Varun Chopra

co-founder and CMO of Epic

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Varun Chopra is co-founder and CMO of Epic, an e-commerce company in India. Chopra has said his studies were in engineering, and he opened his first company in 2018. He has said Epic's pitch is a free home demo in 60 minutes, where others say buy now.

Early life and background

Chopra has said he had no background in business in his family. He has said he became intrigued by psychology, sociology and reading marketing and advertising books. He has said marketing became the field he wanted to spend his career in. [1]

Education

Chopra has said his background is in engineering, in terms of his studies. He has said his college in India was one of the top premium institutes in the country. He came to Germany for one year to do his master thesis. He has said that, not knowing the language fully well, he felt India was the right place to be. [1]

Career

Chopra opened his first company in 2018. He has said it focused only on D2C e-commerce brands. [1]

Chopra has said he started a company with a person he met. He has said the company grew bootstrapped, without any money in the bank, and spent five years compounding through frugal execution. He has said the company had almost 60 team members in 2024 and more than 100 active accounts in 2024. He has also said he was compounding cash with his previous companies. [1]

Move to Bangalore

Chopra has said an AI verticalized agency wanted to roll up all the creative and marketing industry. He has said the business was profitable, and that he had sold his business. He has said he moved to Bangalore because he considered it Silicon Valley. He has cited a source that names three big levers of a life: where you live, who you work with and what you do. He has said that where you live has the biggest impact, which made his move a no-brainer. [1]

Epic

Chopra is co-founder and CMO of Epic, an e-commerce company in India. He has said he was running a venture as an experiment, and it merged with other founders. He has said his company raised one million dollars from an investor, and that an investor that has backed the largest marketplaces of India is backing his company. He has said Epic is now closing its seed capital round. [1]

Chopra has said Epic's pitch is a free home demo in 60 minutes, where others say buy now. He has said people are able to experience a brick and mortar store from the comfort of their living room. He has said Epic's demo person picks up the product from a nearby store and reaches the home within 60 minutes. [1]

Chopra has said Epic started with electronics because of high average order values. He has said the choice comes down to the top two or three products, after which there is a simple button for a home demo. He has said Epic plans demo hubs every 10 to 15 kilometers, each with demo units and trained teams. [1]

Chopra has said Epic's commission model averages 20 to 25 percent, and that Epic wants to keep a per-sale commission that stays profitable. He has said Epic has not yet started charging customers a convenience fee, and that the first mover position gives Epic time to start charging convenience fees. He has said Epic is CM2 positive right now. [1]

Chopra has said Epic holds data on the homes it enters, including household potential income by pin code. He has said Epic voice records its demos to gather primary data on consumers. He has said Epic's tech team has five members. He has said Epic's differentiation is its operational fleet, which it is still setting up. He has said Epic is a first mover, since no one else does home demo commerce. [1]

Chopra has said Epic's opportunity is to expand to the top five and top 10 cities, and tier one and tier two cities in India. He has said Epic may test the model in the Dubai market. He has said a Japanese investor in Epic's current round is opening a corridor for Japanese brands into India. He has said within the next two to three years Epic will put humanoids who can probably walk. He has said his day-to-day decisions include who to hire next and which product to launch. [1]

Views

Chopra has said his company is betting on experiential commerce. He has said home demo, or experiential commerce, is the next layer of commerce. He has said experiential commerce is the new wave of commerce, expected to last about 10 years. [1]

Chopra has said experiential commerce is the next commerce, especially for high-touch, high-consideration, high-AOV products. He has said home demo economics make sense for products above 100 to 150 US dollars. He has said products below that range are covered by virtual demos, with a person coming on a call, as happened in China. [1]

Chopra has said it is actually tough to build in the e-commerce market. He has said shovel makers make a lot of money when people chase gold. He has said only a handful of the almost 500 brands his team dealt with survived. He has said e-commerce conversion rates do not go above 3 to 5 percent, and that conversion rates are not rising in these economies. [1]

Chopra has said China is about 40 percent penetrated online, with offline at 60 percent. He has said there is a trust deficit in the economy. He has said he has heard the US is still very agile and fast for entrepreneurship. He has said multiple businesses in India have unit economics that do not make sense. [1]

Chopra has said logistics and food commerce companies already charge convenience fees. He has said that since the company enters a consumer's house, the t-shirt its staff wear is up for sponsorship, and that the company could be reaching a million demos a day. He has said data from home visits, taken with consent, may be one of the largest levers. He has said much top-of-funnel marketing spend is wasted on billboards. [1]

Chopra has said Epic treats growth and profit as an and conversation, not an or conversation. He has said his investors describe scale as the oxygen for a marketplace. He has said pressure might loosen as soon as the company hits scale. [1]

Chopra has said human interactions are not going down, even though people love AI for productivity. He has said people are social animals, and commerce will evolve around that. He has said trust in the internet falls as AI commoditizes content, so people value experiences more. He has said the next search engine will probably be phrase-led, not keyword-led, and that consumers now converse with AI rather than scroll. [1]

Chopra has said he expects Google to keep a lot of power even as LLMs grow. He has said it is a great time to be in India for D2C, consumer tech and AI. He has said the application layer is being built in cities like Bangalore, and that the company might not be working on the infrastructure layer, such as silicon chips and data centers. He has said government, infrastructure and financial support is aligned with making the East the new West. [1]

Chopra has said an era of challengers coming in and disrupting all industries is beginning. He has said an AI company is making its own infrastructure. He has said a partner presented on the disruption of labour in both blue collar and white collar work. He has said IT jobs and everything in the service economy are going down, and that the entire labour market could be up for disruption within 5 to 10 years. [1]

Chopra has said the best day would be when there are 8 billion entrepreneurs. He has said the top 10 percent of India's population holds a lot of money. He has said he has spent considerable time building India's consumer tech ecosystem. [1]

Personal life

Chopra has said his sister lives in Germany, and he visits for a month in summer. He has said he dreams of going back to Italy after he turns 50 and getting a few tennis courts under his name. [1]

Timeline

2018
Opens his first company.[1]
2024
Reports almost 60 team members and more than 100 active accounts at his company.[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2026-07-03 Experiential commerce is what comes after quick commerce Beyond the Bubble

Frequently asked questions

Who is Varun Chopra?

Varun Chopra is co-founder and CMO of Epic, an e-commerce company in India. Chopra has said his studies were in engineering. He opened his first company in 2018.[1]

What does Varun Chopra do?

Varun Chopra is co-founder and CMO of Epic, an e-commerce company in India. Chopra has said Epic's pitch is a free home demo in 60 minutes, where others say buy now.[1]

Where did Varun Chopra study?

Varun Chopra has said his background is in engineering, in terms of his studies. He has said his college in India was one of the top premium institutes in the country. Chopra came to Germany for one year to do his master thesis.[1]

What company did Varun Chopra found?

Varun Chopra is co-founder of Epic, an e-commerce company in India, where he is CMO. He opened his first company in 2018, which he has said focused only on D2C e-commerce brands.[1]

What is experiential commerce according to Varun Chopra?

Varun Chopra has said home demo, or experiential commerce, is the next layer of commerce. He has said it is the next commerce, especially for high-touch, high-consideration, high-AOV products. Chopra has said it is the new wave of commerce, expected to last about 10 years.[1]

Why did Varun Chopra move to Bangalore?

Varun Chopra has said he moved to Bangalore because he considered it Silicon Valley. He has also said that where you live has the biggest impact, which made his move a no-brainer.[1]

References

  1. Experiential commerce is what comes after quick commerce . Beyond the Bubble , 2026-07-03.
Show the source passages (90 statements)
  1. The episode introduces Varun Chopra as co-founder and CMO of Epic, an e-commerce company in India. co-founder and CMO uh of Epic E-commerce out there in India
  2. Varun Chopra has said his background is in engineering, in terms of his studies. So my background has been in engineering uh like in terms of studies
  3. Varun Chopra has said his college in India was one of the top premium institutes in the country. That came very very naturally in my college because of uh you know uh great exposure, one of the top premier industries uh premium institute in India
  4. Varun Chopra came to Germany for one year to do his master thesis. I actually came to Germany for an year to do my master thesis
  5. Varun Chopra has said he became intrigued by psychology, sociology and reading marketing and advertising books. I got intrigued on psychology, sociology, even reading a lot of marketing and advertising books
  6. Varun Chopra has said marketing became the field he wanted to spend his career in. marketing seems to be you know my cup of tea uh I very soon realized and double clicked on it
  7. Varun Chopra opened his first company in 2018. I opened my first company back in 2018 uh which is called the teaser company
  8. Varun Chopra has said his first company focused only on D2C e-commerce brands. only focusing on D2C e-commerce brands
  9. Varun Chopra has said he started a company with a person he met. I met Shivam and we started it
  10. Varun Chopra has said the company grew bootstrapped, without any money in the bank. we scaled very very nicely with uh boots trapped all without you know any penny in the bank
  11. Varun Chopra has said he had no business background in his family. on day zero with no background in business in the family
  12. Varun Chopra has said the company spent five years compounding through frugal execution. 5 years of very very sharp compounding you know frugal execution
  13. Varun Chopra has said the company had almost 60 team members in 2024. getting our way to building the teams almost hitting 60 members uh you know in 2024
  14. Varun Chopra has said the company had more than 100 active accounts in 2024. in 2024 with 100 plus active accounts
  15. Varun Chopra has said an AI verticalized agency wanted to roll up all the creative and marketing industry. an AI verticalized agency wanted to uh you know roll up all the creative and marketing industry
  16. Varun Chopra has said the business was profitable. that led me to some money in the bank even though it was profitable
  17. Varun Chopra has said he had sold his business. at that time when I had sold my business
  18. Varun Chopra has said he moved to Bangalore because he considered it Silicon Valley. moved to Bangalore uh because I knew it's the Silicon Valley
  19. Varun Chopra has cited a source that names three big levers of a life: where you live, who you work with and what you do. I read novel Ravikant who says uh you know there are three big levers of your life. Where you live, who you work with and what you do
  20. Varun Chopra has said that where you live has the biggest impact, which made his move a no-brainer. Where you live actually has the biggest impact and uh it was a no-brainer after reading that statement
  21. Varun Chopra has said he was running a venture as an experiment, and it merged with other founders. I was running homeified as an experiment we merged with an uh you know very very sharp founders
  22. Varun Chopra has said conversion rates are not rising in these economies. because conversion rates are not increasing in these economies
  23. Varun Chopra has said home demo, or experiential commerce, is the next layer of commerce. that home demo or experiential commerce is the next layer of uh you know commerce and where it's heading
  24. Varun Chopra has said his company raised one million dollars from an investor. which led us to you know raise from infoedge a million dollars
  25. Varun Chopra has said an investor that has backed the largest marketplaces of India is backing his company. we see infoedge backing us who who have been uh backing the largest marketplaces of India
  26. Varun Chopra has said people are able to experience a brick and mortar store from the comfort of their living room. they are able to experience that brick and mortar at the comfort of their living room
  27. Varun Chopra has said it is actually tough to build in the e-commerce market. it is actually tough to build in e-commerce market
  28. Varun Chopra has said shovel makers make a lot of money when people chase gold. we were no shovel providers in in the era of people trying to find gold I think shovel makers make a lot of money
  29. Varun Chopra has said only a handful of the almost 500 brands his team dealt with survived. out of almost 500 brands that we dealt with in you know over five six years only a handful of them survived
  30. Varun Chopra has said e-commerce conversion rates do not go above 3 to 5 percent. seeing that conversion rates don't go more than 3 4 5%
  31. Varun Chopra has said China is about 40 percent penetrated online, with offline at 60 percent. China is 40% penetrated uh you know in online world offline is 60 for them
  32. Varun Chopra has said there is a trust deficit in the economy. so there is you know that trust deficit in the economy
  33. Varun Chopra has said he has heard the US is still very agile and fast for entrepreneurship. I've heard US is still very agile very fast entrepreneurship is there
  34. Varun Chopra has said not knowing the language fully well, he felt India was the right place to be. not knowing the language fully well. I felt India is the right place to be
  35. Varun Chopra has said his sister lives in Germany, and he visits for a month in summer. my sister stays in Germany so I still you know get to go there spend a month summer time there
  36. Varun Chopra has said he dreams of going back to Italy after he turns 50 and getting a few tennis courts under his name. probably I still dream of going back to you know Italy after I turn 50 and you know get some few tennis courts under my name
  37. Varun Chopra has said his company is betting on experiential commerce. which we are actually betting upon which is experiential commerce
  38. Varun Chopra has said experiential commerce is the new wave of commerce, expected to last about 10 years. telescope shows that experiential commerce is the new wave of commerce. It is going to be there for 10 years
  39. Varun Chopra has said experiential commerce is the next commerce, especially for high-touch, high-consideration, high-AOV products. what we call is the next commerce to be experiential commerce and especially for high touch high consideration high AOV
  40. Varun Chopra has said Epic's pitch is a free home demo in 60 minutes, where others say buy now. everyone else on the internet says buy now in terms of commerce products. We are the ones saying free home demo in 60 minutes
  41. Varun Chopra has said the choice comes down to the top two or three products, after which there is a simple button for a home demo. come down to top two, top three products wherein after that you have a simple button of a home demo
  42. Varun Chopra has said Epic's demo person picks up the product from a nearby store and reaches the home within 60 minutes. So guy actually picks up the product from a store nearby, comes to your home within 60 minutes
  43. Varun Chopra has said human interactions are not going down, even though people love AI for productivity. human interactions are not going down even though we love AI on the productivity efficiency level
  44. Varun Chopra has said people are social animals, and commerce will evolve around that. at the core we have always been social animals so this is where we feel uh this commerce will evolve
  45. Varun Chopra has said Epic started with electronics because of high average order values. we immediately started with electronics as the first category of penetration because of high AOVs
  46. Varun Chopra has said home demo economics make sense for products above 100 to 150 US dollars. Anything above a $100 to $150 USD uh is where the economy start making sense
  47. Varun Chopra has said products below that range are covered by virtual demos, with a person coming on a call, as happened in China. Anything else below we are enabling through virtual demos which is simply a person coming on a call like how it happened in China
  48. Varun Chopra has said Epic plans demo hubs every 10 to 15 kilometers, each with demo units and trained teams. Then the hubs every 10 to 15 kilometers where these demo units and the trained professional teams are there
  49. Varun Chopra has said Epic's commission model averages 20 to 25 percent. with a you know average 20 25% of commission model
  50. Varun Chopra has said Epic has not yet started charging customers a convenience fee. where we have not even started a convenience-free from customers even though it is super convenient
  51. Varun Chopra has said logistics and food commerce companies already charge convenience fees. logistic companies as well as the food uh commerce space have been charging those convenience fee
  52. Varun Chopra has said the first mover position gives Epic time to start charging convenience fees. we feel because of the first mover there is time to start charging for those
  53. Varun Chopra has said since the company enters a consumer's house, the t-shirt its staff wear is up for sponsorship. Since we are entering a house of a consumer, the t-shirt that we are wearing is you know up for sponsorship
  54. Varun Chopra has said the company could be reaching a million demos a day. reaching a million demos a day wherein these companies who you know puts a lot of branding money
  55. Varun Chopra has said data from home visits, taken with consent, may be one of the largest levers. data being one of the largest where in entering a home taking a consent of a voice recording
  56. Varun Chopra has said Epic is CM2 positive right now. we are CM2 positive right now with a first round of branch coming
  57. Varun Chopra has said Epic is now closing its seed capital round. now closing our seed capital as we speak
  58. Varun Chopra has said Epic treats growth and profit as an and conversation, not an or conversation. it's not an or conversation it's an and conversation for us
  59. Varun Chopra has said his investors describe scale as the oxygen for a marketplace. our investors very well put it that scale is the oxygen for a marketplace
  60. Varun Chopra has said pressure might loosen as soon as the company hits scale. we feel that pressure might lossen out as soon as we hit scale
  61. Varun Chopra has said Epic wants to keep a per-sale commission that stays profitable. while we want to continue at a commission level of per sale being profitable table
  62. Varun Chopra has said Epic holds data on the homes it enters, including household potential income by pin code. we have the data of what houses that we are entering what is the household potential income as per pin code clarity
  63. Varun Chopra has said much top-of-funnel marketing spend is wasted on billboards. a lot of top of the funnel get wasted by these brands on billboards
  64. Varun Chopra has said multiple businesses in India have unit economics that do not make sense. there are multiple businesses out there currently in India where the unit economics don't make sense at all
  65. Varun Chopra has said he is not from a business family and was compounding cash with his previous companies. not belonging to any business family and just you know u compounding cash uh with my previous companies
  66. Varun Chopra has said Epic's tech team has five members. our tech team is very lean like five member team and they all are on cloud code
  67. Varun Chopra has said Epic voice records its demos to gather primary data on consumers. We voice record the demo which distills us a lot of primary data talking about the consumer
  68. Varun Chopra has said trust in the internet falls as AI commoditizes content, so people value experiences more. more experiences and touch as internet gets lower on trust because of commoditization of content through AI
  69. Varun Chopra has said the next search engine will probably be phrase-led, not keyword-led. the next search engine probably would be phraseled uh not exactly keywordled because how we converse is how these uh engines are getting built
  70. Varun Chopra has said consumers now converse with AI rather than scroll. It is not how they are scrolling, it is how they are conversing which is very very different world altogether
  71. Varun Chopra has said he expects Google to keep a lot of power even as LLMs grow. I feel Google will still have a lot of uh power in terms of even if you are searching through LLMs
  72. Varun Chopra has said Epic's opportunity is to expand to the top five and top 10 cities, and tier one and tier two cities in India. the opportunity lies in a expanding rapidly from here to the top five, top 10, tier one, tier two cities in India
  73. Varun Chopra has said the top 10 percent of India's population holds a lot of money. India the top 10% of the economy actually or of the population holds a lot of money in their hands
  74. Varun Chopra has said Epic may test the model in the Dubai market. we'll have the space to test how it works in Dubai market
  75. Varun Chopra has said a Japanese investor in Epic's current round is opening a corridor for Japanese brands into India. we already got an investor in this current round from Japan opening a corridor of bringing specialized supply of Japanese brands to India
  76. Varun Chopra has said Epic is a first mover, since no one else does home demo commerce. there's no one else out there who is doing a home demo uh commerce
  77. Varun Chopra has said his day-to-day decisions include who to hire next and which product to launch. who do I hire next which uh you know next product do we launch those are already decisions that are running in my head
  78. Varun Chopra has said he has spent considerable time building India's consumer tech ecosystem. since I've spent you you know considerable amount of time in uh in building that ecosystem
  79. Varun Chopra has said it is a great time to be in India for D2C, consumer tech and AI. I feel great time to be in India whether it is D2C ecosystem, consumer tech, even AI for that matter
  80. Varun Chopra has said the application layer is being built in cities like Bangalore. the application layer is uh is beautifully getting built in cities like Bangalore
  81. Varun Chopra has said the company might not be working on the infrastructure layer, such as silicon chips and data centers. We might not be working on the infrastructure layer like your silicon chips and your data centers
  82. Varun Chopra has said government, infrastructure and financial support is aligned with making the East the new West. the government support, infrastructure, financial support is all uh all in line with making east uh you know the new west
  83. Varun Chopra has said an era of challengers coming in and disrupting all industries is beginning. we are entering uh that you know era of uh challenggers coming in and disrupting all industries
  84. Varun Chopra has said an AI company is making its own infrastructure. there is a company called Server AI which is you know making their own infra
  85. Varun Chopra has said a partner presented on the disruption of labour in both blue collar and white collar work. one of the partner actually presented uh the entire movement towards disruption of labor as we speak both blue collar and white collar
  86. Varun Chopra has said IT jobs and everything in the service economy are going down. we can see uh you know the IT jobs and the and everything in the service economy is going down
  87. Varun Chopra has said the entire labour market could be up for disruption within 5 to 10 years. within next 5 to 10 years is the entire labor is up for disruption
  88. Varun Chopra has said the best day would be when there are 8 billion entrepreneurs. the best day would be when we have 8 billion entrepreneurs. So everyone actually works for themselves
  89. Varun Chopra has said within the next two to three years Epic will put humanoids who can probably walk. we feel within next 2 to 3 years we will put humanoids who can actually probably walk
  90. Varun Chopra has said Epic's differentiation is its operational fleet, which it is still setting up. But our mode or the differentiation is the a the operational fleet which we are setting up