IIT graduate Vidit Aatrey left his IAS dream then his corporate career but failed twice building a startup; today he has turned an e-commerce giant into a Rs 30,000-crore business

There was a time when a government job seemed like the obvious destination for Vidit Aatrey. Coming from a middle-class family with parents in government service, the civil services was among the career paths his family had in mind. But the IIT Delhi graduate eventually took a route that was far removed from the one expected of him- and built a company that would go on to reshape India's e-commerce landscape.Today, Aatrey is the co-founder and CEO of Meesho, which he started with fellow IIT Delhi alumnus Sanjeev Barnwal. The company has since grown from a small social-commerce experiment into a listed e-commerce platform. In FY25, the company's net merchandise value was close to Rs 30,000 crore, while its operating revenue stood at ₹9,390 crore.From IIT Delhi to a career that was never straightforwardAatrey completed his BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 2012. The conventional path after an IIT degree could have taken him into a comfortable corporate career or the civil services. Instead, he first stepped into the corporate world, working with ITC and later InMobi.Those jobs gave him something that would prove useful later: an understanding of how businesses function and, perhaps more importantly, how technology could be used to solve everyday problems. But entrepreneurship was still an experiment rather than a certainty.According to an India Today report, Aatrey and Barnwal eventually decided to build something of their own. Their first attempt, Fashnear, was a hyperlocal fashion-delivery platform. The idea appeared promising on paper, but the business failed to find the product-market fit the founders were looking for.The lesson was simple but important- customers did not necessarily want fashion delivered faster; they wanted more choice. So the founders changed direction.The first failure did not end the storyThe second version of their idea also struggled. Instead of continuing to build from assumptions, Aatrey and Barnwal began spending time with small businesses and sellers.They travelled to markets in places such as Surat, Jaipur and Delhi's Chandni Chowk, speaking to shopkeepers and observing how they actually sold their products. What they discovered was more interesting than the original idea.Small sellers were already using WhatsApp and social networks to find customers. Women, in particular, were running informal businesses through their personal networks. They would source products from suppliers, share photographs with potential buyers and manage sales through messaging apps. There was clearly a business happening. It simply lacked the infrastructure of a conventional online store. And that observation changed everything.How WhatsApp sellers became the inspiration for AatreyWhatsApp could help sellers communicate with customers, but it could not run an entire business. Payments, orders, logistics and customer management still had to be handled separately.Aatrey and Barnwal decided not to force these entrepreneurs to completely change the way they worked. Instead, they built a platform around the behaviour that was already happening.They developed a managed marketplace connecting suppliers with people who wanted to sell products through their own social networks. The idea was deceptively simple: give ordinary individuals the tools to operate a digital shop without requiring them to invest heavily in technology or inventory. What began as a platform aimed at social sellers gradually became something much bigger.Then came Y CombinatorThe founders' willingness to experiment eventually brought another turning point. Aatrey's company was selected by Y Combinator, the prominent US-based startup accelerator. The backing gave the young company access to funding, mentorship and a global startup network.More importantly, the founders had found a problem worth solving at scale. Instead of competing head-on for India's urban consumers, He was building around a different segment- small sellers, first-time entrepreneurs and price-conscious consumers beyond the biggest cities. That focus became one of the company's biggest advantages.From social commerce to a Rs 30,000-crore businessThe bigger lesson in Aatrey's journeyAatrey's story is easy to reduce to an IIT-to-billion-dollar-startup success story. But the more interesting part lies in what happened before he became successful. There was the expected civil-services path. There were corporate jobs. There was a failed startup. There was another model that did not take off. And then there was the decision to stop guessing and start observing how small businesses actually operated.For the IIT Delhi graduate who once had a conventional career in mind, the journey has ended up being anything but conventional. The civil services dream did not become his destination. Instead, a string of experiments, failures and pivots took him towards building one of India's most prominent e-commerce companies.Looking for trusted parenting advice? Follow TOI Parenting Circle on Instagram for expert guidance, relatable stories, and practical tips delivered every day.