Building Indian Mobile Banking: mChek CEO Sanjay Swamy (Part 7)

SM: How do you view the competitive landscape both internationally and in India?

SS: Quite honestly, I have not worried about the competitive landscape. Our opportunity is so large that I have to focus on the massive growth we have. The Indian market is so big that we have not looked at expanding beyond India.

SM: With your business model, does everybody in the food chain earn a piece of the transaction?

SS: Yes. The goal is to increase the number of transactions by 100 times, so sharing the transaction profits is acceptable. Telecoms are not used to having someone else collect the money and share it back with them. There is also an issue of customer ownership. Our stance is very clear that at the end of the day, the financial transaction is between the customer and his bank. I believe this is a global problem. We have become an intermediary who understands the telecom companies as well as the banks. We keep the integrity of each side’s role.

SM: Are the banks equipped to take those calls?

SS: The answer is yes, but that shows the issues with scalability and the effort required to roll out these products.

SM: Where do you go from here? What are your next big milestones?

SS: Taking something that has been proven with a few hundred thousand users and scaling it to the millions. We want to see it become a default product that your bank or telecom company offers you and it is up to you to decide if you want to use it or not. I do not want to build a niche product. The goal is for this to become the default way for people to make a payment. In those terms, our biggest competition is cash.

SM: You did all of this with $5 million? Did you raise any additional funding?

SS: We are in the process of raising more money, but what we have so far we built with our initial funding.

SM: Where are you personally? This is your first real entrepreneurial adventure. What are your realizations at this point of the game?

SS: Anything that you think is done is not yet done. Whatever estimate you have as to how much money it will take, multiply it by three because everything takes three times longer. Then multiply it by two because by the time you get it done, everything has doubled in cost. We always try to be capital efficient, and we should be, but in an industry like ours where there are multiple players, the timelines never work out like they should.

As an entrepreneur, you are lucky if you get five days of glory in a year. Those five days are what is worth waiting for. You have to just keep plugging away regardless of what people believe. Never be discouraged and never give up. Some people will doubt you until the end of the world. However, if people are giving you constructive criticism, those are people you need to keep close to you.

Also, it is trying. It will take its toll on your family, friends, and health. There are a lot of strains you are going to go through, there is no avoiding it. You can never show that to the team. You have to motivate them at all times. You can’t worry about what you are going through. It always helps to have a good sense of humor and laugh things off. From time to time it is important to look back and see what good things have happened.

SM: Great! Congratulations on your success so far.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Building Indian Mobile Banking: mChek CEO Sanjay Swamy
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