By Anushree Ajay

Copyright startuppedia

“Zerodha”s rise to becoming India”s largest retail brokerage is often seen as an outlier in the startup world. While many fintech firms have raised millions and gone public, Zerodha has stayed bootstrapped and profitable from the very beginning. Advertisment In a recent Reddit post, Zerodha co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath shared candid insights on the company”s journey, philosophy, and why the firm has never felt the need for an IPO. A journey of over two decades Kamath pointed out that Zerodha”s success was far from overnight. “We have spent 15 years getting here. And maybe another 10 years before Zerodha, I was involved in the markets in some form. So, 25 years in all,” he wrote. He explained that businesses compound when built with consistency and passion. “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,” Kamath said. For him, patience and persistence are often overlooked when people try to understand Zerodha”s growth. Also Read: CRED announces 18-carat gold credit card with IndusInd Bank and RuPay Starting lean with smart choices From the very beginning, Zerodha focused on keeping costs low. “When we started Zerodha, we started off as a partnership firm because the exchange deposit requirement was lower, Rs 90 lakhs compared to Rs 1.5 crore,” Kamath recalled. The launch was made possible by NSE”s free trading platform and a back-office vendor who provided software at almost no cost in exchange for testing. This allowed the young brokerage to get off the ground without heavy infrastructure spending. A Rs 10 lakh investment Kamath revealed that the total investment in Zerodha was modest by any measure. “The money we have spent on Zerodha is maybe Rs 10 lakhs, and that is all the money that has gone into the business till date,” he said. He broke it down into Rs 2.5 lakh for the website, Rs 5 lakh for office interiors, and Rs 2.5 lakh for miscellaneous expenses. Coming from a middle-class family, he added, “Dad was a bank manager, and Mom taught Veena. We had no rich uncles.” Also Read: “After Ratan Tata, this company is messed up”: TCS Employee exposes workplace struggles and “mental harassment” Luck, timing, and India”s rise Kamath believes Zerodha”s growth coincided with broader changes in the country. “Our rise coincides with India”s rise. We were present at the right place and time with the right products and initiatives,” he said. He compared the journey to that of Nvidia”s Jensen Huang, who persevered for decades before the market aligned in his favor. “Any gyan any founder gives eventually comes down to getting timing right, and this has got everything to do with luck,” Kamath added. Why no IPO plans Unlike most startups, Zerodha has stayed away from venture capital and stock market listings. Kamath sees this independence as an advantage. “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,” he wrote. This philosophy underlines Zerodha”s unique culture, including its no-spam and no-tracking policies. “I believe that the philosophy with which we run Zerodha will be our real moat as a business,” Kamath concluded. Also Read: ‘Most MBAs are outdated, learn how to build Products’: Anupam Mittal”