 Diving deep into these stories and into these anecdotes is our next fireside chat You know you meet many clients you have many meetings you know over the period of years that you kind of have work But some meetings kind of remain with you You know and that particular one meeting remain with me Even to date and I remember very clearly the kind of time that she spent with us Briefing us you know on what she really was expecting us to kind of you know contribute or collaborate with her It was such clarity of thought so much passion and that kind of remained with me and the past I'm so happy today that I have the opportunity of sitting next to you and talking to you today So that's the fireside chat that we have here. Thank you. Thank you so much for now. So here we have a past now I'll just give a very brief introduction of her. I think a lot of many people would know her here So past now, you know holds a master's degree in management Science and engineering from Stanford prestigious Stanford University You know and she is the co-founder of Moby quick a household brands synonymous with payments and BNPL So many people who do not know what BNPL really means is by now and pay later segment in India She did a stint at HSBC in San Diego and was exceptional at her work She was really I mean you would know that that she will wear her She will be she'll do very very well, you know and the hard-working and passion that she has She also worked at PayPal where she picked up the knowledge about payment systems in America's Europe and Asia and gained knowledge about risk detection and fraud management This is the field that she probably take on when she came to India So she left a very comfortable life a good corporate job and came back to India and became the part of Indian startup ecosystem in this country and Now we all know that Moby quick is recognized as one of India's leading tech founders So that's past now for us here and Past now we know that you know you have Proposition and a strong brand, you know and in the audience is here. We have actually a CEO We've got co-founders. We have got you know CMOs of you know the Indian Brands, you know, and you know, and I'm sure they all have that unique journey, you know Experiences, you know of building the brands in the country We would definitely would like to know your journey and your experience of really building Moby quick where it is right now So it's over to you So I think doing something New is always challenging because by definition if you were doing something which everybody else is doing, you know Which is the popular flavor? Then it wouldn't be a startup. It wouldn't be you wouldn't be the only one doing it So of course when we were getting started, I remember I mean forget about You know people that we are trying to hire or potential investors, you know My own family members who are laughing at me Key India can say cashless one a lot of you to cash economy. I'm talking about 10 to 12 years ago So I said, okay. Okay. I'm a little guy Key, it's going to change. There is going to be a digital revolution And you know, I would like to give a few years of my life to that mission and It goes all the way over to India is direction. I mean, and whether Moby quick will play a big part in that or not Zada say that I got a good Payments or a financial services company and You know, this is the time to experiment. So that's sort of how we got started, you know with a lot of naysayers Saying no, but the internal conviction was there. I had seen how Technology simplifies payments and brings so much simplicity to daily life of consumers and also of businesses Whether you are a retailer or an e-commerce Company and it was only bound to happen in time in India because our country is also developing so fast And of course we had the pre-monition. I also benefited from the fact that my co-founder You know, he used to design chips for all these MNC's for smartphones So he had this view that China met us not for revolution. I am talking about early 2000s So India may have 2010 while a decade may I go so that was our insight that India is operating on 99% cash So 100% digital need over but 99% cash say 80% cash 70% cash key direction may this country will go The other thing was that you know people will stop standing in lines to pay bills people will want convenience Smartphones will make you know, they're entering the market and that's where you know Fintech can be born. So that's sort of how you know, we got started early beginnings were You know very humble from my dining table. We started That's what I was gonna wondering because you know just to have a thought of actually building this digital gap I think was hugely challenging because I can tell you personally myself, you know I'll be I mean after very long years of actually, you know, this particular proposition available to us I started kind of using you know, the you know, the wallet system of you know doing transaction myself So Indians are very very, you know the afraid of kind of getting it from a cashless So it was very very challenging category to be in. I mean you really took on the challenge So any again experiences that you probably would have, you know in this journey of you know, really making the brand the way it is So I think that seen the first four years of Moby Quicks existence We bootstrap the company which means that it was mine and my co-founders personal savings And we don't come from well-to-do family The co-founder happens to be a husband by the way The co-founder now happens to be my husband, tab nahi thay So, you know, we both came from modest families We had limited savings from the five six years that we had both worked And uske corpus se we started the company. So there was no money for marketing in the first few years The idea was really can we make something the product so innovative that based on the product itself We'll catch and acquire users and why who are I mean Much before Flipkart and others our mobile app for payments was on the Google Play Store And we just got millions and millions of users. I mean I still remember we went from Maybe we had three lakh users or something in the first one one and a half year And we went from three lakh users to like a million users within a span of few months Because our app was getting so many downloads from the Play Store And the idea is once the user has downloaded the self onboarding and usage experience of the user has to be so smooth That then they stick with you. So for us The simplicity of the product the simplicity of a payments app that we had built And jobi wo karne aaythe whether wo apna phone ka bill pey karne aaythe Or TV ka bill pey karne aaythe that experience had to be wow Delightful So that Even at that time, you know, we were competing with Airtel money Airtel money also had a payments platform at the time and But that's how it began people started doing 100 rupee 300 rupee transactions And they found aayye to mera kaam aise raham se ho gya. That's when people started depositing money In the mobi ko ek wallet and I think by the time we were three years old we had Some three million users. We had some Taptu dollar ka rate bhi aayeg hota tha, but 10-15 crore user money. Hamear ek company ek escrow account mein tha I myself was like, you know pleasantly surprised, but that was sort of the big validation point for us Us ke baad humne RBI mein license ke liye apply kiya. And then tabse we are just running. Kabhi, rukhe nahi. And when I was asking Upasna, Upasna hai ka ki main marketing budget to main meh pah itna hai nahi, nahi main ne kharcha ki hai But you know, I was very product centric and that's what really the winning game for us was, you know And she said to me, musei question ma khushta ki marketing mein kitla kar hain main ne jada payasah nahi kati hai So acha Upasna, so do you think mobi ko ek is in the forefront of fintech revolution in India? Of course, I heard you saying fintech many a times, you know, I mean you refrain from kind of, you know talking about the I mean talking about the category a lot, you know Yes, so see the thing is See fintech India is a very large opportunity I'm very happy to tell you that fintech India as a market has become now the third luck. We just market in the world So there's a lot of investor dollars also that have poured into this sector in the last few years. There are many Large-scale companies many there are about eight nine thousand fintech startups in India. Okay Um, so this is a sector in which, you know, we are definitely taking leadership as a country in 2022 India is the country which has processed the largest number of digital transactions as opposed to any other country in the world So from a country that was 99 cash, we have come a long way However, the opportunity is still very large because abhi bis if approximately 300 million users digitally transact kate Number of people who have access to credit in India is still 60 70 million number of people who are insured And invest that number is still 25 million So as you see in a country of a billion, there is still like all these numbers are sub 10 percent. So abhi bhi Very big opportunity. I bought service my businesses Um, you know, bane gay and of course starting as a payments company Um, you know from bill payments to payments on e-commerce platforms to payments in physical stores Uh, and then four five years ago, we started our foray into digital credit. So now mobi quick gives Shopping loans by now pay later loans uh in partnership with banks and nbfcs And then in the last few years, we've also enabled a small ticket insurance products As well as very interesting Investment products where you can earn as high as 12 percent as opposed to what you would get from a bank fd or a bank savings rate So that's why we call ourselves a fintech because While payments and credit are now two large pillars in our business Baki sare financial services may be hame interest hai But it will obviously take us time to become at scale in all of those So if you think about it The play is really to bring people four daily life payments on our platform on our app And then give them all the financial services That their own banks are not really giving them and the same thing we are also trying to do for small business Because we are a two-sided network. So we have users, but we also have merchants who accept payments Why am i way quick so for them also we are trying to power all of these financial products So tell me you know a very popularly asked question is you know and probably the question comes to my mind also is that So while you know cannot you know doing this kind of you know transaction or payment or e-wallet is very very convenient You know, but is it really safe? You know, I mean, what would be what will tell the customer? How do you really trust this particular way of transaction? You know, what would you really tell them? You know so that they kind of believe that there's a safety the security at as much Not only convenient but also are a very safe way of you know being transaction for themselves No, absolutely and I think I'm very happy to tell you that See in India we have now two types of platforms. We have wallet-based platforms We have upi based platforms in popular apps like mobi quick and our competitors You will find both facilities available in the same app like in the mobi quick app You can pay using your wallet balance. You can pay using your credit balance And you can also pay using your own bank balance using upi The reason I would say that you know, you can trust platforms of scale Because all of us are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India So we have two licenses from RBI. We have one license from SEBI and we have one license from IRDAI, which is the insurance regulator and not only us all of our peers are also operating in a similar manner So we are not as You know heavily regulated as banks are but we are all also having to do monthly quarterly reporting to the Reserve Bank and Annual in-person audits happen. So the bar on Compliance and corporate governance for us is extremely high. In fact, we also have to report In our monthly reporting that of the people who put in a complaint Let's say for a refund or for some, you know transaction that didn't go through You know the percentage of users who complained for 24 hours was over 48 hours So that is a level of detail in which you know, one Platforms have to be compliant. I think service customer servicing becomes a very very critical segment part of the entire proposition Tell me something geographically, you know, how are you penetrating deeper into the smaller markets, you know Are they growing for you? You know, I mean that probably would be also, you know An insight for a lot of people sitting here who cannot building Indian brands So I think that the next phase of you know growth in India In terms of the internet revolution whether it is for e-commerce companies or for payment companies or fintech companies like us Is definitely coming from the smaller cities and towns of the country and even villages if I should say so So if we look at our user acquisition funnels and if we look at our You know transacting users data what we have found in the last two three years almost 65 Of the new users that are Downloading our app and are actively transacting. They're all not coming from metros They are coming from smaller cities and smaller towns of the countries and it would be so common-sensically also, right? Like if you live in a large city, uh, like deli ncr you have malls everywhere So you don't have to buy anything, you just go to ambient smalls and you will get it immediately But if you're in a smaller store a smaller city You're bound to order online because you may not get that product or that brand that you're looking for Uh, and if you are ordering online, then you will obviously need digital payments digital credit, etc So a lot of growth is coming from smaller markets You know the gen z people in their mid 20s Uh, you know as soon as uh, they are getting into their first jobs or their first, uh, self employment Uh, businesses they are using smartphone and internet to the hilt And uh, you know the the spending patterns that we're seeing from these smaller cities are just amazing like I'm I'm quite amazed like a few years ago Our focus was also on the first top 20 cities then top 100 cities now Not just payments even our credit and financial services users You know, we have reached 99% pin codes of India. India has some 19,253 pin codes and we have reached 99% of those pin codes. So I think that bank branch should have had to get up on But uh digitally. I'm her. Yeah, I found a very interesting So because making meaningful difference Such as reaching out to gas stations in a far away jharkhand and among other many such untapped regions in the country While the competition is occupied with hanging stickers near the media outlets Of course could disapprove karteo. So what do you believe should be their marketing strategy? Well, what do you believe they're probably not doing right, you know And what would what advice you probably want to kind of give them see deke there are all kinds of Companies and there are all kinds of advantages that companies have I think some companies and you know, you guys would love it But some companies are more focused on PR and You know brand to make sure To make sure I'm just joking. I'm just joking to make sure that you know, giant investors and giant influencers We decided many years ago that we are in this for the long haul You know like you know banking sector So I think our thought process is that business Of course, we spend money on marketing of course we spend money on user acquisition But everything has to be in balance Like it has to be a PNL that is getting created because long term if I want to have a sustainable play like you said, right? How should consumers trust brands? Consumers also want to see longevity in companies, right? If you want to build a sustainable business, you have to think about profits If you have to think about profits, then you have to run on a budget and I think that's where Taking a product innovation role taking the thought process of how can you bring So differentiated products that the user is bound to stick with your platform and not go to your competing platform I think this is sort of how we are trying to build our business So I have two questions, you know, I mean I can see the buzzer kind of you know, moving up towards zero Two questions really is you know on the subject of building, you know brands for Bharat You know, I think that would be probably concerning and relevant to a lot of people sitting in the audiences here So I'll ask the direct question. Do you believe the Indian brands are capable And equipped to give a strong competition to the international brands who are coming into our country? Absolutely, ma'am. Absolutely. I can talk more about tech because I've been in the tech business right from the beginning being an engineering graduate myself So firstly a big tech, look at Google, Apple, you know, Infosys Jyobhi aap lena chaate engineering talent in India is superb And all the big tech companies, you know are relying very heavily on non resident Indians, you know to build Their new products. So there is no reason why we can't make in India for India and then make it for international markets as well I think that This coming decade you will see that product companies built out of India Both consumer facing and B2B companies will not only create You know proper legitimate businesses in India, but especially in my sector in fintech our technology stacks are so New and cutting edge that you will see many of our stacks now get replicated in international markets We may think that us is very developed. We may think UAE is very developed Sure, their airports are good, their infra in terms of roads are good But financial technology in from a India is right now at the top of the league tables And you know, we will definitely see a lot of product companies going to international markets. That's really good You know, it's really encouraging. That's really good to know and I'm sure a lot of people will be probably Encouraged by that comment of yours Second thing is I think it's buzzers moving to zero and I have to ask you this question You are a you know a power woman, you know, you cannot really set standards You're inspirational. You are the first women who really came on board on the fintech People like we were discussing the you know Backside also that a lot of women are expected to kind of be probably in the space of cosmetics and the other software products But not really technology, you know, and therefore you're probably a bit of a misfit in terms of people's perception So what really any challenges that you kind of faced, you know taking on their position You know, and especially when you were kind of building this brand in a category Which probably is not seen as in the synonymous to maybe women doing it The challenge is the both eye But what can I say? I think the main thing is that we've seen women now, you know, become presidents prime ministers go to space Lead public companies So I think there is few of us and I would say that it's also a very Popular bias. It's more acceptable to see women In marketing companies in fashion companies, but when it comes to science technology engineering, there is still a, you know, huge bias that is there in the mind of Several people, but I think there is no real reason and there is no way to really get over it Other than the fact, you know to just do it and I think that's what I am trying to live by every day And like I said, when you're doing a startup, you are anyways dealing with naysayers every single day of your journey So I think my personal ambition is To lead mobi quick To become the first profitable fintech of india to get listed and that is sort of the goalposts that i'm working personally towards and hopefully by then The financial media, etc. Will also notice that look women do understand and they can actually have an additive of their own Which is very strong times of One question which probably is cliched, you know, but first I want to ask you Definitely speaking is that how is it? I'm sure you're leading a lot of men in your company. You know, how is it to be a leader? You know in a company which probably has men and do you find any challenges there? You have any experiences to kind of share with us? I think for the most part, you know, I think one more thing I can tell you is that in companies where there are Women in the leadership, I think we also encourage a lot more You know a stronger gender mix. So I'm happy to tell you that we have at least Three women at VP and senior VP level in my company out of maybe the eight ten VP's that are there So there is sort of more encouragement for women across the board at all levels That's number one We don't have any bias in terms of our hiring process. We try very hard to have an open mind And no, I don't find it difficult to work with the men or to lead men because when your Company's culture is built in a way. We are always looking for people who are very smart Who want to make something out of their own lives and also want to work towards a vision or a mission That there is some impact getting created and it's not just about, you know, money and stock options, etc So for the most part, I haven't had any challenge. It's actually You know been very nice and easy. I think in my 12 year stint I had once upon a time where a gentleman who reported to me came up to me and said You know, I'm not successful because I report to you I said Sir, I took your interview. JD, I made Onboard, I did and now you're talking to me. So, you know, I gave him a challenge. I said, okay So the CEO of my company and my co-founder is Actually a man. So I said, okay, let's report to him In the next four weeks, six weeks, we'll see if there's any change and I wrote that on an email I got it done. I informed the board I think the adage Is Is not appropriate. I don't think that men and women Don't like working with each other being friends with each other. I think it's easy if there is alignment You know, if there's a very egotistical person and on the other side, there is a modest hard-working person If there's one person who likes to brag and the other person likes to work, that alignment won't be possible. So it's actually more about attitude and You know More alignment on values than anything else. This main male female power Problem there is nothing We should not have this orientation of gender at all About work and how we really perform at work and how equal we are in terms of Actually a a clear in question because I represent news network So I just want to ask you I would not leave the stage before asking that So do you watch news channels and how significant you believe, you know, the news genre is in a marketing plan for For you know, for a company like yours and also building brands in India See, I think news is important But as you yourself would know, you know, internet is giving everybody a run for the money Both in terms of news platforms going digital as well as social platforms But I think when there are very important events like, you know, all through kovat when there is a war happening, you know, the ukrain war When there are such important events happening I think everybody is glued to the tv screens and not so much necessarily just to The internet because you can actually get more directed analysis much faster on television So I think there is definitely scope actually for news media far more than all the other content You know, that is on the television So I do hope that there can be more innovation in the format of news that we have Playing in India Where it's not just, you know, based on the political slant and is far more Factual and analytical. Yes. Thank you so much for answering that and responding. It's so nicely and directly I have a marketing guy who actually had given me a question to ask you. Definitely I cannot again, sorry, sorry external media, but I have to ask that. What would be your three predictions for 2023-24? Any broadly speaking it what do you believe, you know, it's going to be the way it's going to pan out the year So I think 22 do nikal gya 23 ke liye bhi look bol re inflation and you know depression I think my personal view is that it's gonna be a good year of growth while global markets larger markets may still see You know negative sentiment and or inflation depression recession, etc I think that India is on a strong Wicket, I think the way our economy is performing and I think after the Sort of controlled growth that we have seen in 22 Maybe half of 23 ke baad. I expect that there will be a big Comeback That's sort of how I'm looking at it and you know, it will be great to see news of Uh, you know companies building and hiring and not see news of layoffs layoffs and layoffs happening Thank you for thank you for the response again. Thank you very much. I pass now. I think our time is up almost Thanks, Mona. Thank you. I'm really having thank you very much Miss Mona Jain and a pass Nataku for that enriching chat We would like to hold you both back on stage for just a few more seconds We would request our session chair miss monogen to kindly present Who passed Nataku with our token of appreciation? Thank you for sharing your wonderful and terrific thoughts on women leadership In the space of Indian brands and the growth that the brands are seeing Especially in the space of fintech congratulations to you and thank you so much for sharing