In an ideal situation, it'd be okay to not have a formal education if you have tremendous practical knowledge or some work experience. The way our present education & work system is structured, only people with a certain amount of education can have access to an opportunity to gain work experience.
Tell us about your background, journey, and upbringing.
I come from a middle-class family. My father is an engineer & mother is a homemaker. During my school time, all my efforts were geared towards joining the best IIT in India just like the other 1.5 million IIT aspirants. After graduating from IIT Bombay, I again took a popular & safe path of getting placed at a well-paying job.
I was the youngest Manager in Axis Bank while working in their business technology group where I came across the various banking - finance & payment instruments, & the technology behind them.
When and how did you get clarity on what you wanted to do?
When and how did you get clarity on what you wanted to do?
Riyaz & I had been part of the same social circle since college until we started sharing an apartment in Mumbai with some of our other friends. Throughout this duration, we often went out as a group where usually one person would pay for the whole group & then collect the shares from each individual by coordinating over Whatsapp or Facebook texts.
We found the process highly inefficient & realized that everyone else from the same age group also pretty much has to go through this problem.
At this moment, we knew that if we could make the post payments experience efficient, we would not be solving it just for our group but for the entire bunch of 18-30 age group in Tier 1 & 2 cities. Looking at this massive opportunity to create an impact in people's lives, we took the plunge to start goDutch.
goDutch is a one-stop solution to spend-split-track-settle your group expenses with friends. With goDutch we aim to keep the expenses sorted for millennials, starting with group expenses.
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What does your typical workday look like?
As a founder leading the growth of an early-stage company, my time is spent in identifying the problems across growth channels, building solutions & their execution. I spare some time towards the ends of the day to consume material on the latest startup trends & innovative business models.
Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What is your opinion about this?
In an ideal situation, it'd be okay to not have a formal education if you have tremendous practical knowledge or some work experience. The way our present education & work system is structured, only people with a certain amount of education can have access to an opportunity to gain work experience.
Practical knowledge is pretty much non-existent in the system. So, in my view, a coordinated change in both the system & employer's approach is required to promote work experience over little or no formal education.
How do you handle someone who has lied on their resume?
We have designed our hiring process such that it filters candidates who are aligned to the real-life challenges which they will come across in the role. In addition to this, we keep multiple rounds with the candidate to get to know them better & try to spend 5-6 hours with them during this process.
This helps us evaluate them on 2 primary criteria needed to join goDutch: 1) Same DNA & thought process as us 2) Skillsets to ace at the job
What are some of your typical challenges and how have they evolved over time?
The biggest challenge we had to go through was to form the core team remotely during the 1st covid wave. As a young startup, it is really important that the core team members know each other really well & are easily accessible to each other. We were able to overcome the former by structuring our hiring process to onboard candidates who share the same belief & energy as us towards our cause.
The problem of accessibility has since been overcome by interactive sessions over discord servers & working on team-driven projects instead of individualistic work.
What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs looking for funding or those eyeing the top job?
For aspiring entrepreneurs, I'd ask them to take a minute out to think about how their idea would positively impact the end consumer. The next step is to find co-founders/team members who share your level of passion for the idea. Once you've got this figured, all you have to do is execute the idea with your team in alignment with the consumer's interest.
PS: this is easier than done. For those eyeing top jobs, they should look for workplaces & job roles that complement their skillsets and can also assist them in reaching their career goals sooner rather than later.
Which is your favorite book and why?
I'm hugely inspired by The Lean Startup by Eric Ries & I keep referring to it every now & then. The book shares the best practices to execute your idea with minimum efforts optimized towards the maximum output. In other words, how to test fast & identify the direction where success lies
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