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Deepinder Goyal says his 'Zomato guy' reputation works against his new health-tech venture Temple
Deepinder Goyal says being known as the Zomato guy worked against his health-tech wearable, Temple, with some people doubting his ability to develop hardware
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Deepinder Goyal’s ‘Zomato guy’ reputation precedes him. The entrepreneur — who transformed the food-ordering business in India before turning his attention to the health-tech sector with his wearable device Temple — has claimed that people doubt his ability to take on more science-focused projects.
What is Temple?
Temple is a wearable health-tracking device developed by Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato and Eternal. Its primary purpose is to monitor changes in blood flow to the brain and help users understand how their bodies respond to physical and mental stress.
The device, priced at ₹85,000, opened for pre-orders on November 1. The Temple website crashed briefly due to a surge in traffic.
‘Zomato guy’ reputation works against Temple
Zomato founder and former CEO Deepinder Goyal took to the social media platform X on November 1 to answer questions from his followers and Temple customers.
One X user said that he was curious to see how Temple would fare in the long run, especially given that its biggest selling point is that it was developed by the “Zomato guy”, aka Deepinder Goyal.
“Curious how you’ll measure product working when the main competing signal is this is the next big thing from the Zomato guy,” the X user wrote.
Goyal responded to him by saying that his reputation as the “Zomato guy” has been of no advantage to Temple. If anything, it has only been detrimental.
“Being the Zomato guy works against Temple. People don't take it seriously that I can do hardware and science,” wrote Goyal, who holds an M.Tech in Mathematics and Computing from IIT Delhi.
What does Temple measure?
The wearable device, designed to be worn near the temple, measures two key metrics: brain blood flow and entropy. Goyal described entropy as the body's real-time 'cost of being alive'. It produces a score between 1 and 250, updated every second.
Temple website crash
The official website of Temple briefly crashed on November 1, shortly after pre-orders opened in India.
The booking window for the wearable opened for Indian customers on November 1 at 9:30 pm. However, several users reported access issues as early adopters rushed to secure their orders.
Goyal soon acknowledged the issue in a post on X, writing, “Too much traffic on temple.com - we are trying to get on top of it. Orders are working on the app though.” He later posted an update saying the website was working again.
