How Zepto Built a 10-Minute Grocery Delivery Empire from a WhatsApp Group

n a recent episode of How to Build the Future, Garry Tan sat down with Aadit Palicha, the 22-year-old co-founder and CEO of Zepto, a unicorn startup revolutionizing grocery delivery in India with 10-minute deliveries.

From a humble WhatsApp group to a $5 billion valuation, Zepto’s journey is a masterclass in customer-centric innovation, relentless execution, and navigating existential crises. Here’s how Aadit and his co-founder Kaivalya Vohra built Zepto into a hyper-local e-commerce juggernaut.

The Spark: A WhatsApp Group Born in a Pandemic

Zepto’s origin story is as scrappy as it gets. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Aadit and Kaivalya, then 17-year-old Stanford-bound students, found themselves stuck in Mumbai during a gap year.

With no internships or grand plans, they started a WhatsApp group to deliver groceries to neighbors struggling during lockdowns. It began with a single customer—an elderly woman who needed help—and grew organically as she added friends to the group.

This wasn’t a polished startup launch; it was a side project fueled by necessity and curiosity. “We were just hacking around,” Aadit recalls. Their first “product” was a basic pickup-and-drop service called KiranaKart, a nod to India’s ubiquitous mom-and-pop “kirana” stores.

Built in just 72 hours, it was a rough prototype, but it marked the beginning of Zepto’s iterative journey.

The Big Bet: Customer-Backward Thinking

Zepto’s breakthrough came from a radical insight: while competitors like Swiggy, Zomato, and Amazon built supply chain-driven models optimized for 2- or 4-hour deliveries, Indian consumers craved hyper-local, frequent purchases.

In India, grocery shopping isn’t a weekly Costco run—it’s multiple small trips to nearby kiranas, milk vendors, or fruit stalls. Aadit and Kaivalya realized that to win, they needed to replicate this doorstep immediacy.

Their audacious bet? 10-minute delivery. But speed wasn’t just a gimmick; it was a necessity rooted in India’s unique market dynamics: smaller household sizes, lower disposable incomes, fewer cars, and a preference for fresh perishables.

“Customers kept telling us, ‘Why wait 2-3 hours when my vegetable guy is here every morning?’” Aadit explains. By prioritizing retention and customer experience over logistical convenience, Zepto flipped the script on e-commerce.

Doing Things That Don’t Scale

To test their hypothesis, Aadit and Kaivalya embraced Y Combinator’s mantra of “do things that don’t scale.” They commandeered a store, with Aadit playing shopkeeper and Kaivalya handling deliveries.

The result? Customers loved the 10-minute experience, and retention spiked. “We saw a spark in their eyes,” Aadit says. This hands-on experiment gave them the conviction to build a full-stack model, controlling logistics, quality, and selection.

The introduction of “dark stores”—hyper-local warehouses stocked with 45,000+ products—was a game-changer. Unlike traditional e-commerce, dark stores allowed Zepto to ensure speed, quality, and assortment, creating a “hyper-local Amazon” tailored to India’s needs.

This infrastructure, combined with a user-backward approach, helped Zepto scale from zero to $1 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in just two and a half years.

Surviving Existential Unscalable Crises

Zepto’s journey wasn’t all smooth sailing. In 2022, the capital markets crashed, leaving Zepto with competitors holding seven times their cash reserves.

The Silicon Valley Bank collapse and the Ukraine war further complicated fundraising, pushing Zepto to the brink. “We almost died multiple times,” Aadit admits. The team faced retention struggles in their early pickup-and-drop model, with users dropping off after initial orders. Investors warned that grocery delivery was a “graveyard” in India.

Yet, these crises forged Zepto’s resilience. Y Combinator’s brutal feedback loops—spearheaded by partner Jared Friedman—pushed Aadit and Kaivalya to confront harsh realities.

They pivoted to a first-party model, built dark stores, and obsessed over retention metrics. By 2024, 70% of their markets were profitable, with mature markets hitting 4-5% EBIT, proving their model’s viability.

Scaling the Flywheel

Zepto’s success lies in its dynamic approach to product-market fit. They’ve expanded beyond groceries, launching Zepto Cafe for coffee and snacks (100,000+ daily orders) and building a $200 million ad business with AI-driven search and bidding. They’re also venturing into electronics, apparel, and cosmetics, guided by user searches.

“When people searched for lipstick, we added cosmetics,” Aadit says. This flywheel—better retention, better P&L, more use cases—fuels their 300% annual growth.

AI is supercharging Zepto’s operations. Over 50% of customer support tickets are now handled by a generative chatbot trained on their data, while machine learning optimizes supply chain forecasting and ad performance.

“We’re focused on core applications like search, ads, and support,” Aadit says, ensuring Zepto stays ahead in the age of intelligence.

The Long Game

At 22, Aadit is clear-eyed about Zepto’s mission. “We’re not a success yet,” he insists. His vision is to build a world-class internet company that sparks India’s digital revolution, targeting $20-30 billion in GMV in a $700 billion market.

With 1.5 million daily orders across 50 cities, Zepto is just getting started.

Key Lessons from Zepto’s Journey

Build Customer-Backward: Prioritize user needs over supply chain logic. Zepto’s 10-minute delivery was born from listening to customers, not spreadsheets.

Do Things That Don’t Scale: Hands-on experiments, like running a store themselves, gave Zepto the insights to scale effectively.

Embrace Crises: Near-death moments in 2022-2023 forced efficiency and discipline, turning Zepto into a lean, profitable machine.

Iterate Relentlessly: From a WhatsApp group to a full-stack e-commerce giant, Zepto’s success came from constant iteration and honest self-assessment.

Love the Build: Aadit’s advice to his 17-year-old self? Build for the joy of creation, not extrinsic rewards. “Wake up excited for the next problem.”

Zepto’s story is a testament to what happens when young founders combine naivety, grit, and a customer obsession to rethink an industry. As Aadit puts it, “If we execute well, we could invent a new form of e-commerce out of India.” With their trajectory, that future feels closer than ever.