The story of Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath is unique. They proved that college degrees are not a prerequisite to success. The brothers developed and nurtured a Fintech company, Zerodha, that made a profit of over Rs 2,000 crore this year. This, at a time when startups are increasingly finding burn rates fashionable. The company is mostly bootstrapped. The brothers tried to secure funding but were denied in the absence of a formal education. But they made up for the lack of former education with natural talent, originality in ideas, hunger to learn the trade and pure hard work.
Nikhil Kamath is the younger of the two. Last year, he made it to the top of the Hurun Self-Made Rich List 2022. At that time, his net worth was a whopping Rs 17,500 crore. He became a billionaire in 2021 when he was just 34. He has led an interesting life. He hated school as a child. He found school education inhibiting.
He showed early promise. At the age of 14, he started selling used phones. Her mother, upset with the business, flushed down all the phones in the toilet. The school management was also upset with his lack of appreciation for formal education. They were denying him the chance to appear for the Class 10 board exams. Kamath dropped out of school.
At the age of 17, he secured a job at a call centre at a paltry salary of Rs 8000. He faked his birth certificate over it. He then moved out of his parents' home and started living with his girlfriend.
"I worked from 4 PM to 1 AM at the call center, and in the mornings, I tried my hand at trading. I learnt a lot; when you move away from the family ecosystem and the judgement of relatives, you get down to the real stuff," he told Humans of Bombay.
However, his father always had faith in him. He gave him his savings to manage. He later convinced his call centre employees to do the same. He said he never worked but the employees used to mark him present as he was managing their money.
In 2010, they launched Zerodha.
He said being a billionaire hasn't changed one fact about him -- he still spends 85 percent of his time working.
Zerodha is a trading application whose USP is that it charges very less money as fee. It earned a profit of Rs 2094 crore. The company has no employees from IIT or IIM. Nithin Kamath had explained why. He said people with prestigious degrees prioritise career growth over what's best for the company. The company also has a very small attrition rate. The company has at least 1 crore users.
Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath reportedly earn a salary package of Rs 100 crore each. This includes a base salary of Rs 4.16 crore, Rs 2 crore for housing rent, Rs 1.6 crore for other perks and Rs 41 lakh for extra allowances.
