Book review: Big Billion Startup - The untold Flipkart story

Most Indians are familiar with the broader strokes of the Flipkart narrative—a startup born from the dreams of two techies, the relentless battle against Amazon, regulatory hurdles, and the fairy-tale finale: a $16 billion acquisition by Walmart.

Mihir Dalal 's "Big Billion Startup" delves deep into the setbacks, miraculous escapes from near-death, and the revolving door of characters who have graced (and left) the company since its inception in 2007. With rich details on the founders' personalities, the book offers invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Among the many captivating anecdotes from the book, a few stand out:

1. Bangalore emerged as a tech hub during the early 2000s, attracting giants like Infosys and Amazon. Amazon's failed attempt to establish its India operations underscored the city's allure for budding entrepreneurs.
2. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal nearly welcomed a third co-founder, Varun Sharma, whose entry was thwarted by parental pressure.
3. In the early days, When the Bansals were out of options to find funding for their startup, Vishal Mehta, the founder of Infibeam, had offered less than 5% in exchange for all of Flipkart. Agreeing to even this, they had to deny the offer when he offered to pay mere Rs. 15000 monthly salary Bansals. If it were sold, we wouldn't have the Flipkart as we know of today!
4. Anil Kumar, Binny's IIT batchmate and the founder of Redseer Consultancy, initially dismissed Flipkart's potential. However, more than 2 years later ,when he’d introduce himself in a conversation, he would draw a familiar response of “Accha, toh aap Binny ke batch se ho?” - (I had a laugh at this full circle moment - Haha!)
5. Unlikely Hires, Integral Contributions: The unconventional hiring of individuals like Tapas Rudrapatna (an unlikely startup employee- who had tattoos all over his body, worked in a shack in Goa, played as a clown in Circus acts etc.- Mihir did a great job in describing the characters of the story here) and Sujeet Kumar, whose diverse backgrounds belied their pivotal roles.
6. Lee Fixel, the executive from Tiger Global was once thought - reached out to customer service center of Flipkart and requested that he wanted to speak to Bansals, but he was thought to be a prankster. Only after his 3-4 attempts did the Bansals decided to take it seriously. I think he is the main hero of the story - his funds, his trust in Bansals and then later his faith in Kalyan Krishnamurthy (now CEO of Flipkart), his ousting Sachin Bansal (and thereby losing a friend forever).He was the real phantom of Flipkart's opera. Nearly every important decision needed his blessing
7. Founders' Ambition: Sachin Bansal's audacious goal of achieving $1 billion in sales within four years, despite meager initial revenues (mere Rs 44 crores that year), epitomizes the founders' unwavering ambition and belief in Flipkart's potential. - “You can only achieve what you dream of.”
8. Office Politics and Restructuring: The internal power struggles and frequent hierarchical restructurings within Flipkart reflect the intense political dynamics characteristic of start-up environments.
9. Flipkart also pioneered cash-on-delivery at the right time since the online payment ecosystem in India was broken. To maintain high service standards, it decided on holding inventory and in 2011, introduced a returns policy. - Continuous Innovation is the key
10. Flipkart managed to avoid the trap since early on, the Bansals hired bright young people and empowered them. Those who performed, were awarded with promotions, hikes, stock options. This culture of meritocracy turned Flipkart into a magnet for talent.
11. Sachin Bansal’s ask of $1 Bn from Amazon - Bansals had decided to ask for an outlandish valuation to which Amazon would never agree
12. During 2013, Flipkart becomes the monster in India’s tiny startup ecosystem with a valuation soaring at $1bn while the second one behind was Redbus at $135mn, only a tenth of Flipkart’s valuation.
13. Flipkart's successful execution of exclusive partnerships with phone brands like Motorola and Xiaomi.
14. Big Billion Day sales - The book captures the behind the scenes of what it took to pull off Big Billion Day Sales. The episodes of tough competition between Flipkart’s Big Billion Sales and Amazon Great Indian Festival sales during 2016. ( As a matter of Flipkart emerged as a clear winner)
15. Flipkart 3.0 vision: Ditching Desktop version of Myntra and going Mobile app only! — And they were also planning to let go the desktop site of Flipkart.
16. Binny had immense trust on Sachin. While Sachin was taking the decision of going mobile-only, burning key people with ego, letting people go and also going against the company in the last 1 year, Binny would trust him and frame strategies to implement his plan.
17. The whole behind the scenes for Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart, which involved bid from key market players like Alibaba ,Walmart ,Amazon ,SoftBank ,Google ,Microsoft etc. It was finally sold to Walmart for 72% stake at a valuation of $21bn - One of the largest ever acquisitions in India. Also, Sachin’s ousting from the entire deal was interesting to read (Sounded very similar to the end of the WeWork story)

In conclusion, "Big Billion Startup" offers a compelling insight into Flipkart's rise, triumphs, tribulations, and the indomitable spirit of its founders. Overall a very good and interesting read!