Meesho’s Path: From Rural E‑Commerce Gaps to AI Voice Commerce

Name: How Meesho Became India’s Biggest Shopping App
Uploaded: 2026-06-11T12:30:23+00:00
Duration: 30 min 20 s
Channel: Y Combinator
Description: Summary and key takeaways on How Meesho Became India’s Biggest Shopping App — Summary, covering In a relaxed studio conversation, the host asks Vidhan Aatrey

Y Combinator

Jun 11, 2026

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30 min video

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2 min read

YouTube video ID: 49L8lVe_PVo

Source: YouTube video by Y Combinator — Watch original video

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In a relaxed studio conversation, the host asks Vidhan Aatrey, co‑founder of Meesho, how the company evolved from a small‑town e‑commerce experiment to a platform serving hundreds of millions of Indians. Aatrey explains that staying close to the consumer, keeping a rigid mission while remaining flexible on solutions, and constantly adapting to technology have been the guiding principles behind Meesho’s growth.

Company Origins (2015‑2016)

The founders noticed a stark contrast: while residents of Bangalore shopped online, their families in smaller towns rarely did. Their first venture, “Fashion Nearby,” tried to bridge this gap by helping users discover local shops. After three months the idea collapsed because it lacked the product selection of larger e‑commerce sites and could not replicate the tactile experience of a mall. Aatrey reflects that the team had only spoken to sellers, ignoring the consumer side of the market.

The Pivot to Social Commerce

Observing that many small shops already used WhatsApp groups to coordinate inventory and sales, the founders built “Meesho” – literally “My Shop” – as a tool to remove inventory and payment friction on WhatsApp. The platform quickly identified “resellers,” mostly homemakers, who could start a zero‑upfront‑cost business by drop‑shipping products through the app. Aatrey says, “Be problem first. Be very rigid with your problem and be very flexible with your solution,” highlighting the shift from a seller‑focused model to a consumer‑centric ecosystem.

The 2021 Paradigm Shift

The COVID‑19 pandemic lowered data costs, making the WhatsApp‑only model less essential. Faced with the risk of alienating existing resellers, Meesho decided to launch a direct‑to‑consumer (D2C) app on July 5 2021. Within five months the new app reached the #1 spot in its category and amassed 100 million monthly users. Aatrey admits, “It’s hard to kill your existing business and start a new one,” but notes that the move was necessary for long‑term survival. The shift spurred a 30 % year‑on‑year growth in the consumer base, bringing the total to 250 million unique buyers in the past year.

Future: AI and Voice

Looking ahead, Meesho aims to bring the next 750 million Indians into the digital economy. The biggest barrier for these users is the traditional UI that requires reading, typing, and clicking “add to cart.” To make software “invisible,” Meesho is developing “Wani,” a voice‑first AI agent that lets users shop by speaking and sending images. Aatrey envisions an experience where a consumer never has to read, type, or click, thereby removing literacy and technical familiarity hurdles.

Core Themes

Customer‑Centric Evolution – Continuous dialogue with consumers drives every product pivot.
Problem‑First Philosophy – The mission to democratize commerce stays fixed; solutions evolve from local discovery to WhatsApp tools, a D2C app, and now voice AI.
Market Democratization – Meesho’s reseller model and upcoming voice interface target the billions of Indians still offline.
Technological Adaptation – From mobile internet to AI, each paradigm shift is leveraged to stay relevant.

Takeaways

Meesho grew from a failed “Fashion Nearby” concept into a billion‑user platform by continuously listening to consumers and reshaping its product around their needs.
The company’s “problem‑first” philosophy kept the mission of democratizing commerce for a billion Indians while allowing solutions to shift from local discovery to WhatsApp tools and finally to a direct‑to‑consumer app.
By turning small shop owners into zero‑upfront‑cost “resellers” on WhatsApp, Meesho created a drop‑shipping model that powered rapid user growth, reaching 100 million monthly users within five months of the 2021 app launch.
The pandemic‑driven drop in data costs forced Meesho to transition from a B2B WhatsApp tool to a D2C app, a risky move that nonetheless delivered 30 % year‑on‑year consumer growth and 250 million unique buyers in the past year.
Looking ahead, Meesho is building “Wani,” a voice‑first AI agent designed to let non‑tech‑savvy users shop without reading, typing, or clicking, aiming to bring the next 750 million Indians into the digital economy.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Meesho’s ‘problem‑first’ framework?

Meesho’s ‘problem‑first’ framework means the company fixes a single mission—democratizing commerce for a billion Indians—and stays rigid about that goal while remaining flexible on how to achieve it. This approach led them to abandon the initial “Fashion Nearby” idea, adopt WhatsApp‑based tools, then launch a D2C app, and now develop a voice‑AI agent.

How does Meesho’s voice AI agent Wani aim to improve accessibility for non‑tech‑savvy users?

Wani is designed as a voice‑first AI agent that lets users interact with Meesho by speaking and sending images instead of reading, typing, or tapping buttons. By handling product search, selection, and checkout through conversation, it removes literacy and device‑comfort barriers, targeting the next 750 million Indians who struggle with traditional e‑commerce interfaces.

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Helpful resources related to this video

If you want to practice or explore the concepts discussed in the video, these commonly used tools may help.

The Lean Startup By Eric Ries Recommended

This book provides the foundational framework for the 'problem-first' and 'pivot' methodology discussed by the founder, helping entrepreneurs validate ideas before scaling.

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Zero To One By Peter Thiel

This book explores the philosophy of building companies that create something entirely new, aligning with the founder's mission to democratize commerce for a billion users.

Amazon →

High Quality Noise Cancelling Microphone Headset

As the company shifts toward voice-first AI interfaces, users and developers need reliable hardware to test and interact with voice-based commerce systems.

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Summarize another video

Full Transcript YouTube

It's hard. It's hard to kill your
existing business and start a new one.
We did it and I I remember it was mid of
2021. So July 5th 5th July 2021 we
launched our app.
>> Yeah.
>> We went number one in the shopping
section of Android Play Store in India.
>> Wow.
>> Today is 2026. Every day since then
we've been the number one shopping app
on Android Play Store.
>> Holy crap.
>> Every single day.
We just heard Varun's story from Giga.
And one thing I was thinking about is
that his story feels like the 10-year
forwarded version of your story in
various ways. And so I'm curious to hear
all the different ways that that ends up
being true or not true. So maybe to
begin, why don't you tell us a little
bit about what Misho is? I'm sure a lot
of people here have used it but um tell
us a little bit about what it looks like
now and then we'll talk through the arc
of how it got there.
>> Sure. So first of all like good to be
here like whenever I think about YC it
takes me back like 10 years ago we were
part of the summer 16 batch. Now it's
summer of 2026. I would say it's a it's
a very core part of the origin story of
the company. So it's something which is
close to me. So good to kind of see a
lot of people who are want to be
entrepreneurs here and I hope they learn
something. So today Misho is an
e-commerce platform where people can
come and buy across lots of categories.
Our value proposition is very clear. Uh
it is very very focused on giving the
best value for money to consumers across
categories. And we basically built it
for mass India from day one. We really
started with a very simple mission of
how do we democratize internet commerce
for a billion consumers each and every
business in India. And that's what we've
been at. Last 12 months we had about 250
million consumers buying from us. Close
to a million sellers.
>> That's 250 product.
>> Unique people bought
>> unique people who bought um a product
and
>> and all of them bought about 10 times a
year. So 2 and a half billion orders per
year. I think all of these numbers are
by far the highest for any platform. And
this 250 million is still growing at 30%
plus year on year.
>> Oh yeah.
>> All right. because you live in a
population of billion and a half people
and you still have only somewhere
between 350 to 400 million people buying
anything online per year. So this
there's so many people who are still not
part of that ecosystem and we're very
very focused on kind of making that
happen.
>> So of the people that are buying
anything online something like half of
them or more than half potentially are
buying on M show. Wow that's incredible.
I would love to hear a little bit about
how you even got started with this. You
know, you started this in 2016. You said
what was the first version of this idea
or maybe even before you had an idea
where you decided you wanted to do
something like how did you even arrive
at the thought that let's do a startup?
>> We started in 2015. Both Sanjiv and I
come from small towns. I was born in
Mirat. Most of my family comes from
western UP mostly a farmer family.
Sanjie was born and brought up in Hazari
Bag in Jhark and back in 2015 when we
were trying to figure out like first of
all we very excited about this mobile
internet wave both of us were 2 years
out of college we're like this is the
time to build something one thing we
felt very passionate about which was
back in 2015 if you were in Bangalore
you will see everyone around you buying
stuff online
>> and then both of us will go back to our
families in Merit and Jarhand And you
will find no one buying online, no one
selling online. And both of us will
always like talk about this all the
time. Like there's something something
off, right? Like when you come to
Bangalore, people feel that e-commerce
has happened. I think Flipkart got sold
to Walmart back then. Amazon was there
like lots of companies were there and
people like it's done like there's no
new player who going to come what is
there to solve
>> and both of us basically believe there's
definitely something needed because none
of our families are basically buying
online.
>> Yeah. So I think that was a simple
reason of why we started up. So we said
we have to bring everyone in India
online and the beautiful thing is 11
years forward our business has evolved
in many ways like I would say we are
like version five of what uh we have
been but the core mission of the company
is actually still the same. So why don't
we talk about what version one was then
right because I think it's actually
quite different from version five and so
what was the first idea where you said
okay screw it we're going to leave our
jobs and what even was that process like
for you guys to decide I'm going to
leave my job you know perfectly fine job
I have here in Bangalore and start
working on something else like how did
you and your co-founder agree to do that
>> so I I was in Bangalore working in this
company called Inobi so it was one of
the first tech companies in Bangalore
and I one called Sanjie. Sanjie used to
work with Sony in Tokyo and I called him
up and said hey I think we should start
up now and there's so much that stuff so
much is happening because I was part of
an ad techch company you could see all
startups in the Indian ecosystem who
were spending budgets on this ad tech
platform and growing really fast and I
just felt that hey we have to do
something the time is now so I called
him up and I said
>> you kind of saw that from working at the
first company you saw that okay these
budgets are going up really fast.
>> I I I basically I saw mobile internet
taking off as part of that company.
>> You could basically see everything
changes every month,
>> right?
>> And so I called him up. He said, "Yeah,
fine. Makes sense." He resigned next day
and one week later he came back. He came
back.
>> So he moved back from Tokyo. He was in
Tokyo
>> and he was there for 3 years.
>> And by the way, this and I will go back
to our origin story even into college.
The reason basically he did that both of
us have been like close friends for a
very long time. We were in the same
department, same hostel, same wing. Like
we were next to each other for all four
years of our uh college life. Did a lot
of things together.
The day I called him up, he said like,
"Yeah, I have been thinking things are
quite slow here and I want to do
something more dynamic and something
more fast and I've been here for 3 years
now.
>> It looks like great like I will come
back and basically we'll try something."
So I think that was basically the story
and as I said like we landed on that we
really want to bring everyone in India
uh be it all consumers businesses
>> to basically the digital ecosystem
>> but how to basically get started with
your first product. So we said let's
just go and speak to few people right so
we said who are not selling online
mostly small businesses not selling
online brands were selling online but
small businesses who were like the
largest part of the economy in India 85%
of GDP back then
>> so we started to go and speak to a lot
of these small businesses in Bangalore
>> in HSR in Kangla we'll just go into
these shops and ask them hey why you not
selling online
>> hey why you not selling online and
everyone will give you a reason
>> so these are like regular shops you just
like showed up at the shops
>> regular shops across categories
And we realized like all these shops
said, "Hey, I want to sell online, but I
don't know how to find my customers
online." And the people who basically
buy from me are people within a certain
radius of the store. I don't have a
unique differentiation beyond that. But
these people really like my service,
really like my curation. So I really
want to sell to them.
>> So Sanjiv and I basically thought, hey,
like if we help this person sell to
customers in this area, it'll be a great
business,
>> right? So we called our first version
fashion near fashion nearby.
>> So everyone you could as a fashion shop
list your shop here and sell to
customers locally. So we started that
version 3 months later we shut that
downh
>> in 3 months.
>> Um and we had a very very stupid
learning.
>> Our learning was we started this product
and we never ever spoke to consumers
>> right like we just spoke to sellers. We
thought like the problem to solve is
what the small businesses tell us. But
we never spoke to consumers because
>> you only understood one side of the
market really well.
>> Basically,
>> it's like the most nostous mistake you
can make.
>> Yeah.
>> Because when we started to basically
push our app and asking consumers to
buy, they will say this is the worst of
both worlds. When I go to a mall, I can
touch and feel the product, try the
product. When I go online, I get all the
selection. You're giving me a limited
selection of people in my locality and I
can't even touch and feel the product.
>> Right. So, it's it's worse than a mall,
worse than e-commerce. And we said,
"Yeah, it makes sense. It's a horrible
thing to do." We said, "We should have
done this before." But I think the the
journey has been this, right? Like you
sometimes have a cool learning and
sometimes you have these stupid
learnings, but you keep evolving your
product. I feel good about one thing
that we did not spend a year or two on
that idea.
>> We basically shut it down in 3 months.
We built our app,
>> got like hundreds of customers to try
the product and we very very very soon
realized it doesn't work and we shut it
down and move to the next version. And
was at this point had you already gotten
into YC or did that happen later?
>> So YC happened actually a year after we
started up. So with the second product
which is
>> so first product was called Fashioner.
The second P product was called Misho
but it was different than what we
eventually got product market fit with.
>> So the product then we started was like
hey this whole local thing doesn't work.
Uh let's start a different problem. So
we went back to these small businesses
and we said this time we'll not ask
them. We will justly sit sit in these
shops and see what the problems are. We
want to observe a lot more than like
speaking to them because they most of
them articulate problems based their
understanding. It may not be the right
thing to do.
>> Yeah.
>> So we would just go sit in these shops
morning to evening. Many of these people
were really really nice to us. And we
discovered one behavior. We discovered a
behavior that a lot of these shops even
though they will say they are not online
but they were online. They used to have
a WhatsApp group.
>> Ah.
>> So whenever someone comes and buys from
a shop at the end they will take a phone
number and say hey I will add you to a
WhatsApp group and I'll keep adding all
the new products I have in my shop here.
>> So they were basically selling they had
this like very simplified version of an
e-commerce flow whereas just like a
WhatsApp group they would send stuff on.
>> Absolutely. It's easier to manage for
them. It's low friction for the
consumer. So basically WhatsApp group
was the online shop.
>> Yeah. So we said this looks cool and
we've been trying to kind of get these
to a shop format. Maybe in India
WhatsApp is going to be the shop and you
have to make this better solve problems
around this. So we started to go deep
and we realized there were two three big
problems collecting payments for stuff
on WhatsApp uh updating inventory like
many times people place an order on
WhatsApp and by then the product is
gone.
>> So all those things so that was Misho.
Misho meant Mary shop my shop.
>> So we wanted to give a shop. So it's so
that's the first product we built and we
went to YC with that product and our
goal was like how do we make everyone
every business in India an online shop
on WhatsApp on WhatsApp. So we did that
for a year. We went to YC came back.
>> Yeah.
>> And we were short of money. We could not
raise our next round. And the problem
was in India not a lot of small
businesses are willing to pay you for
software. So even they were using a a
software to run this shop on WhatsApp
manage payments this and that they're
like hey no no if you charge me for this
maybe I can manage the way I was doing
it earlier
>> um so we said like I don't know if we
can make really make revenue in this
business so what do we do again at the
same time we had close to maybe hundreds
of thousands of users using our product
hundreds of thousands of shops and there
was certain segment of small
already are at hundreds of thousands of
people using hundred thousands of shops
and users at this point.
>> Yes. To run their business on WhatsApp.
>> So like one way to look at that would
have been like oh we already have
product market fit. Hundreds of
thousands of people want it. But but
you're saying that you couldn't scale it
up another 10x basically because even at
that point not enough people were
willing to pay for it to do that.
>> So yes, that's true. I would say also
there are hundred thousands of people
who are doing this but they're not the
most active and and and that's what I'm
going to come to the inside that we
tried to find people who were are the
most active here.
>> Yeah.
>> And we found a very different profile of
businesses who were the most active on
our product. These were online native
businesses. They don't have an offline
shop
>> and they were using our product to sell
on WhatsApp groups only.
>> Oh interesting. So they were drop
shippers.
>> Okay,
>> they were drop shippers. Um in our
language they were resellers how they
call themselves in India.
>> So they were drop shippers and they were
using a product day in day out. Whereas
when you see an offline person they will
use it for a few days. It looks good to
have an offline shop but then who will
go and update an inventory every day
collecting and payment. Okay fine I'll
collect cash. So a lot of people re back
revert back to the old behaviors because
like using an online tool and making
that big change sometimes can feel
overwhelming
>> and if my online business is a smaller
share of the business should I even do
it right like totally if my offline
business is bigger they would not change
>> but what happened all of these users who
were online native they were the power
users of our product
>> huh okay so you found people who really
loved it
>> yes so we said we have to make money
from them
>> huh
>> because no one else is going to pay us
money. So we have to make money from
them. So then again Sanji and I started
doing the same thing. We will go to
their house and they will be spread
across Bangalore and sometimes outside
and we'll ask them tell me like how do
you run this business? So we figure out
the problems and the biggest problem we
figured out for them is many of them
were like most of them were women like
homemakers who wanted to start a
business of their own and the reason
they became a drop shipper is because
drop shipper is a zero upfront cost
business. You don't have to buy
inventory and sell.
>> Yeah.
>> Right. You connect with suppliers who
will directly ship to consumers.
>> And we said looks their biggest problem
is getting access to these suppliers and
supply. So can we build that product?
And then we built a new app called Misho
Supply. It was listed as separate app on
the Play Store. Misho Supply where these
users could get access to supply from us
and then start selling. And we saw that
product like grew like some nothing that
we've seen before. I think then I
understood what what does PMF mean.
>> Unless you see product market fit, you
never know what product market fit.
>> Can you tell us a little bit about what
that felt like? Like whatever metrics
you feel comfortable sharing and what it
felt like.
>> Yes. So for the next 10 months, we spent
zero rupees on marketing ever because we
did not have money. As I said like money
was the biggest constraint we had.
>> So we never had money until we get to
series A.
>> We doubled every single month. So,
organic discovery and like very high
retention.
>> Wow.
>> And it's like people coming to your app
and they keep complaining you don't have
this feature, you don't have that
feature and they still use your app like
15 or 20 times a day.
>> Wow.
>> Because you're solving such a core pain
point for them that they're investing
their time in improving your product,
>> giving you feedback.
>> So, I think then Sanjiv and I said this
looks like product market fit like
something that we have not seen before.
>> So, we shut down our first app called
Misho. Wow.
>> We rebranded the Misho Sublab into Misho
and basically that became a product. It
was a social commerce product where
anyone could become a Misho
entrepreneur/drop shipper, run a
WhatsApp group and sell products to
consumers. So you basically became your
first evolution was from being this
toolkit for sellers to basically a full
supplier for sellers. You you were
giving them a business in a box
essentially built on WhatsApp. Okay. So
this is now like 2019 or 2020, right?
Something like that. I I recall you've
told me that once CO happens a few big
things change. So tell us a little bit
about what this was like at the peak of
this product and then what happens in
the few years after that.
>> Yes. So if I zoom out just to kind of
paint a big picture so you understand
why was this happening. The consumer
problem was that this is 2016. Cost of
data in India was very high.
>> So of cellular data on your phone.
>> Yes. And all shopping apps are image
heavy and hence consume a lot of data.
So if you go there and you start
browsing you'll keep consuming data and
you'll keep getting this in India used
to get a message from Airel or Vodafone
that one rupee deducted 50 pes are
deducted and a lot of these consumers
will they just uninstall the app and not
use it ever again because they feel it's
consuming so much money.
>> Yeah.
>> Whereas on WhatsApp you decide to choose
when you want to download an image. Most
of it is text. It's very very efficient.
Mostly WhatsApp downsizes a lot of these
to keep it very very low data consuming.
So a lot of them were buying on WhatsApp
but would not download an app and we
realized like you can really go really
deep into the country. People who are
not buying anything online would want to
try buying online if you help them buy
on WhatsApp.
>> So WhatsApp had real distribution
advantage over anything else in this
era.
>> Absolutely. So we said let's just go big
on this. So we got to this product in
2016 and the next 5 years we have
committed on this in 2020 peak 2020 we
had 10 million WhatsApp groups in India
running.
>> Holy crap.
>> For the sole purpose of buying products
from Misho.
>> So so that's not just 10 that's not 10
million buyers that's 10 million sellers
there are 10 million
>> 10 million sellers. Absolutely. There
are 10 million Misho entrepreneurs
>> and then they must be selling to 100
million people or more. So and by the
way we believe that number is 100
million because then what happened in
2020 we said the same premise doesn't
hold anymore. The problem we were
solving of data being expensive was not
there anymore. Uh go happened cost of
data went to zero and with pandemic a
lot of people were forced to learn how
to buy online because they were stuck at
home. So we we realized that hey if you
don't move consumers to our own app
we'll eventually lose them to someone
else. So there's this earth shaking
paradigm shift which is that okay data
goes to zero like not that many people
necessarily may have felt the impact of
that. For most people here it was just
like oh great data is now cheaper but
for your business that's now a
fundamental threat to your original
business.
>> Absolutely.
>> Like tell us what your psychology in
that moment was cuz right now you have a
business with 10 million sellers on it
many of whom are paying you a lot of
money. You're presumably making a lot of
money and you're like okay I think we
have to abandon this. basically how do
you how do you decide that and what do
you decide to do with that? So I think
it was a it was very interesting time
period in the company. Um because and on
the board as well like a lot of our
investors we were already unicorn then
so we had raised significant amount of
money lot of investors who were on the
board
>> and they were like can we do this as an
experiment can we see it for a while
>> um and I was actually clear that you
can't do this as an experiment because
the day you go to directly to consumer
>> all these drop shippers are going to
hate you
>> because you're intermediating them and
directly going to the consumer they feel
that business is going to go away. So if
you do this as an experiment is like
lose-lose.
>> Yeah.
>> You will not get the consumers and you
lose all these WhatsApp group owners and
you have nothing else left. So you have
to commit to this direction. But I think
the the big reason we had conviction
that this is the right thing to do is
actually the same reason we had
conviction before this in changing our
business. We went and spoke to
consumers. M so Sanjie and I and
actually a lot of people in our team
they started to go on the ground met a
lot of consumers and they understood the
all the assumptions that we had of a
consumer all of them are going away now
>> none of them have a problem with
downloading an app
>> none of them have a problem uh feeling
that hey how do I buy what does add
toart mean like many of them still had
it and in majority of India still has it
but a lot of that had gone away so we
were very clear that hey if you take a
long-term view, you have to do it.
There's never been a better time. Um,
and the good thing was this is like the
peak peak of capital available in the
startup ecosystem. So, there were people
who are willing to provide us capital if
we make the shift because if you go
consumer for you to basically create
awareness being a consumer app is going
to take a lot of money.
>> Yeah.
>> So, we said like it's tough but we will
do it.
>> And I'm fortunate to basically I I was
very fortunate that we had the right
team and the right investors.
>> Yeah. who were basically who took the
right long-term view and said this makes
sense this will be a much larger
opportunity we do this it's a bit risky
but if you don't do it who else will
>> and actually there were a lot of other
companies who were playing who had a
similar product to us back then in 2021
>> and none of them ever pivoted and none
of them are known anymore most all of
them have shut down they got acquired or
shut down
>> they had some kind of like selling on
WhatsApp type of thing
>> yes because a lot of our clones had come
up so they running that business but as
I said it's hard. It's hard to kill your
existing business and start a new one.
We did it and I I remember it was mid of
2021. So July 5th July 2021, we launched
our app.
>> Yeah.
>> I think 7th July 2021, we went number
one in the shopping section of Android
Play Store in India.
>> Wow.
>> Today is 2026. Every day since then,
we've been the number one shopping app
on Android Play Store. Holy crap.
>> Every single day,
>> right? Like you'll never go to Android
and find someone else.
>> That's awesome.
>> And just
um we used to have 10 million users as I
said of our app which was built for
these social sellers.
>> Yeah.
>> 5 months later we had 100 million MU.
>> Wow.
>> So 100 million consumers were coming to
our app. So that's why I believe that
about 100 million people were buying or
at least viewing our product via this
because all of them moved here in just 5
months. And and I think now when you
look back and say that's the best
decision made like if we had not done it
like I don't think we would be here
today. I would not be here today. The
business would not exist. But the reason
we had conviction that we will not fail
is because we are so too close to
consumers. And I would say as a consumer
company that's the most important skill
you need to have.
>> You have to be the closest to your
consumer. You need to know things that
none of your competition none of the
people in the ecosystem know about them.
So you can take certain contrarian bets
that no one else will take.
>> Yeah. And and I think that's what we
did. It eventually worked out. Um many
things don't work out like it could have
been that we do this and something goes
wrong. Fortunately, in this case, it
worked out. So that's why I said like
it's we've had many versions
>> uh evolving product but the same mission
and internally. So we have a company
values which says be problem first.
>> Yeah.
>> Be very rigid with your problem and be
very flexible with your solution.
>> And I think our journey has been the
same thing. Yeah,
>> even though from day one we started with
the goal of bringing all Indian
consumers and businesses online,
>> we've been very very flexible with the
solution leveraging WhatsApp, right?
Like helping people create a shop. All
of those things keep changing. So
solutions keep changing but you have to
be very very
I would say like committed to the
problem that you start with. I I think
the thing that really strikes me about
this and I think it's such a universal
story of great companies that make it is
that for a company to survive as long as
it does, you know, for 10 plus years and
to make it big, you have to survive at
least a few big underlying changes in
how the world works, right? Some big
paradigm shift occurs every few years.
And for you guys, it was a shift that
probably would have been very hard to
predict that all of a sudden essentially
overnight this baseline assumption of
how your business works changes. And
yeah, that customer obsession and focus
allowed you guys to kind of get through
it. I mean, now I guess to kind of bring
it to the obvious current moment, you
know, we're going through another big
technology potentially disruptive moment
with AI. I imagine a lot of people
working in e-commerce will see it as
very disruptive. I imagine you could as
well. How do you think about what that
means for your business and whether
there'll be another huge change for you
ahead or whether you can leverage it to
the advantage for yourself?
>> You're absolutely right and I believe AI
is going to change how you run shopping
online, e-commerce, logistics,
um, every single thing I think will
change. Right. We're essentially a
software company. Um 70% of our
headcount is in tech and product that is
changing big time with AI. Um so I I
think it's it's the same 21 moment uh
for us and that's what we keep reminding
internally. By the way, we keep saying
that all our good decisions have been
focused on the long-term and managing
the short term. And it has to be the
same thing now. Like you have to say
forget what you have today. If you
basically start an e-commerce app with
this mission statement, what would you
do?
>> Yeah.
>> Using AI and actually we're trying to do
the same thing. Like for example, we
recently launched a new voice agent
called Wani, right? And it came from the
same conversation.
When we started I I will by the way take
a step back and even explain why most of
our innovations that we have done as a
business have been around two axis for
the last 11 years. One is around
accessibility. remove the barrier so
that more people try your product right
>> WhatsApp was in that direction
and like we've recently gone into like
content as a way to basically transact
that reduces friction so our one axis of
innovation has been around accessibility
axis of innovation has been around
affordability like if you want to make a
billion people buy all of them struggle
with basically doing a lot more with
less budget Right. So how do you do it?
And we've done that with a very
different kind of logistics, the
different way of how we run e-commerce.
And that's why people trust us with all
their purchases across categories.
Accessibility I feel is going to change
again with AI
>> because so today we have 250 million
people buy from us every year and not a
billion. And I keep saying I think that
250 to a billion most likely in my
opinion is going to happen with AI. When
you go to the rural areas in the country
and you ask them to download your app
and try, they just cannot use anything.
They don't first of all understand
what's written even in their own
language. They don't know what does add
to cart mean because there's nothing
like this in the offline world. They
don't understand what does a rating
mean, review mean. They're always afraid
if they click a button some money will
get deducted from their bank account,
>> right?
>> Extremely overwhelmed. Very, very tough
for them. And that's a large part of
what who we have to serve going forward.
>> Right?
>> So when we started to basically test out
this product, it's a voice AI product.
We said we want to build an experience
where a consumer never has to read
anything on the app, never has to type
anything on the app and never has to
click a button.
>> So the software just becomes invisible.
>> Yes.
>> And you just have voice and images keep
coming in front of you and keep going
away.
>> Yeah.
>> And you keep saying yes, I like this. I
don't like this. Then you verbally say
your address and you give your OTP to
basically transact and move on. You
never ever do any of this things that
feel overwhelming to people. And by the
way, that's a vision now. Okay. Can you
with AI create all experiences on the
consumer side, all experiences on the
seller side, logistics side basically
like this and reduce the barrier to
access anything so much that everyone
comes forward. And we are by the way
right now like paranoid about this. We
are like we have to do this before
anyone else because no one else should
get to a billion people before us. So I
I believe this is like one way of how
the business will change and the product
could look different like very soon we
may not even have an app. It'll just a
voice agent that could be outside and
you can keep using it to basically
transact. So I think all businesses will
change in a big way very soon.
>> Um and you have to let go of the past
baggage. What you have to it doesn't
matter. you have to take a long-term
view and do the right thing. Even if it
is disruptive in the short term, you do
it. Um, and I think that's the plan.
>> I think the thing that you say that
always sticks with me is how much you
think about the customer as the first
part of your decision-m in any of these
stories, right? Like you could totally
have answered that question from the
standpoint of this type of technology is
now possible, so let's roll it out to as
many people as we can versus starting
with what the customer's pain is. And I
think that's that's such a timeless
lesson in what has let you go through
all the pivots you've gone through and
now get to where you are. I I guess
maybe now to wrap up um if you were
sitting in the stage here um you were
like a college student or a young
technical person much like yourself when
you were starting your company. What are
some pieces of parting advice you would
give to them? like what are the things
you did when you started in 2015 and 16
that you think are most relevant to
people now especially in this new
technological moment like what should
they be doing? I I would say this feels
to me that 2015 16 of the new paradigm
right 2015 16 was when mobile internet
was taking off and Singi and I got
excited and jumped on. I think there's
never been a better time again like AI
is very early. Everyone's unclear what's
going to happen 2 3 years down the line
and you can have a point of view and
jump in and if I was starting today I
would doing the same thing that I did in
15 16 I will see what people are doing
around me and then I'll go back to my
hometown and see what people are doing
there I'll find like what's not
happening and I think all of those gaps
can be now bridged with AI you cannot
say that people not using this tool
because they don't understand they're
not techsavvy they don't find this
useful I think everything can be
reimagined especially Especially for a
country like India where people always
find this overwhelming. So I'll do the
exact same thing. I just feel like the
output would be very different. It's
incredible. I think that's a very
inspiring message to leave people with.
Thank you so much for joining us Vivid.
Appreciate it.

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5 Papers That Show Where AI Research Is Heading Right Now

Y Combinator

Jun 12, 2026

Company Origins (2015‑2016)

The Pivot to Social Commerce

The 2021 Paradigm Shift

Future: AI and Voice

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