New Delhi, February 27, 2026 — A new recruitment post by Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato, for his health-technology startup Temple has triggered a third round of debate on social media due to its unconventional hiring criteria. The unusual eligibility requirements — including specific body fat percentage standards — have drawn mixed reactions online, splitting opinion among professionals, social media users, and industry commentators.
In his message shared on X (formerly Twitter), Goyal outlined that applicants for various roles — including engineers and scientists — should ideally have a body fat of less than 16 % for men and 26 % for women to be considered full-time candidates. Those who do not meet the criteria may join on probation and work toward achieving the fitness target within three months.
Controversial Criteria Draw Online Reactions
The post, intended to attract talent for Temple’s development of advanced wearable technology for elite athletes, quickly became a topic of discussion on social media platforms with reactions ranging from support to scepticism. Some users praised the focus on health and fitness as aligning with the startup’s ethos, while others questioned the relevance of physical standards to job performance in technical roles.
One social media commenter joked that to meet the stringent body fat requirements, applicants might have to cut down on using the Zomato app — a humorous take that echoed across online platforms. Critics also questioned whether fitness should be a hiring prerequisite for engineering and research roles, stating that professional expertise should carry more weight than physical metrics.
About Temple and Goyal’s Vision
Temple, Goyal’s latest venture, aims to create cutting-edge wearable devices that track unique physiological and neurological metrics tailored for high-performance athletes. The startup seeks to hire talent across disciplines such as analog systems engineering, computational neuroscience, machine learning, and computer vision.
In his announcement, Goyal stated that Temple is building a product for people who “push their bodies to the edge” and that the team should reflect that same level of personal commitment to both technical excellence and fitness.
Broader Debate on Hiring Practices
The post has sparked conversations about modern recruitment practices, company culture, and the balance between physical attributes and professional skills in job selection. While some see the approach as innovative and culture-defining for a niche startup, others view it as unnecessary or unrealistic for most professional roles.
As the debate continues online, many industry watchers are analysing whether such criteria could influence future hiring strategies in tech and health-tech sectors, or whether it will remain a topic of social media discourse.
