Lessons from Ashneer Grover (Founder – Bharat Pe)

1> I like to build businesses from scratch. That’s my expertise. I don’t like managing a business that is already made although that is also a difficult job.

2> It takes a similar effort to build a new company. Just because you have one kid doesn’t mean the second pregnancy will be less painful. Only thing is that you know what to do.

3> I unfollowed all sharks from social media. I don’t want to live in the past. I don’t like to see what’s going on in the show although my wife sees it. I want a clear separation.

4> Shark Tank is getting 500 Cr Ad Revenue in one season. In the next 20 years, it will be a 10K crore business. I want wherever I am it should be Dhaasu.

5> You need a person in life who gives you honest feedback. When everything was going well, I didn’t give much importance to Madhuri as there were many experts around me.

But when things started going south, I realized that she is the only one who was guiding me throughout.

6> You need a partner who’s having complementary skills. Like I can’t read people’s minds. I go with people’s word. Madhuri understands their intention from the beginning.

7> My ambitions aren’t fixed. Ultimately I want to join politics.

When you get a good education, built a company, got fame & have the means to live a comfortable life, it’s time to do big in life.

When you are doing business, you are impacting your employees’ life; when you become a public figure, you are impacting your viewers’ life. But if you want to bring impact on the whole nation, politics is the best way to do it.

9> Before Bharat Pe, I was working with PC Jewellers. There my work was to collect the QR codes of different payment apps.

Then the thought came, how many QR codes will be there in one showroom? There should be one QR code that should accept payments from all the payment apps.

The second idea was why these payment apps are charging commissions on money acceptance when banks are also doing the same but not charging any money transfer between banks.

Bharat Pe’s main goal was to bring one QR code that will accept payments from all apps & there will be no charges for it.

Instead, we started giving loans to shops based on their transactions.

10> When I was building Bharat Pe, I worked relentlessly. There was a time when we were growing 40% MoM. Whatever sales we have done last month, the same thing was achieved on the first day of the current month.

11> My Co-Founder cracked how to make QR code & how UPI worked. His thought was that PayTM is charging 2% & we will charge 1% to market it. My role was to scale things.

But I said to charge 0%. Eventually, everyone has to charge 0%, then why not take the first mover’s advantage to ourselves.

In our first 6 months, we have scaled to 50 lakh shops whereas PayTM has reached 1.25 crore shops in the last 10 years.

12> Bharat Pe is one of the most successful start-ups in India. We have grown to 3 Billion valuations in 3 years.

It’s not that we made such a valuation by spending money only. We have raised 625 million. The actual money spent to scale to 3 billion is 200 million. When I left Bharat Pe, then I left behind 425 million.

13> Bharat Pe is the only Fintech company in India which is having a banking license. Anyone who came close to it is PayTM which is having a Payment Banks license but not a banking license.

14> There was a bank called PMC Bank which was having 10K Crore deposit out of which  7K crore was loan default. We partnered with Centrum to bid for the bank & also got the license.

Everyone was shocked to know a 3.5-year-old company getting a banking license while 70-year-old companies didn’t get a banking license.

15> All the 10L depositors got their money back which was strangled from the last 2 years. The satisfaction was beyond money for me.

16> When we started BharatPe, PayTM was a 16 billion company. They also had payment bank licenses. Our chance of success was 0.0001%. Still, I took the risk to build the company. 

We scaled the company to 3 billion, and every 6 months we were launching a new product. I was very ziddi in these things. At the beginning, there are no tangible assets with Bharat Pe. 

But when we had a banking license & around 1 crore QR codes, there were many things to lose.

I was not a guy who will agree to board silently. That’s why all those board room dramas to remove me. This is one facet of VC money.

17> VC Money is the Investor’s money. When someone puts his money, he thinks that he is superior to you. He sits on the top of the food chain.

But as a founder, you will be on your own mission to build something meaningful.

When the risks are low, investors want someone who can make the company but when the company is built, investors think that this is not the way how the company is run.

This is what happened with Uber & WeWork also. There were many allegations against the founders but nothing got proved.

VCs invest their money in multiple companies. These things are also done to show an example of what could happen if founders go against Investors. They have to maintain their superior image.

18> I have done hiring mistakes while building Bharat Pe. I went with the face value of people. I didn’t get to know the intent of people.

When we were at 400 million company, at that time many people came to me & said that I have made their life & they’ll work with me rest of the life.

Because they see opportunity when everything is going well. Loyalty is seen when things go south.

19> Second mistake that I have done is giving much more importance to Investor. Somewhere I thought of asking investors in everything. I could have bought my wife to the board but I thought of asking investors about it. This went against me when the boardroom battle started.

20> Money reveals the character. When there’s nothing to lose, people will support you or will be with you in everything. But when things started getting bigger, people see the money. That time people forget the vision, and why you started.

21> I believe that I am made for big things. I had a good career. Then two of the start-up I have worked with became unicorns(only 41 people in the world worked with 2 unicorns), and Shark Tank became a hit. I feel if I give my sweat & blood, I’ll make big things.

22> My intention is to make money for others. If I am making 100 rupees, then if 10 rupees is my own I’m happy with that. 

When I was CFO of Grofers, I didn’t make money for myself but for the company. The same thing happened in Bharat Pe. Shark Tank is now a 10K crore business model. My book is now also a bestseller. It’s very rare for a biography to be a bestseller. Here also I made the money for Penguin Publisher.

23> I was in the IIT till 22. By the time I pass out of IIM, I was 24. Then I worked in banks for 7 years. I left my job & worked in the start-up in my 30s & started Bharat Pe at the age of 36.

For today’s generation, I’m a late bloomer. 

Nowadays social media is glorifying too much to success stories. If you are not a founder by 25, then you aren’t doing anything in life. Because of that many people are having mid-life crises at the age of 21.

But you should have the calling. Not everyone is for entrepreneurship. Becoming a Founder isn’t a big thing. But the probability of becoming the founder of an actual company is very less.

It’s okay if you aren’t a founder.

24> Use your 20s meaning. Find a soulmate if possible & get married. 

Nowadays people are having a phobia of commitments. When you are having wife & kids, you become more responsible. In your 30s you will be free to experiment with things of your own.

25> Complete your education first. Now there’s the trend of drop-outs. I agree that our education system is outdated. But complete the education first. Then life teaches you many things.

26> When you start a business, you start to realize that you can’t do everything on your own if you want to scale at a faster speed. Then you start hiring. Hiring is the most difficult part of the organization.

I started becoming an extrovert when I started hiring.

27> I’m not a guy who gives motivational speeches to team members. I ask for their problem & solve it. The other person also understands that if this guy can do it then I can also do something.

28> In corporates if there’ll be any problem, seniors will pass down that mistake to the associates. But start-ups don’t run like that.

Founders have to back up their associates. Because you are also doing mistakes, learning from them & growing.

I have told my team that I’ll be there if there’ll be any problem but I couldn’t mentor anyone 1:1 while building Bharat Pe.

29> When you become a founder, you carry your start-up on your shoulder. You have to meet a lot of people for your company. It makes you have thick skin.

Then when I went to Shark Tank, then I realized that I didn’t make a fool out of myself.

Then I realized that if I open up, it will not harm me.

30> Handling criticism at the beginning was very tough. I was not used to trolls. I used to reply back to the trolls with a logical answer.

Then I realized that they weren’t looking for a logical answer, they just needed their 2-minute fame.

So, I started ignoring them.

31> I watch only Bollywood movies. I can’t sit for Hollywood movies. I like Zoya Akhtar movies like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara or Dil Dhadak ne Do because it shows opulence.

If I had to see poor, dirt, then I could just go to the streets.

Another reason to like her movies is that there would be 5-10 characters in her movie & everyone will be having different story going on rather than typical movies where the story revolves around one person.

32> If are an entrepreneur, then you should think like an end user. What is the problem you are solving? Will you buy the solution you are building if you are an end user? If you are not buying, then no one will.

Many people think that this idea came to my mind, so it will be good.

33> It is difficult to be a unicorn if you are going into a niche market like for healthcare industry. If you will see the unicorn, they’re solving the problems of consumers at large.

34> When I’m creating or investing in a business, I check for TAM (Total Addressable Market). Even if you capture the entire market in a niche business, then how much business you are making matters.

35> TAM you get from Guestimation. For the food ordering business, take the population of the top 30 cities of India. Find how many times a family will be ordering food.

It’s simple math. Or you can just Google it. Nowadays you will get many industry reports. Nothing is 100% correct but you will get an idea.

36>  To become a unicorn you need to be ziddi & counterintuitive. I have never seen a founder who said we become a unicorn while figuring it out. They know what they’re doing.

37> When you are looking for Co-Founder, then look for complimentary skills. If both of us doing the same work, then there is no point in 2 people doing the same thing.

38> At the beginning you might be doing 100 work in a start-up. Then you have to figure out which of the things are eating up your valuable time. Then hire people to do that.

In our case, my co-founder & I have gone to the city to promote our brand. And we realized that there are 30 cities. How many cities 2 people can cover? Then we hired a city head.

Then you should dedicate your time to playing bigger games.

39> If you aren’t growing individually, you will not grow as a company. My funda is to build & understand how things work. Then I hire people to manage those things.

40> Hiring is a consistent thing but people have made it a sales activity. When you will talk to 100 people, 3 people might join you.

You can’t say that you aren’t good at people skills after interviewing 97 people. Maybe the last 3 candidates are going to join you.

41> When someone says to me that they talked to 15-20 people but no one wants to join them, I say to them that if you can solve a bigger problem, then hiring isn’t a problem. Only thing is that you haven’t given enough effort in this one.

42> We had a tech team size of 60 people. One time when I return from a funding round, 20 people left the company. 

My Co-Founder was saying that hiring is not his cup of tea. I asked him what’s the problem.

First: the market is giving them more salary than we are giving. So people want to join there.

Second: Head hunter agencies aren’t of any use. They share the same resume with multiple companies. They get a commission from whichever company the candidates join.

We started giving market salary as we can’t say anyone to work for us at 10 LPA when another company is providing him 30 LPA.

HR agency used to charge a 15% commission on CTC. If the average salary of a tech guy is 20 LPA, then the HR agency charges us 3 lahks.

I asked my people which bike will come in 3 lahks. Someone said that BMW.

The next day I posted on LinkedIn that whoever joins Bharate Pe will get a BMW bike. Things went viral & we get many candidates to interview.

If you are a start-up then you have to market your company to employees also. And for that, you have to be creative.

43> I’ll suggest people to watch the second season of Shark Tank without having any pre-judgment. If you don’t find it good as the previous season, then take your call.