Zomato, Meesho, and many more – the term viral is usually associated with new age or ‘cool’ StartUps. Why is that? And what can we learn from it?

If you went by chatter on Twitter, it will seem that India is a country of startups. That isn’t the case, the bulk of Indian businesses are traditional. Even before Shark Tank India happened, startups knew a thing or two about making the news. The term viral has been associated with StartUps for quite sometime now.

Is there something for CEOs, marketers, comms, and PR folks can learn from startups going viral? I think yes, so let’s dive in…

Zomato & Period Leaves

Zomato announced ‘Period Leaves’ for its female and transgender employees in August 2020. Linkedin and Twitter discussions followed. So did a lot of media coverage, the kind most companies dream of. Most messages were congratulatory and it was another ace up Zomato’s sleeve. It further strengthened its position as a cool and progressive company to work for.

People already talked about period pains in whispers across offices and at homes. Once in a few months, my wife faces the awkwardness of having to come up with an excuse to text her manager for leave. It is still not a thing to say ‘period cramps’. Zomato normalised it, at least, for their own staff.

Now, most women employees would love paid leave during such days. But they did not expect companies to do something about it.

Zomato did and got positive PR and chatter for it. They did get some criticism and questions, but that’s par for the course. But more importantly, it showcased they are the progressive company they claim to be.

TAC Security & The Four-day Workweek

Zomato is quite well-known because it’s a consumer internet company. But how do you attract talent when you are a lesser-known company in the enterprise space? TAC Security is one such company founded by hacking whiz-kid Trishneet Arora.

September last year, TAC announced that their Mumbai office will work only four days every week as an experiment. If the experiment is successful, the company will make this a permanent arrangement.

Again this is a conversation we have been having for years, even before Covid hit us. Who wouldn’t love four-day work weeks! They give you an extra day to take care of errands(or for taking longer trips). But did we expect companies to actually offer us this joy? No, we did not.

TAC made a lot of news the week they announced this move. And I am pretty sure that the decision also opens up new talent pools for them.

Meesho & Work From Anywhere, Forever

Meesho has been in the news for laying off staff. But not long ago it found itself at the centre of a lot of positive chatter. Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, announced in February 2022, what they call ‘Boundaryless Work’ at Meesho with the below Twitter thread.

1️⃣ Future of work

In the last 2 years, new ways of working have shattered long-held beliefs that virtual work wasn’t possible.

We studied multiple models to conclude that in an uncertain world, business growth in fact depends on a resilient & productive workforce!

— Vidit Aatrey (@viditaatrey) February 7, 2022

Boundaryless Work might be known to you and me as ‘work from home’ or ‘work from anywhere’. The unnecessary catchphrase notwithstanding, the announcement was a pioneering move. The jury is yet to be out on whether WFH or office is better for productivity or not. But, a large chunk of the white-collared workforce has gotten used to the flexibility of remote working.

Again, we would have loved companies to offer WFH forever. But we did not expect them to.

How can you trigger stories for your brand or company?

If you were the CEO, HR head or comms/PR person for a company, you’d love positive coverage and chatter like this. But not all companies have an interesting announcement in the offing by default. If that’s the case then a simple technique could help you come up with interesting story ideas. Read on…

Here’s what you do:

• Ideate: keep your target audience in mind. For example: existing employees, potential employees and customers or partners.
  
• List: down all the things they’d love for you to do but don’t expect you to. Go whacky, write down the most impractical of things as well(ex: allowing 30 minutes siesta time in office, employees get to decide their own salary, self-appraisal, unlimited paid leaves, etc)
  
• Finalise: The next step is to discuss these ideas, shortlist the ones which have the right overlap with your brand values and then decide to implement one of them that people really want.
  

Pioneers always push the boundaries. 99% of companies may not want to challenge the status-quo. And that’s my final point.

Most established companies are less likely to take path-breaking decisions due to the multiple layers of hierarchy and general aversion to risk-taking.

Most startups have neither of these problems. Most founders tend to take and implement strong decisions. Risk may or may not make for good business, it surely does make great news and eventually can lead them to going viral 🙂

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If you liked this blog on StartUps going viral, feel free to browse through The StoryCo blog for inspiring content on storytelling.