Part 2 of 2. In Part 1 we walked the road from 2011 — three companies, an investor ultimatum, and the capital it took to build. Part 2 is the mind. Saahil Goel starts with what, given hindsight, he'd do differently, then the first principles he runs Shiprocket on (distribution beats product), the two or three metrics he genuinely obsesses over, his bet on applied AI, why he believes you can't actually manage people, who does and doesn't survive at the company, the guitar he still plays, his dog, and the question Rohin closes every episode with, which Saahil answers with a single number.

Chapters

1:02 With hindsight, what he'd do differently

2:10 “A paisa of every transaction in India”

5:23 First principles: distribution beats product

11:32 The metrics he obsesses over

17:22 Betting on applied AI

29:33 “You can't manage people”

31:45 Who doesn't survive at Shiprocket

42:05 The guitar, Pink Floyd, and Bruno the CHO

58:28 The book he forgets — and how he reflects

1:00:50 Rating his life an 8

This episode was produced by Rohin Dharmakumar and mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN.

Write to us at fp@the-ken.com with your feedback, suggestions, and guests you would want to see on First Principles.

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word by sharing and gifting it to your friends and family.

Part 1 of 2. Most people date Shiprocket to 2017; in truth it was born in 2011, and the road there runs through two companies called KartRocket and Craftly. Saahil Goel walks Rohin through the build: Rs 15 lakh of their own money, nearly not being hired by their own first engineers, the hard lesson that in India you sell outcomes not software, an investor ultimatum to take $4 million or nothing, and by the end, just how much capital it's taken to get from that first office to the edge of a public listing. Part 2 gets into how he actually thinks.

Chapters

0:00 The company that started in 2011, not 2017

4:01 KartRocket: building an agency to learn the market

6:09 Bootstrapped on Rs 15 lakh

9:02 Why Indian SMBs wouldn't pay for software

17:58 “Take $4 million or nothing”

22:38 How Shiprocket was born

27:06 What Shiprocket actually is — and how it makes money

37:58 The IPO, and the state of the business

44:19 Quick commerce without owning a truck

48:42 From Delhi to a US career — and back

55:59 Lessons from failed fundraises

1:04:23 How much they've raised

This episode was produced by Rohin Dharmakumar and mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN.

Write to us at fp@the-ken.com with your feedback, suggestions, and guests you would want to see on First Principles.

If you enjoyed this episode, please help us spread the word by sharing and gifting it to your friends and family.

Part 2 moves from the journey to the operating philosophy. Riyaaz Amlani unpacks his evolving stance on the aggregators — from resistance to "uneasy truce" — and the hard lesson that restaurateurs who send guests to Zomato and Swiggy have only themselves to blame. He argues delivery and dine-in are two different businesses, lays out his ambition to turn Impresario into a full-service-restaurant platform, and gets personal on hiring, Gen Alpha kids, weekends, and why his life scores 9.9 out of 10.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Recap and what's ahead: aggregators, the platform, the missing 0.1
• 01:48 "Digital landlords": Zomato & Swiggy, then and now
• 02:47 From resistance to cohabitation; how aggregators trained demand
• 05:24 Owning the customer; the cross-sector aggregator tension
• 07:04 The Booking.com / Hotels.com parallel and how hotels fought back
• 09:41 Build your own loyalty — don't blame the aggregator
• 10:09 Delivery vs dine-in: two completely different businesses
• 13:09 Restaurants beat the movies; lessons from raising VC/PE
• 16:34 Growth math: IRR, 20-25% stable growth, the late-stage problem
• 17:45 What motivates him: reading a city and its community
• 18:56 Curiosity over the "5 people"; planning for serendipity
• 24:29 Hiring: "doers and divas" and the largesse of hospitality
• 30:24 Social as social infrastructure: coworking from day one
• 34:25 First principles: people + process, soul, belongingness
• 37:08 Harvesting feedback: NPS, ORM, AI, the guest-experience officer
• 39:18 His kids and the Gen Alpha worldview
• 43:39 Weekends, FIFA, meditation, and protecting solitude
• 48:10 Comfort food and deferring to the chef
• 50:11 The 25-year view; the 10,000 cr platform and the invisible 85%
• 59:03 Anti-loyalty vs frequency: cafes are loyalty, restaurants are experience
• 1:01:44 Final question: 9.9 out of 10, and the missing 0.1

KEY COMPANIES & BRANDS

Impresario Handmade Restaurants; Social; Zomato; Swiggy; ONDC; Booking.com; Hotels.com; Rebel Foods; Haldiram's; Rameshwaram Cafe; Starbucks; NRAI; PlayStation/FIFA/Minecraft (referenced).

KEY CONCEPTS

Aggregators as "digital landlords"; deep discounting & perceived value; the uneasy truce; owning the customer relationship; the Booking.com hotel-inventory parallel; loyalty programs & direct outreach; delivery vs dine-in as separate businesses; patient capital, IRR & late-stage growth math; "doers and divas"; largesse of hospitality; full-service-restaurant platform; store-level vs corporate EBITDA; the invisible 85% "iceberg" of running a restaurant; anti-loyalty vs frequency; cafes (loyalty/convenience) vs restaurants (experience/variety); NPS/ORM/AI feedback; Gen Alpha.