Here’s what you need to know about Swiggy through the eyes of one of its founding engineers.
Nine years ago a starry-eyed Siddardha Garimella was the third engineer to join Swiggy. Despite being ready to take on the world, nothing prepared him for what would be the ride of his life, as he took his first step into the office that was operating out of a small bungalow in Koramangala, Bangalore.
From starting his own startup to working with and helping another one scale great heights. This is the story of one of Swiggy’s Founding Engineers, his initial shock on being led to an almost vacant bungalow, how thrilling his first day was, the lessons he learnt along the way and how he grew into his current role as a Senior Engineering Manager.
1. Tell us about your journey before Swiggy and what led you to join the company.
After graduating from IIT Madras, I joined a leading tech firm in Bengaluru. Despite being a top performer there, the job didn’t challenge me as a professional. I then co-founded a startup with a senior from my college and worked towards building it for a year. However, things did not work out and we had to shut down. Two days after closing it out, my friends from college told me they were joining a new startup. Those joining the startup also included my college senior, Phani Kishan Addepalli. Soon after, I was on a call with Sriharsha Majety, who explained Swiggy’s vision and the way forward. That was all for my interview process, and within the next 15-20 minutes, it was decided I would join Swiggy the following week.
2. How was your first day at Swiggy? Was there anything that surprised you?
It was pretty interesting! I joined Swiggy at the beginning of 2015, a few months after the company started operating out of a small bungalow in Koramangala, Bengaluru. Back then, there were only a few engineers at Swiggy, and I was a part of the founding Engineering Team. When I entered the bungalow on my first day, it was mostly vacant and I did not know where to go. I found a few colleagues, and while interacting with them, I was led to a nearly empty bedroom with a long table at the centre. I sat in the room and met another colleague who had also joined that day.
In around half an hour, we met our CTO at the time, Rahul Jaimini, who handed me the task of building the tech flow for customers to apply coupons. This was when Swiggy was just a website and we used to fulfil around 200 daily orders in Koramangala only. I started working on it and devised the basic flow for applying coupons by the evening. Our CTO reviewed my code, and to my surprise, we took it live the very next morning. I couldn’t believe my code was implemented as a feature on my first day at work. All in all, it was a day full of thrills and triumphs.
3. Tell us about the work environment and the team dynamics during Swiggy’s initial phase.
I joined the Swiggy team as one of the first two or three engineers. Whether it was my team members or the engineers who joined after me, they were all a bunch of smart, humble, and motivated people. Together, we formed an enthusiastic and driven team. It’s amazing how we got so many things done in the first few months, from setting up our catalog, coupon, cart, and call centre systems to building our mobile app and order management framework. The atmosphere at Swiggy was super energetic throughout this phase. We faced challenges head-on and thrived as we changed the way India eats.
4. Is there an interesting incident that highlighted your first few days at Swiggy?
On my first Friday at Swiggy, I remember how we had to launch our services soon in other areas of Bengaluru including Bellandur, HSR Layout, and BTM Layout. To spread the word about our services and tell people that Swiggy exists, we initially relied on distributing pamphlets to our restaurant partners, as it was a widely used form of marketing back then. With the pamphlets already given away in the newly targeted restaurants, we had to start serving them by the beginning of next week.
However, due to unexpected scenarios, we encountered a tricky bug in our tech systems, and we worked day and night throughout the weekend to troubleshoot it. All of us, including our founders, Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy, worked tirelessly to make the launch happen. Thankfully, we figured out the solution by Monday morning, around 5 AM, and after a lot of toil, we successfully implemented the launch. In a week, the strong word of mouth led to a rapid increase in numbers, and at that moment, I knew we were onto something big. It was impressive how we pulled it off, and this achievement spoke volumes about our team’s undying spirit.
5. How did your friends and family react when you decided to join Swiggy, a new startup back then?
Given my initial startup stint, my family and friends knew about my passion for building things from scratch. My family was very supportive throughout, which made my decision easier. Also, as mentioned, some of my college friends were part of Swiggy’s founding team, so it was a smooth transition. Eventually, my close friends also started using the Swiggy app and actively shared their feedback.
6. In your initial days, were there times when you had to wear multiple hats?
Our founders believed in us, and as a result, my team and I were assigned front-facing roles right from the start. For the first few months, there was no product manager on paper, and all our product ideas emerged from fun brainstorming sessions. From the Engineering Team to the Business Team, I used to shuffle across tables to forward instructions, gather feedback, and then implement our product strategy. While launching our customer care software, I coordinated with multiple teams at a time when the system ran on WordPress, a lower-level tech platform handling less than 1000 daily orders back then. There were times when I also assumed an Operations-based role. Such was the case with most of the team members, where one would gather product feedback from the delivery team, while another would work on our app’s user experience. In a way, we were all polymaths. Ultimately, juggling multiple hats helped me grow in many ways.
7. How has your role evolved with witnessing Swiggy’s growth alongside?
It has been a natural progression. As a founding team member, it wasn’t easy to keep the momentum going without established processes and metrics. However, with a clear vision, Swiggy has successfully navigated hurdles and achieved remarkable growth over the years. Today, with structured plans and processes in place, I lead a team of around 30 people as a Senior Engineering Manager, and my job is to ensure that we continue to execute with the same level of agility and accuracy that defined our early success, and ideally, even surpass it.
8. Which accomplishment from your early days are you the most proud of?
I felt the happiest during the first quarter of my Swiggy journey when we successfully built our customer care system. It streamlined many processes, and I was deeply touched when our customer care agents approached me with tears of joy to express their gratitude. I was elated to see the positive impact of my work.
9. From the beginning till today, what do you think makes Swiggy’s culture special?
When I joined, we were all driven by our mission. Being mission-focused is something that has kept us energised throughout our streak of success. I feel our vision and mission have strengthened since the inception of Swiggy’s values, as it perfectly aligns Swiggsters with what the organisation stands for. Living by these values is what makes Swiggy’s culture special and unique from the rest.
10. Which Swiggy value do you connect the most with?
The standout Swiggy value for me is ‘Never Settle’. From starting off with changing the way India eats to now providing multiple forms of unparalleled convenience, Swiggy’s vision has evolved with time, and we continue raising the bar to deliver more value to our customers. This journey of going above and beyond is something that keeps me motivated.
11. Is there an offering you didn’t expect coming from Swiggy ten years ago?
I knew that Swiggy would expand into grocery and logistics eventually, so the emergence of services like Instamart and Genie didn’t surprise me all that much. However, what amazes me is how quick-commerce has redefined consumer behaviour over the years, allowing all your needs to be delivered in ten minutes or less.
12. Tell us about your hobbies and interests beyond work.
I have many relatives in town, including my sister and sister-in-law. Every weekend involves either me visiting them or vice-versa. So there’s no weekend when I don’t spend time with my family. I can endlessly talk about startups, and I also like mentoring my friends as they build their own startups in the tech ecosystem. Also, I am a big Formula One fan!
13. Who has been a constant source of motivation or mentorship throughout your Swiggy journey?
On the motivational front, our leaders Sriharsha and Phani have always supported me. I have been working with them since my first day and have learned a lot from both. Rahul, our first CTO, mentored me and helped me set the tone for developing my technical skills. I am also thankful to Avinash Eratapalli, who guided me when I first started heading the Engineering Team for InsanelyGood.
14. If you could give a piece of advice to a young engineer joining Swiggy, what would it be?
I believe it is important to build a strong foundation. Instead of primarily focusing on pay or promotions, they must prioritise learning the necessary skills to thrive. Technology has evolved a lot over the years, and the means and opportunities to upskill are more abundant than ever. They must make the most of all the resources available today. Having a learning mindset and a strong foundation will surely unlock massive success for them in the long run.
