Shubh Khandelwal

Ex - Consumer Product Lead @Snabbit | Ex- Product Growth Lead @cred_club | Magic @bitspilaniindia | still a dreamer, yet more of a realist than ever before

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

1/ I’ve always been obsessed with people who take humanity forward.

Not the ones who let the world happen to them - the ones who happen to the world. The outliers.

Musk. Jobs. Kobe. Buffett. Tata. Ambani. MJ. Ali.
Different fields, same pattern: extreme agency.

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

@_rithikjain Ship so much that you forget you’re 25

[Tejeshwi Sharma 🇮🇳 @tejeshwi_sharma]

I have known @kunalb11 since 2012 and had the privilege of working closely with him at both @Freecharge and @CRED_club .

So when I say this is the biggest upgrade @WhatsApp has made in years, I mean it.

WhatsApp is a goldmine whose potential is still largely unrealised. Kunal is exactly the leader to take it into the AI era and unlock what it can truly become.

CRED is in safe hands with @miten - exceptional in his own way. He joined when there was barely any monetization and helped the company grow and thrive, donning multiple hats at times.

CRED is an act of magic; remember the early days when Kunal came up with this idea of building a club. When launched, most people questioned its right to exist. Today, CRED is a solid business with hundreds of $M in revenue and a proud community of tens of millions. This is the vodoo magic Kunal is capable of. So proud!

Miles to go before we sleep. Congrats and Good luck!

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

@kunalb11 setting examples by practicing what he preached-
"Play at the absolute global maxima, and win."

Massive for everyone at @CRED_club @WhatsApp 🚀

[Kunal Shah @kunalb11]

It’s been a minute.

2015–2018
- Exited FreeCharge. Spent time learning and investing.
- Pondered about: Why can't trust be rewarded? Started with $1M of personal capital.
- Launched CRED to reward people for paying credit card bills on time.

2019–2025
- Built a system run by a team that values ownership, judgment, and craft.
- Grew from 0 to 17M members by aligning incentives with behaviour.
- Built several products during COVID lockdowns.
- Raised $900M+ from global investors. Did 4 ESOP buybacks.
- Made Indiranagar and IPL ads slightly more interesting.
- Received a full stack of regulatory licences.
- Lost 35 kilos.
- Scaled from 0 to ~$325M ( ~₹3,200 crore) in annual revenue across payments, lending, insurance, commerce, wealth, and credit cards.
2026
- First profitable quarter (yet occasionally asked what our business model is)
- Raised another $900M from Meta in primary and secondary capital.
- Announcing our 5th ESOP buyback.

Today

CRED is ready for its next phase. I am stepping back and @miten steps in as interim CEO, partnered with an incredibly talented team. He has been heading strategy and finance and suffering me since 2020. I’m stepping away from the operating role and will continue as a shareholder. My commitment doesn’t change. Just the role.

Extremely grateful to our members, partners, regulators, and investors who made this possible. And to our board, Shailendra, Micky, Saurabh for their extraordinary conviction.

Team CRED, I’ll still expect you to be a 10x version of yourselves.

As for me, I’ll be joining Meta to lead WhatsApp globally.

Meta comes in as a minority investor in CRED. No access to member data.

While it’s come very far, the delta between WhatsApp today and its full potential is massive. I look forward to working with Mark, Chris, and the leadership across Meta for the next step in WhatsApp’s journey. Will, thank you for scaling something the world relies on quietly, and for making this transition smooth.

Onwards.

[Will Cathcart @wcathcart]

Some personal news. After nearly 7 years leading WhatsApp, I'm excited to share who will take over the responsibility of delivering simple, reliable, and private messaging for the world. WhatsApp is in the strongest position it's ever been — and that felt like the right moment to step back.

I'm so proud of what we have built. We scaled end-to-end encrypted messaging to more than three billion people. We brought it to group chats, companion devices, new surfaces — and defended people's right to a private conversation across the globe.

Kunal Shah will be WhatsApp's next leader. He built CRED into one of India's most important technology companies and has a deep care for the people that rely on our apps. I’m very excited to see what Kunal and our amazing team continue to build.

Thank you for the privilege of serving people who rely on WhatsApp everywhere. 🙏

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

Meta’s hiring of @kunalb11 to run WhatsApp is almost unprecedented in their bringing a leader from outside Silicon Valley to run a global product. And this wasn’t a straightforward hire either. Meta is paying $1b for the privilege of hiring him.

The only comparable I can think of among tech companies is Apple hiring Angela Ahrendts (CEO of Burberry) to run Retail. Other than that hire, every product / business leadership role at the best tech companies has been filled from people in the Valley, if not the US.

This is a great win for:
- WhatsApp users, who will benefit from a leader who has a native and deep understanding of - and facility with - the product.
- Meta, who gets one of the best global consumer product thinkers and builders for their crown jewel product.
- The Indian / global product talent ecosystem, which will be inspired by seeing that you don’t need to be in Silicon Valley to lead a global product, that forward thinking tech / AI companies will stretch to get the best leaders from anywhere in the world.

@Jessicalessin the story behind Kunal’s hire will be fascinating to break.

[Kunal Shah @kunalb11]

What we call talent is often just the combination of:

A deep need to win and high agency
The ability to learn fast from mistakes
A beginner’s mind that never disappears

The common thread: an unusually high rate of learning.

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

@asardaar__ @diffusionhq @konstipaulus I'd let @Indrann_ be the judge of pretty decent

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

It only takes a gruesome gym session to realise how many muscles are actually involved in brushing your teeth everyday

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

Gold from Brian Chesky:

If you’re trying to win the next year and if I’m trying to win in the next 10 years.

Both of us are going to win, but eventually I’m gonna win.

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

Wispr Flow is a reminder to me that great products still win.

Distribution matters. Competition matters. But when users truly love a product, that becomes the strongest right to win.

kudos @tankots @SahajGarg6 on cracking this!

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

@the_varunrana Personal attacks not welcome

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

Sharing notes on consumer behaviour which hasn’t changed in the last few decades:

1. People appreciate good service and want to be valued as custom-ers.
2. There is an inherent human desire to feel connected.
3. People have a desire to share opinions with others.
4. People make emotional decisions but need something rational to justify them.
5. No one likes to be interrupted at the wrong moment.
6. When consuming content, people either want to be educated or entertained.
7. Persuasive communication = low-effort-processing communica
tion. If advertising demands a lot of attention to process, it us-ally doesn't work.
8. What makes people laugh and cry are still the same. The modes might have changed from a joker in a circus to an Instagram reel, but the fundamentals are the same.

Kudos to @arindam___paul for distilling these in zero to scale

[Dinesh Pai @dineshpaii]

Sat down with @kunalb11 to just talk about one basic question - how should younger founders look to hire and retain them?

This is a question we get often at @Rainmatterin.

The video is very short, so do check it out. But one thing that Kunal said that stuck was that hiring is a tough problem that founders should be responsible for. It's not easy, it's not going to be one size fits all. Also, Kunal stresses the need to leverage your network for hiring at the early stages, at least.

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

there are exactly two things that determine how our lives turn out: the quality of our decisions and luck

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

@PenguinWeb3 wth

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

@arnav_kumar The PM in me couldn't agree with the tweet with all the imposter syndrome running around and had to double click

[Tejeshwi Sharma 🇮🇳 @tejeshwi_sharma]

Some founders are just wired differently.

So much courage. So much Mettle. No regulation, no technology shift, no downturn bends them.

The market can change its course. It cannot kill their fire. They aren't subservient to the odds. They walk through walls others mistake for the end of the road.

Courage is an innate and the most underrated founder virtue. Most other things are learnable.

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

Consistency is key!

Mr Beast when asked about his success, says I can't imagine it being any other way - I've been at it 7 days a week for 16 years straight

[Ankur Warikoo @warikoo]

I have made 3,100+ YouTube videos.
I have sent 2,000+ newsletters
I have written 4,387 LinkedIn posts.
I have shipped 6 books.

I can't recall a single "viral" piece of content.
But slowly, all these pieces added up to 16M followers.

Sometimes you don't need hits.
You just need to show up.
Longer than most people will.
With no expectation in return.

It is intensely hard for most.
It is not for me.
And that makes all the difference.

Most of life's journey is finding that hard thing which isn't hard for you.

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

@gurritwt @Google ikrr

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

wth is this @Google

[Shubh Khandelwal @ShubhKD]

Do real work → extract principles → publish sharp thinking → attract better problems → do better work.