From earning Rs.10,000 at the age of 27 to becoming a billionaire at the age of 43, an exemplary man who fought through all the hardships and set up a billion-dollar empire in the newly brewed e-commerce and online payments industry. The CEO and founder of Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, is an icon who led Paytm on the path to success. This write-up is an ode to the Paytm success story and a testimonial of success.
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The Trailblazer of Success: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, a successful entrepreneur, and founder of Paytm had a million dreams in mind with limited means in hand. All he had as resources was his unwavering faith and a strong breakthrough business plan. He put all that he had to make Paytm successful, and he also got lucky with demonetisation working in his favour.
Born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, to a humble economic background, Vijay completed his education at the age of 14 at a small Hindi medium school. Being as bright as he was, he still had to face difficulty with English while pursuing his engineering degree from Delhi College of Engineering. He also developed an interest in coding and made a website ,indiasite.net. While pursuing his degree, he started developing an interest in entrepreneurship. The foundations of the Paytm success story were being laid in the initial years of his degree program.
The Struggles Behind Success
Working upon his idea of entrepreneurship and business, Vijay, along with some of his colleagues, started his own company by the name of Xs Corporation working on internet-based services. Later he sold off the company and joined a corporate job which he left after six months. After quite a few failed attempts, Vijay was still hooked on the idea of an internet-based business and again co-founded a new firm named, One97 Communications Ltd in 2001. The seeds of the Paytm success story were being sown in this phase, but a series of events took a turn downhill, and the company crashed, leaving Vijay with no choice but to take up a job as a consultant (only earning a salary of 10,000 rupees) just because of family pressure. Recently, One97 Communications reappointed Vijay as MD and CEO.
Birth of the Beast: Paytm
With his heart stuck in the internet and telecom field, Vijay still continued his job as a consultant just to fulfill the needs of his family. With his sister’s marriage approaching, the problem he faced was enormous, one that every middle-class family faces at least once, financial crunch. Vijay’s father was denied a loan of 2 lakh rupees even after never defaulting on any loan repayment. This misery gave birth to the best revolution in the history of online transactions: Paytm. To resolve this issue of economic misery of the middle-class population, Vijay wanted an all-inclusive one-stop payment solution. This was a milestone in the Paytm success story.
Planning to Skyrocket
Initially, Paytm provided online prepaid mobile and online DTH facilities. Vijay observed the booming trend in the smartphone market and took it to its advantage to digitise the payment method and establish a big name in the world of e-commerce wallet options. The main aim of Paytm was to bring together the people who had to receive money and the people who wanted to pay money. Paytm understood the task and acquired over 350 million active users.
Cherry on Top: Demonetisation
When the entire economy was on the verge of collapse, Paytm was buckling up to skyrocket for success. The Demonetisation of 2016 gave Paytm wings of success to fly. After its inception in 2010, Paytm showed signs of steady growth, but after demonetisation, people resorted to online modes of payment. Paytm grabbed the opportunity and marketed with the tagline “Ab ATM Nahi, Paytm Karo”. The user base increased from 140 million in October 2016 to 270 million in November 2017. Demonetisation proved to be a major boost to the Paytm success story.
The Master Business Plan: Sneak Peek
What made Paytm stand out from the other payment gateways existing in the market? It was its amazing business and marketing strategy. This was the final leg of the Paytm success story.
Paytm used an investment of 2 million dollars with an aim to capture the market which included every strata of society. 4 years after its inception, Paytm found a breakthrough growth hack to expand the business: The use of Cashbacks. The concept is not new to the eCommerce world, but its usage was revolutionised by Paytm.
Conclusion
The Paytm success story is not just another tale, but it is a reminder that not everybody is born with a silver spoon, but you can always rewrite your destiny. The hardships through which Vijay Shekhar Sharma sailed and led Paytm to success are also a constant reminder that the roads may be bumpy but the end will always be smooth.