Deepinder Goyal recently shared his unfiltered views on leadership, work ethic, and what truly made startups succeed, offering a glimpse into the mindset that shaped Zomato into a global brand.<\/p>\n
In a nearly four-hour podcast with entrepreneur and host Raj Shamani, the Zomato founder spoke at length about his childhood, the early days of building the company, and the philosophy he follows while leading teams.<\/p>\n
One part of the conversation that particularly stood out was Goyal\u2019s response to why several people perceived working with him as \u201ctaxing\u201d or demanding.<\/p>\n
Addressing this head-on, Goyal said, \u201cI demand as much from my employees and the senior people in my company as much as I demand from myself building Zomato, or any other thing.\u201d He explained that his expectations stemmed from how deeply invested he was in what he built.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Elaborating on that, Goyal added, \u201cI strongly believe that sometimes, you just need to be obsessive about building something. That’s the only kind of obsession I expect from them too. They need to think of whatever they’re doing as life, not a job.\u201d According to him, that level of ownership and emotional investment was what separated good companies from great ones.<\/p>\n
When Shamani asked how he identified when someone was \u201cnot thinking like an owner,\u201d Goyal gave a practical example. \u201cFor example, there’s a huge flaw in the system, and it’s 6pm on a Friday. Some people would simply tell themselves that it is time to go home and it can be resolved on Monday, but I would not leave the office until I end up fixing the issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Goyal, urgency and responsibility didn’t pause just because the clock said it\u2019s time to log off.<\/p>\n
At the same time, he clarified that this mindset did not mean a toxic or unkind work culture. \u201cWe are very lenient and have each other’s backs most of the time, we don’t track people’s holidays, we do give good paid leaves,\u201d Goyal said.<\/p>\n
However, he made a sharp distinction between working hours and a working attitude, adding, \u201cThe thing is, startups don’t survive on a 9-5 attitude. It can be built on 9-5 hour clocks, but not the attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversation then turned to whether such an obsession was necessary at all times, and if a regular Monday-to-Friday work week could still build successful companies. Goyal acknowledged that it could, but stressed that the real test comes during critical moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course it can be built,\u201d he said, before adding, \u201cThe huge problem one might need to fix at 6pm on a Friday isn’t something that would happen every day or every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
He concluded with a question that, according to him, defined true ownership: \u201cBut when it happens, they need to ask themselves, am I willing to lose 10,000 customers over the weekend instead of spending two extra hours to fix it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the podcast here:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Goyal\u2019s remarks triggered a variety of discussions online, with several users praising his clarity on accountability and ownership, while others debated where the line between passion and burnout should be drawn.<\/p>\n
– Ends<\/p>\n
Published By: <\/p>\n
Yashna Talwar<\/p>\n
Published On: <\/p>\n
Jan 6, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deepinder Goyal recently shared his unfiltered views on leadership, work ethic, and what truly made startups succeed, offering…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":496473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[14871,64,223299,607,223301,223302,223303,73987,162892,67,132,68,223300,7692],"class_list":{"0":"post-496472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-accountability","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-deepinder-goyal","11":"tag-entrepreneurship","12":"tag-ownership-mindset","13":"tag-passion-and-burnout","14":"tag-raj-shamani-podcast","15":"tag-startup-culture","16":"tag-startup-leadership","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-work-ethic","21":"tag-zomato"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115848185319750150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}