‘Only those with body fat <16% (men) and 26% (women) should apply’: Deepinder Goyal hiring for Temple; netizens joke about quitting Zomato

Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal announced that his health-tech startup Temple is hiring engineers, but with a condition.

Deepinder Goyal's hiring post for Temple

Goyal shared that all applicants must have less than 16 per cent body fat in case of men and 26 per cent for women, or they should commit to reaching that mark within three months.

Goyal, who resigned as managing director and group CEO of Eternal last month to pursue what he described as “new ideas that involve significantly higher-risk exploration and experimentation,” is now building the engineering team for Temple, a wearable device currently in the research prototype stage.

In a post on X, the foodtech entrepreneur announced that Temple is hiring across engineering disciplines, ranging from machine learning specialists to neural decoding researchers for what he called the “ultimate wearable for elite performance athletes”.

“Important – we are building for people who push their bodies to the edge. We want to be those people, not just serve them. So only people who take fitness seriously, and have body fat <16% (men) and 26% (women) should apply. If you're not there yet but will commit to getting there in three months, you can apply too; but you'll be on probation until you are,” Goyal stated.

He claimed that the Temple device is designed to test whether long-term changes in brain blood flow could be a meaningful upstream driver or accelerator of ageing.

Goyal has previously called it an “experimental device to measure brain flow precisely, in real time, and continuously”.

He had revealed that the idea for Temple emerged from his experiments with health optimisation, which over the years included tracking blood markers, fasting, meditation, hyperbaric chamber routines, supplements, and other longevity-focused practices.

We're recruiting at @temple.

At Temple, we are building the ultimate wearable for elite performance athletes. A device that measures what no other wearable in the world measures, with a level of precision that doesn't exist yet.

To build it, we need people who are obsessive… pic.twitter.com/iCHaMUwdEw

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) February 27, 2026

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Netizens respond

However, netizens are questioning the relevance of physical fitness metrics to product development roles.

One user commented, “Fun fact- to get under 16% body fat for men, they need to quit using the zomato app”.

Another wrote, “Genuine question: What does body fat % have to do with building great products? Some of the best sports tech was built by engineers and designers who weren't elite athletes themselves. Empathy and craft > personal fitness metrics”.

“I don't think there exists an Embedded Systems Engineer with less than 16 per cent body fat tbh,” said one user.

Another said, “We really got body fat as a hiring criteria before GTA 6.”

Another commented: “Big vision. I like the obsession with quality and performance. Just one honest thought, hiring based on body fat percentage may not be the best filter. Some great engineers who love fitness and train seriously may not fit that number, but they can still build amazing products.”

PTI emailed a spokesperson for Zomato seeking a response to Goyal’s post. However, no comment was received at the time of publication.

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