Zerodha’s CEO reveals the company never hire graduates from IITs and IIMs

• ByStartupStory     |    January 27, 2023

The founders of Zerodha, an online stock trading company, have revealed that they do not hire people who have graduated from colleges such as IIT and IIM. While the report may astound you, Zerodha’s founder, Nithin Kamath, believes it will be difficult to accommodate such people in its organisation.

During an interview, Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath revealed that the online stock trading company has never hired anyone from the IITs or IIMs. Kamath stated in a podcast that he does not hire from those organisations because they are more concerned with developing their careers than with the company’s growth.

“We’ve never hired a single person from IIT and IIM till now, because we’ve found it very tough to fit such people within the organization. The thing about IITs and IIMs is that when you’re in that kind of environment, you’re wired to think about how quickly you can grow in life.This culturally doesn’t fit well (at Zerodha) because we can’t tell people how quickly they can grow,” Kamath continued.

However, Kamath stated that he is not opposed to hiring them if they meet Zerodha’s criteria. IITs or IIMs, he wasn’t against such candidates as long as they met Zerodha’s requirements.

 “If you’re okay getting up every day, doing something different, and looking to keep getting better as a business, if you’re okay with taking that chance, we can hire you,” he added. 

Having said that, Kamath believes that finding such people in the IITs and IIMs is difficult. In shedding light on startup culture, Kamath emphasises that people in such places want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. They are unwilling to grow.

During a podcast, Kamath mentioned that he does not consider educational qualifications when hiring people for Zerodha. Passion is more important to him than education. 

“At least for the core team, the people who do important stuff at Zerodha, we see if they’re passionate about the cause. Education doesn’t matter,” Kamath says.

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