3 years of Zero1 by Zerodha

So, Zero1 by Zerodha just crossed 800,000 subscribers and almost half a billion views. Over 450,000 people have opened our free personal calculators and hopefully benefited from them. But I wanted to share the story behind all this.

Zero1 started as an idea within LearnApp. We have been an investee of Rainmatter since 2018. Nithin, Karthik (and the whole team) have supported us in countless crazy ideas we’ve had over the years. This was one of them. About 3 years ago, at Nithin’s house over dinner, he asked Swati and I what we wanted to do next. LearnApp’s B2C business wasn’t doing well anymore, and we really wanted to build a new-age financial media network. But we didn’t know YouTube or Instagram that deeply. We had played around before, but by no means were great at it.

So, as usual, the Zerodha team took another bet on us and said we can run this independently as a JV as Zero1 by Zerodha. We wanted to teach the basics, the 0-to-1 journey, to all of us who never learned personal finance but were addicted (distracted, lol) to YouTube and Instagram. Basically, we had to crack the video. Serious personal finance stuff but packaged in a way the audience enjoys consuming; call it infotainment if you like (hate that word though).

It’s really tough to know the impact you have on people, especially at such a scale, without talking to them. Here are some of those stories 🙂

We needed to enable money conversations, not give direct solutions

So, we provided calculators for most episodes. The ‘can you afford series’, for example, teaches how to think about affording everything from a car, an iPhone, a vacation, or a house. These are big family decisions. They watch together, discuss, and decide as a family 🙂

Every Saturday, 100,000 people watch the latest episode, and we’ve had countless parents tell us they sat with their ENTIRE family and came to their own conclusions. I think a large portion of those views come from families. This was a really big win. Personal finance is very personal, and I think education can really empower all of us.

What’s cool is that more than 50% of our audience watches on a TV or a laptop. I think attention spans go up for content like this. The ending philosophy is the most popular because it forces you to introspect. Reflection is a superpower when it comes to money decisions; perhaps this is why we earn higher attention spans than usual, which is why YouTube pushes the content to more users.

Our job is to enable you to make better decisions, not to tell you a definitive answer

We were very clear from the start that we would not be tempted by giving an ‘important rule’ that ‘fixes your finances’. Personal finance does not work that way. It’s about knowing your numbers deeply (calculators) and then asking the right questions (philosophy).

So, we built lots of calculators. The idea was to empower the user. About 450,000 people have accessed Zero1’s free-to-use calculators.

These calculator decision frameworks are fully customisable, take input from the user, and, of course, are freely available. Instead of giving everyone the same answer, we give them a way to arrive at their own.

A really good example is when we met a retired Air Force Group Captain. He sat me down and said he had seen at least 20+ episodes. He was all set to buy an XUV for Rs. 27 Lakhs, then the ‘Can you afford an SUV’ episode showed up. He put his own numbers into our calculator, added interest and maintenance, and the car actually came to around Rs. 37 Lakhs. He had also driven only 50,000 km in 6 years. The whole family discussed it and arrived on a different car.

He told me many more stories. This impact can’t be seen in the numbers. It happens when we talk to remarkable people like him. His son, who just started working, now puts 50% of his salary into an index fund.

People can’t fill the gaps in their financial knowledge if they don’t know those gaps exist

The algo gods show you what you already like. Which means, from an educator’s standpoint, if you need to know something but don’t know it exists, you will never come across it in your feed. This sucks.

So, to solve this problem, we found out what people were already searching for, chose that topic (to appear on their feed), and then put content inside that they needed to know. This goes against every YouTube rule that tries to please the audience. We don’t do that; we are educators and see everything from a ‘have to cover this in the curriculum’ lens.

You don’t know what you don’t know. So we make episodes on topics everyone should know, but nobody is searching for.

Like ULIPS or even financial cyberscams.  

De-influencing works because people don’t want to be told YOU CAN BE RICH. They want the risks and the rewards in plain English, and then they want to decide for themselves.

Zero1 Hindi

We failed at this several times. First, we tried to dub the English videos; then we tried to record the English video in Hindi while we shot. But it didn’t work.

The nuances of Hindi and English go beyond just language. Its cultural references are different, analogies differ, and topic selection too. So we knew we had to create original Hindi content that serves a different audience but with the same Zero1 objective. We are still experimenting, but the very first episode crossed 100k and was well received by the audience 🙂

It’s a strong signal that there is a real demand for financial content in the languages people are comfortable thinking in.

‘Inner circle’ community events across the country

Personal finance can’t just be online; it can also be in small communities across the country. So, what if the Zero1 community can come together to self-organise events across the country? Full on, with chapter leaders, volunteers, and learning real technical skills at these events?

We did a pilot recently in Noida where about 800 people applied, and 25 people got the spots. I hope we are able to do multiple locations across the country to enable a new kind of learning.

One advantage of smaller groups is that the learning can be deeper and more intimate.

The format is very simple:

• 25 people are selected on the basis of their interest in money. Beginners are more than welcome.
• Each attendee can bring a +1, so the total headcount is 50
• We pair them up in groups of 6 and give them a finance board game designed by Zero1. The game is hard to complete and involves technical learning on the go, calculators, discussion, and a reflection exercise in the end
• The point is to not only learn technical aspects of money but also understand through debate and discussion
• Attendees get a 3-month habit tracker, which they have to complete and present online after 90 days.
• Follow Zero1 Instagram for more

Building Zero1 has taught us that financial education is about helping people make decisions with a little more confidence. That’s it.

Thank you to the 800,000 people who’ve trusted us with a small part of their financial journey. We’re just getting started.

And if Zero1 changed something for you, do write / DM us. We would love to hear it.

Zero1 the education initiative is a joint venture between us (LearnApp) and Zerodha. We build everything with a ton of love. 🙂

If you haven’t subscribed, here’s the link: Zero1 by Zerodha