There has been a common belief that startups are often built and grown in the top two or three cities in India, however this is not true. Razorpay is testimony to this; our founders, Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, started Razorpay in a dorm room in Jaipur and have come a long way since.
The point is, no matter where you’re from, you have the ability to create startups, innovate, grow and create valuable products and services. Razorpay’s RevUp series is an attempt to connect with startups across India and after hosting the event at some of the top cities in the country, we hosted this month’s event at Jaipur.
The theme of this month’s event was ‘What it Takes to Build Sustainable Startups’. The past year has been a dramatic yet important one for the startup community in India. Many startups had to make tough calls in the face of competition and race to growth.
Startups that focus on adaptability and agility on their path to growth are the ones that will emerge successful in the long run. RevUp Jaipur showcased some interesting insights and stories from successful startup founders and mentors, who shared their personal journeys in achieving business sustainability.
RevUp Jaipur was hosted on 14th April 2017 in Jaipur and the 2 hour event saw a participation of more than 70 startup founders and enthusiasts from Jaipur’s fast growing startup community.
The speakers for the event were:
- Harshil Mathur – CEO, Razorpay
- Vishwas Shringi – CEO, Voylla.com
- Paresh Gupta – Founder, Neos Angel Network & TEDx Speaker
Session 1 – The Razorpay Journey – Our tenets for Sustainability
Harshil Mathur speaking about his experiences of starting up in Jaipur and how Razorpay has come become a strong brand today.
Razorpay is a unique story of how an industry outsider has been able to disrupt a space that has been dominated by long term players in the banking and payments space. Harshil spoke about Razorpay’s journey from a dorm room to cracking Y Combinator to becoming a trusted name for online payments in India in a span of few years.
This achievement was the result of the strong focus on leveraging technology and relentlessly optimising operations and solutions in order to keep the spending under control. Sustainability is one of the fundamental principles at Razorpay and Harshil spoke about how this was part of the company’s DNA right from the start and what the company does to ensure sustainability both in day to day activities as well as long term goals.
Session 2 – How to transform your dreams into business success
Vishwas Shringi talking about mastering experimentation and agility while building startups
Almost all startups are driven by the founder’s passion to solve a problem and create value for customers. However, this startup dream will become a long term success only if it continuously focuses on being agile. The way Vishwas and Voylla enforces this value is through constantly experimenting and measuring success in order to ensure sustainability.
For instance, Voylla chose to operate out of kiosks in malls instead of full fledged stores as it not only helped the brand reduce costs, but also allowed the brand the flexibility to move location inside the mall to ensure maximum footfalls. Simple yet impactful decisions like these can help startups to be sustainable and successful.
Session 3 – Moving from the Unicorn formula to a Sustainability Approach
Paresh Gupta counseling entrepreneurs on the key focus areas for Indian startups
TEDx speaker and startup mentor, Paresh Gupta spoke about how startups should shift their focus from a pure valuation game to create solutions of real value to the people of India. He spoke about how startups in India should focus on building ventures that strengthen India’s infrastructure as a nation and although this might not be an easy task, it would lead to creating a positive impact to the people in the long run.
Given the recent spate of upheavals in India’s startup space, Paresh emphasized the fact that building a strong, sustainable startup ecosystem is the need of the hour and all startups should work towards this goal.
After the speaker sessions, the participants got the opportunity to interact with each other and get first hand insights from the speakers for the event.
Are you an entrepreneur or someone who is interested in starting up? Find out more about the RevUp startup series by dropping us an email at events@razorpay.com.
