Minus One From -1 to Meesho | Before the IPO | How Vidit Aatrey & Sanjeev Barnwal Built for Bharat
Dec 23, 2025
Vidit Aatrey, Co-founder and CEO of Meesho, shares his entrepreneurial journey through the challenges of building an e-commerce platform for Bharat. He discusses the importance of early team culture, innovative product experiments, and the pivot to social commerce that led to their success. Vidit also delves into the impact of Jio and COVID on user behavior, the significance of customer trust, and the exciting role of AI in enhancing their services. With insights on serving Indian consumers, he reflects on the lessons learned and future prospects for Meesho.
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Near-Death Runway Built Resilience
- Vidit recounts nearly running out of payroll cash multiple times in Meesho's first two years and funding operations via side businesses.
- That scarcity shaped his conservatism and the team's character, teaching practical resilience.
Hire Ex-Founders To Get Founder Mentality
- Seven or eight of Meesho's first ten hires were ex-entrepreneurs who had recently failed and joined on low pay.
- Vidit says this founder-DNA hiring choice created extreme ownership and willingness to grind hard.
Unpaid Internships For Empathy
- Meesho sends every new hire, senior or junior, to spend 3–4 days as an unpaid intern with merchants to solve at least one problem.
- This ritual forces empathy and ensures product decisions reflect real merchant pain points.