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In an interview with Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator, Aadit Palicha expressed regret for penning his contentious post in December 2024. Aadit Palicha, the CEO of Zepto, is creating a stir with his latest podcast with Y Combinator, an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm, in which he discussed the development of rapid commerce in India and the company’s path. Palicha’s controversial 2024 post on work-life balance, nevertheless, was one subject that caught everyone’s attention.
He shared a post regarding the debate over work-life balance in December 2024. “I have nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors," Palicha wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on December 4, 2024.
The post immediately provoked criticism, with many people accusing him of encouraging a poisonous workplace culture. In retrospect, Palicha acknowledged during the podcast that he wishes he had not written it. The podcast host, Garry Tan, brought up the post during the interview and asked him what he thought of it.
“You once tweeted, ‘Nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors," Tan said during the podcast. Palicha referred to it as a “stupid idea" right away.
The CEO of Zepto went on to discuss the company’s work culture in more detail. “Join Zepto if you’re really looking to do the best work of your life. This is the place that is going to get that out of you because it is a very execution-focused culture," he explained.
But he admitted that not everyone would be able to handle the high-intensity setting. “You’re accountable for real problem statements every day. You can actually become like the best version of yourself.
And I think it’s not for everybody, right? That sort of mindset and thought process. But it is for the super ambitious and the super capable that really want to get the best out of themselves," Palicha further said in the podcast. Watch the complete video here: Palicha also discussed Zepto’s close call with bankruptcy during the funding crisis of 2022–2023.
He explained how the Silicon Valley Bank crisis and hiring errors almost caused the company to fail. “The biggest mistakes I made were wrong hires," he stated, adding, “We almost died. Those mistakes were very costly, especially during that 2022–2023 period when it was existential for us.
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