Kunal Shah on winning in India, second-order thinking, the philosophy of startups, and more

Kunal Shah is one of the most well-known and admired product leaders in India. He is the CEO and founder of CRED, an Indian-based fintech startup valued at over $6 billion. Prior to CRED, he founded three other startups, including Freecharge, which he sold for over $400 million to Snapdeal. He has also been an advisor to India’s most influential organizations. In our conversation, we discuss: • The prevalence of successful Indian immigrants in top CEO roles across the tech industry • Why companies in India can grow DAUs but not ARPU—and what that means for building products for India • What most sets India’s market apart • Challenges and opportunities in the Indian market • The Delta 4 framework for building new products • Lessons from building CRED so far • The power of curiosity and second-order thinking • Lessons from failure — Brought to you by: • WorkOS—The modern API for auth and user identity: https://workos.com/lenny • Orb—The flexible billing engine for modern pricing: https://www.withorb.com/lenny • Dovetail—Bring your customer into every decision: https://dovetailapp.com/lenny Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kunal-shah-on-winning-in-india-second Where to find Kunal Shah: • X: https://twitter.com/kunalb11 • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunalshah1/ • Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@CRED_club Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Kunal’s background (04:22) The Delta 4 framework (11:00) The success of Indian CEOs in the U.S. (19:55) Challenges and opportunities in India (23:04) DAUs vs. ARPU in Indian markets (25:50) The perception of time in India (27:55) The curse of focus in Asian markets (30:33) Challenges and opportunities in India (continued) (33:23) Lessons learned from building CRED (36:40) Profit pools can provide valuable insights into the values of a country (37:55) Founders’ role in company growth (39:55) Profitability and Indian business culture (43:24) Advice for staying positive amid criticism (44:41) The promising market in India (47:35) The power of curiosity (52:59) Who Kunal looks up to (55:31) Kunal’s favorite sources of content (58:42) Asking great questions (01:02:54) Contrarian corner: Wealth is nothing but storage of energy (01:05:26) Failure corner (01:08:57) Closing thoughts: Share your learnings (01:09:38) Lightning round Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.