In this conversation with Saahil Goel, MD and CEO of Shiprocket, India's 106th unicorn and one of the country's leading e-commerce enablement platforms backed by Temasek, Zomato and PayPal Ventures. We talk about his journey from two failed startups to building the logistics backbone that powers over 2 lakh merchants across India.
Sahil openly shares how he went from burning through investor money on Cart Rocket and Craftly to launching Shiprocket and solving the "where's my order" problem — including the real struggles behind the scenes, what it cost him, where they went wrong, and what finally made it work.
Key topics covered:
• Why Cart Rocket and Craftly failed before Shiprocket took off
• Falling in love with the problem, not the product
• Cracking India's cash-on-delivery and last-mile logistics puzzle
• Winning over investors after 200 failed pitches
• Lessons from bleeding cash on purpose to fund growth
• Cracking pricing, ad spend and repeat customer economics
• Honest views on performance marketing, quick commerce, and what kills most D2C brands
Whether you dream of building a consumer-tech business or just love a great business story, this conversation is packed with honest and practical lessons on building something real from scratch.
Chapters
00:00 — Coming up
01:29 — Introducing Sahil Goel & Shiprocket
02:37 — Growing Up in an MSME Family
03:47 — Cart Rocket: Why India's "Shopify" Failed
04:56 — Pivoting to Craftly and Chasing the Real Problem
05:59 — Near-Death Moments & Staying Motivated
06:33 — The Shiprocket Brainchild: Solving "Where's My Order"
08:18 — Building the Multi-Courier Network Across India
09:46 — Why Data Collection Became the Real Moat
12:26 — Winning Over Temasek, PayPal Ventures & More
14:51 — Becoming India's 106th Unicorn in 2022
15:38 — Inside the Numbers: Revenue, Burn & Profitability
17:33 — Why Burning Cash Was a Design Choice
19:08 — Competition: Quick Commerce & Gig Delivery Fleets
22:42 — Where D2C Founders Bleed Money Without Realizing It
25:19 — What Percentage of Revenue Should Go to Logistics
26:39 — Why You Shouldn't Run Ads in Your First 3–6 Months
28:10 — How D2C Brands Can Actually Leverage AI
31:11 — Finding a Co-Founder & Building the Right Team
33:01 — Near-Death Experiences and Betting the Farm
35:34 — The Ideal Ad Spend and ROAS Benchmark
37:17 — The Investor Meetings That Made (and Broke) Shiprocket
39:49 — Degrees, Mentorship & the "Will Over Skill" Philosophy
42:01 — Why You Must Fall in Love With Your Customer
42:51 — The Biggest Mistakes D2C Founders Make
43:40 — Meeting Every Single Customer, Every Time
45:12 — How to Know When You're Crossing the Line on Losses
48:16 — Letting Go of Control and Delegating to the Right People
50:27 — The Best Advice Sahil Ever Received
51:45 — Avoiding Founder Rivalry With Gautam
53:45 — The Future of India's D2C Market
56:17 — The Vision: Powering Every MSME Transaction in India
57:53 — Rapid Fire Round
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