Part 1: Sahil Barua on why Delhivery is the antithesis of moving fast and breaking things

Delhivery, the logistics company, started out in Delhi. It even has Delhi in its name, literally.

Yet, a few weeks ago, I flew to Goa to meet its co-founder and CEO, Sahil Barua, because that’s where Delhivery’s headquarters is now.

It was a day trip. I took an early morning flight. Spent a few hours at a quaint cafe where I was the only guest. Then, I walked 15 minutes through still back alleys filled with cashewnut and mango trees before ending up on a dusty highway, dodging traffic next to an under-construction flyover.

By the time I got to the studio where I was meeting Sahil, my adventure quota for the day was almost over. I loved it.

This was the first time I was meeting Sahil. We’d only exchanged emails with each other. He’s tall, lean and bearded. There’s a certain air of seriousness, for want of a better word, to him. A professorial sort. 

I steeled myself, expecting our conversation to be a bit stiff. But Sahil completely surprised me.

Because he felt completely at ease diving into answers, explanations and reflections without much hesitation. It wasn’t impulsiveness, but an ease with his own thoughts and actions, which did not require polishing or editing before being shared.

It was something that kept coming up time and again in my conversation with him. From joining consulting firm Bain right around the time they had set up shop in India to signing up for a triathlon without much regard for what the challenge holds, to moving Delhivery to, well, Goa.

But at Delhivery, as it has become a giant in the e-commerce and logistics business, he tells one thing to his employees—do not move fast and break things.

Delhivery might not be a sexy business from the outset, but the systems they have built and continue to build, as Sahil explains, position it as a company that is always innovating and iterating in a business which has largely remained the same for decades. And as Sahil repeated in different ways, the biggest effort they have taken is building the most effective network out there.

Sahil tracks Delhivery's journey, how he and his co-founders built a logistics network in the image of a telecom network, and how he has grown to be a better, calmer founder over the years.

I talked to Sahil Barua, co-founder and CEO of Delhivery, about that and a lot more during the course of our conversation.

Welcome to First Principles.

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This episode was produced by Hari Krishna, and the mixing and mastering of the episode was done by Rajiv CN.

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