'Don't Touch Indian Products': Nikhil Kamath Recalls Satya Nadella Remark

Speaking at NDTV World Summit, Nikhil Kamath recalled a conversation with Satya Nadella that reinforced the idea of selling Indian products abroad.

29 Oct 2026, 02:09 · NDTV

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Nikhil Kamath launched The Foundery to build startups via a 90-day program
The Foundery aims to create Indian brands that sell products outside India
Kamath targets the US market for consumer goods like shampoo and toothpaste

Why have Indian consumer brands struggled to expand globally?

Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath unveiled 'The Foundery,' an experimental residential business launchpad last year to build startups through a structured 90-day programme. Speaking to NDTV CEO and Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal at the NDTV World Summit 2026, Kamath said the initiative is focused on building Indian brands that can sell outside the country. Kamath also recalled a conversation with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the absence of Indian products in the US.

Asked whether the entrepreneurs being backed through The Foundery were largely tapping India's domestic consumption story, Kamath said the programme had a different aim. "So The Foundery, specifically, we're trying to build brands that can sell outside of India. That's the aspiration," said Kamath.

Kamath noted that products could range from shampoo to toothpaste, targeting the United States as the world's largest consumer market. "We look at America because it's the largest consumer market in the world, and we're trying to figure out whatever it might be. It might be a shampoo brand, it might be a toothpaste. We're building with a very focused target of these brands being able to sell there," he said.

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'I Don't Touch Indian Product'

Kamath said the idea was reinforced by a conversation with Nadella. According to Kamath, the Microsoft boss, who is of Indian origin and lives in the US, told him that across a full 24 hours in Silicon Valley, he does not touch an Indian product.

"I was having a meal with him [Nadella] and he said, 'Nikhil, I'm Indian. I live in America. In the entirety of my day, in 24 hours living in the Valley, I don't touch an Indian product, either software or consumer or hardware of any sort. I touch a whole bunch of Chinese products in different ways. It might be a TikTok, it might be this, it might be another thing,'" said Kamath.

Referring to the fiscal deficit and the need to bring more dollars into the country, Kamath argued that India should be selling more of its produce abroad, without being limited to software.

"So when we speak about fiscal deficit and the need to bring more dollars into India in a manner that we become stronger. I don't want to speak too much about the currency, but more as an economy where we sell more of our produce outside. I don't think we need to be limited to things like software," he said.

"Why not consumer goods? We have cheaper labour. A lot of the businesses you mentioned earlier, like quick commerce, I think these are labour arbitrage businesses, and they exist in India for a reason because policies are conducive to labour arbitrage businesses existing in India."

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