Flipkart's big hire from Silicon Valley just quit — so we asked him why

Flipkart

E-commerce company Flipkart is a giant among Indian startups. The startup had a valuation reported at $15 billion when it raised last summer, although that valuation has recently been slashed by some large investors.

In March 2015, Punit Soni becamse Flipkart's biggest hire from the Silicon Valley. Soni worked at Google developing Google News and launching new phones with Motorola (then owned by Google), before Flipkart roped him in as its product head.

Recently, the media began buzzing with gossip about his exit. Putting speculation to rest, Punit Soni put in his papers a couple of days ago, kicking up a new storm of speculation about why he might have quit. (Read more here, here, here and here.)

He wasn't quoted in any of the stories. So I decided to call Punit on a hot Saturday afternoon to get the real picture of why the Bay Area veteran quit, and what's next for him. Thus began an hour-long chat where he cleared the air.

"My plan is to take a few months off, move my family to the US, and start something of my own," he says.

Here's a partial transcript of our conversation.

Let's go through the speculation first. You're abandoning ship because Indian e-commerce is doomed.

I haven't lost hope. Indian e-commerce continues to be one of the biggest opportunities ever.

The one who'll win at the end will be really big, and have a big advantage.

You lost faith in Flipkart.

Flipkart was, and is still in an exceptional position to win.

It's the segment leader, and I'm hopeful that under [founder] Binny [Bansal] it'll have the rigor to go ahead and win a bigger piece of the market.

Did you get bored, given Flipkart isn't an R&D organization (as read here)

*Laughs* This is funny. I'm not leaving because I'm bored.

In e-commerce, the innovation is behind the scenes. It's about grinding around the supply chain, and doing justice to the low margin business you're in. You're not going to build AI, deep-mind or drones overnight.

It's more about looking into price algorithms, automated ways of returns and ensuring customer satisfaction. All Indian e-commerce companies have a lot of sophistication to do, and so there's a lot of potential for that kind of innovation.

The App Only strategy was your baby. It failed, and you left (as read here)

Flipkart's App Only ambitions were around before I joined the company. I have always held the view that Mobile is a mindset and not a channel strategy.

We have been responsible for ensuring that both the Mobile Website (Flipkart Lite) and Desktop site was re-launched. I am happy this is doing very well for Flipkart.

[Cofounder] Sachin [Bansal] and you fell apart, and he fired you in the name of restructuring.

Sachin and I are good friends. He came to Mountain View and convinced me of the power of the company he's building.

Flipkart

To be fair to them, they've spent time trying to figure out if there's an alternate role for me. There's reorganization, and we've shifted to a different setup.

Nobody has left anybody. It's very amicable. We've just decided I want to do something else, and they want to do something else.

This restructuring is about cost-cutting, and Flipkart couldn't afford you.

I can't comment on the restructuring as it's an internal strategic matter.

What I can say is core e-commerce is a difficult business to make money on. It takes time to put together a startup that lets you even break even. Amazon and Alibaba have been at it for decades.

There are changes that happen in the company in the meanwhile, but you don't fix your cost structure overnight by moving people around. It's a natural evolution in the company to get to where it needs to be.

So why did you leave?

The last year has been a bit of a journey for me on a personal and professional level. There are a couple of areas that I'm interested in that are not in the space Flipkart operates in. I feel it's more useful for me to explore that.
As Flipkart evolved, and got where it is, I think it was a natural inflection point.

What's your passion? What did you want that you didn't get that you left?

I know where you're going with this. It's got nothing to do with Flipkart.

The areas, I'm not ready to talk about yet. I'll talk about it in a couple of months when I'm ready to announce what I'm doing.

Is this an India-based product/service?

Whatever I do will have influence and impact in both countries. Whether I tackle both markets, and start simultaneously in both I don't know yet. It's pretty clear to me it's going to be a Silicon Valley-based startup and will have some connection with India.

Do you have a launch deadline in mind?

There's no deadline, but in the next six months things will be pretty clear.

I'll be shuttling between the US and India during this time.

What's your take on the Indian media and how they've treated the Indian startup ecosystem vis-a-vis what you've seen in the Valley?

To be honest, I think the Indian media is a bit of a circus. There are some good people, but way too much is written without any substantiation. Whenever you see an article in a leading daily with 'unnamed sources', you have to question how they put these things together. Nobody even has the courtesy to call and ask.

Tabloid journalism happens in the US and UK too. But I expect mainstream media to be more ethical about what they write.

Secondly, I think the Indian startup scene gets a lot of scrutiny, and rightfully so. India and Indians have realized this is going to be very incidental to their future. However, they should focus more on strategy than personality.

Does this hero worship not happen in the Bay Area?

This kind of conversation does not happen as much in the Bay Area. There are gossip columns however.

I remember waking up one day after partying really hard, and went to a burrito place, and Larry Page (co-founder, Google) was behind me, having some burritos. Nobody came up to him. They let him be.

In general, the cult of personality is little less there. It maybe because there are too many that are successful, or because the media is more mature there.

How long can it take for Bangalore to become like the Bay Area?

It takes way less time to put together a company there. The Bay Area is like a cookie cutter machine for startups. There are lawyers, startup consultants and office managers who know exactly what to do. There are places where you can start your office for free.

If we decided to start something today, we'll have a company, company name, incorporated, office, staff, healthcare and more in less than a week.

In India, it's a little bit harder. However, it's become easier, and the government can always work to make it much easier.

What's your take on the Indian startup ecosystem?

I think in the next decade you're going to see a Google-like company come out of India.

India has the largest volume of young entrepreneurial people in the world today. The energy here far outstrips that of the Bay Area. However, this ecosystem can do with more role models and mentors.

In the Bay Area, we always had somebody to handhold and teach us. Many people here who have that intense energy don't have enough mentors who can help them transform that into great companies.

It's important to have an ecosystem of support and mentorship in the country. That's what Valley already has. That's why more billion dollars come out of there than here. 

I think in the next decade you're going to see a Google-like company come out of India, and it's dumb to not be a part of this.

That's why I do my office hours, play advisor to a few companies, and might invest a bit also.

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