Paytm is stuck

The unicorn succeeded in its wallet business because its mission was to replace cash. The current organization is rudderless.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm’s founder, and CEO carries his company’s pitch deck with him at all times. Depending on whether you are an admirer or a critic, and whether Sharma takes an interest in you, he’s quick to pull out the deck on his phone and put on the charm offensive. 

Paytm is rocking, he says, almost always. Gold, mutual funds, bus bookings, flights—Paytm is killing the competition. Sharma laces his frothy body language with easy to remember punchlines like “you won’t believe our numbers” and throws in reference terms like “we are No. 1” and “we were the pioneers …

Author

Ashish K. Mishra

Ashish is the editor-in-chief of The Morning Context. One of the best-known business feature writers in India, he was selected for Germany’s Robert Bosch Stiftung Fellowship in 2012 and received the Mumbai Press Club RedInk certificate of recognition in 2015 for his story “Inside the Network 18 takeover”. Before joining The Morning Context, Ashish co-founded The Ken, where he was managing editor. His previous writing stints include Mint, Forbes India and The Economic Times.

Editor-in-chief

ashish@mailtmc.com

London