Built for Performance, Not Comfort

For the longest time, I believed in the idea that a great workplace should feel like a family. That if we could just build a culture where people cared deeply for each other, stuck together through thick and thin, and showed up not just as colleagues but as humans, we’d win. And in many ways, it made sense.

In a “family,” you have people who look out for you, who check in when you are struggling, who go the extra mile without being asked. That kind of emotional safety helps people stick around, feel seen, and maybe even go the extra mile themselves. But like many ideas that sound nice on the surface, this one started to break down when we began asking a deeper question: What does it really take to build a world-class, elite organisation one that is chasing moonshots, not maintaining comfort zones?

As we evolved CARS24 from a tiny startup to a company with global ambition, I found myself rethinking the family metaphor. Not because care or empathy became less important but because we needed something more powerful, more demanding, and ultimately, more honest.

What we needed was not a family. We needed a high-performance team.

The pitfall of “Family” Thinking

Here’s the trap: families stick together no matter what. That’s the point. You don’t ask your sibling to leave the house because they are having a bad year. You accommodate. You make it work. You default to loyalty over performance. And I realised we were doing the same.

We had grown emotionally attached to people, often good-hearted, well-intentioned individuals and tolerated mediocrity far longer than we should have. The question we should have been asking was not, “Is this person nice?” or “Have they been loyal?” but “Is this role delivering the full potential it demands today?”

Once I removed the individual from the equation and simply looked at the role, the clarity hit hard. Many roles at CARS24 were bigger than the people occupying them. And we were being caretakers, not leaders.

That’s when we knew it was time to evolve.

We are Here to Win the Championship

The better metaphor, the one that stuck, was that of a sports team.

Think of the Indian cricket team, or an Olympic relay squad. These are not loose collectives of friends. They are collections of world-class individuals, brought together with one mission: to win.

And yet, they are not transactional.

These players support each other. They share failures. They often become friends for life. But no one, including themselves, mistakes performance for entitlement.

Every single person knows: You earn your spot on the team. Every single day.

You don’t stay on the team just because you’ve been around the longest. You stay because you are still the best person for the role. If you are not, someone else will take your place. And that’s not cruelty. That’s what excellence demands.

Merit, Not Tenure

This mindset has already begun to shape CARS24’s culture.

We’ve fast-tracked outstanding performers. We’ve made the org flatter so that talent can shine across boundaries and not get trapped in traditional hierarchies. And we are heading towards building a culture where it's normal to see high performing individuals who used to report to you become your manager. 

This is what real meritocracy looks like.

Yes, it’s uncomfortable. It might even feel threatening to those who’ve been used to a slower pace or cushioned growth path. But it’s necessary.

We are not building a workplace for comfort.

We are building one for excellence.

So What Happens When You Fail?

Every sports team has off days. Every player has a bad season. That doesn’t make them bad people. It makes them human.

The best teams, just like the best cultures, know how to separate performance slumps from mindset gaps.

And mindset is everything.

We are okay with failure.

We are okay with tough feedback.

We are okay with learning curves, long nights, and occasional misfires.

What we are not okay with is complacency.

What we are not okay with is hiding.

What we are not okay with is entitlement, the belief that you deserve to be here just because you were here yesterday.

The Moonshot Demands More

If we are serious about becoming a $100B company over the next decade…

If we want to build one of the largest and most respected auto companies in the world…

If we want to outpace global giants, reinvent consumer experiences, and lead the next era of innovation in mobility…

Then we have to play a different game.

And that starts with being a different kind of team.

We will no longer be defined by who stays the longest.

We will be defined by who shows up every day with full intent, full honesty, and full hunger to win.

This Culture isn’t Intimidating, it’s Inspiring

Some will ask, “But what if I’m not good enough?”

Here’s the truth:

If you are willing to be radically honest about your strengths and weaknesses,

If you can learn faster than others around you,

If you are hungry enough to leave your comfort zone behind,

If you get inspired not by what the average person is doing but by what the best in the world are doing 

Then there is absolutely a place for you in this team.

Because this team is not built on pedigree.

It’s built on performance.

It’s built on mindset.

It’s built on people who are not afraid to say: “I want to be world-class.”

And just like elite athletes, we take recovery, wellbeing, and health seriously because mental sharpness and physical resilience are non-negotiable at the top. Our Wellness Team exists to make sure you have all the tools and support to be at your best. 

We Are Not a Family. We Are a 1% Team.

We are here to do the best work of our lives.

We are here to chase goals that feel impossible, because the act of chasing them makes us better, stronger, sharper as individuals and as a company.

We will care for each other.

We will support each other.

But we will also challenge each other, push each other, and hold each other to a standard that 99% of the world isn’t willing to aim for.

And that’s okay. Because we are not like the rest.

We are the 1%.

Let’s build that team.