Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath took to social media on Tuesday to answer various Reddit queries — shared new details about the company and its future strategy.
“The money we have spent on Zerodha is maybe approximately Rs 10 lakhs. And that is all the money that has gone into the business till date. Rs 2.5 lakhs for our website, Rs 5 lakhs for our office interiors (we had an office before), and Rs 2.5 lakhs for miscellaneous,” he wrote.
The Kamath brothers have become somewhat synonymous with investment tips and financial advice over the past decade.
Early days of Zerodha
Kamath revealed that the company was started as a partnership firm “because the exchange deposit requirement was lower” — Rs 90 lakhs compared to Rs 1.5 crore. The former stockbroker said it had taken nearly 25 years of involvement within the Indian markets to get to their current space. He also made note of their rather humble middle-class background, with a bank manager father and a mother who taught veena.
“Things in business compound over time, especially if you like or love what you are doing and if you are lucky to be in the right place and time…The start was mainly enabled thanks to the NSE Now trading platform, which came free of cost if you were an NSE broker. For the back office piece, sending contract notes, maintaining ledgers, etc., we signed up with a vendor who basically gave it at almost 0 cost. This was provided that we tested out his platform,” he added.
No IPO plans?
Kamath said in his lengthy social media post that the Zerodha founders had been “present at the right place and time with the right products and initiatives”. He noted that the rise of the company coincided with the ‘rise of India’ — adding that wisdom imparted by founders typically came down to luck and timing.
“Now that there is no pressure to give any exit to any investor, we can continue doing what is right for the customer, sometimes even at the cost of the business. For example, our no spam or no tracking policy. I believe that the philosophy with which we run Zerodha will be our real moat as a business. It is very tough to stick to it as a public company,” he added.