Buildit
Building Blinkit in An Evolving India
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Buy Now for ₹970.91
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Narrated by:
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Homiyar Sachinwalla
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Written by:
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Albinder Singh Dhindsa
Build. Break. Adapt. Persevere.
Sometime in early 2014, Albinder Singh Dhindsa set out to build a better way to deliver groceries across India-driven by urgency and belief, and with no fallback plan. What followed was a crash course in navigating a complex social and economic landscape, rife with unreliable infrastructure and supply chains, the instability of a rapidly evolving gig economy, capital that arrived with its own risks, and pigeon poop problems in his warehouses.
With no playbook to rely on, Albinder wrote his own in real time: pivoting fast, making high-stakes bets and building systems where none existed. In doing so, he reshaped how Indians get what they need every day, at speeds that have redefined consumer expectations. Today, Blinkit processes over three million orders in over 200 Indian cities daily and has expanded far beyond groceries--delivering everything from everyday essentials to iPhones and ambulances in under 10 minutes.
Buildit cuts through start-up mythology to offer a rare look inside a founder's mind--at how decisions are made under pressure, how trade-offs are weighed and how companies are built when certainty is a luxury. Sharp, deeply grounded and informed by Albinder's hard-won view of India's business landscape, this is both a candid founder's story and an essential read for anyone trying to build and scale in an unpredictable market.
"honest" sort of
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I came across something rather amusing on Blinkit today while placing order ORD00267653187. At checkout, Blinkit added a ₹30 “Rain Surge” charge. There was just one tiny problem.
It wasn’t raining.
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Bengaluru has been having a fairly dry spell for the past week, with temperatures rising nicely—but apparently Blinkit has access to a different weather department.
I placed the order anyway and contacted support to understand this mysterious meteorological surcharge. To her credit, Apeksha from your support team was professional and helpful. She checked and explained that the ₹30 charge wasn't actually because of rain. It was because of high demand.
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Interesting. So the app tells me “Rain Surge”, while your support team tells me “High Demand.” I'm no lawyer, but I'm reasonably sure those aren't synonyms. If Blinkit wants to charge a demand-based surcharge, that's entirely your commercial decision. Call it a demand surge, peak-hour charge, congestion fee—or even a “Because We Feel Like It” fee.
But calling it Rain Surge when it isn't triggered by rain is misleading. And that's the part worth writing to you about. I'm not interested in getting my ₹30 back. The amount is insignificant. What concerns me is the practice of quietly slipping charges into a checkout experience under labels that don't accurately explain what the customer is paying for.
Most customers won't notice. Some will notice and won't bother. And a few, unfortunately for Blinkit, will ask questions.
I happened to be one of the last category.
Just a month back I read your book Buildit and now I remember a line from your book :
“The customer you have is more precious than the customer you want.”
It's a great philosophy. It would be even better if Blinkit's checkout experience reflected it.
Because customers can accept a surcharge. What they shouldn't have to accept is one explanation on the screen and another explanation from customer support.
₹30 may be insignificant to me. But multiplied across thousands—or millions—of orders, these “insignificant” charges become a very significant business model. You've built Blinkit to make convenience almost ridiculously fast. It would be unfortunate if, along the way, Blinkit also became remarkably efficient at making customers pay for things without quite telling them what they're paying for.
Perhaps it's worth building a little more trust into the checkout experience too.
Bad Scene - DARK PATTERNS
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