In a recent unstructured chat with Forbes India, Kunal Shah (founder-CEO of Cred) makes a strong case that entrepreneurship is not about glory it’s about judgement. He stresses that what separates impactful founders is the ability to pick tailwinds (favourable trends), build with high-quality teams, and serve a market that genuinely has capacity and need.

Shah reflects on lessons from his earlier ventures FreeCharge, his BPO company, various business experiments all of which taught him about time value, market segments, and how customer behaviour reveals opportunities. He points out cultural traits in India: people often undervalue time and optimise for saving small amounts while potentially losing in bigger trade-offs.

He discusses how much of Cred’s strategy has been about building trust and consistency rather than chasing headline valuation. Cred’s growth, Shah says, comes from behaviour loops products that reward financial responsibility and involve cross-selling because the customer base trusts the brand.

For Shah, investing in a startup isn’t glamorous unless there’s real substance: revenue models, monetisation, customer value, sustainable returns. He emphasises that successful entrepreneurship depends on making hard judgement calls, enduring criticism and mockery, and sticking with vision even when the external applause is quiet.