Originality is Overrated
"Be original." Good advice for artists, not for entrepreneurs. The Samwer brothers built a business on cloning other people’s ideas. They weren't shy about it. They’re not alone. Exhibit A: Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (nope, they are not brothers!). They shared an ambitious vision and engineering degrees from India’s top college. They created a multi-billion dollar case of "I saw that first."
These guys weren't reinventing the wheel. They were looking at Amazon crushing US retail in '07 and thinking, "We can do that in India!." They started Flipkart, an online bookstore. It was Amazon 2.0 (India Edition).
The Flipkart story: How to Out-Amazon Amazon
Amazon had Prime, best recommendation algorithms, and billions to pour into logistics and infrastructure. And they had a guy named Bezos! Flipkart had none of that. Zero logistics. A country with a very low credit card penetration. A skeptical consumer base/
So, Bansals didn’t just copy/paste. They adapted. They executed. They scaled beyond selling books online.
Cash is King: US shoppers live on swiping plastic. In India, most people didn’t even have one. Flipkart made a bold move: Pay in cash—when the package arrives. It was a logistical nightmare, but it was a game-changer in building consumer trust.
Build It or Bust: The brilliant Bansals had to build the entire Indian e-commerce infrastructure. Warehouses. Delivery fleets. Supply chains. Easy to say “they copied it,” but an idea is not a business. You’ve got to execute like mother-lover.
Festival Frenzy: India is a land of festivals. Diwali, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Ganesh Chaturthi, Id, the list goes on and on. Flipkart turned every festival into an online shopping event. That’s the best way to steal Amazon's thunder.
By 2018, Flipkart wasn't just competing with Amazon, they were winning. Walmart, smelling blood (and wanting to keep Amazon out of one of the most densely populated markets), dropped $16 billion for a majority stake. Say this with me five times: “Binny Bansal Became a Billionaire!”
Innovations like PageRank, GPUs, and GenAI always have a place in the world. But you don’t have to wait for an original idea. Best dreams without execution are just that, dreams. Flipkart wasn't a carbon copy of Amazon. It was Amazon customized and optimized for India. And in business, that's the difference between a dreamer and a disruptor.
