The $600B Grocery Market Is Obsessed With Speed — FirstClub Is Betting on Quality Ayyappan

Is the best grocery platform one that decides what it WON’T sell? That is the bet Ayyappan is making with FirstClub. Fewer products. Stricter rules. While most quick commerce apps are trying to deliver orders faster, he is asking a different question. What if consumers need not “faster or cheaper”, but a retail platform where they can trust every item listed on it? A place where you do not have to read every label, check multiple reviews, or wonder if the top result is there because a brand paid for it. FirstClub is trying to solve a harder problem. It is trying to define what “quality” means for everyday products we consume, starting with groceries. India has received the highest quick commerce funding of any country in the world, at $9.24B over the last 10 years. Yet only 1% of Indians use quick commerce services today. With a large market still open for expansion and the possibility of better unit economics over time, FirstClub is building a countertrend to the hype around Indian quick commerce. Ayyappan brings eleven years of experience at Flipkart, and has also served as SVP at Myntra and CEO of Cleartrip. This episode is the story till here and the plans ahead for Firstclub. 00:00 – Trailer 01:01 – The Costco of Indian quick commerce 04:32 – Building a counter-trend company 06:15 – What consumers say v/s what they actually want 09:37 – The only retail platform to Ban 200 ingredients 12:34 – Why can’t the big players solve this? 13:21 – A simple rule of thumb for food 16:03 – Brand stories from FirstClub 19:20 – Is the problem access or income? 21:29 – Who are the 20 million FirstClub consumers? 24:14 – Only 1% of India uses quick commerce 26:04 – What does “quality” mean in grocery? 32:34 – How will FirstClub monetize without brand sponsorships? 34:53 – Do consumers behave differently across categories? 39:30 – Why is Myntra so powerful in fashion? 42:24 – What Myntra taught Ayyapan that Flipkart didn’t? 43:53 – Unlearning to build for Quick commerce 48:25 – Why Indian consumers are very experimental today 50:59 – Is India one country when it comes to quality? 52:43 – If Ayyappan was a product, what would he be? 54:47 – The hardest belief to defend while building FirstClub 56:26 – Akshayakalpa & The Whole Truth 57:48 – Not niche, but premium ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.

You can listen to The $600B Grocery Market Is Obsessed With Speed — FirstClub Is Betting on Quality Ayyappan online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The $600B Grocery Market Is Obsessed With Speed — FirstClub Is Betting on Quality Ayyappan is an episode from 100x Entrepreneur by Siddhartha Ahluwalia.

This episode is 59:55 long.

This episode was published on Mar 12, 2026.

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