Santosh Saladi on LinkedIn: 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐙𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐨'𝐬 $5 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞… (2024)

Till my 7th grade I was an aimless wanderer. Life was galli cricket, roaming with friends, cycling around the villages.If not for this teacher, I am not sure how it would have been. I spent most of my childhood in my hometown, near the coast in Godavari Basin, Andhra Pradesh. Never really had a clue of how competitive it is to earn a living. Then, we discovered a math teacher who would change everything. He wasn’t just great at teaching math—he instilled in us a deep passion for the subject. He went far beyond his duty, bringing us challenging beautiful problems from textbooks across the country and pushing our limits. He encouraged me to join a boarding school 40 km away from my hometown, a move that would eventually help me crack JEE, AIEEE and other exams.This Teacher’s Day, I called him to express my gratitude. He believes AI will change the world. He advised that I keep upgrading my knowledge and strive hard. I owe so much of my journey to his guidance.Thank you, sir, for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Your influence goes far beyond the classroom.We often underestimate the role of serendipity in our lives. For me it was a math teacher.

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I went to IIMA thinking I will become an equity fund manager. After being a trader for several years before going to MBA, that was not a bad goal. Complete plan changed for good. I completed my CFA level 3 when I was 24. On a lighter note, even to Sri Lanka to take my level 1 in 2008. I loved everything about markets. I took GMAT to go abroad and study. As, trading was fun I stayed back. After 10 years as a trader and a short stint as risk manager, I went to IIMA for a mid career MBA taking GMAT again as my 2010 GMAT expired. Well, with a plan to become a fund analyst/manager post MBA. 3 months into the program, I got to know about a variety of roles. Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Strategy, Operations, HR and a unique function that I never really knew much before "Product Management".Product Management was not quite a rage yet, in 2019, in PGPX, but people definitely spoke a lot about it. I joined the product club along with so many other clubs on campus. During placements, I had to chose between an operations manager at a big ecommerce company and a product manager at a b2c internet startup. I chose the second one as deep inside, I felt PM is close to entrepreneurship. It has been a fascinating journey so far. All I keep seeing is problems and often no ready answers. The beauty lies in finding the solutions to problems that we judge to be important. And continuously try to improve lives of someone. Glad, I attended the product club meetups thanks to my batchmates from PGPX and PGP folks who were my first product gurus :)

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As a product lead one will encounter situations where the product managers have done something that is contrary to the expectations or taken sub-optimal calls. It is natural to see bad product calls through a product journey, even when one hires the best.More often than not bad calls are due to lack of "agency" or "overlooking" something to do a quick solution. If the calls are deliberate one clearly needs to know the trade offs made. Generally these situations are identified during requirement analysis itself. Good PMs go beyond what business provides as requirements. Ultimately, it boils down to the product culture. As a lead it is always important to articulate why it is important to go beyond even if it means more work to the team. Though business and product teams may be different in the org structure, the product function should truly feel to be a part of the business function.

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𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞: 𝐄𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐲Quick commerce firms buy time from delivery executives and sell time to the top 1% of Indians. They are in the business of selling time. As more competition comes delivery executive time will become expensive, especially during peak hours. So, the business has to evolve beyond costs leading to a structural change. As more companies enter quick commerce, in the short-term time of delivery executives will get expensive. The concentration of deliveries in quick commerce will be post office hours in the evening and a small peak before office hours in the morning. Biggest cost in quick commerce is delivery cost. Most of the consumption is still grocery. So, with more players there will be margin compression if the status quo remains wrt the product mix that is currently delivered. Even if the delivery costs don't escalate, delivering low margin groceries is unviable in the long term. To improve the margins, quick commerce will have to innovate themselves beyond grocery (Which is happening to some extent already) and move up to sell high value and high margin items. Unlimited SKU expansion and Speed of Delivery were key drivers of ecommerce growth over the last 1.5 decades. While speed of delivery is disrupted of by quick commerce, SKU expansion will be costly, especially given the fact that space is a bottleneck and risk of unsold inventory goes up with significant SKU expansion.So, the ultimate problem so to solve is to provide for the needs of the savvy urban customer through intelligent SKU mix while satisfying the customers with good variety. This is an interesting optimization problem to be solved. Each dark store will have a different mix of consumption patterns, which means several nodes of optimizations to be taken care of. Do share your thoughts on how you think quick commerce will evolve!

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It was the summer of 2008. Stock markets were tanking. Banks were collapsing. We were a bunch of 21-24 year olds trying to make what was happening.We just started our careers as traders a few months ago. All of us were new to trading and suddenly we were witnessing the largest meltdown since 1929. Every evening our time once the American market hours started there was an avalanche of bad news. Honestly, most of us were overwhelmed. One evening we were told we would have a call with our Chairman from London. He was a trader for a good part of his life and a self made man. He had a simple yet powerful message. What you are seeing is a once in a lifetime thing. Focus on protecting your trading account with good risk management. Be disciplined with your lot sizes. Opportunities will come. Discipline is what helps you with a long career. The market turbulence continued for a few months. What followed was a multi year bull run in several asset classes. The discipline imbibed during the early days was helpful for several years. It established a culture of taking bets with proper risk management. Great leaders know when to deliver a strong message. And the messages are important. Great leaders add value.

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It was our first semester at IIMA. The class was coming to an end in a couple of minutes. The professor did something that will remain with every student there for the rest of his/her life.The professor untied his shoes, put them in his hand and lifted them above. He said, "Always put yourself in the shoes of your customer". To this day, the single statement remains with me in all product decisions I take, big or small. Every feature I build, I end up simulating scenarios and try to feel how the customer feels. There are situations, where I end up taking suboptimal decisions due to some unavoidable constraints, the image keeps coming into my head. Eventually, I need to correct or make things better.The professor is always standing there. He does not instill fear but a feeling of responsibility. Noted: Not a real image. AI generated.

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Startups need fanatical believers. Super excited owners. Everyone is an owner.Startups need folks who blindly believe in the vision and mission of founders.And founders should be ready to maneuver.I'm not as qualified as Kunal. I have deep respect for startup founders for their blind faith against odds. A bit I wish to add from my understanding.

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It was 1996. I was in my 6th grade. A Mercedes Benz car came to my town. First time, I met a software engineer. I decided to become one. Reality today is far from it. A distant cousin of my mother came from Detroit, USA. He was working for a automobile manufacturer as a software engineer. He was an American citizen by then and brought us a ton of chocolates. I asked him what does a software engineer do? He told me that they sit in front of a computer, write loads of instructions munching a jumbo pack of potato chips and solve problems. Well, that really caught my attention! I decided to become a software engineer. Joined engineering. Within a few quarters realized I didn't like programming. For a while, I wanted to become an investment banker. Well, for a semester I wanted to be a chip designer. I loved stock markets and economics. Read whatever I could grab on markets. Became a trader at a proprietary trading firm. Wanted to become a fund manager. Completed CFA Level 3 when I was 24, but postponed MBA for ever as trading was fun. Eventually, during a mid career MBA, randomly discovered "Product Management" at IIMA. A startup took a bet that I could solve for their pricing engine and I became a PM. Well, all my life, I somehow couldn't craft a career, linear or exponential. There were ups and downs, best times and rejections and hard realizations. Product Management is something that I started loving and hope to stay for years to come. No matter how much we want to craft a perfect path, it doesn't happen to many. It is perfectly fine. Eventually, we will find some balance.

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I became a food delivery boy for a day. In 2021, I was shortlisted for Delivery Experience Product Manager role at a B2C internet company. The experience was an eye opener.Onboarding was super smooth. The food delivery company was super supportive with required documentation. The training was decent. My profile was active within 2 days. For my first order I had to go upto 6 Km to pick up food. I then delivered the food at 1.5 Km. I delivered a total of 8 orders that day. After the 8 orders, I shut down my app for the day. I received tips from 3 customers. Some customers were kind. They speak in a nice tone. Some customers are difficult to speak to. They have a tone of supremacy. Most restaurant folks were not so kind. At a restaurant I was not aware that there is a different area for picking up food. I was a bit lost and when I spoke to the restaurant manager, I vaguely remember the rude reply where I need to go to pick up the food. I worked for 7 hours overall but was not eligible for an incentive, as I didn’t qualify the minimum number of orders to be delivered for earning the incentive. Overall net earnings were around 300 Rs post petrol expenses for the 7 hours, making the incentive important for overall earnings. Overall, I have had a few inputs for the interview, but the interview didn’t even go around the delivery experience app. Becoming a delivery boy didn’t help me in getting the role but it helped me understand how hard it is to make 500 Rs in our country. Most of us are just a bunch of privileged folks to get the right education and a great job. I am plain lucky!

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