Shiprocket - Enabling Ecommerce in India - [Return on India, EP.03]

Today, we are running a bonus Business Breakdown borrowed from the newest Colossus series, Return on India. Saahil Goel, founder of Shiprocket, joins Romeen Sheth to break down the business. If you enjoy this episode and would like to learn more about the Indian business landscape, subscribe to Return on India.

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My guest today is Saahil Goel, founder and CEO of Shiprocket. Over the last decade, a number of startups that have reached escape velocity in India have followed the X for Y startup model. They've taken influence from something that works in the US and western markets and applied it to India. The next generation of winners will build Native India use cases, and Shiprocket is a perfect example. The business started out as Shopify for India and eventually pivoted to an e-commerce logistics aggregator when they realized the underlying infrastructure that made Shopify successful in the west didn't exist in India.

Fast forward, and Shiprocket is one of the fastest-growing and most well-positioned technology companies in India today. We unpack how to build for India, from India, how to capture value from India's long tail merchant segment, which is over 60 million businesses, and the common headline pitfalls investors fall into when evaluating startups in India. Please enjoy my conversation with Saahil Goel.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Return On India is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Return On India, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

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Show Notes

[00:02:47] - [First question] - The first iteration of Shiprocket back in 2012 called KartRocket

[00:08:26] - What drove the pivot from KartRocket to Shiprocket

[00:12:13] - Examples of why US eCommerce models just don’t take off in India 

[00:19:28] - The challenges of building businesses for consumers outside of India

[00:25:54] - Courrier aggregation and capturing value in this type of business model 

[00:31:22] - Why the large pre-existing couriers aren’t attacking this space successfully 

[00:34:35] - Unpacking what RTO is and its scale and challenges specifically in India 

[00:39:56] - How software and intelligence drives the ability to know the consumer in a way that larger infrastructure and couriers can’t in India 

[00:43:31] - Similarities between the rise of Shiprocket and the prior evolution of the Chinese eCommerce and tech ecosystems   

[00:46:59] - The next pieces that need to be built for Shiprocket for them to continue growing and succeeding at the rate they are

[00:53:07] - The tension of vertical integration without building out capital-intensive infrastructure 

[00:55:53] - Thoughts about the opportunity set for India going forward