it deliberately.
  • His concrete fix: capture stray thoughts in a note (Google Keep) instead of interrupting yourself and others in real time. A simple, copyable batching habit.
  • The pace you set is the pace everyone copies; as a solo founder that is only you, so changing your own habits is the whole intervention.
Open on nithinkamath.substack.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I manage my own time and priorities with no boss, no team, and everything on fire at once?

Read with it

  1. The essay that explains why one badly-placed meeting can destroy a founder's entire day of building, and what to do about it.... paulgraham.com Article · short Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule Paul Graham
  2. This is a founder who ran Gumroad down to literally one person (himself) after raising 8 million dollars, and talks candidly... Indie Hackers Podcast · 1 hr listen From Aspiring Billionaire to Indie Hacker with Sahil Lavingia of Gumroad Sahil Lavingia (with Courtland Allen)
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