Co-founder Sachin Bansal's journey with Flipkart, and beyond

The much-awaited deal with Walmart by the end of June may see Flipkart Executive Chairman Sachin Bansal exit the company. Here's a look at his travails as he is set to open a new chapter in his work life

The journey of Chandigarh-born Sachin Bansal saw some bold decisions - from recognising that it was early days for an electronic retailer to succeed and then overcoming the challenges and shifting gears to establish an e-commerce venture.
After completing his degree in IIT-Delhi, Bansal joined Techspan in 2005. The following year, he joined Amazon and brought Binny, one year his junior at the premier institute, on board.

Sachin and Binny wanted to start a search engine. But realised that the ecommerce market in India was at a nascent stage and it was an opportunities galore.
They pooled in Rs 4 lakh from their savings and started a website selling only books sourced from offline retailers, in October 2007.
During the initial days, the duo took turns to deliver the books at the customers' doorsteps across Bengaluru on their scooters.

Sachin, the founding CEO who headed the company's operations for eight years, stepped down in 2016, citing Flipkart's falling market share and Amazon's rise in India. In fact, in a candid chat, he had said that his performance did not meet his own standards and, therefore, made way for Binny to take over the role of CEO.

Sachin, a smart businessman and strategist, has invested $26 million across seven ventures in his own capacity. The startups include Unacademy, Ather Energy, Sightuple and Inshorts, among others.

Sachin Bansal featured in Forbes India Rich List in 2015, claiming the 86th position with a net worth of $1.3 billion. India Today ranked him #26 along with Binny Bansal in India's 50 most powerful people of 2017 list. The Straits Times of Singapore had shortlisted Sachin and Binny Bansal for the "2016 Asian of the Year" as part of "The Disruptors" group.

Over the past two or three years, Sachin has been working on building a private label brand, 'Billion', under Flipkart. He has also established the industry lobby group Indiatech.org in 2017. Talks of his exit from Flipkart once the Walmart deal is sealed are doing the rounds. Well, for one, Sachin Bansal will not be a fence-sitter, he likes to be in the thick of things and has been a hands-on manager, driving Flipkart to greater heights with every passing year, despite challenges in a slowing economy. We can surely expect Bansal to start work on creating the next big thing in online shopping, if he happens to walk away from Flipkart. Till then...