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Zero to Billions - The Zerodha Story: An inspiring story on how a startup disrupted the Indian Stock Market

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Zerodha is the largest brokerage firm in India. It has the largest number of active clients and the trading turnover on the exchanges. The journey of Zerodha started in 2010 as a small broker to the leading stockbroker in India is a really inspiring one and leaves many lessons for all aspiring entrepreneurs. It's great to see how a company that took off with a team of just seven people has now converted to a big company of 1300 people, serving millions of customers. Above all, Zerodha has completely disrupted the way Indian capital markets are functioning. To add some more feathers in its cap, Zerodha facilitates two to three million trades every day, making it one of the largest retail brokerage firms globally. The tale of Zerodha started when a young man thought of making the trading business barrier-free and convenient for the traders. Hence the name Zerodha comes from the words' Zero' and 'Rodha,' the latter is a Sanskrit word for barrier or obstruction. The man behind this massive success is none other than Nithin Kamath. He had realized the problems faced by traders, especially the younger ones who are new to this field. During his journey from trader to sub-broker, he was acquainted with the stock market and the limitations in existing stockbrokers' services. The hefty charges and the very opaque and old-fashioned way that the entire industry was working led him to think differently. He reimagined the Indian Stockbroking industry. He hoped to provide trading services at lower fees and a user-friendly platform with reliability. With this vision in his mind, he started his journey to Zerodha. This book is a glimpse of his phenomenal journey as the founder of Zerodha. The story of Zerodha bootstrapping themselves into one of the finest stockbrokers in India, and becoming a unicorn along the way, is indeed a must-read for all those who aim to achieve great things in life. There are many inspiring lessons for all aspiring entrepreneurs from this journey.

52 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 23, 2021

233 people are currently reading
214 people want to read

About the author

ABHISH B

11 books4 followers

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5 stars
288 (46%)
4 stars
187 (30%)
3 stars
104 (16%)
2 stars
24 (3%)
1 star
17 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
Profile Image for Shashank.
150 reviews2 followers
February 2, 2023
A quick, interesting and insightful read on how the Kamath brothers set up the largest trading and brokerage company in India. It’s more factual and covers the main milestones and ‘tipping points’ for the company.

Zerodha comes from zero ‘rodha’ intended to mean zero obstacles for its clients - people who wanted to invest or trade in stock markets but were put off by the fear of the markets, the cumbersome processes or the trading costs.

Its a useful book for people who are interested in the stock market but are wary (or too adventurous) as Nithin shares his thoughts on how to handle investments and risk in general. The book makes one feel happy to read how a person from a humble beginning achieved great heights on account of his hard work and intelligence (luck too but Nithin seems to discount it to a certain extent).

I’ll suggest it to fresh entrepreneurs and investors, and to anyone who wants to read through the success story of an Indian bootstrapped business. The book can be completed in an hour or so, which is a good investment of time to learn some valuable lessons from Zerodha’s journey.
Profile Image for Paquita (coffee life reads).
42 reviews4 followers
March 21, 2023
A quick and inspiring read on how the Indian stock market could be impacted by a small startup.
One lesson learnt through the story of Zerodha- “find a problem that you are passionate about solving, build core competencies around it and start executing the ideas without waiting for the perfect time”
Profile Image for Nidhi Maheshwari.
4 reviews
March 2, 2022
It is quite the stereotypical journey of rags to riches but truly inspiring.

Kudos to the writer as well for portraying the story so beautifully and easily.

I read it in one sitting and have very positive feelings about the story,

And love the way it shows that your work ethics and values are the core of your success and proves it as well.

A good read for sure!

Ps. For more book reviews and short story blogs find me at thecaffables.com
Profile Image for Ram Sahu.
14 reviews1 follower
March 24, 2024
It's a very small book which provides a brief understanding of the ideology of Nithin Kamath and his outlook to life. This book provides a very brief glimpse of how Nithin started Zerodha and how he was able to challenge the existing stock brokers to create his own company. The book also highlights few key takeaways from Nithin's point of view about how not to chase money but to chase passion and excellence. Overall, a good read but I found it to be very brief and concise.
Profile Image for Chetan Vashistth.
30 reviews6 followers
March 5, 2022
A small book that can be finished in single sitting.

Very well written and it seems that you are talking to Nithin and Nithin is also opening up to you. It touch upon multiple points but bootstrapping a company of Zerodha's scale is my personal favourite.

One should read if one like either startups or investing, I love both :)
Profile Image for Nithin Satheesan.
2 reviews
February 25, 2024
Short and precise writing. The story is also equally inspiring.

One area of complaint though is that the author did not capture how the business ran in a profitable manner despite offering their product virtually free. It would have helped as this question still remained in my head after completing the book.
1 review
May 10, 2025
Not a bad short intro

Informational and motivational. Zerodha copied etrade discount brokerage from USA just as swiggy copied doordash and sattarbaksh copied Starbucks. Don't wait around searching for an original idea. Get inspired and add your own execution flavour and become wildly successful.
43 reviews
April 27, 2021
Brilliant

Brilliant insights into the mind of a young entrepreneur who disrupted the stock market by introducing revolutionary products and services. Some valuable lessons to remember.
Profile Image for Akshay Pathade.
34 reviews1 follower
February 28, 2022
Short, to the point account of what, why and how of Zerodha.

To the point book, written in very simple yet effective way. It shares a lots of wisdom in very concise way. A must read, if you want to understand thought process behind how Zerodha became a reality.
Profile Image for Prem.
2 reviews
March 10, 2022
Inspiring

Inspiring and what I liked most is that, how he pulled up without any investor in beginning. And how the IT team did something paradigm shift in the way terminals are clutter free and user can access it from any device.
Profile Image for Abhishek  Lodhi.
64 reviews
March 12, 2022
It's a quick read wherein author tells the story of making of Zerodha and the endeavours of a common man. Crisply written with dates and data to maintain the flow to explain the growth of Zerodha...!!
16 reviews1 follower
May 8, 2022
I read this book because I wanted to start investing and was looking for some online brokerage portal and then I cam to know about Zerodha. To get deeper about it I bought this book a d I must say that I am really impressed by it. I am impressed by the values by which this company is established.
21 reviews
September 13, 2022
Impressive story

Really an impressive story on how one can achieve one's goals through persistence, passion with focus on social cause that too in an age old industry. Such an inspiring breakthrough revolution story ought to be written in much more details.
1 review
February 24, 2023
Mundane

A very superfluou description of ZeroDha and it's founders journey..appears to be more like a Wikipedia approach. Seems the author did not actually connect with Kamath's before putting this out.
Profile Image for Anil Kumar Gade.
16 reviews
January 2, 2022
It is an edit story of Wikipedia juxtaposed with a few of titular character's interviews. A good and quick read though. Enjoyed it.
1 review
February 7, 2022
Excellent book

I read whole book in one go, its so inspiring and worth it for startups. One's who want to start startup should read it
Profile Image for Mohammad rayees.
4 reviews
February 27, 2022
Good one

A very crisp and to the point. Fantastic read. Enjoyed reading. A very informative book. Very well done. Kudos to the author
72 reviews1 follower
March 5, 2022
It's a long article, not a book. If you want depth, this is not it.
Profile Image for Naveen Kumar m.
12 reviews1 follower
March 6, 2022
Be disciplined and move towards ur passion

Loved the hard work and dedication put up by Nitin and has become inspiration for many entrepreneurs across globe.. ಶುಭವಾಗಲಿ ಜೆರೋಧಾ..
3 reviews
March 25, 2022
Upto the mark

No-nonsense book, much better than other so called self help books written for commercial purposes with a lot of circumlocution
Profile Image for Twinsbytaste.
22 reviews1 follower
March 30, 2022
A very short story about the interesting journey of the trading brothers who broke the stereotypes and become billionaire
2 reviews
May 3, 2022
Good book for market enthusiastic people

A book has a very simple language. I liked it more because I always wanted to understand the journey of Zerodha.
Profile Image for Minesh Mehta.
89 reviews1 follower
January 1, 2023
Inspirational

Very well described the his journey from Zero to Hero of Indian online trading platform. Open my account and waiting to learn and earn with Zerodha
Profile Image for Hemani.
13 reviews
June 8, 2023
Great case study, especially for beginners in the stock market.
Profile Image for Uttam Sushant.
Author 3 books
October 4, 2023
Not the Zerodha Story.

Although the title name is the Zerodha Story. But it is a Zoho story. I am very disappointed. Amazon must take care of it.
5 reviews
Read
October 23, 2023
It is a story on Zoho

Uninteresting read. First its said Zerodha story byt talks only of Zoho as a company.
Second its like a story book that a 4th grader
Profile Image for Ashwini.
347 reviews
January 21, 2024
Short. Very short. But interesting. Not a lot of insights but enough to get you to start digging around and finding more.
6 reviews
March 11, 2024
Good

Good book and good thoughts on trading through the experience of Zerodha founder. He has changed the way India trades
1 review
March 19, 2024
Excellent book.

I got to know about Zerodha and the person behind it. Bootstrapped company which broke records of stock market. Very inspiring story.
Profile Image for Sankalp Kak.
26 reviews
April 20, 2024
Does what it sets out to do and well. Provides information about zerodha, how it was setup, motivation etc in a concise format.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews

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