The Bill Imada Top 50 Unsung Heroes 2024

Zepto, an instant grocery delivery startup founded by two teenagers, Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha, brought their company to a valuation of $900 million in just nine months.

Vohra had “a couple of long conversations” to convince his parents for him to drop out of Stanford for his startup. But pulling them on board wasn’t hard, he added, his parents witnessed how rapidly they grew the business in front of them.

In a recent interview with CNBC Make It, the young founders shared how did they build one of India’s fastest-growing quick commerce apps.

People didn’t take the 19-year-olds seriously due to their age and their “crazy” under-10-minute delivery idea. However, their conviction in their product kept them going and helped them convince investors, senior executives, and government authorities. Zepto’s $200 million in May got it closer to unicorn status.

“If we don’t build it, somebody else will. When you operate with that mentality, everything becomes less intimidating.” Palicha told CNBC. 

During the early stages of Zepto, Palicha and Vohra handled all of the company’s customer service inquiries to determine a clear product-market fit. They even brought goods to customers so that they could have a brief conversation and gain valuable insight from them. Palicha claims that they are still doing it in the present day.

Palicha and Vohra had been friends since they were seven. For Vohra, it’s their ability to “hold each other accountable” that brought them this far. 

“Kaivalya and I really complement each other’s skill set. He has always been more technically sound than I am, so he’s made a great chief technology officer,” said Palicha. 

We’ve all heard the stories of people who have started with next to nothing and come out ahead. They are able to turn their passions into successful businesses while providing them with a sense of purpose. But what does it really take to become a successful entrepreneur? 

As a Filipina single mom who built a business in Canada, Lorephil Toledo had to overcome a lot of challenges before achieving success. She is now the CEO of her own company and an inspiring Filipino dreamer for female entrepreneurs around the world. 

At a young age, Lorephil was already used to running her own business. She used to sell clothes, shoes, and underwear at school to pay for her own food. She has never been shy, and she even uses her skills to provide tutoring services in order to increase her income. 

In 2011, Lorephil sought work in Canada. Her oldest was 2 and her youngest was 11 months. She was unhappy because she had to spend so much time away from her children in order to earn. 

She overcame homesickness and missed her children by cleaning. “I found myself distracted by cleaning houses because I was homesick. I’m dreaming that my children are in here while I’m doing housework. I felt good every time I cleaned the house,” she explained.

Lorephil quickly realized that she could turn her pastime into a profitable business. Lorephil started the successful CanaJan Inc., a janitorial services company. Through her entrepreneurial spirit and hard work, Lorephil was able to serve the community with the best janitorial services.  

She started out on her own and now oversees a team of 15 people. More than 350 of her clients are consistent, and she brings in millions of dollars annually. She is a multi-award winner, having been named Entrepreneur of the Year, New Citizen of the Year, and New Business of the Year in addition to being named Ambassador of the Filipino Canadian Trades. She was also invited to speak by the provincial government of Alberta.

When sharing her story, Lorephil mentioned a few of the lessons she has learned along the way. She encouraged everyone to have big goals. She believes that there is no impossibility in life, even for the poor, and that there should be no limit to one’s dreams. 

She advises to work hard, “If you want to succeed, you have to work hard for it.” She felt dreams can’t come true without labor. She worked seven days a week for her company. She got four hours of sleep, skipped holidays for five years, and reinvested her money.

Lorephil is a firm believer in the saying “ “Don’t Quit.” She is confident that every difficulty can be overcome and that there is always a way out.

She upholds that in order to properly serve your customers, you must first properly serve your team. This is her reason for treating her employees well and providing free services to her regular customers. She added,  “If you give something to the universe, it will come back double times.”

“Choose to be an entrepreneur because then you desire a life of adventure, endless challenge, and the opportunity to be your best self.” — a remarkable statement from “Big John”, the founder and former chairman of JG Summit, one of the largest companies in the Philippines. 

John Gokongwei, a Filipino businessman, investor, and philanthropist, died in 2019 at age 93, but his legacy and business lessons continue to inspire. John created JG Summit, a worldwide conglomerate with assets in one of the Philippines’ largest Telecommunications companies PLDT, Manila Electric Company, and other international companies.

John’s grandfather, Pedro Gotiaoco, was one of Cebu’s richest persons in the 19th century. He was from Fujian province in China and was the owner of the massive trading firm Gotiaoco Hermanos. However, their family went bankrupt during the Great Depression, leaving them homeless.

John, his mother, and five siblings returned to China while his father stayed in the Philippines. At 14, he started selling peanuts to support his family. He quickly realized a bicycle would help him get more done. He saved money and eventually had enough to sell his goods in nearby cities.

At 17, he followed in his family’s footsteps and entered the trading business. He used a small boat to transport goods between Cebu and Manila. 

In order to put his siblings through school in China, he had to double his work. After the war, John saw it as an opportunity to expand his trading business internationally. Amasia Trading, his first company, sold and bought goods in the United States, Manila, and the Visayas region. 

Resulting from his fruitful dealings in Amasia Trading, John finally got to see his family again. When they get back to the Philippines, they helped run their father’s business which is American-Asia Trading. 

He then got interested in the cornstarch sector but needed the funds to get started. After numerous banks turned him down to secure a loan, Dr. Albino Sycip of China Bank lent him P500,000 ($8900). John founded Universal Corn Products in 1954, and eventually expanded into variety of products, it became Universal Robina Corporation (URC).

URC became one of the country’s major food and beverage firms, while one of the Philippines’ largest business empires, the JG Summit Holdings continues to grow. He also founded Consolidated Food Corporation (later CFC), Cebu Pacific Air, and Robinson Retail Holdings. According to Forbes, John was the third richest Filipino at the time of his death.

Big John’s success was largely a result of his management style and leadership abilities, in addition to the fact that he has proven to be a crafty business leader. He will be forever remembered as a self-made billionaire who began by selling peanuts and was one of the most enduring entrepreneurs in history. 

Greater diversity in tech overall could solve some of the industry’s biggest problems, including fighting disinformation, hate speech, and harassment in online spaces, said the former Reddit CEO, Ellen Pao in a recent podcast interview.

While women have made achievements in tech, their numbers are still low. A survey from AnitaB.org, a global group for women engineers, predicts it could take 12 years for women to see equality in the industry.

In 2012, Pao sued her then employer Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers for gender discrimination in San Francisco. The jury sided with the VC firm, but Pao became the face of the issue.

Pao shares with Jennifer Palmieri in her podcast that facing the Silicon Valley guys’ club inspired her to lead Reddit in 2014. During her time as the CEO of one of the biggest discussion websites, she didn’t have imposter syndrome as she had always thought that she had seen so many “horrible” male CEOs and board members.

The Taiwanese-American felt confident in her qualifications despite the Silicon Valley narrative that favors Caucasian and male college dropouts. “Maybe I’m not going to be perfect, and maybe I’m going to make mistakes, but it’s not going to be like some of these other mistakes I’ve seen.”

One of Pao’s priorities, when she was at Reddit, was strengthening the anti-harassment policy and clearing the site of nude pictures and revenge porn. Critics of the plan, mostly men, argued such measures were a form of censorship.

Today, however, Pao thinks that current tech leaders are driven to not prohibit hate speech because it boosts social media engagement and profitability.

As the majority white, male, and affluent tech leaders don’t see and experience problems the same way marginalized communities do, Pao believes that they can’t solve these issues.

Pao credits her mother, who is an engineer, for instilling in her a strong sense of right and wrong, which led her to speak up when she witnessed overqualified women and colleagues of color not getting promoted at the same pace as White men.