Bengaluru-based billionaire entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath has recently spoken up about why the country's startup capital is his favourite. In his podcast, WTF, the Zerodha co-founder highlighted the special characteristics of some of the metropolitan cities and how Bengaluru trumps them all despite poor roads and traffic woes.
Kamath said that the only thing that sets this city apart from the rest is its people. "The big, big differentiator at the end of the day-- scr** all the roads, the traffic... those things don't matter -- the people of Bengaluru are second to none (because of) the love they have for the city, how nice they are as people."
He then proceeded to list what most cities are famous for: Hyderabad for its biriyani, Bombay for its "good-looking people" and hustle culture, Delhi is famous for "people who have a lot of money and they know it", and "Bengaluru is famous for nice people". Kamath added that he finds the people in the city to be welcoming, "normal", understated, and subtle people.
Building companies in Bengaluru
Nikhil Kamath went on to say that the access to talent that Bengaluru offers is also second to no other city in the world, especially for startups. "If you have to build something, if you have to start a company, the access to talent at the cost you get in Bengaluru, I don't think you get that anywhere in the world," he said.
The Zerodha co-founder also revealed that he and other business leaders in Bengaluru including Biocon executive chairperson and billionaire Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw often meet to discuss ways to make the city "cooler".
"We are constantly working on projects to... how do we make Bangalore cooler in actual and from a narrative standpoint," he said, adding that one of the projects includes planting 10,000 cherry blossom trees in the central part of the city.
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