Flipkart and Navi founder Sachin Bansal says he works 80 to 100 hours a week

Navi founder Sachin Bansal also revealed that the use of AI had proven productive in other areas such as data annotation work as well as it has helped achieve faster results.

After building and selling Flipkart, Sachin Bansal is now focusing on his fintech startup Navi. In an interview with Moneycontrol, Bansal said that he is giving all his time to the financial services company - putting in 80 to 100 hours a week and even working on weekends.

Founded in 2018, Navi, like many other companies, resorted to remote work during the pandemic. But Bansal says that was temporary. The startup, according to Bansal, has no place for remote work today. He acknowledges that some of his team members may “hate” him for this stance, as for the number of hours he puts in every week. But Bansal says he does not expect his colleagues to work as many hours as he does, even though everyone is expected to work from office.

“We were very clear that we want to be work-from-office. Work from home was a temporary phenomenon in my mind. It was never a permanent one. We are 100 percent work from office. Zero work from home,” he told Moneycontrol.

The IIT-Delhi alumnus is “completely immersed” in the running of Navi, so much so that he has stopped being an angel investor. Instead, all his time is devoted to his new company.

“Yeah, I have completely stopped,” he told Moneycontrol. “I am completely immersed here. Spending a lot of time in office, almost weekends also.

“Sometimes people hate me for that. First is there is no work from home and then you must come on weekends also, but yeah, I am spending like 80-100 hours a week,” said Bansal.

“I mean, I don't expect others to do it,” the founder of Flipkart clarified. “But I am myself spending a lot of time. Because business is such an exciting space right now. It requires a lot of attention to small details.”