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.
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