Lessons from Kunal Shah

Kunal Shah, the visionary founder of CRED and Freecharge, is as renowned for his sharp, counter-intuitive thinking as he is for his billion-dollar startups. A student of philosophy, his approach to business and life is a unique blend of deep-seated principles, keen observations of human behavior, and a relentless curiosity. His insights, often shared on social media and in interviews, have become a guiding light for entrepreneurs, thinkers, and anyone looking to navigate the complexities of the modern world.

On Startups and Building Businesses

"Entrepreneurship rewards those who love solving ever-evolving puzzles & challenges. Entrepreneurship punishes those who can't take setbacks well and take long time to recover & avoid risks." [1][2]
"If you fully accept the worst that can ever happen in your journey, fear won't ever be an obstacle in starting-up." [3]
"Hustle doesn't scale. Playbooks do." [3]
"The Delta 4 framework: For a consumer product to have a chance at gaining traction, it must be at least four points superior to current solutions on a scale of 1 to 10." [4][5] This framework emphasizes creating a significantly better user experience to drive adoption. [4][5]
"Great companies aren't built by solving problems for the masses—they're built by solving problems deeply for a few." [6]
"Most startups are built for scale. We're built for depth." [7] This reflects his strategy with CRED, focusing on a niche, high-value audience. [7]
"Profit pools of a country tell you a lot about what the country values. Trying to copy somebody else's profit pool to your country will not be a wise idea." [5]
"In India it's easy to get high DAUs (daily active users) but hard to get ARPU (average revenue per user). With India's low-income demographic, convincing users to part with their hard-earned cash is difficult." [4]
"As entrepreneurs, the only currency we have less of is time. So it is best to go prepared." [8]
"We should celebrate everyone who is taking risk in life and being an entrepreneur cause in the post-AI world being job seeker is going to be more risky. We need more job creators." [9][10]
"I don't like building businesses where there is no evidence of a large revenue or profit pool. I go hit a dart on a dart board that is so big, kuch toh nikal ke aayega (something will come out of it)." [11]
"At CRED we made a simple rule that we will never operate with less than three or four years of runway in the company no matter what." [12]
"The expertise of decision making is usually in people who have more choices than others." [13]
"Playing small games for long time creates mastery but doesn't create big outcomes." [1]
"An early sign in folks who end up playing big games in life: natural disinterest in small games." [1]

On Thinking and Learning

"Curiosity is underrated." [3]
"Those who are addicted to getting compliments, learn very slowly." [3]
"Experience is a curse if not kept current." [3]
"Nuance is a privilege of a calm mind." [3]
"Find me a person who has not learnt from their mistakes and I will show you a person who often blames others for their failures." [3]
"Being shameless is the most important ingredient in ability to connect dots. Here shameless can be asking for help /not taking criticism personally." [13]
"The only thing that matters is are you compounding dramatically every year." [13]
"I'm a philosophy major... at the core, philosophy is nothing but a love for knowledge. And it allows you to go into many places and connect the dots." [11]
"You can predict a lot about a society by seeing their obsession on nostalgia in comparison to their curiosity for future." [3]
"Those who are greedy to understand the world get more money in life than those who are greedy to get more money." [3]

On Human Behavior and Society

"Show me an easily offended person, and I will show you a person with deep insecurities." [3]
"Mocking someone is accepting lower status." [3]
"You age when your excitement for trying new things drops." [3]
"Replace the time spent discussing about other people with any other topic and see your life get better in no time." [3]
"In low-trust societies, any brand that manages to win the customers' trust is able to piggyback on that to sell more and more things." [14]
"Indians do an amazing job of saving money, but a terrible job of valuing time." [11] This is a recurring theme in his analysis of the Indian market. [5][11]
"You'll never meet a rich person who can't keep a secret." [3]
"People with high self esteem don't taunt." [3]
"Mistrusting and insecure people never generate trust from people and fail to lead." [3]
"Those who constantly get validation without building skills often assume they have built skills but instead slowly build deep insecurity for being called out." [1]
"Patience is when you're supposed to be angry, but you choose to understand." [15]
"When you learn to accept instead of expecting, you will have fewer disappointments." [15]
"India is not a poor country; it's a country of poor distribution." [7]

On Personal Growth and Ambition

"Truly ambitious people don't celebrate small milestones." [3]
"There are no over ambitious people. Only dreamers with no plans." [3]
"Only good use of money is to buy time. Time to invest in knowledge, health and relationships." [3]
"I never saw them [early ventures] as failures but as paid MBA courses." [16]
"A lot of success comes from only trauma." [11] Shah has spoken about how early financial struggles in his family shaped his drive. [11]
"I only have startups as my investment. I do not have any mutual fund, any stock. I wish to pay it forward." [12]
"Having a favourite is the fastest way of limiting your grow[th]." [15] This insight encourages learning from a multitude of sources. [15]
"Communication with super smart people needs to be brief as excessive long chats or explanations bore them." [1]
"My value-add to Cred is judgement. Judgement is ideas, right? You generate ideas, but you should have judgement that will work." [11]
"Rarely you'll find a good leader who sucks at teaching." [3]
"Spoonfeeding is addictive." [3]
"Where your hard work is Pre-Determined, Your Goals are Very Determined, Results are Undetermined and your Enjoyment is Post-Determined." [1]

Learn more:

Lessons from Kunal Shah

On Startups and Building Businesses

On Thinking and Learning

On Human Behavior and Society

On Personal Growth and Ambition

Written by Antoine Buteau

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