‘We Almost Died’: Aadit Palicha Reveals How Silicon Valley Bank Crisis And Wrong Hiring Almost Collapsed Zepto

In a recent interview with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha opened up about the startup’s near-collapse during the 2022–2023 funding crunch.

Aadit Palicha reflects on Zepto's crisis period

As reported by The Economic Times, he shared how hiring missteps and the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) crisis nearly brought the quick commerce startup to a standstill.

“The biggest mistakes I made were wrong hires,” the Zepto boss admitted, pointing to early failures across finance, operations, marketing, and category management as critical pressure points.

Like many global startups, Palicha’s firm was hit hard by the sudden collapse of US-based SVB in March 2023.

The bank, which held deposits for thousands of tech firms, folded amid a liquidity crunch, freezing access to funds and instilling panic among founders.

“We almost died,” he remarked. “Those mistakes were very costly, especially during that 2022–2023 period when it was existential for us.”

At the height of the crisis, Palicha’s firm had operational funds stuck in SVB, along with several other Y Combinator-backed startups.

Also read: Deepika Padukone, MS Dhoni, Sanjeev Bajaj & Other Popular Faces Found To Have Backed Anmol Jaggi's BluSmart (startuppedia.in)

Zepto boss thanks Y Combinator on LinkedIn

In a recent LinkedIn post, the young entrepreneur credited Y Combinator with playing a crucial role in Zepto’s early growth, saying his startup may not have taken off without the accelerator’s backing.

According to Palicha, the challenging phase has reshaped Zepto’s approach to hiring.

“The most fundamental input to our company is execution excellence, and the biggest driver of that is high-quality people,” he added.

Also read: "ChatGPT Fixed My 5-Year Jaw Problem": LinkedIn Co-founder Shares Reddit Story Of AI Treating Chronic Issue (startuppedia.in)