Deepinder Goyal isn’t backing down. The Eternal founder has responded to the growing storm of criticism surrounding Temple—his eye-watering ₹85,000 brain-monitoring wearable – insisting that the company stands fully behind its science and isn’t out to sell people an expensive wellness gimmick.The device has come under intense fire over its bold claims of tracking blood flow inside the brain. Leading the charge among its sharpest critics is popular hepatologist Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, widely known online as The Liver Doc, who pulled zero punches when he publicly labeled the gadget India’s biggest health scam and wellness fraud.Goyal, however, views the situation through a completely different lens. In a lengthy post published on X addressed directly to “concerned Indian doctors,” he laid out a defense of the research powering Temple, explaining why he believes his team deserves a fair shot to prove what they’ve built.
‘This is not about money’, says Deepinder Goyal
Hitting back at suggestions of a cash grab, Goyal revealed that developing Temple has already cost the company $30 million, with $20 million of that coming straight out of his own pocket. He also highlighted Temple’s 14-day, no-questions-asked return policy as hard proof that they aren’t trying to trap buyers into paying for an unverified gimmick.“We have 14-day, no-questions-asked returns (which even Apple doesn’t offer in India). If the product doesn’t work, it fails out of the gate and the company dies before recovering a tenth of its R&D,” he wrote.He directly tackled questions about stepping away from his role as CEO of Eternal, the parent company overseeing Zomato and Blinkit. According to Goyal, making that move was driven entirely by a personal obsession to chase a bigger mission with Temple, rather than filling his bank account.“I left the Eternal CEO role to chase purpose with Temple. This is not about money. I have enough of it to last for generations,” he stated.Goyal added that he wouldn’t dream of risking a professional reputation he spent more than two decades building just to score a quick financial win.He further noted that company employees backed an earlier internal funding round, while customers accounted for the primary support in their latest fundraising effort – something he sees as a clear vote of confidence in the project’s long-term vision.
What did Goyal say about Temple’s scientific proof?
The central debate hanging over Temple comes down to a fundamental question: can this tech actually deliver on the promises it’s advertising?Goyal admitted that thorough scientific validation takes time. To illustrate his point, he brought up popular fitness brand Whoop, noting that the company began shipping its hardware back in 2015 long before publishing its first formal validation studies.He maintained that Temple is aiming for a far higher bar, promising that preprints—research papers shared ahead of formal peer-review processes – are already lined up for release.“We hold ourselves to a higher standard; pre-prints are a step prior to peer reviewed publications, and they are coming up,” he wrote.Goyal emphasized that every tech company eventually hits a fork in the road where it has to release its hardware to the world while ongoing clinical research continues in parallel.“At some point you have to stick your neck out and say: we believe in our science, and the product is now valuable enough for people to pay for and use. We believe we are there. More validation continues in public,” he added.He insisted that Temple’s testing protocols and scientific claims can be independently checked by outside researchers and medical institutions. Goyal also predicted that third-party independent studies would naturally start popping up once the device lands in everyday users’ hands.
What exactly is Temple, and why the sudden outrage?
Temple is a high-tech wearable gadget developed under Goyal’s initiative to monitor shifts in cerebral blood flow, helping users track how their minds and bodies handle everyday stress.The sleek, pill-shaped device sits right on the side of the head around the temple area. It’s built to measure two primary metrics: brain blood flow and biological entropy. According to the product site, entropy tracks how hard the human body is working internally to shed excess heat.With a price tag of ₹85,000, it’s anything but a cheap impulse buy. That steep cost is a major reason why medical professionals are dissecting its core claims so fiercely.Critics are heavily questioning whether a surface-level sensor can actually capture meaningful blood flow deep inside the brain. On top of that, experts point out the complete absence of peer-reviewed clinical outcome studies showing that wearing Temple leads to any measurable health improvements or actionable medical insights.
Why The Liver Doc called Temple a ‘health scam’
Dr Cyriac Abby Philips has been relentless in calling out the hardware.In a detailed Instagram post, the hepatologist tore into the underlying tech, claiming that the sensor isn’t measuring brain function at all. Instead, he argued it’s simply reading surface-level facial blood flow and skin flushing.He slammed the company for taking pre-orders without backing up its big marketing claims with verified clinical data.Doubling down after reading Goyal’s response on X, Dr Philips made his stance even clearer:“Temple is overdoing it and defrauding its potential customers. The device can only measure blood flow and flushing to the face in humans and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the brain as they claim,” he wrote.He went on to ask how long the company expects potential customers to blindly trust promises of future data while selling an unverified product in the present. For Dr Philips, future potential means nothing if the hardware fails to deliver on its primary pitch today.
Deepinder Goyal claims Temple has more surprises coming
Goyal, however, remains unbothered, insisting the harsh critique misses the bigger picture entirely.In his post, he teased that some of the wearable’s most groundbreaking features haven’t even been revealed to the public yet.“The most groundbreaking features in Temple are not even public yet. And some of them, thankfully, have nothing to do with doctors,” he wrote.For now, the entire controversy comes down to one fundamental clash: can Temple validate its bold claims with rock-solid, peer-reviewed science?Goyal says the brand is supremely confident in its research and is ready to let real-world validation do the talking. Meanwhile, his sharpest critics maintain that real science needs to come before asking everyday consumers to hand over ₹85,000. Until those preprints hit the public domain, this debate isn’t cooling off anytime soon.