My guest today is Nithin Kamath, founder and CEO of Zerodha. The last 10 years in the Indian startup ecosystem have been flushed with venture capital, especially from the West. The country, understandably, has hit an inflection point and capital allocators are bullish on the potential to build world-scale businesses in India today. One of the most fascinating businesses in India that's not as talked about and has taken no outside investor capital is Zerodha - India's largest stockbroker. Its scale is staggering. Today the company is 13 years old, has over 11 million users, and last year did over 250 million in profit. It's a story of building the right way and for the long term. I was thrilled to chat with Nithin today to explore the step function growth in the business, market, and country that enabled Zerodha’s rapid ascent. Please enjoy my conversation with Nithin Kamath
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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Show Notes
[00:02:36] - [First question] - Overview of Zerodha and its size and scale today
[00:07:15] - What informed their best case outcome and thoughts on mobile penetration
[00:14:16] - Short positions and contours of hedge funds in India compared to the US
[00:20:04] - Relatively low levels of leverage in the Indian ecosystem
[00:23:12] - Why areas of the Indian ecosystem are underdeveloped compared to the US
[00:27:03] - Lucking out by not getting professional investors in their company
[00:35:07] - How the recent flood of capital into India affected their business
[00:38:34] - Thoughts about operating outside of India and transferable principals
[00:41:49] - Unpacking the framework of seeing India as a series of clusters and villages
[00:44:35] - The bear and bull case for India over the next decade
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Return on India