A Goyal counter to another Goyal

Blitz Bureau

NEW DELHI: ZOMATO founder Deepinder Goyal is behaving like the Indian version of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and that should be good news for everyone. The naysayers will, of course, say that I get my head examined for comparing Goyal with Messrs Musk and Bezos. That’s because both Musk and Bezos now enjoy legendary status.

But let’s not forget that Bezos started Amazon from his father’s garage with money borrowed from his dad. In the case of Musk, it was entrepreneurship that saw him set up Zip2, then X.com, which later became PayPal and gave him considerable financial bandwidth to move on to SpaceX, and then, Tesla. What is common to the three is a streak of adventurism and the ability to take risks that borders on them being called loonies. That is what separates the exceptional from the ordinary – that courage to take the leap and traverse the unknown.

Uncharted territory

So, rather than scoff at Goyal and describe him as a food delivery-wallah with crazy dreams, one should applaud him for having the gumption to look beyond the regular safe business models that entrepreneurship in this country has become and exhibit the courage to explore the uncharted territory of creating value through original research and innovation. What it means is that Goyal is putting his money into fundamental design engineering and is willing to put in the hard yards needed in such a complex segment of aerospace.

For the record, LAT Aerospace (now, what does LAT stand for? The company hasn’t clarified, but AI says that “in aviation, LAT most commonly stands for Latitude. It’s a fundamental concept in navigation”) working from Bengaluru and Gurugram will drive this mission.

Vision explained

In a LinkedIn post, Goyal explained his vision: “India has tried building gas turbine engines before. And we’ve come close. At LAT, we want to get past the finish line. So, we’re putting together a propulsion research team in Bengaluru, focused solely on building gas turbine engines from scratch. Lightweight. Efficient. Flight-ready. Made in India. “What’s different this time?

“We’re giving engineers the freedom to think, build, break, and repeat. Our dedicated research centre – with labs for combustion, turbomachinery, thermal systems, and materials – will give engineers the space and freedom to iterate fast and get to real outcomes at a speed which is unprecedented in the industry.

“Also, this team will be led by engineers. No waiting around for approvals from ‘business’ people. No chasing slides or meetings. Just hands-on problem solving, running bench tests, working with suppliers, building hardware from scratch, and pushing the limits of design and physics every day.”

The Holy Grail

Co-founder Surobhi Das in her post on LinkedIn said, “Since we started LAT, this is all we’ve heard – ‘Engines are the holy grail, more complex than the aircraft itself’. Now, we want to build one from scratch. Lightweight. Efficient. Flight-ready. Made in India.” In many ways, Goyal and Das have been deeply hurt by the remarks of Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who slammed Indian startups, and said, “Selling fancy ice cream with attractive packaging is not a startup, but rather entrepreneurship and business”. He compared Indian startups with their Chinese counterparts, and said their focus was on AI and sectors that would help the nation be self-reliant. So, this is Zomato’s answer to the Commerce Minister. An engine made in India!

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