‘Good in the Long Term’: Nithin Kamath on Zerodha’s No Notification Policy

Last Update:26 October 2024 13:40 IST

Nithin Kamath explained that Zerodha’s philosophy since day one has been “don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you”.

Nithin Kamath explains that “not encouraging users to trade” helps increase long-term customer appreciation. (Image Credit: Instagram/nithinkamath)

According to co-founder Nithin Kamath, the policy of avoiding bombarding customers with notifications may hurt business in the short term, but in the long run it promotes trust among users. Responding to a user’s X post praising Zerodha as “the only broker that never forces you to trade in any way” using alerts or calls, Kamatha spoke in detail about this stance.

Kamath reshared the post on Instagram, explaining that the essence of Zerodha’s philosophy since day one has been “don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you.” He emphasized that Zerodha only sends notifications when it is important and avoids forcing users to take action. He noted that although this move initially “hurt business”, it led users to trust the platform. As Kamath explains, “not incentivizing users to trade” helps increase long-term customer appreciation, as they are not persuaded to take non-essential transactions.

The accompanying headline read: “K calls this “user apathy” and explains it better than I can.”

Reacting to the post, one user wrote: “Build a product so good you don’t have to remind your customer you exist.”

Another person emphasized: “I believe that when you oversaturate your own content and online marketing, you also dilute and devalue your own brand. Quality over quantity.”

But not everyone was on Kamath’s side. One user commented: “If ethics and “don’t do unto others” are central to your philosophy, you would display the I think it’s better to let them get the illusion. You’re a big fan of what you do, but you’ve shared this feedback multiple times to display XIRR and CAGR in the portfolio and P&L summary section. It should be easily accessible and highlighted in bold.”

But this isn’t the first time he’s openly expressed his distaste for the overdose of unwanted calls and notifications. In a post on

My phone has become unusable due to telemarketing and is constantly silent. Guess what goes around comes around.

I spent four years in a call center making unsolicited calls to people in the US. I guess Karma has a way of fighting back.

Kamath thought back to the first phase of his job at a call centre, where he was assigned to place calls to customers in the US – unsolicited calls, to say the least – and this is now at the top of his list of annoyances. “Guess, no matter what, you still find it,” he quipped, adding, “Karma has a way of reciprocating.”