Why Zepto's Aadit Palicha Turned Down Stanford to Deliver Groceries

Aadit Palicha is the co-founder and CEO of Zepto, an Indian quick-commerce grocery platform. What began as a WhatsApp group delivering groceries to neighbors in Mumbai during COVID has grown into a company employing over 200,000 people, processing millions of deliveries per day and operating one of India's largest fruits and vegetables supply chains — all built around a 10-minute delivery model powered by a network of dark stores. At Startup School India, Aadit sat down with Jared to talk about the scrappy origins of Zepto, the pivot from a doorstep delivery model to owning their own dark store infrastructure and how the company is now using AI and robotics to drive supply chain efficiency and grow a fast-scaling advertising business. Chapters: 00:00 – Intro 00:17 – How Zepto Got Started 03:12 – Stanford or Startup? 04:46 – Competing in a Crowded Market 07:03 – The Pivot: Dark Stores & Zepto Is Born 10:30 – The 10-Minute Delivery Vision 12:04 – Obsessing Over 100 Customers 15:07 – The Hidden Supply Chain 18:11 – Scale & What Zepto Is Today 20:05 – The Long-Term Vision for Zepto 22:44 – How Zepto Uses AI 25:35 – The Engineering Team 26:12 – How Aadit Kept Leveling Up Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs