It’s been just over a decade since that first call with Harsha in August 2014. Back then, Swiggy was just an idea, yet to take form, and Harsha was this young, passionate founder with a vision that felt audacious. By then, we had already met over 50 startups in the food delivery space but had not been able to build conviction on any of them. But within the first few minutes of our conversation, it was clear that this was going to be different.

Customer-First, Always

Unlike others, Harsha had a unique insight: Swiggy had to own its delivery operations to ensure on-time delivery - the most critical factor in the customer’s experience. It was a simple idea, and very obvious in hindsight. But this was the time when even global food delivery companies such as Grubhub and Just Eat were just marketplaces that would pass on orders to restaurants and not take ownership of delivery (and Doordash and Uber Eats were too small or yet to be launched). But Harsha had thought customer-backwards and was insistent that owning delivery was the only way to offer a consistently delightful experience to customers. It would not only ensure reliable delivery, but also a much wider selection of restaurants and live tracking - which was unheard of globally in food delivery. His deep customer obsession really shone through in that very first interaction. This bottom-up approach and customer obsession came alive in the USP slide (below) from Swiggy's first pitch deck in 2014.

We followed up that VC with a couple of in-person meetings and decided to partner shortly thereafter. When we signed the term sheet for Seed investment in October 2014, Swiggy had already started to prove their thesis in a micromarket. They had gone live with 25 restaurants in Koramangala and were delivering 40 orders per day with an average delivery time of 35 min. And even at that early stage, they were seeing very strong customer love with customers ordering an average of 4 times every month.

“Early execution has been impressive. Within 3 months of launch, Swiggy has reached a scale of ~40 orders per day and a monthly GMV of Rs. 3.5 lakhs” - October 2014, from Elevation’s first deal memo for Swiggy’s Seed round.

This customer love continued to compound, resulting in customer cohorts that were best-in-class by a margin!

This laid a solid foundation for a company that would go on to redefine convenience for Indian consumers and also clearly established customer obsession as a core pillar of Swiggy's DNA.

Building for the Long Term

Another of Harsha’s big strengths has been his ability to think truly long-term. He has this innate ability to shut out the noise and focus on what really matters.

This powerful combination of customer obsession and long-term thinking is what gave birth to Instamart. In 2020, Harsha was the first to recognize that customers who had experienced the magic of reliable food delivery would love to get the same convenience for grocery and everyday essentials. This came at a time when grocery as a category had been challenging for e-commerce players globally. Harsha and team were cognizant of the challenges but also knew that if they could crack it, it would elevate customer experience to a whole new level. This led them to launch Instamart. Today, quick commerce has completely transformed consumer behavior in ways that were unimaginable even a couple of years back, and this has become the fastest-growing consumer category by a margin.

This was yet another example of Harsha and the team’s ability to go for moonshot ideas and solve for customer needs before they became obvious to others.

Leading with Humility

One of the qualities that continues to inspire me is Harsha’s humility and authenticity. He was in his 20s when he started Swiggy, but his maturity as a leader was way beyond his years. I recall how just between the Seed and Series A rounds, he was able to assemble a stellar team (even today, when we make a seed investment, I share this slide with founders to set a benchmark for the quality of team they should look to build).

But more importantly, he knew how to create an empowering environment where such exceptional people could thrive. In an ecosystem that often celebrates brash founders, Harsha has always led with respect and has been very humble and grounded. His growth as a leader has been as impressive as Swiggy’s rise. It’s therefore not surprising that the Swiggy team today is one of the strongest amongst Indian tech companies.

Despite all the accolades and milestones, Harsha remains the same grounded, curious individual I met all those years ago. He still approaches problems from first principles and remains driven by the question, “What can Swiggy do to make customers’ lives better?”.

As Swiggy goes public today, I feel a tremendous sense of pride and also tons of gratitude towards Harsha and the entire Swiggy team. I’ve had the privilege to watch Harsha become a leader of great vision and character, someone who embodies the best of what entrepreneurship can be. Harsha, if you’re reading this, please know that you have set a standard that is rare and powerful. You’ve built something truly special, and I have no doubt that this is only the beginning!