Zomato hires 18 for Chief of Staff role from over 18,000 applicants
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal also mentioned that four out of the 18 people who have already joined the company will be working directly with Goyal, including two in Chief of Staff positions.
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal shared on X that out of 18,000+ applications for the Chief of Staff role, 30 people have received offers, and 18 have already joined Zomato (and other group companies like Blinkit) in high-impact roles.
"They’re being handsomely compensated for the value they bring, and nobody paid anything to work with us," Goyal stated.
He also mentioned that four out of the 18 people have already joined the company, and will be working directly with Goyal, and two of them are in Chief of Staff roles.
Earlier, in November last year, Goyal’s Chief of Staff job listing had sparked debate for its unconventional requirement.
"Candidates must contribute Rs 20 lakh, which will be donated to Zomato’s non-profit, Feeding India. This move underscores the connection between personal branding and hiring, as a leader’s public persona can shape company reputation and influence talent attraction based on authenticity and alignment with company values," it stated.
However, later the company clarified that Zomato does plan to pay the candidate selected for the Chief of Staff role, and the condition of paying Rs 20 lakh to the initiative was merely a filter as the company has no plans to collect the amount.
The selected 30 people include founders who bootstrapped startups from their dorm rooms, engineers who rewrote entire tech stacks over a weekend, operators who turned chaos into scale, and a handful of brilliant young minds fresh out of college.
"And we’re not done. With 18,000+ applications, we’re still carefully sifting through this amazing talent pool. This isn’t just a one-time hiring sprint—it’s a long-term investment in the people who will build the future with us. We’ll keep reaching out to the right folks, slowly but surely," states his post on X.
In another development, Goyal on Tuesday posted on X that he is looking to work with business leaders who treat AI as their second brain.
"I am looking to work with business and product leaders who have already started using AI as their second brain," said Zomato Co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal in a post on X.
Edited by Megha Reddy
