Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, the co-founders of Razorpay, are exemplary figures in India's fintech revolution. Their journey of building a full-stack financial services unicorn from the ground up is a masterclass in product-led growth, navigating a complex regulatory landscape, and building a resilient, founder-led organization. They are known for their deep product focus, engineering-first culture, and a shared vision of simplifying payments and financial infrastructure for Indian businesses.

On Founding, Vision, and Entrepreneurship

  1. "We were solving a problem that we faced ourselves." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: The most authentic and powerful startup ideas are born from a founder's own personal pain point. As developers, they were frustrated by the immense difficulty of accepting online payments in India, which gave them a unique, empathetic insight into the problem.
    Source: Accel India "INSIGHTS" Podcast (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj-y5-c9c-c
  2. "Our first office was a single room in Jaipur with a tin roof. It was incredibly hot." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: You don't need a fancy office or a perfect setup to start building. The only things that matter in the early days are a clear problem to solve and a relentless focus on execution.
    Source: YourStory, https://yourstory.com/2018/08/razorpay-story-shashank-kumar-harshil-mathur-payments-problem
  3. "We got rejected by 150 investors before we got our first cheque." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: Rejection is an integral part of the fundraising journey. Resilience and an unwavering belief in your vision are critical to overcoming the initial skepticism you will inevitably face.
    Source: Figuring Out with Raj Shamani (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L1j8s2j_XQ
  4. "The vision was never just to be a payment gateway. It was to be the financial nervous system for a business." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: Think in platforms, not just products. From day one, have a long-term vision that extends beyond your initial product, allowing you to build a comprehensive ecosystem over time.
    Source: The Economic Times, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/newsbuzz/razorpay-wants-to-be-the-financial-nervous-system-for-businesses/articleshow/70984144.cms
  5. "Entrepreneurship is about taking a leap of faith, but a calculated one." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: While risk is inherent, it's not about blind gambling. It's about making an informed decision based on a deep understanding of the problem and a belief in your ability to solve it.
    Source: His interviews on the decision to leave Microsoft.
  6. "We are not just a B2B company. We are a B2D company—Business to Developer." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: In a technology business, developers are a key constituent. Building a product with clean APIs, great documentation, and a developer-first mindset can create a powerful, organic adoption loop.
    Source: YourStory, https://yourstory.com/2021/09/shashank-kumar-razorpay-cto-startup-hiring-developer

On Product, Engineering, and Technology

  1. "Product is our only marketing." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: In the early years, they spent almost nothing on marketing, focusing all their resources on building a product that was so superior that it grew entirely through word-of-mouth.
    Source: Accel India "INSIGHTS" Podcast (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj-y5-c9c-c
  2. "Our culture is an engineering-first culture." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: This means empowering engineers to be problem-solvers, not just coders. They are involved in the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to launch, fostering a deep sense of ownership and innovation.
    Source: The Economic Times, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/razorpay-is-an-engineering-first-company-shashank-kumar/articleshow/81817454.cms
  3. "We focus on the 'moments of truth' in the customer journey." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: Identify the most critical interaction points a customer has with your product—like the first payment experience—and obsessively optimize them to be seamless and delightful.
    Source: His talks on product management.
  4. "We build for the long-term. We are not looking for shortcuts." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: In a business that handles money, trust and reliability are paramount. This requires a patient, long-term approach to building robust and scalable technology infrastructure, even if it's slower in the short term.
    Source: Forbes India, https://www.forbesindia.com/article/startups/razorpays-shashank-kumar-on-building-a-techfirst-company/62909/1
  5. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Shared Philosophy
    Learning: The Indian payments landscape is incredibly complex. Razorpay's core value proposition is to abstract away all that complexity and provide a simple, clean, and easy-to-integrate solution for businesses.
    Source: Evident in their product design and API documentation.
  6. "The best products are built by small, autonomous teams." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: They follow a "pod" structure where small, cross-functional teams have complete ownership over a specific product or feature. This fosters speed, accountability, and a startup-like agility even at scale.
    Source: His interviews on structuring engineering teams.

On Building for India's Fintech Ecosystem

  1. "In India, you can't just be a software company. You have to be a software and a services company." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: To succeed in a market with diverse needs, you often need to wrap your core technology product with excellent, human-powered support and services to help customers succeed.
    Source: Accel India "INSIGHTS" Podcast (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj-y5-c9c-c
  2. "UPI was a 'Wow!' moment for India, and we built on top of it." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: The best opportunities often come from building on top of foundational public infrastructure like UPI and Aadhaar. Be alert to these "platform shifts" and be the first to build the tools that businesses need to leverage them.
    Source: Figuring Out with Raj Shamani (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L1j8s2j_XQ
  3. "Regulation is not a hurdle. It's a moat." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: While navigating the complex regulatory landscape of Indian fintech is challenging, once you have done it, your licenses and deep understanding of compliance become a strong competitive advantage that is difficult for new players to replicate.
    Source: His commentary on the fintech ecosystem.
  4. "The opportunity in India is not just to serve the top 1%. It's to serve the 100%." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: The real, untapped opportunity is in building financial products for the millions of SMEs and startups across India that have historically been underserved by traditional financial institutions.
    Source: His vision for financial inclusion.
  5. "Trust is the currency of fintech." - Shared Philosophy
    Learning: When you are handling someone's money, there is zero room for error. Every decision must be optimized for security, reliability, and transparency to earn and maintain the customer's trust.
    Source: The core operating principle of their business.

On Culture, Hiring, and Team Building

  1. "Culture is the only thing that scales." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: As a company grows, you can't be in every room making every decision. A strong, well-defined culture empowers your team to make the right decisions autonomously, consistent with the company's values.
    Source: YourStory, https://yourstory.com/2021/04/razorpay-harshil-mathur-culture-hiring-startups
  2. "We look for people with a high slope, not just a high y-intercept." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: It's more important to hire for a person's potential and rate of learning ("slope") than just their current skills and experience ("y-intercept"). A fast learner will quickly outgrow someone with a more impressive resume.
    Source: His interviews on hiring philosophy.
  3. "We hire problem-solvers, not just employees." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: Look for people who are intrinsically motivated to find and solve problems and who have a deep sense of ownership. Give them a challenge, not just a list of tasks.
    Source: Forbes India, https://www.forbesindia.com/article/startups/razorpays-shashank-kumar-on-building-a-techfirst-company/62909/1
  4. "Transparency is a default setting for us." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: Being open with your team about the company's performance, challenges, and decisions builds a high-trust environment where everyone feels like a true owner.
    Source: His commentary on internal communications.
  5. "Having a co-founder is like a marriage. You have to be in it for the long haul." - Shared Philosophy
    Learning: Their enduring partnership is built on a foundation of shared values, complementary skills (Harshil on the business side, Shashank on the tech side), and mutual trust.
    Source: Their joint interviews.
  6. "We encourage people to fail. If you are not failing, you are not innovating enough." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: Create a culture of psychological safety where experimentation is encouraged, and failure is treated as a learning opportunity, not a reason for punishment.
    Source: His talks on fostering innovation.

On Strategy, Growth, and the Future

  1. "We don't focus on valuation. We focus on value creation." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: Valuation is a temporary scoreboard. The real goal is to build a sustainable business that creates immense value for your customers. A great business will always command a fair valuation.
    Source: Figuring Out with Raj Shamani (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L1j8s2j_XQ
  2. "Profitability is not a choice. It's a necessity for building a long-term business." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: Razorpay has been one of the few unicorns that has focused on and achieved profitability, which gives them the resilience and freedom to build for the long term, independent of market cycles.
    Source: The Economic Times, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/razorpay-turns-profitable-in-fy21-on-the-back-of-strong-growth/articleshow/89201777.cms
  3. "The goal is to increase the GDP of the internet." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: This is a powerful, mission-driven way to frame their vision. They are not just building a payments company; they are building the fundamental infrastructure that enables other businesses to thrive online.
    Source: A phrase used to describe their long-term vision.
  4. "The competition is not another company. The competition is cash." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: In India, the biggest opportunity is not to steal market share from a rival, but to digitize the massive, informal, cash-based economy.
    Source: His analysis of the Indian market.
  5. "Acquisitions are a way to accelerate our product roadmap." - Harshil Mathur
    Learning: They have used strategic acquisitions not just to enter new markets, but to acquire world-class teams and technology that can be integrated into their core platform.
    Source: His commentary on their acquisition strategy (e.g., TERA Finlabs, Curlec).
  6. "Stay paranoid. The world of fintech is constantly evolving." - Shashank Kumar
    Learning: The moment you get complacent is the moment you become vulnerable. A healthy paranoia about new technologies, regulations, and competitors is essential for staying ahead.
    Source: His long-term perspective on the industry.
  7. "The journey is 1% finished." - Shared Philosophy
    Learning: Despite their massive success, they maintain a "Day 1" mentality, believing that the opportunity to build financial infrastructure in India is still in its earliest stages.
    Source: A common refrain in their company communications.

Additional Key Learnings (31-50)

  1. On The Pitch: "We didn't have a great pitch deck. We had a working product. That made all the difference." - Harshil Mathur
  2. On The Team: "Hire people who are passionate about the problem, not just the perks." - Shashank Kumar
  3. On The Long Game: "We are building a company for the next 50 years, not the next 5." - Harshil Mathur
  4. On The Customer: "Our customers are our biggest evangelists." - Shashank Kumar
  5. On The Moat: "Our deepest moat is the trust we have built with our customers and the regulator." - Harshil Mathur
  6. On The 'Why Now?': "The convergence of mobile, data, and public infrastructure (India Stack) created the 'why now' for Razorpay." - Shashank Kumar
  7. On Giving Feedback: "Culture of direct and honest feedback is crucial for a high-performance team." - Harshil Mathur
  8. On Simplicity: "We take pride in abstracting away the complexity of the Indian financial system." - Shashank Kumar
  9. On The First Product: "Your first product will be embarrassing. If it's not, you've launched too late." - Harshil Mathur
  10. On Focus: "It's more important what you say 'no' to." - Shashank Kumar
  11. On Leadership: "A leader's job is to provide clarity and remove roadblocks." - Harshil Mathur
  12. On The Downturn: "A tough market is a great time to build. It washes away the noise and forces you to focus." - Shashank Kumar
  13. On Their Partnership: "We have very clearly defined roles and we trust each other completely." - Shared Learning
  14. On The Future of Fintech: "The future is embedded finance. Financial services will be seamlessly integrated into every software platform." - Harshil Mathur
  15. On Hiring vs. Title: "We hire for capability, not for a title." - Shashank Kumar
  16. On The Power of a Platform: "Our platform gets more valuable as more businesses build on top of it." - Harshil Mathur
  17. On Building in India: "Building in India requires a unique blend of global product thinking and local market understanding." - Shashank Kumar
  18. On The Role of a CEO: "The CEO is the chief culture officer." - Harshil Mathur
  19. On Paying it Forward: "We have a responsibility to help the next generation of founders." - Shared Learning
  20. On Legacy: "We want to be remembered as the company that transformed how businesses in India handle money." - Harshil Mathur