Swiggy founder on creating a winning pitch deck, early food delivery days, & making logistics a moat

On the debut episode of PitchCraft Season 2, Swiggy Co-founder & CEO Sriharsha Majety joins Anand Daniel, Partner at Accel, to go deep on the pitch deck that started it all.

Before the IPO, before the scale, before the million-plus orders a day—there was a basic, no-frills deck. Built in under three days.

What made this pitch work? Why did Accel sign the seed check when the food delivery market looked crowded? And what can today’s founders learn from a decade-defining bet on speed, clarity, and consumer obsession?

Hosted by Chandra R Srikanth, this episode unpacks:

The insight that gave Swiggy its edge: Domino’s for every restaurant
How Harsha and the team kept their deck short, sharp, and belief-led
What early traction really means and why it isn’t everything
The mindset behind product decisions that scaled Swiggy from seed to IPO

This is a tactical, behind-the-scenes look at one of India’s biggest consumer tech journeys that serves as a playbook for founders raising their first round today.

Explore the full pitch deck on our website: - https://www.seedtoscale.com/podcast/i...

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
2:07 How Swiggy’s first pitch deck came together
03:09 Basics of the deck structure
04:24 Why food delivery
05:43 "Consumers asked for my favourite restaurant delivered fast"
06:30 The insight behind “Domino’s for every restaurant”
07:20 Naming Swiggy and thinking beyond delivery
08:13 Framing the problem with a logistics-first lens
08:56 What the deck got right (and how the numbers held up)
11:34 Why 15-minute delivery was in the original deck
13:14 Going all-in on mobile before it was obvious
14:02 Fundraising without number milestones
15:02 How user behaviour stayed consistent over a decade
16:01 Are pitch decks still relevant today?
17:34 What to include, and exclude, in your first deck
20:38 Why Accel backed Swiggy in a crowded market
23:31 The power of product focus and when to say no
25:34 Strong opinions, weakly held: a founder mindset
26:11 What really matters in a first meeting with investors
27:45 Early numbers don't paint the whole picture
29:03 Swiggy's initial lack of mobile-first strategy
30:25 Swiggy's approach to building new features
32:07 Scaling with clarity, not just ambition
33:11 Operational choices that built long-term trust
34:38 Adapting to the shift from startup to public company
37:18 From seed to IPO: what investors often miss
38:40 What’s next for Swiggy
39:33 Will quick food be the future of food delivery
41:00 Explore the full deck on SeedToScale

Catch the first season of PitchCraft:    • PitchCraft | A SeedToScale Initiative  

For more founder-first insights and content that helps you build with clarity and conviction, subscribe to SeedToScale and follow us:

SeedToScale on LinkedIn:   / seedtoscale  
SeedToScale on Twitter: https://x.com/Seed2Scale

Follow Sriharsha Majety:
  / sriharsha-m-563aa217  

Follow Anand Daniel:
  / ananddaniel  

Follow Chandra R. Srikanth:
  / chandra-r-srikanth-6b13a05  

About PitchCraft

PitchCraft is a series that demystifies what makes a winning pitch. We go behind the scenes with top founders and investors to democratize the art and science of fundraising.

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