New Delhi: Guilt-free ice cream brand Go Zero has decided to discontinue its influencer marketing budget and use the money to hire two full-time content creators, founder Kiran Shah announced in a LinkedIn post.
The company is looking for one creator who produces content in Hindi and another who thinks and communicates in Kannada. According to Shah, the salaries of the two creators will be funded through the budget previously allocated to influencer collaborations.
Explaining the decision, Shah said Go Zero had been managing nearly 30 influencer collaborations at a time, involving pitching, negotiations, product shipments and follow-ups.
However, the company struggled to determine the business generated by individual paid reels.
“A few months ago, I asked my team a simple question. ‘That reel we paid for in March, what did it get us?’ Nobody had a clear answer,” Shah wrote.
He said the problem was not the amount being spent, but the lack of visibility into the returns generated from it.
Shah compared conventional influencer marketing to “renting attention”, as the content remains on a creator’s page while the audience, followers and long-term growth continue to belong to the creator.
Under the new approach, videos will be produced for Go Zero’s own social media channels. Shah believes that every new follower and piece of content will consequently contribute to an asset the company controls and can build upon over time.
He cited Sprout Social, Starbucks and Dell as examples of companies developing employee-led or in-house creator programmes. According to Shah’s post, Starbucks hired full-time creators, while Dell trained employees across several countries to create content.
Applicants will not be required to submit resumes. Instead, they have been asked to create a 30-second video selling Go Zero in Hindi or Kannada, publish it on LinkedIn and tag the company.
Shah also said he would publicly share the outcome of the experiment every quarter.
Founded by Kiran Shah in 2022, Go Zero offers zero-added-sugar and low-calorie ice creams across formats including tubs, cones, bars, kulfis and fruit pops. According to the company, it uses an in-house blend of sweeteners to reduce calories while retaining the taste and texture associated with conventional ice cream.
In March 2025, Go Zero raised Rs 30 crore from DSG Consumer Partners, Saama Capital and V3 Ventures, according to media reports. The funding round also saw participation from boAt co-founder Aman Gupta and Emcure Pharmaceuticals executive director Namita Thapar and took the company’s total funding to around $6 million.
Media reports at the time said that nearly 80% of Go Zero’s revenue came from quick-commerce platforms. The company reportedly operated manufacturing facilities in Mumbai and Bengaluru and sold its products across cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
In June 2026, Shah said in a LinkedIn post that Go Zero had generated nearly Rs 35 crore in net revenue in May, marking year-on-year growth of around 350%.
He also claimed that the company lost nearly Rs 10 crore in potential sales because of supply constraints. The founder-disclosed figures were subsequently reported by multiple media publications.
Before launching Go Zero, Shah spent more than seven years at Apsara Ice Creams.
He joined the business as senior brand manager in 2014, became a director in 2016 and later served as managing partner and CEO between 2018 and 2021.
Earlier, Shah worked as an assistant brand manager at Procter & Gamble in Singapore from 2011 to 2014.
He holds a postgraduate diploma in management with a specialisation in marketing from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow and a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering.
