When Nithin faked being Sachin: Kamath looks back on using a pseudonym in early years of Zerodha

Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath on Thursday recalled the discount broker's first appearance in the press 15 years ago, saying the article helped lift account openings from a few hundred a month to nearly 500 and made him believe he had found an early growth hack.

In a post on X, Kamath said the company first appeared in the press on September 5, 15 years ago. The story came at a time when Zerodha was still in its early sales-led phase, and Kamath was speaking to clients under the pseudonym "Sachin".

"I first spoke to Nikhil as Sachin, my pseudonym for speaking to clients during sales calls. You didn’t want the CEO making sales calls," Kamath wrote, adding that he had even met customers pretending to be Sachin in Zerodha’s early days.


Kamath said he once picked up a call as Sachin, only to realise that the caller was a journalist from The Economic Times. "I was shocked. I had to suddenly switch from Sachin to Nithin," he said, adding that he faked a different accent so that he would not be recognised.

The article, according to Kamath, had an immediate impact. "When this story came out, our account openings suddenly went from a few hundred accounts a month to almost 500. I was convinced I had discovered a growth hack," he said.

Kamath said he continued speaking to journalists over the next five to six years, before the influence of traditional financial media started weakening around 2017-18 because of social media and other factors. That shift, he said, pushed him to become more active on Twitter and LinkedIn. Until then, he was not a very active user of social media.

"If you look at what’s been more beneficial for us between traditional media and social media, there’s no comparison at all," Kamath said. "The ability to tell your own story directly to the people is powerful."

He added that direct storytelling works only if the founder knows how to communicate well. "If not, you become a meme," he wrote.

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