Groww began as a robo-advisor in 2016, but customers kept asking why certain products were available and others were not. The team responded by showing a wider range of products transparently and making onboarding and payments seamless. After launching that version in May 2017, Groww gained 600 customers in its first month, against an expectation of 100.
If Your Customers Don't Love It or Hate It, You've Already Lost
Speaker
Lalit Kishor of Groww discusses building and scaling a consumer fintech product with a Y Combinator host at a YC event.
The founders talked with customers in WhatsApp groups, on Quora, and even at movie theaters. Kishor said customers may not spell out the product solution they need, so teams have to read between the lines. Within 10 to 15 days of launch, organic growth and customer retention gave Groww an early signal that the product was working.
Groww chose to operate in regulated areas, obtaining licenses rather than relying on gray or unregulated parts of the market. The company accepted uncertainty about monetization while focusing on low acquisition costs, retention, engagement, and customer love. It went four years without revenue before customer demand for stocks opened a way to monetize.
Kishor said Groww emphasizes design and expects its team to use the product themselves. He spends more than two hours a day using the app and about two hours talking with customers, especially power users. He looks for strong reactions to new features; indifference suggests customers do not care about them.
Kishor said focusing on competitors can pull a team away from understanding customers and changing technology. He has been experimenting with coding tools himself to see what they make possible. Looking ahead, Groww is working on wealth management as customers accumulate more assets, while also aiming to serve younger investors.
Takeaways
- Treat customer requests as clues to the underlying problem, not as a product specification.
- Use early retention, word of mouth, and customer engagement to judge whether a consumer product is resonating.
- Reduce startup risk by making firm choices about areas such as regulation, even when other uncertainties remain.
- Keep using your product and speaking directly with customers as the company scales.
- Revisit the product as customers’ needs change over time.
Mentioned in this talk
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What was claimed 16
- builtGroww built Robo-advisor
“we started with a robo-advisor in 2016”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricGroww: 600 customers in the launch month
“we thought we’d be happy to get 100 customers that month, and then we got 600”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureGroww: Full product selection and transparency with seamless payments and onboarding
“We opened everything with full transparency and made payments and onboarding seamless.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- launchedGroww: Current format
“The Groww product launched in May 2017.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- usesCustomer groups for direct conversations and feedback
“We created a lot of WhatsApp groups.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricGroww: Almost 100% of early growth was organic
“Almost 100%. It was fully organic.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureGroww: Direct mutual funds with zero commission
“why regular mutual funds? Why not direct mutual funds, which are zero-commission mutual funds?”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureGroww: Stocks unlocked a monetization lever
“There are mutual funds; why not stocks? That unlocked the monetization lever for us.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricGroww: Zero revenue for the first four years
“For the first four years, we were a zero-revenue company.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricGroww: The speaker spends around two hours a day talking to customers
“I spend around two hours a day talking to customers who use it.”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricGroww: The speaker uses the product for more than two hours a day
“Personally, I use my product for more than two hours a day”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureGroww: One-person AI-assisted product building can cover design, product management, coding, and operations automation
“one person ... can do the design, product management, coding, and write automation tasks for operations”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureGroww: Listed public company
“We’re now a listed company”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureGroww: Building greater trust and expanding into wealth management
“we’re building greater trust ... we’re very excited about wealth management”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricGroww: Four co-founders
“with three other co-founders—four of you on the team”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- role atLalit Kishor is Co-founder at Groww
“you have a pretty unique situation, with three other co-founders”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
