Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath slams data analytics, reveals why Zerodha doesn’t opt for ‘useless’ service

Zerodha Founder Nithin Kamath slammed data analysis – a key management tool used across the organisations – and revealed that Zerodha does not have a data team. He said data science does not provide any useful insights. “How useful is collecting & analysing tons of data is a question I ask my peers. We have no data team at Zerodha as we believe it doesn’t give useful insights & also since we never upsell,” Nithin Kamath tweeted. Kamath posted a screenshot of a discussion on Y Combinator where a user stated the field of data exists not to uncover insights or provide analysis, but merely to provide factoids that confirm senior management’s prior beliefs.

They further noted that in order to succeed as a data scientist, one has to provide data analysis that supports senior management’s ideas- however wrong or ineffective they might be. It read, “Whenever my analysis contradicted – there was so much scrutiny in numbers, data quality, etc, and even after answering all questions and concerns – analysis would be tossed away as non-actionable/useless/etc.” A data scientist’s job is to “launder management’s intuition” using quantitative methods, according to the post.

The comment, which Kamath linked in his tweet, saw other users chiming in and agreeing with the sentiment, stating, “This could be a reason why data scientist as a job title exploded in last years, every middle manager could afford few headcounts of data scientists to produce analysis that advances that middle manager’s corporate agenda- more growth, empire building, expansion to certain de-novo areas, etc.”

Twitter, however, had a mixed bag of reactions. Some users stated that the negative claims are shortcomings on an individual level and not the field as a whole, “The role of data and analytics can be integral to many businesses, especially where complex human interaction is a big factor in driving up sales. It might not be applicable to Zerodha. Yet. But one cannot downplay its importance.” Another tweet followed suit, saying that while how much one invests in it is a function of what you expect to do with it, the role of data “isn’t one of rearview mirror but a multi-dimensional outlook on the same problem.”

At the same time, Nithin Kamath’s tweet also saw widespread agreement with a user noting, “So painfully true. Knowingly or unknowingly, the presenter and the consumer of data are both seeking confirmatory evidence for their views. The truth is gray. Never black. Never white.” Data analytics is one of the fastest growing industries and according to Precedence Research, the global data analytics market size is expected to be worth around $346.33 billion by 2030 from valued at $31.74 billion in 2021 and expanding growth at a CAGR of 30.41% from 2022 to 2030.