Last week, eyewear retailer Lenskart announced its first quarterly results as a listed company. Predictably, it chose to pair them with a letter to its shareholders. 

Since Eternal, formerly Zomato, popularised the practice of addressing investors every quarter—instead of a soporific note in the annual report—in 2021 in India, most tech companies have lapped it up with the fervour of a born-again Christian.

Delhivery, Ola Electric Mobility, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Groww all publish shareholder letters. There are exceptions, though, including Nykaa and Ather Energy, which stick to the more traditional slide deck. Paytm* publishes a commentary-heavy earnings release in addition to the presentation. 

Any venture capital-funded company that goes public now and eschews the shareholder missive will undoubtedly stick out like a sore thumb. 

Legendary investor Warren Buffett and, to a lesser extent, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and JP Morgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon have all built a reputation for writing perceptive, often timeless, annual letters. Buffett, who wrote his first note to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in 1965, penned his last one as CEO weeks ago. 

Netflix and Airbnb publish quarterly letters that are quite readable, and Indian tech companies already measure up to them. 

I have written about the feedback loop at the heart of the fairly rapid evolution of Eternal’s investor letter early on. Global brokerage Jefferies said the letter was “opaque, lacks substance, and describes only selective aspects of the business”. 

What began as a succinct note quickly became elaborate, with more disclosures and even an FAQ section. 

The company had to read the room. 

Within a year of its listing, Eternal also walked back its decision not to hold an earnings call with analysts every three months. 

Every Indian tech company’s shareholder letter now is a variation of what Eternal puts out. It’s as though they don’t mind being called an Eternal copycat. 

The single-company feedback loop that made life easier for Eternal has expanded enough to influence those that came after it. In his first quarterly letter, Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Urban Company co-founder and chief executive, pre-empted those investors and analysts who aren’t merely impressed by the fact that a company created the very sector it is in, or that its market share dwarfs that of its rivals.