Sometime in the middle of 2008, Vishal approached the Bansals. Flipkart was doing well with books, but it was still very small. He had heard of the Bansals from Ajay Chandra and Vijay Subramanian, who had been their colleagues at Amazon. Vishal invited Sachin and Binny to Ahmedabad for a meeting.
In Ahmedabad, Vishal made his proposal: he wanted the Bansals to sell their website to Infibeam. Flipkart would complement Infibeam’s book selection, and Vishal would, in turn, acquire the services of two young, talented engineers who had limited but intimate experience of running an e-commerce business. It would be a great deal for Infibeam. Vishal convinced the Bansals that e-commerce was a complex business that required years of arduous work and massive quantities of capital, that all this was beyond the Bansals – they would surely get crushed. The Bansals could join Infibeam instead and they could all create something big together.
Vishal’s pedigree and his family’s standing lent him an imposing aura. Before Amazon, Vishal had studied at Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was well spoken and the Bansals found him impressive. They had been rejected and ridiculed by the venture lords. They had failed to convince their friends and IIT-mates to join Flipkart. Their former flatmates had advised them against entrepreneurship. On the other hand, here was Infibeam. The Bansals were not just convinced by Vishal’s stature and wealth, they also knew how good Ajay Chandra and Vijay Subramanian were. On their own, the Bansals didn’t stand much chance against such excellent engineers and Vishal’s personal financial strength. Flipkart was yet to be incorporated as a company. Sachin had recently got married – it was perhaps time to cut his losses. Selling out didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Thinking they were out of options, the Bansals agreed to sell Flipkart. The paperwork for the buyout was prepared. Vishal was offering the Bansals less than 5 per cent of Infibeam in exchange for all of Flipkart. The compensation would be paid entirely in Infibeam shares, and they were to move to Ahmedabad.
Vishal sent them the paperwork for the sale. When he saw the employment letter, Sachin was shocked: Infibeam was offering him and Binny less than ₹15,000 each as monthly salary. It was a humiliating proposal. Sachin asked Vishal for a higher amount over the phone, only to be told haughtily that it was a fair offer. Now, Sachin was truly offended. He told Vishal that they would get back to him in a few days, and hung up.
That conversation helped the Bansals recover their senses. Vishal’s spell was broken. They realized that Flipkart’s progress may not seem impressive to an outsider but it was, in fact, substantial. They were growing rapidly, learning new things, improvising and improving every week. And they had done it all by themselves, with help from a human ERP. The VCs hadn’t been kind to them, but they were hardly the only ones to receive such treatment. In those days, not many startup deals materialized. And they were certainly not going to sell out in such a demeaning fashion. All things considered, they would continue to persevere with Flipkart. Though Vishal kept following up for weeks, eager to wrap up the deal, he was carefully fended off every time.
By now, Flipkart had met most of the VCs in India, including one Shailendra Singh of Sequoia Capital. Shailendra had acquired a reputation among some entrepreneurs as someone ‘who dated but never committed’. During a meeting with him, the Bansals discussed the hypothetical prospect of selling Flipkart, without mentioning that they had a standing offer from Infibeam. Shailendra instantly dismissed the idea, ‘You’ve only been working at it for a few months. Are you mad to be thinking of selling right now? Give it a few months more at least.’
They had already decided to refuse Infibeam by now; the validation by a venture lord, even one whom they didn’t particularly like or respect, gave them comfort. Once again, the Bansals uncovered reserves of steel and confidence that would have surprised people who knew them. The setbacks they had faced – deserted by a co-founder, rejected and ridiculed by friends and investors – would have drained the confidence and drive of many a strong-willed, experienced entrepreneur. Selling out to a bigger, pedigreed company would have allowed them an honourable exit and mitigated their financial risk. But they dug deep, holding firm, with a venture lord as an unwitting prop.
A few weeks later, Sachin told a friend over beer, ‘Yaar, bach gaye. Vishal had completely brainwashed us. What a crazy thing we were going to do!’
6
THE KART GETS ROLLING
In the second half of 2008, a few months after the Infibeam episode, Sachin and Binny received an email from a stranger. It was addressed to ‘Bansal and Bansal (not in a particular order).’ The sender, Tapas Rudrapatna, was familiar with Flipkart. He liked to read and had ordered books on the website. His family had recently moved back from Bombay to their home in Mysore. Tapas had come to Bangalore to look for a job and had found temporary accommodation at a friend’s place in the same Wilson Garden neighbourhood where the Bansals worked. He had noticed a Flipkart signboard and, on a whim, written to the Bansals asking if they were hiring. Sachin and Binny responded; a meeting was set up.
The Bansals were startled by Tapas. He was an unlikely startup employee, and would probably have made an unlikely employee anywhere. He was
