In a candid exchange on X, Ashish Sinha, the founder of NextBigWhat, offered significant advice to Zoho’s former CEO Sridhar Vembu on the future of Arattai, the company’s India-first instant messaging app. Sinha cautioned against building the platform on a nationalism-driven growth strategy, warning that such an approach risks short-term hype but rarely delivers long-term user loyalty.
Sinha’s Warning To Vembu
Sinha began his message with praise, acknowledging Vembu’s influence on the Indian startup ecosystem. “I have a lot of respect for you – you inspire a whole lot of bootstrappers like me. Your recent hustle has been all the more inspiring!” he wrote. But the appreciation soon gave way to concern.
He pointed out that several India-focused consumer apps in the past, including Koo, regional map platforms, and TikTok alternatives like Josh and Chingari, leaned heavily on nationalism as a go-to-market (GTM) strategy.
According to Sinha, while this tactic helps boost downloads, it does little to create a sticky user base.
“These users rarely convert into long-term loyalists,” he warned.
Product Excellence Should Be The Focus
Sinha stressed that an over-reliance on patriotic sentiment pulls attention away from what really matters – delivering product excellence for mass-market users. “They push the narrative towards ideology, not product excellence,” he wrote, adding that eventually such strategies “drain focus away from solving for the actual mass-market user.”
His advice to Vembu was direct. Acording to Sinha, Arattai had the potential to be an “India-first product in infrastructure, scale, and philosophy,” but the team should resist applause-driven validation and instead focus on building for the “silent majority who will stick around.”
What Was Sridhar Vembu’s Response?
Vembu responded saying, “Thank you! Yes, we want Arattai to offer the best experience in the world, and be the most trusted,” he said.
Arattai, which means “casual chat” in Tamil, was launched around 2021 and saw a sudden surge in September 2025, with traffic reportedly spiking 100× in just three days. Endorsements from government officials played a part in the growth, prompting Zoho to scale its infrastructure rapidly.
Language And Identity Debates
Alongside the debate over growth strategy, Arattai’s name itself has stirred conversation. While the Tamil word reflects Zoho’s cultural roots, some Hindi-speaking users have argued it is hard to pronounce, calling for a more generic identity to aid pan-India adoption. This, in turn, has reignited broader debates around language, identity, and digital adoption in India.
