After Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal announced a Chief of Staff job role requiring selected candidates to pay a fee of Rs 20 lakh, several entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas using the job posting. On Wednesday, Mr Goyal advertised for a Chief of Staff position under unusual conditions: No salary for the first year and a Rs 20 lakh payment to Feeding India, Zomato's non-profit initiative. As his post went viral, several social media users called the job requirements "bizarre". However, some entrepreneurs also used the opportunity to pitch their business ideas, suggesting that the amount could be better utilised as an investment in starting their own business.
Reacting to Mr Goyal's post, Arjun Singh, the co-founder of Gully Labs sneakers, said, "Take that Rs 20 lakh and instead take a shot at starting your own biz. One year later you get more value than all the alternatives regardless."
Neil Mukti, a Bengaluru-based man, proposed starting a fashion business with Rs 20 lakh. "If you have 20 lacs of capital, I want you to start fashion d2c without using plastic junk fibers by sourcing natural fabrics from artisan clusters across India. I and my tiny team will help you with branding, packaging, product strategy, and most importantly, crafting fine Meta Algo to scale to 1 Crore/month from Shopify alone and beyond. I will charge discounted fee and take 5% equity in your business. From your side, you should be psssionate about clothes and how a particular fabric feels on your body," he wrote.
"If I believe so much in @zomato I would rather just buy 20L worth of @zomato stock from the open market and ride it for the next decade (or two) to come. My gut says I would make so much more post tax from this investment," shared Tanveer Sure, an angel investor.
Meanwhile, Mr Goyal has clarified that the company never intended to charge Rs 20 lakh for the Chief of Staff position. Taking to X, he expressed that he wishes that the practice of paying companies for job opportunities does not become a widespread trend. "This wasn't just another hiring post. As some people pointed out, the 'you have to pay us 20 lacs' was merely a filter, to find people who had the power to appreciate the opportunity of a fast track career, without getting bogged down by constraints in front of them," he wrote.
"We are going to reject most of the applications, who have money, or even talked about the money. We are going to find genuine intent and a learning mindset from the sea of applications we have received," Mr Goyal added.
He said the company will go through the applications over the next week and reach out to people who "we think are the right fit for an organisation".
