Startups have obligation to take India’s flag to other countries: Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma

“Right now we have reached the stage in the startup ecosystem where the mature companies should start to think that which countries we can export to, if we could export for our IT services,” Sharma said at an event by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Sharing his optimism about the rising global presence of Indian startups, Sharma said he aspires for an anti-trust regulation by America and other nations on an Indian company.

“I really wish in my lifetime that America is thinking of sanctioning us…multiple countries, and then you go for negotiations – don’t do it!,” he said.

He also spoke on value creation for startups, the divide between traditional industries and startups, and the next phase of generative technology and AI.

Announcing that AI-first offerings will be in the forefront of operations, Sharma termed AI as the “biggest compounding technology wave in his life cycle”.

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“Advanced General Intelligence (AGI) will be the age when compounding more information and ability than a human mind…when the thinking (of AI) supersedes the reality of human thinking. I believe this will be the biggest compounding technology wave that I will see in my life cycle because connectivity happened, computing happened, the internet happened, smartphone came by and it actually compounds on top of it as a bigger thing.” Addressing concerns of startups becoming an industry, he said startups are the new way of doing traditional businesses.

“Technology across (traditional) industries has become viable since 2020. By 2020, this world went through a very dramatic amount of technology that could address the customer base. Startups were companies who were technology-first and they will go into the industry,” he noted.

He added that traditional businesses should embrace technology while technology firms should learn from the industry.

“Traditionally, India’s incumbent businesses never appreciated and admired the value of valuation of these (technology startup) companies. It is the other countries’ investors, east and west both, who could understand and say, ‘Oh, this is a revolution’.”

He also spoke about the “negativity bias” in traditional industries, saying that if traditional businesses shed their success bias there is a new magic of customer base ability efficiency.

“I think you have incredibly successful enterprises of yesterday and today both…how to make them successful for tomorrow, my answer is that if you are ready to shed your success-based bias, one should optimise it and listen,” he said.

“Now there is a new metric of customer-base ability and efficiency…why say no to it when you can be part of it,” he added.

He shared about his journey from raising Rs 8 lakh for his company at 40% equity to raising $1.4 million from Masayoshi Son, the chief executive officer of SoftBank, after discussions in December 2016.

Sharma also advised youngsters to work for a couple of years before starting up fresh out of college.

“Before you do something, you should know why it happens. I believe that all college kids should take up a job for the first two years where they have studied to acknowledge the outcome of their education…nothing is good when it is premature,” he said.

Calling the present generation “fashionable”, he said that by coming out of college and starting up, one is doing a disservice to themselves. “You need to understand value chain roles…best B-schools cannot teach you what you learn in a company,” he added.