My Shop, Your Rules

How Meesho co-founder Vidit Aatrey achieved scale by giving up command

- By HIMANI KOTHARI

ON A HUMID JUNE AFTERNOON IN 2017, Elevation Capital's Mukul Arora sat across from Vidit Aatrey at a cafe in Bengaluru, the kind of place where startups are usually born. The two had been talking for nearly a year and a half, but that was the day Elevation decided to back Aatrey's startup Meesho (which stands for meri [my] shop). At the time, neither of them perhaps knew the impact their meeting would have on the ecommerce industry and on their own fortunes.

Eight years and one business pivot later, Meesho went public in a blockbuster IPO in December, generating the kind of wealth that is the stuff of venture capital (VC) dreams.