Mr.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma- Paytm Founder

“Success does come in hands for those who are willing to work.” Today, we are enlightened to share
the successful journey of the person who digitalised the way we do business- who is none other than
Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder of Paytm and the youngest billionaire of India. This entails the
journey of this successful leading business personality who had put his hard work and efforts in the
right direction and registering his name amongst the 50 Most Influential Young Indians for 2017.

From a small town boy of Aligarh to CEO of Paytm. Mr. Sharma has indeed come a long way. He was
born in Aligarh, Utter Pradesh on July 8, 1973 in a modest family. Mr. Sharma passed his higher
secondary education at the age of 14 which had been in Hindi medium from a school in Harduaganj,
a small town near Aligarh, UP, where his father was a school teacher and mother, a housewife. With
the passage of time as part of the preparations for his engineering entrance tests, Mr. Sharma
taught himself to read two books at a time, one in Hindi and other in English, both by the same
subject. His mother supported and told him to prepare well for the engineering entrance tests, for
they did not have enough money to send him to a private college. The engineering tests could be
taken in Hindi, but Vijay decided to take them in English, perhaps because the medium of instruction
at Engineering colleges was to be English. He was not yet 16 and required special permission from
the University, which was granted as he had ranked high in the tests. Mr. Sharma became the
youngest student of his batch and a complete misfit. He was casted out by people and being really
young doubled the pressure on him.

Those traumatic days turned out in happy memories with One97 Communications Ltd., Mr. Sharma’s
one of the most valued start-ups in 2000. Mr. Sharma being responsible for the strategy and
direction of One97 Communications and leads it in all years relating to business expansion as well as
product road map. He is an advisor of SocialBlood.org and has more than 10 years of experience in
the telecom new Media Industries, having founded his first venture XS corps while he was in college,
which he sold to Lotus Interworks LLC New Jersey in 1999.

Prior to founding One97 Communications, Mr. Sharma played key roles in a number of organizations
such as River Run Software Services Group Limited, Inter Solutions Software Private Limited, Startec
Global Communications Limited, focusing on the design and development of various products and
applications for the technology, media and telecom industries.

Life tested him right from the beginning of his journey to become one of the most influential people
in the business world today. In 2010, he launched Paytm, an online payment platform, and it all
came together 4000 employees now, an online wallet, i.e. near ubiquitous and full blown E-
Commerce site.

Among his investors are Jack Ma of Chinese E-Commerce giant Alibaba and Ratan Tata. Mr. Sharma
started experimenting with the 3 basics of the internet-content, advertising and commerce. But the
big eureka moment came in 2011 when he first pitched the idea of entering the Paytm Ecosystem in
front of his board. The board was not convinced, as he was talking about betting the company's
money on a non-existent market. So he put 1% of his equity, which was about $2 million around
2011, on the table and said, "This is for all of you, if I waste the money that we put on the
site." Backed by consumer trust, Paytm’s stupendous journey to the top of the internet wallet
market is now a part of the start up folklore, but what is unknown is that Paytm also became one of
a handful companies worldwide to secure its position. A funding exceeding several $100 million.
They have done only a single round of funding till now with Alibaba, SAIF and Alipay.

After building a billion dollar worth company, maintaining the success was the most difficult part of
the journey for Mr. Sharma and it cannot be done without good teamwork. For this, Mr. Sharma
ensures that the right people have taken on-board who share the same passion to build like him. He
has also given 4% of his equity to the team, which in current value terms is about $120 million.

Mr. Sharma has a staunch believe in God, and shares respect for hardworking person. But, it’s just
not the fighting spirit that has Mr. Sharma in the position that he enjoys today. Despite his
engineering background and no formal education in business, he has the business acumen of a
genius.

And as he says, “To the Winners, who won because they didn't give up.”