Former Swiggy COO Vivek Sunder recently revealed an incident that played an important part in shaping his career choices — it involved Aishwarya Rai and Pepsi.
Sunder, currently the CEO of Cuemath, shared that in the early 1990s, he had participated in a contest by Pepsi which eventually led to the former Miss World visiting his “house”.
“This was in the early 90s, two Indians won the Miss World and the Miss Universe titles in that period — Aishwarya and Sushmita. And Pepsi, which was a startup in India, did a campaign… so there was this amazing Aishwarya and Sanjana ad, and after that, they said, ‘If you want a chance to meet her write a slogan about why you would like to meet her and er… something about Pepsi,” Vivek Sunder said in a conversation with Stable Money co-founder Saurabh Jain.
He then recollected sending his entry in a 15 paisa postcard and then receiving a reply when he was at his hostel. “When stuff like this comes in a hostel, everybody comes to know. It basically said ‘Congratulations! Your slogan has been selected, and we’re gonna have Aishwarya Rai visit you. Please send us your home address’,” Sunder said, but there was a problem. He was living in a hostel in Delhi.
When I left Navi, I remember sitting with @Vivek_Sunder at a Starbucks, where he looked at me and said, "You're going to make it and just incase you don't, you'll have a job with me"
And interviewing Vivek has undoubtedly been one of my best experiences.
Folks, presenting to… pic.twitter.com/yhmQREIUca
— Saurabh Jain (@saurabhjain1099) July 25, 2023
My home at that time is in Jaipur so that’s not going to work. I didn’t know if they would address the hostel as a home address. So a friend and I, who had done this together, eventually gave his address. So she (Aishwarya) visited our ‘home’ in Delhi,” he said.
The meeting lasted 15 minutes but as the news spread, Sunder said he realised that Pepsi basically marketed itself by making its customers work. “After this happened, the college came to know, the college canteen came to know and the sale of Pepsi in the canteen went up. I remember this because I had spoken to the guy,” the former Swiggy executive said. “He said that the sales had shot up even though nobody there had met Aishwarya because that’s what marketing is.”
Impressed, Sunder then decided to do an MBA before working with companies such as P&G, Swiggy, and Cuemath.