Kunal Shah on winning in India, second-order thinking, the philosophy of startups, and more

Kunal Shah is one of the most well-known and admired product leaders in India. He is the CEO and founder of CRED, an Indian-based fintech startup valued at over $6 billion. Prior to CRED, he founded three other startups, including Freecharge, which he sold for over $400 million to Snapdeal. He has also been an advisor to India’s most influential organizations. In our conversation, we discuss:

• The prevalence of successful Indian immigrants in top CEO roles across the tech industry

• Why companies in India can grow DAUs but not ARPU—and what that means for building products for India

• What most sets India’s market apart

• Challenges and opportunities in the Indian market

• The Delta 4 framework for building new products

• Lessons from building CRED so far

• The power of curiosity and second-order thinking

• Lessons from failure

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Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kunal-shah-on-winning-in-india-second

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Where to find Kunal Shah:

• X: https://twitter.com/kunalb11

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunalshah1/

• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@CRED_club

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Kunal’s background

(04:22) The Delta 4 framework

(11:00) The success of Indian CEOs in the U.S.

(19:55) Challenges and opportunities in India

(23:04) DAUs vs. ARPU in Indian markets

(25:50) The perception of time in India

(27:55) The curse of focus in Asian markets

(30:33) Challenges and opportunities in India (continued)

(33:23) Lessons learned from building CRED

(36:40) Profit pools can provide valuable insights into the values of a country

(37:55) Founders’ role in company growth

(39:55) Profitability and Indian business culture

(43:24) Advice for staying positive amid criticism

(44:41) The promising market in India

(47:35) The power of curiosity

(52:59) Who Kunal looks up to

(55:31) Kunal’s favorite sources of content

(58:42) Asking great questions

(01:02:54) Contrarian corner: Wealth is nothing but storage of energy

(01:05:26) Failure corner

(01:08:57) Closing thoughts: Share your learnings

(01:09:38) Lightning round

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.