Starting startup for money won’t work: Zomato CEO

You should be so passionate about something, you should be willing to risk your life for it, only then you are able to build a company of your dreams. That’s the only piece of advice I have - Deepinder Goyal, CEO, Zomato

New Delhi: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Monday advised entrepreneurs to be led by passion and drive while building the company of their dreams, and cautioned that starting a venture with the sole desire of making money won’t work and may lead to ‘bad governance calls’.

Speaking at the Startup Mahakumbh event, Goyal spoke candidly about how his own company prefers to be always paranoid to stay ahead. Complacency should not kick at any point of time, he asserted. “I see a lot of founders starting a lot of companies, and I ask them why did you start this company, and the answer is ‘I want to make a lot of more money’...I don’t think that works because that leads to bad governance calls... that’s not the purpose with which you should start a company,” he said while addressing a packed hall.

He advised aspiring and new entrepreneurs, “You should be so passionate about something, you should be willing to risk your life for it, only then you are able to build a company of your dreams ““That’s the only piece of advice I have... do it with passion, don’t do it for money,” he said during a fireside chat with Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani. Bikhchandani advised entrepreneurs and startups to be frugal and hands-on, and always connected to the market and consumers. Goyal emphasised that continuous innovation is “must” for businesses, as no business model can survive for more than a decade or two without innovation. Further, he said that anyone looking to start a company and turn an entrepreneur with an objective of being “comfortable” and “happy” would be making a “wrong choice”. “You have to learn to handle the stress to succeed. The only way to lose is to quit...if you can survive, you’ll win,” he advocated.