I hope you’re doing well! I have a question and would love to get your opinion.
I see that your team is doing a lot with content on YouTube and Instagram. How has that been going for you?
These days, many people say that creating content is the way to attract customers. But I feel it might be a waste of time unless you’re offering a service, like freelancing. I think content creation can distract us from our main business goals.
Instead, I believe focusing on ads and generating leads is better for building a brand. Successful people like you, Sachin Bansal, and Kunal Shah didn’t rely heavily on content creation to build their businesses.
What do you think is the best approach for a 25-year-old looking to start a bootstrapped brand in 2024 with limited resources?
It is a tricky question. But across Zerodha, Varsity, Zing, and our personal handles, I guess we are doing okay. Started late, but yeah.
Only content is of no use, if you don’t have a product to match. If you have a product, in today’s world content creation is a good away attract customers.
Sachin and Kunal have spent a lot of money on marketing and advertisement. Content creation, including content on Tradingqna, Zconnect, social media, etc., has been a key reason for Zerodha’s success.
It depends on the brand. But irrespective of the type of brand, if you are planning to build it bootstrapped, content creation is super important. So get on Twitter, Instagram, etc., and start talking about things that might interest the audience.
If you don’t mind me asking, how was not using external capital possible in a capital intensive business like stock broking? Did you invest all the money yourselves?
I have always wondered, since the capital requirements are so high and the setup/initial membership charges are itself so high in this industry. You require a membership with almost every company.
We started with around Rs 1.5 crore, and everything else was steadily earned from the business. When we first started, there was no investment in tech, as it came for free with NSE NOW (trading platform provided for free with NSE).
The power of compounding and being at the right place at the right time, took us 14 years to get where we are today.
I think god sent your CTO for you. Getting a CTO like him is a blessing I feel. He optimised your platform very well, in terms of Speed, Design, and Cost. Very Very Intelligent Guy. People like me who are not coders and want to build a tech product struggle a lot when not getting a CTO like K.
I think it really depends on your brand and goals. For example, when I was starting out, I felt the same way. I was more focused on ads and lead generation, but once I started creating content on platforms like Instagram, it actually helped me connect with my audience on a deeper level. I’ve also been using an AI writing tool like Creaitor to help me craft posts and captions more efficiently, which made the process less time-consuming. If you can find a balance between content and ads, I think it’ll help build a stronger brand.
Getting a CTO like him is a blessing I feel. He optimised your platform very well, in terms of Speed, Design, and Cost. Very Very Intelligent Guy. People like me who are not coders and want to build a tech product struggle a lot when not getting a CTO like K.