Meesho's Untold Story: The 2017 Meeting That Changed Everything | Celebrating IPO

We went back to the exact restaurant in Bengaluru where Mukul Arora (Co-Managing Partner, Elevation Capital) and Vidit Aatrey (Co-Founder, Meesho) first met in June 2017, and where the Meesho-Elevation partnership truly began. Eight years. Countless board meetings, tough decisions, and impossible goals achieved. But never back to this exact spot. Until today. As Vidit recalls, Meesho then had two months of runway left. He'd been meeting investors for months with no success. That day, he had to make a choice: meet another investor who seemed more likely to convert, or meet Mukul who'd been in conversations for over a year. He chose Mukul. He cancelled the other meeting. "I don’t remember any other fund that went so deep in speaking to our resellers, speaking to our users, really building conviction in our business. So if I could get one person, I really wanted to be you,” reflected Vidit. The rest, as they say, is history. Congratulations Vidit, Sanjeev, and the entire Meesho team on the historic IPO. Here's to the journey, the friendship, and everything that comes next. Chapters 00:00 - Coming Up 00:49 - Two Months of Runway 04:12 - The Culture Built in Survival Mode 05:13 - Choosing Conviction Over Convenience 07:49 - More Than an Investor 09:07 - Beliefs That Sounded Impossible Then 09:59 - The Compromise That Bought Time 14:07 - Principles Over Short-Term Pressure 15:53 - Making Non-Consensus Decisions 18:57 - Strategy Meets Execution 20:15 - The Toughest 12 Months 25:40 - Betting Everything When Things Were Going Well 29:07 - What Success Didn’t Change 31:19 - Looking Ahead to 2035 32:20 - Closing