‘There are times when egos come into play': Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath, Nithin Kamath's formula to work in tandem

Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath revealed how he and his brother and Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath strike a balance when it comes to running the successful online stock broking company. To put it in context, Harvard Business School professor Noam Wasserman had claimed that 65 per cent of high-potential startups fail due to conflict among co-founders.

Kamath in the latest episode of his podcast WTF is with Nikhil Kamath, titled ‘WTF is the Next Gen Thinking?’ with guests Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, founders of Zepto, Navya Naveli Nanda, founder of Project Navya and co-founder of Aara Health, and Bollywood actor and singer Tara Sutaria, asked how they stop themselves from getting egoistic.

When the question was redirected to him, Nikhil Kamath said, “We have the added advantage of being brothers. We do completely different things. All my time is spent on stock-market related stuff, all his time is spent on people and broking related stuff. We don’t get into each other’s way. I do my piece and he does his piece and we happen to complement each other…that works for us.”

Also read: 'Would exit all positions by day-end': Zerodha's Nithin Kamath on how he, Nikhil Kamath made money amid 2008 financial crisis

“But that being said, there are times when egos come into play, there are times when misunderstandings happen. Luckily for us, things that really helped is that from the very beginning we had everything on paper,” he stated.

Kamath said that they had started their journey many years ago, when he was only 17. “We have been on this journey for so long now, and along the way we have had lawyers, constitutions, we have had many ups and downs…the one thing we never had is anyone outside… we did not have investors, debt, we have run it like an old-school shop…like an old-school baniya business in the farce of a modern company,” he said.

Neither of the brothers generally agree when there are misunderstandings, revealed Kamath. “But if it is my part of the business, if it is anything to do with stock-market, investing or trading-related stuff, I take the final call. If it is part of the business of product, people, broking, he takes the call,” said Kamath on how they maintain the balance and the line between their roles.

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Also read: 'Biggest trading mistakes': Zerodha's Nithin Kamath flags what stock market investors do wrong

Also read: ‘I quickly realised that Nikhil is a better trader than I am’: Nithin Kamath on the origins of Zerodha

Also read: 'Hated my school, teachers': Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath reveals why he quit education and started working