Zomato woos ex-entrepreneurs to ramp up operations

Company now looking at bringing into its fold at least half a dozen ex-entrepreneurs or current founders looking for change

Sahil Ludhani and Alok Jain are two of a kind. Both are former entrepreneurs and work for online restaurant guide Zomato.com.

Ludhani, 25, heads the 15-member team of Zomato New Zealand, an operation he set up from the scratch. A former McKinsey business analyst, he ran a sports bar in Gurgaon before joining Zomato.

Thirty-five-year old Jain, the portal’s chief marketing officer, has been a serial entrepreneur of sorts. Over the past decade, he has founded or co-founded four start-ups — a mobile application firm, a digital marketing company, an online photo-printing service and a tee-shirt selling portal.

“There is an entrepreneurial culture here. That helps,” says Jain, who joined Zomato earlier this year after a successful exit from his mobile app business.

Buoyed by the initial success in hiring former entrepreneurs — who can kick-start a new business or ramp up operations quickly — Zomato is now looking at bringing into its fold at least half a dozen ex-entrepreneurs or current founders looking for change. They would lead the charge across job roles that involve product development, operations, design, managing P&L accounts and the legal team.

There is a separate link at Zomato’s hiring page (http://www.zomato.com/leadership) addressed specifically to draw former founders to the company. Since it put out the link three weeks ago, the portal has received 300-odd applications — around 90% from those with entrepreneurial experience.

Depending on position and job profile, the ex-entrepreneurs are offered a mix of cash and equity in their remuneration package, says Upasana Nath, chief recruitment officer, Zomato.

The restaurant search portal is currently in the process of expanding its reach from 40 cities across 11 countries to 22 nations over the next two years. In November, Zomato announced a fresh round of funding, of $37 million, from Sequoia Capital and existing investor Info Edge.

Most e-commerce companies in India do not have a structured programme to attract entrepreneurial talent into the organisation. However, human resource (HR) heads say such candidates are given additional weight, given their proven ability to run companies, take strategic decisions, lead teams, or develop products.

According to Anupama Beri, HR head at Snapdeal, another e-commerce start-up, candidates with entrepreneurial background come at the mid-management level and in senior managerial roles, mostly through referrals.

Several e-commerce companies, backed with fresh fund infusion, have been on a hiring spree, attracting top talent from premier engineering and management institutes. Flipkart, for instance, plans to hire 100 heads each from the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management.