When I started Paytm I said we will make at least 100 billion years. Paytm has 100s of 100 crore people. 100s. How did you think about your reasons for policy? My board was not okay to start Paytm because they thought it is too different a business. You take your technology elsewhere and no one knows.
Ladies and gentlemen this room. I want to tell you one thing that last year 2.2 crores multiplied by 2100 crores. If we take it at IPO price. Was half a billion US dollars. And I give back to the company that this is for everybody else.
Dude, it's incredible. 4 and half thousand crores it's back to the team.
22nd December 2000. Yes there was one company formed. Oh wow. I think so many others. That company is called 197, yes now called Paytm. So give it a big round of applause to Vijay.
And when we talk about this, you know, third wave, second wave, first wave, you've seen all the waves. Or Cafe Coffee Day every day. I've seen that one too. So Vijay, first there was what? I have to explain to me.
This has become old, right? Or used to make ringtones. Then there was payments, then there was sound box. Or now there is a? How do you decide whether to shift the orbit now? Well, first of all I want to say that I always believe that the role for me is a Chief Relevance Officer, not a Chief Executive Officer. Because if I am the only one executing then what will the rest of the team do? I accept this as well. But now I am trying to say that is any message mine or that is right. All of the founders are like micro managers. Practically accept that in the last two years I learned about the bad part of it. So going with it, let me say if you are a founder of your company and your ambition is to build a timeless company and I do believe that Google is actually the most legendary company of our age and time and Apple is also but now lastly in AI age it is not showing up. So, how do I build a company that will outlast me many many centuries ahead? Meaning at least 100 years and it is more relevant than late as the 18th century companies like IBM, Nokia, Nokia are all gone. But somehow Google is still in the war and war footing. So unlike a tennis career, a technology entrepreneurial career can go on for a long, long, long time. It's a very simple model. I have this modeling theory of understanding. 78 War Chip Making National Semiconductor AMD and then Intel's Lemley. Then came the companies that were using the chips, namely computers and PCs. So in 82 you had Macintosh, IBM, all these PCs being made. Then after that OS was being made in 86, 90. They were using computers. So you had obviously Mac OS, you obviously had Linux and X and MS DOS, no doubt about it, and so on and so forth. What will be built on top of the then ahead of it was operating system? Applications will be made. Then networking was built on top of that. So, there is this thing called that, what you do today becomes a platform for the future and it becomes relentless and somebody becomes a winner. And then just think about it in the mobile age. Network companies like Nokia, EX, Motorola were building networks and then Jet, Huawei, and then telecom operators came on top of them. So you know Bharti is very famous in the world. Then device makers OS got married to device. So app ecosystem what kind of apps on top of app ecosystem. Now a third wave is going on where the cloud becomes the platform and the cloud generated data. AI built on data. Agents will be built on AI. So at least in my model of the world, I can very clearly see where the future is hopefully going. And then I believed in it. And that is how very easy for me to say all in, all in, bet only on the future. I mean if you romanticize your past so much, you will stay in the past. But the thrill of the future, the adrenaline of what you build is so much that I was talking to Harinder who is coming with me. We came from Singapore. I literally was in the night at 11:50 landing in Taj Hotel. I am talking like this. Those people are watching us. Why did it happen so fast? What happened? Because it is so much of a thrill of making something. So, I would say that I wish that I can play this in this innings and the next innings also hopefully. Which will come after that. But obviously after some time I won't. But easy.
This is what you know the shifts happen like in wealth management Vijay. Earlier there were brokers, everyone was selling things to clients. Then you come to a situation where you are a manager, we have certain types of portfolios and now there is the third wave of personalization that I will create a hyper customized portfolio for you. But tell me something, it is outside in now. Zooming out it is very easy but in the moment now a business is running, it is generating revenue, may also be getting profitable. Suddenly you would wake up one day and see things happening more fast. What happens?
First of all, it is not suddenly. As many of us can guess, you guys must be seeing all the tweets that bhai is only tweeting about AI. He is either refused to tweet about fintech or is only interested in AI. I mean a lot of people must follow each other. Not because that I don't all do this. I rather believe that is an age. There is past. I mean in my opinion, something that has happened 20 years, 10 years, I have happened of that. There is something new and I wish to do that. And so inside such a thing is also that suddenly it is. Number one and number two, this is the power of the entrepreneur in the company as a leader and the CEO as an organization is that wherever you put your weight, the center of gravity moves toward that side. So, if I say something late at this time, if of the current business that you do, then we will be centered around this. But if I keep saying this is what we will be in the future. Slowly slowly the whole organization will pivot towards it. So pivots are very easy in my opinion because I have had many of them. Every five years we've been gone. So this one is like a big one. So it will be showing up soon. So it's not because the legal officer is telling you not to tweet about something and you started tweeting what? I didn't do that Elon Musk thing, man. Well, by tweeting about that too, but no, but who knows, do you think all founders are doing this properly? Like I'm very inside out guy. I have zero opinion, judgment, understanding. I do not even follow many. Twitter shows what they're writing. I am absolutely nothing. I am lost in a deep sense of self. My life is very inferior. I am able to do very little work. I seriously mean it. I wish that I had more hours. I have zero understanding of what is happening in the world of whatever is behind me. I just don't. I want to congratulate the people of Pineley. I want to congratulate the people who grew up. Those words are muted by me. You know? I didn't see those tweets. I came across one of the groups. I said oh this got listed. Wow, nice. And the bad part was that because that tweet was shared much later, I didn't even know about it. I don't read newspapers, I don't watch digital. I live in a very small cocoon of my own life. Maybe that's why you are who you are.
Vijay, actually it is called energy preserving. If you start blogging about what others are thinking about you, then there will be no end to your life.
The higher up you are, you will get lost in what the world is saying. So, in my opinion, one thing I can tell you all is, if you are too bothered about what the world is going to say or thinking about it, then you are too bothered about the world to define who you are. But rather over the period, I'm sure I mean the number of years that we talked about, I have learned it. I mean you are so incredibly worried about who thinks of you. But the world is so big that you are really nothing in that bigger context.
Guys don't delete LinkedIn and Instagram after reading this. Because we won't be able to reach you here. But Vijay, when you make a change, how do you get the team to align to that change? Because everyone should have internal conviction.
This 1/3 model will work everywhere. One third, one third, one third. There are three types of worlds. One that goes further. One who gets confused whether I should go here or there. And the third one which does not go away. And you don't have to take everybody together. When you are going somewhere like Goa. You know the elusive Goa. To some people say now brother is going. Let's go now. Now just wondering about whom. And some I am going or not going. I am going or not going. And the rest of us will not go. So that is a global truth, whether it is a change of any kind, just split it in three. Figure out who are going to go ahead with them. So let's talk about it in a little detail. At that time what do you tell a product leader? I just say if you are interested, go ahead, come with us right then. And if you don't feel it is not it, just don't do it. Do what you feel like. The core philosophy that I was saying, if you fundamentally you know, in 2011-12 I called a senior person from the industry and I told him that we are going to do Paytm and this little baby thing right now and I suggested that you become the CEO of Paytm in 2012. You know what did the guy say? You make me the Chief Operating Officer of One97 business and One97, he is the CEO of Paytm. So I don't know what will happen now. You know the world has had so many amazing things that it is tough for people to envisage something that has not happened. I mean so many IPOs that people do not even know what will be the price of the IPO. So everyone keeps asking the same question that they are judging on the basis of the past performance of the company. You are the wealth industry guys. So you can understand comfortably. But I am sorry to say that past performance is one parameter. But future forward is coming discounted, right? So you should discount it according to the future. Why are you discounting based on the past? In the past, we too were nothing. You were also nothing. Today you are something and we are nothing. In a few days we will become something. I mean you'll stay here. We will go. Then you would keep watching. Hey friend, we also used to give it to them earlier. So this is the world, don't bother. I really mean it. Don't bother about anyone and bother about what you're doing and are you excited about doing this or not. I love how regulators say this, you know in a polite way: past performance is no indicator of the future. Absolutely great. And I derive also we don't invest on.
Okay, so now you have to hire someone who is future forward. Who has the same vision as you. How do you interview a product leader? Is anyone for Paytm here? Or there are couples. There couple of is easy. Means the one from the side or the one from outside. When you don't bring someone in, we also do internal job posting that if you are interested and talk to me then I like friend you were looking serious to me. But you are not visible and are not talking.
Well, well, well. I'm trying to say a lot of people sometime just want to be part of a fad and fashion and so on. Crypto was there a few days ago, it has just arrived. So you all have seen it like this. I think it's easy to interview. People who live in that trance, they are not living in trance. You must have seen people with crypto, they did not believe in fiat at all. I mean, if you go to UAE, then who knows what all this would be happening. I only had a few and I was a little outplaced. I said what are you doing? What do you mean by is there a meaning? There was so much drama. I was very uncomfortable talking to a crypto dude and crypto nerd. And I will be very honest about it. Thank God the world of crypto is not. Otherwise I would have been completely alone. This friend, I did not understand till the end why are you doing this. Well I am not saying that is not a use of it. There is use of stable coins. Programmability is the use of money. 10 on 10. I am not doubting that. And then there is a business that you saw that it makes terms of money. But I am talking about the speculative coins. I'm talking about the speculative listings. I'm talking about distributed ledgers and so on which were like trying to build something which didn't yet find a solution. Now that being the case but they were living in a trance means cult. You must have met Bollywood stars and Bollywood fans. People can see that this is what is happening in their lives throughout the movie. So the product manager who is looking very balanced is useless. It is absolutely useless.
I don't get a job at Paytm then.
