Why are you raising so much money in a short span of time?

We would like to be in a position where we are not driven by short-term changes in the macroeconomic environment and focus on our long-term projects. For instance, we are looking at building a massive supply chain network. That is a long lead time project and we want to be able to do it independent of the business cycles. That’s part of the motivation (for raising so much money). We want to make sure we’re reasonably capitalized and we’re not making short-term changes to optimize the cash-burn situation. Also, most of the high-quality investors want to be part of the India growth story. So we also look at what investors are bringing to the table. It’s not only money, their network, their understanding—we want to have a strong team inside the company and investors are a part of this. So even if there’s no need to raise money, if we get a really strong investor on board at the right valuation, we’ll do it.

What do your recent investors such as DST Global, Qatar Investment Authority and GIC bring to the table?

One is the ability to stick with the company for a long period of time. When the company goes public, they have the ability to buy a significant chunk. Most of our new investors have a pretty broad Internet portfolio around the globe, so there’s the network that comes with them. We know we’re doing very well, but things don’t always progress in a straight line. There are good times and not-so-good times. Investors’ ability to support the organization is a huge advantage. These are people who won’t be fickle minded. This means we won’t have to deviate from our advantage regardless of what’s happening outside.

Considering how fast valuations have risen over the past year, do you regret selling Myntra at the price you did?

Myntra has also benefited from valuation appreciation. It’s not like that growth is not happening. It’s a big reason Myntra-Flipkart together are able to see the increase in valuation we’ve seen over the last one year. Investors have the realized the combination of the two is much more powerful. So, absolutely no regrets.

In your conversations with investors, how important is the topic of profitability?

We do have a path to profitability agenda. But that is not the only  agenda. We want to grow our market share, we want to deliver meaningful differentiation for our consumers. So profitability is among the top five priorities for us, and it does get discussed with investors.

Were you surprised with the pivot that happened in your business and how did you manage the pivot?

Having made Myntra reach the number 1 spot for fashion, did you think of remaining independent or merge it with another company?

How important was it for you to hire a strong management team?

Why did you invest heavily on technology in your early days?

You took the bold decision of going completely mobile. How was the experience?

How much of your total revenue do the private brands make up?

Myntra will be the first profitable company in all of the E-Commerce in India. It may still take another 12-18 months but not that far off. Most of our ratios are steadily improving.

Even if I were to look at the Flipkart story, the losses continue to mount even as far as Flipkart is concerned. Which is why people then don’t believe this credible road to profitability theory.

Almost all the metrics I look at especially compare year over year, they are all improving steadily. Our burn as a percentage of revenue is steadily going down. So, that is a good sign of progress. Our gross profit percentage per order is improving. I feel very confident that for Flipkart also the profitability is not that far out. It may still take a few years.

So you are saying the strategic choice will continue to drive growth even at the cost of profitability at least for now?

Maybe let us say two years ago 100 percent focus was on growth and on profitability. I would say last 12-18 months it has become at least half-half. So, we are going forward here and going forward probably this probably will be more on profitability and little less on growth.

Tell us about your pullout from the Airtel Zero negotiations.

We evaluated over the last few days and we realized that the way it is designed today, in future it can potentially lead to some violation of net neutrality. As a company, we are very deeply committed to ensuring that the internet in India continues to be very democratic, equally accessible and that is the reason why we decided not to go ahead with this.

How will net neutrality have an impact on your net based businesses?

Internet proliferation and easy, cheap access to all of India is overall a good thing. That is what has benefitted e-commerce in last few years and that will continue to do so. So, we are very optimistic about the growth of the internet especially through mobile phones and being able to keep internet access neutral is a good thing which will help accelerate the growth of the internet.

Is there a middle ground to the net neutrality issue?

Not sure. I think net neutrality principles are very clear. There are a number of ways  — whether it is telecos or other participants of the ecosystem — to continue to help drive the growth of internet including e-commerce players without violating the spirit of net neutrality which requires that the data not be discriminated, big or smaller players are not discriminated and consumers are not discriminated.

Can you tell us how you are working with the government to train and hire employees?

With Flipkart footprint expanding, we believe there is a huge requirement for training. We are collaborating with the government, giving inputs on what kind of skills are required and generate hundreds of thousands of jobs in the next few years.

You have recently shuffled your top management. Tell us about it.

We continue to tinker with our structure to optimize what our current priorities are. So, it is an ongoing process. This is an ongoing adjustment to make sure our leadership bandwidth is distributed on the big priorities for the organization. We are also focusing on bringing in new leaders in the organization. So, as the size of the business is increasing we have identified new areas that we need to add more leaders into. We have done some reorganization recently and as I said we will continue to work on improving that throughout this year.

Does it mean to say that you will be shutting the websites and focus more on the mobile app considering that is the future trend?

There are different needs of a different platform. There are people who use the computer in some cases. We will focus on all platforms, and we are not looking to close our website.

What is the investment for the mobile app?

Most of our investment on the technology side is building differentiated experience for consumers, building all the back-end system for supply chain and infrastructure for data centers.

How are you ramping up your hiring? By what percent do you expect to increase your employee numbers this year?

Focus is a lot more on quality than numbers. We are already a pretty large organisation. There is a huge amount of interest in people wanting to work at Flipkart. Our focus would be to get really top technology people and create an environment for us to do good work. There will be sizeable growth probably propionate to the business growth we are expecting this year.

You have been elevated on the board of Flipkart. We hear that there is another complete restructuring that is happening currently, first time in seven and a half years. What is your new role and what are the challenges ahead?

Restructuring is an ongoing process. We will continue to restructure. We are focusing on bringing new leaders into the organization. As the size of the business increases, we are identifying into new areas. We have done some reorganization recently for this process.

What was the motive behind writing the book 'No Limits' ?

What it takes to build a brand?

How are handling the sustainability of this product?

What mindset should an entrepreneur have?

Were you clear what to do and where to reach?

How was your experience working at silicon valley and how did you decided to be an entrepreneur?

What should we focus on more , scalability or profitability?

What are your views on preventive healthcare?

How to scale up and distribute the work wisely for an entrepreneur?

How were your earlier days for getting investors?

Have you ever felt like giving up?

How to handle too much of cash flow ?

How much the pace of the company is affected by the investors?

Do you think the real battle for your company will start in the future?

Are their entrepreneur whom you find particularly impressive in Indian Ecosystem?

When launching a new company or product how do you profile customer needs?

What was the genesis of Myntra?

If not Myntra, what other space would pick for your entrepreneurial journey?

How do you feel the difference between selling a service rather than a product in India?

What are your views on margins and giving discounts co-existing in a business?

How was the pivot towards being a Fashion E-Commerce?

What business model was Myntra running on?

What led you towards the decision of Myntra-Flipkart merger?

Which was the lowest point in your entrepreneurial journey and what made you not give up then?

Why do you believe in there is no difference between ordinary & extraordinary people except there Willpower?

Tell us about why you thought of Cult & where you stand in this business right now?

Tell us about why you thought of Cult & where you stand in this business right now?

Tell us about why you thought of Cult & where you stand in this business right now?

Tell us about why you thought of Cult & where you stand in this business right now?

How do you go about this sustaining durable enduring product?

What are the some of the thinkings you should do for building a good product?

What are the some of the thinkings you should do for building a good product?

How do you get to be where you are?

How do you get to be where you are?

Tell us about your early experience of working in silicon valley and what propelled you to become an entrepreneur?

How long and how much can we still sustain scalability at the cost of profitability and when is this going to end?

How did you pitch for investment in the early days of Myntra?

An entrepreneur that you really admire?

How does one go about spending on building a brand without risking the business model, especially as a start up?

What is your plan of action after the lock down?

How is Curefit is handling human resource cost during the lockdown?

How organizations would look at technology budgets in this crisis period?

How can a fashion and lifestyle brand or retailer use technology to amplify the digital dividend?

How do you go about hiring unskilled staff?

How do you attract top talent?

What is right way to approach investor now?