When you charge more, you can achieve higher margins, allowing you to invest more in customer acquisition and build a stronger competitive moat.

The previous wave of tech-enabled services startups struggled due to low gross margins and complex operations, which hindered their scalability.

I started selling electric scooters on eBay 15 years ago, and I was one of the first to sign up as a third-party seller on Amazon when they introduced that option.

Pricing below cost can be a risky strategy for gaining market share, often leading to unsustainable business practices. You might want to price a little lower now because your margins are going to improve with time, but it's a risky maneuver, and I advise startups to maintain an 80 to 90% gross margin.

In the early days of Amazon, we faced failures with companies integrating due to infrastructure issues, which led to the creation of AWS.

Amazon is increasingly resembling a subscription business, with a growing reliance on Amazon Prime members for revenue.

Registering as a seller on Amazon is straightforward, requiring a GST number and company registration, making it easier to enter the market. I used to buy products from IndiaMart and sell them on Amazon as a side hustle, making significant profits from items like vegetable choppers.

We aimed to be profitable on the first order, which was uncommon at the time, and this focus on profitability helped us succeed.

Amazon's architectural changes in the late 90s aimed to scale quickly, but resulted in a brittle monolithic structure that couldn't sustain growth.