Over a single week, the founder of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal, found himself facing a flood of more than eight thousand messages, roughly half from people who had once helped build the company during its early years. It is a small, modern echo of an old human truth: that those who shape an institution often remain bound to it long after leaving, and still wish to be heard by the people who once stood beside them. Goyal's decision to read each message himself, and to invite former collaborators onto a more personal channel, suggests a quiet attempt to honor those ties even as the company grows pas
Zomato's Deepinder Goyal Asks Ex-Staff to WhatsApp Him After 8,000 Emails Flood In
More than 8,000 emails in a week, half from people who had left
Mark
Why did a founder's note about his inbox get this much attention?
Mimi
Because of the numbers. Over 8,000 emails in a week, and about 4,000 of them from former employees of the Eternal journey. People who left years ago still wrote.
Mark
What was in the emails?
Mimi
Many were personal, with stories and reflections on their time there. Some came from people who left a decade or more ago.
Luke
Careful, though. All of this comes from Goyal's own account of his inbox. Nobody outside has counted the emails or read them.
Mark
Fair. Why can't he just hand the pile to his team?
Mimi
He says Eternal is in its late teens and most of the current team doesn't know those past people or their contributions. So he's reading them himself.
Luke
And that's his description of the problem. We don't know how many he's read, or how many replies have gone out.
Mark
And the WhatsApp suggestion?
Mimi
It's meant for people who worked directly with him, to speed things up. Online, people joked that email was the earlier instruction and now they have to find his number.
Luke
Worth noting the praise for company culture is mostly commentary from users and the report's own framing. The emails themselves show people reached out; they don't show why. Whether it is loyalty, nostalgia or job-hunting is not established.
Le Pouls
- More than 8,000 emails arrived in a single week, overwhelming the founder's inbox and forcing him to publicly admit he cannot answer everyone quickly.
- About 4,000 of the messages came from former employees, many writing with long, emotional reflections on years and sometimes a decade or more of shared work.
- Goyal is reading every message personally, because the newer team lacks the history needed to know who these writers are or what they once contributed.
- He has redirected close collaborators toward WhatsApp, a shift that drew both jokes about escalation and genuine appreciation for a gesture of personal care.
- The outcome remains open, as it is unclear how many messages will be answered and how many conversations will move off email into direct contact.
Over a single week, the founder of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal, found himself facing a flood of more than eight thousand messages, roughly half from people who had once helped build the company during its early years. It is a small, modern echo of an old human truth: that those who shape an institution often remain bound to it long after leaving, and still wish to be heard by the people who once stood beside them. Goyal's decision to read each message himself, and to invite former collaborators onto a more personal channel, suggests a quiet attempt to honor those ties even as the company grows past the memory of its own beginnings.
Over one week, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal received more than 8,000 emails from people hoping to reconnect with the company. About 4,000 came from former employees who had been part of what he calls the Eternal journey, while the rest came from current staff and others. The volume grew so large that he told people he could not respond to everyone quickly.
Many of the messages were deeply personal, filled with stories, feelings and reflections on their time at the company. Goyal said he is reading each one himself. Most senders had contributed over years, some more than a decade ago, and because Eternal is now in its late teens, much of today's team has little context on those earlier chapters. There is no easy way to hand the inbox to someone who would recognize the writers.
To cut through the backlog, Goyal suggested that people who worked closely with him reach out on WhatsApp instead. He framed it as a way to reconnect more efficiently and keep meaningful exchanges from being lost in the flood.
Online reactions were mixed. Some teased him for moving from email to a phone number and wondered where the escalation would stop, while others asked how someone with no connection to him could ever reach him. Many, however, saw the effort as a thoughtful gesture, and some reflected that a company's real measure lies in the lives it touched. How many messages he will answer, and how many conversations will move to WhatsApp, remains to be seen.
Over one week, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal received more than 8,000 emails from people who wanted back into the orbit of the company. About 4,000 of them came from former employees who had once been part of what he calls the Eternal journey. The rest came from current staff and others. The volume was large enough that he told people he could not answer everyone quickly.
Many of the messages were not routine applications or short notes. According to the account of his post, they were personal, full of stories, emotions and reflections on time spent at the company. Goyal said he is going through every one of them himself.
He explained why the pile has grown so unwieldy. Most of the senders, he said, were people whose contributions stretched across years, and some had left a decade or more ago. Eternal is now in its late teens, and as a result much of today's team has no context on those earlier chapters or the people who wrote them. That means there is no easy way to hand the inbox to someone else who would know who these writers are.
So he proposed a shortcut. For people who worked directly with him, Goyal suggested reaching out on WhatsApp rather than by email, a route he said would let him reconnect more efficiently and keep meaningful conversations from getting buried in the flood. The report describes this as a sign of his wish to stay in touch with past collaborators even as the company grows.
The internet had plenty to say. Some users joked about the instruction itself: earlier he had pointed people to email, and now they were being asked to find his number, and they wondered how far the next escalation might go. Others asked a practical question, namely how someone who has never worked with him and has no mutual contacts is supposed to reach him at all.
Other reactions were more reflective. Some imagined that reading the emails must feel like opening a time capsule, each message carrying memories tied to a particular period. A few argued that real growth is measured not only in metrics but in the effect a company has on the people who helped build it. Many welcomed the effort at reconnection, and the move to WhatsApp was read by several as a gesture of personal care amid the chaos.
The episode leaves open how many of the 8,000 messages Goyal will get through, and how many conversations will actually move to WhatsApp. For now, the sheer count of people writing in, years after leaving, is the clearest detail the story offers.
Citations marquantes
He is personally going through every message, but the scale makes it time-intensive, so he suggested WhatsApp for those who worked directly with him.— Deepinder Goyal, as paraphrased in The Economic Times
Envie de l'histoire complète ?
Lire l'original sur The Economic Times ↗
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