We just got to 1 crore customers
We, @zerodhaonline just got to 1 crore customers. Looking back, the biggest tipping point was AADHAR for online account opening. Can’t thank the Government & SEBI & Exchanges & Depositories enough for making this happen.
A few things we did that had unintended benefits. The plan to rely on word-of-mouth & have a single offering for all customers had benefits that we never thought of at the start. Economies of scale kicked in not just in tech but across support & ops—the team size has remained the same as we went from 20lk to 1cr clients.
When customers are introduced by family or friends who are existing clients, they also tend to help bridge the knowledge gap about the platform at the start. A huge challenge for consumer apps in a complex business like ours. Can’t thank our customers enough for this.
We started by charging account opening fees to cover costs. We soon realised that the fee also created a sense of seriousness; trading is risky & isn’t like installing a gaming app. Also, only those with intent open accounts, reducing compliance costs of inactive accounts.
Don’t do unto others what you don’t want to be done unto you, has been at the core of everything we do. This meant no spam calls, emails or push notifications to open accounts or trigger trades. This also helped us gain credibility, the biggest challenge in broking business.