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Zomato CEO Goyal walks back on ‘Rs 20 lakh fee for job' caveat

He clarifies it was merely a filter to identify candidates who would value the opportunity without being hindered by constraints.

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Shreyas Kulkarni
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Zomato and Deepinder Goyal

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal has walked back on the Rs 20 lakh fee stipulation for hiring a Chief of Staff (COS). In a recent post titled ‘Update 3’ on X (formerly Twitter), he said, “‘You have to pay us ₹20 lakhs’ was merely a filter to identify people who had the ability to appreciate the opportunity of a fast-track career without being bogged down by the constraints before them.”

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The two-day-old post of Goyal sparked sharp debate on LinkedIn and X due to its unusual condition: the successful candidate would not receive a salary in their first year and would need to pay Rs 20 lakh for the position. He described the role as offering "10x more learning than a two-year degree from a top management school".

A day after the controversial job posting, Goyal shared a screenshot of his conversation with X user Arnav Gupta, in which he wrote: “Between you and me, we will not eventually ask for ₹20 lakhs and will pay the right person anyway.”

This is not the first time Goyal has backtracked following public debate. Earlier this year, Zomato retracted its green fleet service, which he announced as a special fleet to deliver vegetarian food orders, after an online backlash. One reason cited for the rollback was that society and residential welfare associations (RWAs) had started blocking Zomato riders in red uniforms on certain days, associating them with non-vegetarian food.

Deepinder Goyal Zomato
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