Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath revealed how a 15-year-old media appearance helped boost the discount broker's account openings significantly in its early days. According to reports from The Economic Times, the company's first press appearance on September 5, 15 years ago came during Zerodha's early sales-led phase, when Kamath was speaking to clients under the pseudonym 'Sachin'. As reported by Kamath, the article had an immediate impact on business performance, with account openings suddenly jumping from a few hundred accounts a month to almost 500. 'When this story came out, our account openings suddenly went from a few hundred accounts a month to almost 500. I was convinced I had discovered a growth hack,' Kamath stated, emphasizing his belief in the effectiveness of this early marketing strategy.
Kamath explained that he used the 'Sachin' pseudonym during sales calls to avoid clients being intimidated by speaking directly to the CEO. As reported by The Economic Times, he once picked up a call pretending to be Sachin, only to discover it was a journalist from The Economic Times. 'I was shocked. I had to suddenly switch from Sachin to Nithin,' Kamath wrote, adding that he faked a different accent to avoid recognition. The founder continued speaking to journalists over the next five to six years before traditional financial media's influence began weakening around 2017-18 due to social media and other factors. 'I first spoke to Nikhil as Sachin, my pseudonym for speaking to clients during sales calls. You didn't want the CEO making sales calls,' Kamath explained, noting that he had even met customers pretending to be Sachin in Zerodha's early days.
According to Kamath's post on X, the weakening influence of traditional financial media around 2017-18 pushed him to become more active on Twitter and LinkedIn. As reported by The Economic Times, he was not a very active social media user until then. 'If you look at what's been more beneficial for us between traditional media and social media, there's no comparison at all,' Kamath stated. He emphasized that direct storytelling works only if the founder knows how to communicate well, adding that 'If not, you become a meme.' The founder highlighted the power of 'The ability to tell your own story directly to the people is powerful,' marking a significant shift in Zerodha's communication strategy.
