Throughout our conversation with Anuj, it was apparent Swiggy had an amazing knack of predicting trends. For example, alcohol delivery was on their product roadmap 3 years before the conditions for it materialised. So was Swiggy Money, a year before it went live, the concept was purported to solve for an easy payment experience. Anuj repeated a couple of times that Swiggy's success is due to its customer obsession.
Swiggy was in 7 cities for the first 4 years of its operations. 6 years since then it has expanded to over 500 cities. Here's how.
The year is 2015. Swiggy was just another startup that had raised money among a plethora of 'food-tech' startups. Six years hence, Swiggy is among the chosen few that remain standing. Swiggy has not just survived, it is now a household name in most Indian cities. The journey to becoming one of India's most coveted startups has been one of customer obsession, foreseeing opportunities, and placing counterintuitive bets. Anuj Rathi, VP Product, Growth, and Revenue has been at the centre of this journey to the top of consumer minds.
On the second episode of HyperInsights Season 2 Anuj helps shed some light on the journey of going from a million orders a month to a million orders a day in 3 years. The summary of the conversation is given below.
Under normal circumstances, the word "growth" has very straightforward connotations of achieving user traction, network effects, and so forth. However, these are not normal circumstances. Old play-books no longer apply. Especially for Swiggy as there's a contagious virus out there and there are lockdowns and Swiggy delivers food. Anuj tells us about how one can learn to not only adapt but thrive in these times.
Swiggy realised it was fortunate to have a very obvious product-market fit. However, there was also a commitment to making this product-market fit matter. A commitment that allowed them to scale from 7 cities in their first 4 years to more than 500 in the last 6 years.
User profiling and research is the foundation of building a product that works. What the are the Accepted Customer Beliefs (ACB) that you are building on?
With the onset of COVID-19 Product Managers (PMs) suddenly found themselves in a strange predicament. Product roadmaps had to be revisited or abandoned and PMs could no longer physically interact with the teams they worked with. Anuj tells us how product management within Swiggy has / has not changed and offers a contrarian opinion on meetings.
Throughout our conversation with Anuj, it was apparent Swiggy had an amazing knack of predicting trends. For example, alcohol delivery was on their product roadmap 3 years before the conditions for it materialised. So was Swiggy Money, a year before it went live, the concept was purported to solve for an easy payment experience. Anuj repeated a couple of times that Swiggy's success is due to its customer obsession.
Special bonus for fintech folks reading this: As per Anuj, if Swiggy were to get into lending, then it has the unique benefit that it actually goes to the customer's house.
This is the 2nd episode on the second season of HyperInsights. MoneyTap co-founder Bala Parthasarathy was with us on the first.