267: 10 minute food delivery was impossible, until Swish…

About this episode

Aniket Shah quit his job with no startup idea, gave himself 18 months, and ended up building Swish one of India’s fastest-growing 10-minute food delivery companies, now serving 1 million lifetime users with 220+ freshly made items.In this episode of Unstarted by Z47, Aniket sits down with Anish to unpack the journey from Ahmedabad to IIT Kharagpur, early stints at Citibank, Jupiter, Pillow Fund (crypto) and Meesho, and the 4 PM hungry-in-a-café moment that sparked Swish. We go deep on product-market fit, why Pillow Fund shut down despite 1M+ users, choosing co-founders, the “digital-first QSR” thesis, kitchen automation, and why the best product not the first mover wins in food.Whether you’re a founder, operator, or just someone who orders a samosa at midnight, this one’s for you.🎧 Unstarted is the podcast for founders, by founders,⏱️ Chapters below 👇00:00 The thesis: why 10-minute food should exist 01:15 Crypto to samosas, meet Aniket Shah 02:30 Ahmedabad childhood & unusual parenting 04:00 Memory talent: reverse alphabet, cricket stats, WWE cards 06:15 IIT Kharagpur & the entrepreneurial pull 07:45 Citibank internship & turning down the offer 09:30 Joining Jupiter: UPI product from day one 11:30 Pillow Fund: the crypto 18% interest bet 13:45 Why Pillow shut down — user love & product-market fit 17:00 How to know if you have PMF 18:30 A brief stint at Meesho 19:30 Do you need a co-founder? Chemistry over physics 23:00 Do you need an original idea? 25:00 The 4 PM café moment that sparked Swish 28:00 Owning the full supply chain & "neighborhood kitchens" 30:30 The digital-first QSR thesis 32:30 Kitchen automation, AI & consistency at scale 36:00 Counterintuitive learnings & customer food habits 39:30 Hits & misses: snacks, beverages, meals 42:00 Competition: "run against yourself" 44:00 Mumbai launch & why not expand to 5 cities at once 46:30 Advice to the unstarted: don't wait for perfect 48:30 Memory challenge & sign-off