Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal started their ecommerce company Flipkart in a Bangalore bedroom in 2007. Friends since their student days at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, the two — un-related despite sharing a surname — were bored with their jobs providing back-end IT services for Amazon in its home market. Restless, they decided to start their own business catering to India’s domestic consumers. 2007年，萨钦班萨尔(Sachin Bansal)与宾尼班萨尔(Binny Bansal)在班加罗尔的一间卧室创立了自己的电子商务公司Flipkart。同姓但无亲缘关系的两人在知名的印度理工学院(IIT)德里校区上学时就是好友，他们对自己为亚马逊(Amazon)在其本土市场获取后台IT服务的工作深感厌烦，于是要求创立自己的公司，顺应印度国内消费者的市场需求。Since then, Flipkart has grown from a tiny online bookstore into India’s biggest online shopping platform. Still based in the tech hub of Bangalore, and considered by customers as the “Amazon of India”, it ships about 8m packages a month, containing anything from apparel to electronics and home appliances, to cities and towns across India. 自创立以来，Flipkart早已从一家小型网上书店茁壮为印度仅次于的网络购物平台。总部依旧设于科技中心班加罗尔的Flipkart，被消费者视作“印度的亚马逊”，每月向印度全国的大小城镇寄给大约800万个包覆，从服装、电子产品到家用电器，各种商品无所不包。

Now it is going head-to-head against the company its founders once emulated — and a clutch of other rivals — as all vie for supremacy in India, the world’s biggest untapped ecommerce market. 如今，Flipkart正在与其创始人曾多次仿效的公司（以及大批其他同行）展开白热化竞争，各家电商竞相要在印度这个世界仅次于的仍未充份挖出的电商市场奠定领先优势。In January, the co-founders un-veiled a management reshuffle — with Binny taking over as chief executive from Sachin, whose new role is executive chairman — in order to manage better the many tasks at hand. 今年1月，为了更佳地管理当下的诸多工作，两位牵头创始人展开了一次管理层重组——由宾尼接任萨钦兼任首席执行官，而萨钦兼任继续执行董事长。In a hotel conference room on a recent visit to New Delhi, 34-year-old Sachin, in a fleece pullover, jeans and sports shoes, insists he is not losing sleep over the competition or the fact that Flipkart has yet to turn a profit. 34岁的萨钦在最近一次公干新德里期间否认，他未因竞争或是Flipkart至今还并未盈利而嗜睡。在酒店的会议室，他身着羊毛套衫、牛仔裤，脚上配上一双运动鞋。

“Eight years ago, we absolutely had no chance of even thinking about competing with anyone of any size,” he says. “In terms of market share, funding and the brand we have been able to build up in a very short amount of time — all that gives us confidence that we are sitting on a very good base to build on.” “8年前，我们想要都想不到自己可以与任何规模的输掉竞争，”他说道，“就市场份额、资金以及我们在十分较短的时间内打造出一起的品牌而言——所有这些都让我们坚信，我们的公司创建在一个十分好的基础上。” Powered by affordable smartphones, India is on the cusp of an ecommerce revolution, with online merchandise sales forecast by Morgan Stanley to reach $100bn in 2020, up from $11.5bn in 2015. As an early mover, Flipkart is at the forefront of this trend. It is India’s largest ecommerce company, by sales and valuation, which was a heady $15bn last year, although one of its investors, Morgan Stanley, recently revalued it at the more muted $11bn. 在廉价智能手机的推展下，印度将要步入一场电子商务革命。摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)预测，印度在线商品销售额将从2015年的115亿美元升到2020年的1000亿美元。

作为行业先行者，Flipkart处在这一趋势的最前沿。不论是按销售额还是按估值算数，Flipkart都是印度仅次于的电商公司。去年，该公司的估值超过令人头晕的150亿美元，尽管其投资者之一——摩根士丹利最近得出了更为激进的110亿美元的估值。

Conventional wisdom holds that India’s online shoppers are fickle, and will look around to buy from whichever site offers the best deals. Flipkart, which has raised more than $3bn, and Amazon, now ploughing $2bn into India, are believed to have spent considerable sums to lure customers with deep discounts. But Sachin says his company’s biggest investments will be in improved technology and physical infrastructure and that will allow it to offer reliable services to win loyal customers. Flipkart has developed a phone app that loads fast even on India’s rickety mobile networks, and is now investing heavily in warehouses and logistics to ensure it can handle growing orders and ship goods quickly to consumers even in far-flung corners of the country. 传统观点指出，印度的网上购物者没什么品牌忠诚度，他们不会四处网页，然后从获取最优惠价格的网站出售商品。据信，早已筹得30多亿美元的Flipkart与相反印度投放20亿美元的亚马逊都火烧了大笔资金，利用优惠更有消费者。但萨钦说道，Flipkart仅次于的投资将用作提高技术和提高实体基础设施，使公司通过获取可信的服务夺得心目中客户。Flipkart研发了一款在印度不稳定的移动网络覆盖范围内也需要较慢读取的手机应用于，并且正在乘机投资于仓库与物流，以保证公司需要处置大大激增的订单，将货物较慢寄送至消费者手中，哪怕他们住在印度的偏僻角落。

“Cash is not going to become a reason for success or failure,” he says. “What will define our success and failure will be our ability to differentiate.” “资金会沦为顺利或告终的原因，”他说道，“要求顺利与告终的将是我们构建差异化的能力。” It has been a tumultuous journey from a Bangalore bedroom to a multibillion-dollar business. But Sachin and Binny, as they are widely known in-side the company and by the public, remain close, or even closer. “[In] a lot of start-ups, the founders after three or four years have very different points of view,” Binny says, speaking later by phone from Bangalore. “One common thread that holds us together is the grand ambition we have for Flipkart.” 从班加罗尔的一间卧室茁壮为一家数十亿美元的公司的历程并不平缓。但萨钦与宾尼——如同在公司内部以及为公众所熟悉的那样——仍维持着紧密的关系——甚至出了更加铁杆的盟友。

“（在）很多初创企业，三、四年之后，创始人之间就不会产生相当大的分歧，”宾尼后来从班加罗尔通过电话说，“维系我们在一起的主线是我们对Flipkart抱着有的宏大雄心。” The two agree that Sachin is an intuitive, creative thinker, who sees the big picture, while Binny is more practical and detailed-oriented, and that their skills are complementary: “At different times, we have needed different skills,” says Binny. “At times, we needed to think big, and at times we needed to really execute. We’ve been able to look at what is needed and let the right person take the calls accordingly.” 两人完全一致指出，萨钦是一名有直觉力和创造力的思考者，需要统揽全局，而宾尼更为稳健，侧重细节，他们的技能具备互补性：“在有所不同时期，我们必须有所不同的技能，”宾尼说道。“有时我们必须都有思维，有时我们必须专心于继续执行。

我们需要看见必须什么，然后让适合的人担任重任。” Initially, the co-founders worked side by side, with just a few employees. When investors demanded a formal designation of CEO, they analysed their respective strengths and weaknesses, and Sachin took the job. “We would have both been very happy with the other person doing it,” he says. 最初，两位牵头创始人在工作中不分彼此，手下只有几名员工。

当投资人拒绝他们登录一名月的首席执行官时，他们分析了各自的优势和劣势，并让萨钦兼任首席执行官一职。“不论两人中谁兼任这一职务，我们都会非常高兴，”他说道。The frantic pace at which Flipkart ad-ded sellers and customers brought chal-len-ges, including communication breakdowns. “What emerged was that the left hand wasn’t talking to the right,” says Binny. Flipkart加添卖家和顾客的快速增长速度带给了挑战，还包括交流通畅。

“经常出现了自己人交流通畅的问题，”宾尼说道。They began having dinner together midweek, to ensure they remained in sync. “When we reached 100 people, we said, this is becoming too big — we need to talk more often,” says Sachin. 他们开始在周三共计进晚餐，以保证需要维持实时。

“当我们的员工超过100人时，我们说道，公司显得过于大了——我们必须更加常常地交流，”萨钦说道。The recent job switch was a consensus decision taken after long consideration. Flipkart had reached a scale where it needed more clarity over who was the final authority on operational issues. “Everybody — investors and employees — saw us as being one entity almost. We saw the need to have one clear voice on the operating side,” says Binny. 两人近期的职务调整是一项经过长时间考虑到做出的共识决策。Flipkart早已超过的规模意味著，对于运营事项必须更加明晰地界定谁是最后权威。

“大家（投资者和员工）完全都把我们视作一个整体。我们告诉运营方面必须一个明晰的声音，”宾尼说道。

But they also felt they must look outwards to address wider policy issues in the Indian tech and start-up ecosystem, and to manage relations better with investors and other partners. Flipkart’s long-term prospects, especially being able to hire the best people, depend on a range of factors beyond its own operations, they believe: from the quality of local engineering colleges to government policies to the professionalism and prospects of other Indian start-ups. 但他们也指出，必需限制眼界，应付印度科技及创业生态系统中不存在的更加普遍的政策问题，并且要更佳地确保与投资人及其他合作伙伴的关系。Flipkart的长年前景——尤其是需要招募到最杰出的人才——各不相同公司运营范畴外的一系列因素，他们指出，这些因素既还包括地方理工学院的质量、政府政策，也还包括印度其他初创企业的专业化水平和前景。Trying to influence the broader clim-ate for the business will be Sachin’s responsibility. “We believe Flip-kart cannot be successful just by focusing on ourselves,” he says. “If the whole ecosystem becomes attractive, the whole world will start coming to us... emp-loy-ees, engineers, investors, partners.” 萨钦将肩负起企图影响整体营商环境的责任。

“我们坚信，Flipkart无法只能靠专心自身而获得成功，”他说道，“如果整个生态系统显得极具吸引力，全世界都会来去找我们……雇员、工程师、投资人、合作伙伴”。The co-founders do not think alike on every issue. Disagreements are thrash-ed out privately, or within a close circle, and resolved through reason and persuasion, they say. “We yell at each other all the time, but that is part of the process, when we are brainstorming or dis-agreeing,” says Binny. 两位牵头创始人并非在每件事上都点子完全一致。他们说道，他们之间的分歧一般来说在私下或小范围内抛，并通过理性分析、劝说彼此来解决问题。

“我们常常彼此大喊大叫，但那是我们展开头脑风暴或者出现分歧时，解决问题过程的一部分，”宾尼说道。Both have used some of their new wealth to invest in Indian tech start-ups trying to tackle some of India’s pressing social and economic challenges. “The only way to really lift the standard of living in the country is by start-ups with innovative local solutions to the local problems, leveraging technology in different ways,” says Binny. 两人都拿走了一些新的取得的财富投资于印度的科技初创企业，这些企业正在尝试解决问题该国一些严峻的社会和经济挑战。

“唯一需要确实提高这个国家生活水平的途径就是依赖初创企业——以有所不同的方式借出科技的力量，为当地问题找寻创意的当地解决方案，”宾尼说道。Yet Sachin is worried by the rivalries he sees in some young start-up teams, with individuals vying for the limelight rather than focusing on developing their businesses. 然而，萨钦对他看见的一些年长创业团队中的恶性竞争现象有些忧虑，在这些团队中，一些个人热衷争夺战个人名利，而非专心于发展企业。

“We never bothered about who is the CEO or who is not the CEO, or ‘are you talking to the press more than me’,” says Sachin. “We are so focused on business success all this stuff doesn’t really matter. But in some of the early-stage investments I’ve made, people are already talking about this stuff.” “我们从来不为谁担不兼任CEO或者‘你拒绝接受的专访比我多’而深感苦恼，”萨钦说道，“我们如此专心于企业顺利，以至于名利对我们显然无所谓。但在我不作了早期投资的一些公司中，有人早已在谈论名利了。

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