‘Delete Zomato first?’ Netizens troll Deepinder Goyal over viral hiring announcement

Social media had plenty to say after Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato and vice chairman of Eternal, revealed an unusual hiring rule for engineering roles at his new health-tech startup, Temple.In a post announcing the openings, Goyal said he wasn’t just looking for engineers - he wanted athletes too. According to him, applicants needed to take fitness seriously, with eligibility tied to body fat percentage: under 16 per cent for men and under 26 per cent for women.

“We are building for people who push their bodies to the edge. We want to be those people, not just serve them,” Goyal wrote, explaining why physical fitness was part of the hiring philosophy.He added that even candidates who didn’t currently meet the requirement could still apply - as long as they were willing to reach the target body composition within three months. Until then, they would remain on probation.Unsurprisingly, once screenshots of the hiring post began circulating online, the internet reacted almost instantly - and mostly with humour. Users flooded social media with jokes, memes, and sarcastic takes on the unusual recruitment criteria.

One user joked that hopeful candidates might first need to delete the Zomato app itself to qualify. Another quipped that frequent food delivery users were probably already disqualified. Someone else wrote, “We got body fat as a hiring requirement before GTA 6,” while another joked about being “the first person in my family to lose a job opportunity because of body fat percentage.”

Amid the jokes, even a fitness coach jumped into the conversation, offering to help applicants get interview-ready.

The coach claimed that anyone currently at around 25 per cent body fat could reach the required level within ten weeks with proper training.

Others imagined the recruiter’s dilemma, joking about how awkward rejection emails might sound if fitness metrics became part of hiring feedback.A few hours after the hiring announcement stirred debate online, Goyal shared another update - Temple had raised $54 million in fresh funding from founder friends and early backers associated with Zomato.

The startup is now valued at roughly $190 million post-money, with over 30 employees participating in the round at the same valuation.

Goyal himself is leading the investment round, followed by Steadview Capital. Other investors include Peak XV Partners, InfoEdge Ventures, and Dharana Capital.The funding also drew support from several well-known startup founders, including Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Kunal Shah of CRED, and brothers Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath from Zerodha.Whether seen as bold hiring innovation or simply internet meme material, the announcement definitely got people talking — and proved once again that startup recruitment posts can sometimes go viral faster than product launches.