The why and what of Cheq ( @cheqit_ ) 
👇

#fintech #comingsoon

Tl;dr: Cheq gives you up to Rs 30k limit for spending anywhere

With us, you get:
✅  Greater convenience: One-tap payments everywhere
✅  Better rewards (0.5 - 4%) , Great offers
✅  15-45 day zero interest repayment cycles

Follow @cheqit_ if you want early access

From afar, the Indian payments market looks *extremely* crowded. 
There are dime a dozen payment options for every customer. 

But there's an easy way to split all of them up:
1) UPI vs Non-UPI
2) Debit vs Credit

Why is UPI important? 
Because in less than 7 years its become India's number 1 payment network.

Number of individuals paying via UPI: 120mn+ 
Count of UPI transactions in March: 5 Billion +

Why is Debit / Credit important?

Only 1 in 15 financially active individuals has a credit card/line active in India right now.

Demand for new credit lines/cards/loans is on fire 🔥

If we were to put the available payment options in India on a convenient 2*2 .... You see the gap?

India's largest payment network has a dearth of credit products.
That's an empty space bigger than 230Bn USD.

Can't credit cards fulfill this gap? Are they good?

❌  Less than 1 in 3 merchants accepts cards in India 
❌. Credit cards charge COMPOUNDING late fees (30-45% + tax)
❌  Credit cards incentivize you to pay more, save less.

If you spend < 3 lakh / yr digitally, taking a credit card won't give you too many rewards.

Any delays in repayment will affect your credit score [means more expensive loans and lesser rewards in the future 🤷]

Plus the limited acceptance

By ditching the physical card and network costs, Cheq operates its business much more economically than credit card companies (our opex is 40-80%  lesser).

This means more rewards for customers and lower penalties for delay.

Fun fact: Bank cheques were the original buy-now, pay later instrument.  

Your parents used them to pay later everywhere.

Cheq is how you can do the same 

What is our mission you ask?
1) Get you the best savings on every spend 
2) Help you responsibly plan your purchases
3) Provide you the lowest cost emergency funds, instantly when needed.

We believe in simple interest for short-term credit. And fair charges on delayed payments.

10 rs/day is all we charge for delayed payments. If you delay more than 15 days, the late fees increase to 30 rs/day.


As of now, we're in private beta and plan to do a public release by September 30th.

Early customers are already loving us 🤫

This is the Cheq home screen 😊


Our Scan & Pay works on every UPI qr code and customers get a consolidated bill every 15 days.

Cheq has already processed more than Rs 27 lakh worth of purchases since early March.

#cheqit

As of now, we present customers with a consolidated bill every 2 weeks (1st and 16th of every month).  

Customers get 4 days to clear this bill without any fees/interest.

Paying your bill on time gives you more rewards 💰


Cheq makes it easy to lookup spends.

And keeps your bank statement clutter free.

Additionally, our customers earn upto 2% cashback on every spend. 

GeMs, our in-app currency, can be used to play games or redeem cashback.

We plan to distribute more than Rs 15 lakh in rewards over the next 6 months to early adopters.

#cheqit 

We plan to onboard 500 new customers into the pilot program in May. Each of them will get great rewards, priority support and good karma

Please follow us on @cheqit_ if interested in joining.
We only have limited slots⏳

PS: We're android only right now
#joincheq

Easy spend analysis, EMI conversions, programmatic payments and many other innovative features will come to Cheq soon.

By joining early, you unlock all these faster and get accelerated reward rates as well.

Why & What of @Cheqit_

Do you hate it when a #upi payment gets stuck? Money is gone but merchant didn't get it?

Here's a little bet for you:

1) Pay me 50 rs today

2) Try out our app for the next 3 months #joincheq

3) Earn 100 rs instant cashback each time your payment isn't completed within 1 min.

Which payment instrument do you prefer to spend by?

Debit =&gt; bank accounts, paytm wallet, etc

Credit =&gt; Cards, credit lines, bnpl etc

What's your split between online vs in-person spends ?

Online means ecomm and delivery companies.

In person means mall, nearby stores, etc.

Which of these rewards would you prefer? 

Assume 10,000rs is spent.

UPI timeouts - how painful are they?

A short thread on Understanding Money 💵 

What it is, why it exists and how you can create your own ...

#banking #fintech
🧵👇

We are all familiar with the Rupee / Dollar / Euro / other forms of paper money.

But did you know paper money was first recognized as legal tender only in 1833? Less than 200 years ago.

Banknotes existed before that but could only be used in limited places.

Money has existed in various form since the beginning of civilization. Cowries, seashells, gold, and other precious metals have been used as money in the past

But if anything can be money, what actually IS money?

Money is a medium of exchange, a simplified way for us to keep track of promises and repay each other for services rendered.

Whenever you give someone a good/service, they pay you with "money"

Whenever someone else solves a problem for you, you've got to pay them "money".

<history/> 
For the longest time, people only traded with neighbors and thus, money wasn't really needed. 

I could give you (my neighbor) a loaf of bread today and take equivalent amount of wheat after harvesting season.

Given mutual trust, Barter / Debt systems worked.

With the creation of marketplaces however, the circle of trading increased. Visiting soldiers and merchants weren't sold goods on credit.

Thus, the usage of 'money' to pay for goods became popular.

Soon even trades with neighbors were being done in coin, not credit. <history/>

Okay, so you now understand:

1) Money is a medium of exchange i.e. holds limited value in and off itself. 

2) Primary reason for the existence of money is to enable trade between untrusting parties

In the modern age, INR, USD, Euro, gold coins, paper notes, bitcoin, gift vouchers - all are different representations of money.

So if money is simply a medium, can anyone create their own form of money?

Of course! And as stated, its been done many times in the past.

How do you create your own money? Quite simple really.

Take a paper note, stamp your face on it, give it a value and convince your friends to use it while paying each other.

The more friends you convince, the stronger(popular) your currency becomes!

You can also create colored coins (ERC20 tokens) and make your cool new currency decentralized!

Uniswap, Tether, Binance are tokens issued by companies that essentially represent *money*

Their market cap indicates the total capital flowing through their system.

Okay, so you now understand:

1) Money is a medium of exchange i.e. holds limited value in and off itself

2) Money can be issued by anyone

3) More trades happening => Stronger currency

Why will your currency get adopted though?

Merchants who accept your money will only do so if it increases their business and is cost-effective.

Customers will choose to spend with your currency because it's more convenient, secure, and beneficial than alternatives.

Be forewarned though, if your currency becomes popular, you will soon be noticed by authorities. 

And have to comply with the Payment and Settlement systems guidelines of your jurisdiction.

This is the list of currently approved systems in India: https://m.rbi.org.in/scripts/publicationsview.aspx?id=12043

If your money gets adopted, you get to extract value whenever people buy into or withdraw out of your system.

Needless to say, moolah will rain.

VISA, Sodexo, Amex, Alipay, and PayPal are some examples of successful (traditional) Payment Systems around the world.

In the upcoming part, we will try to understand 
1) How do people who create money earn money
2) Detailed walkthroughs of PayPal, VISA & UPI ecosystems

Later I plan to write about the business of banking, its beauty, and its limitations

#fintech #banking

Short history of money - Part 1

Identifying failed experiments and eliminating them from your product is as important as launching new features.

Product debt is as real as tech debt (just less often talked about)

#productmanagement 

Investors will reject founders if:

1) They feel the idea is too improbable/likely to fail
2) They feel the price in current round is too high.

And this is true for your neighborhood uncle as well as the institutional VC https://twitter.com/thakkar_puru/status/1451417475992616967

If you're facing rejections repeatedly, figure out what's the problem (generally it's step 1).

Then STOP pitching to new investors.

Identify people who can help you reduce the uncertainty around your business.

These can be customers, partners or *strategic* advisors

Strategic advisors can take the form of:

1) Early-stage investor
2) Experienced employees
3) Voices from the internet/books/videos...

All three sources can be wrong/inappropriate.
But they will show you possibilities.

Ultimately any startup founder is trying to:

Deploy capital today &amp; Generate profit tomorrow

When you're asked for a roadmap, don't forget what larger structure it's a part of.

The Capital Generation cycle.

The more convincingly a founder can explain how his cycle works, the more likely he is to raise investment

"Identifying pain points
Building product, 
Hiring rockstars,
Raising investments 
.."

are all ultimately sub-steps in the Capital Generation Cycle 💸

The end game of course is building a cycle that works forever.

If you can take pole position in an upcoming industry, you have a strong cycle.

If you are talking about creating a whole new industry, where are the pre-requisite components?

Last piece of advice (very contrarian to traditional wisdom),

If you're about to give up, put your past work online.

#openstartups is a powerful trend.

If nobody likes your pitch, why not share it on youtube?

Helps future investors, employees, ... understand your vision + improve it

If you go for a job, you can showcase all your thinking

If cat videos get appreciated, so can ideas

To end:

Capital is a commodity now. 
There are trillions of dollars waiting to grow.

But growth doesn't happen in isolation.

Investors need companies just as much as companies need investors.

Key question is: Are you the entrepreneur best suited to build the next billion-dollar capital generation cycle?

Fund raising advice for the early stages

A well-designed app is like a fancy restaurant.

I will talk about it.

But if the food(/underlying service) sucks, I am not coming back.

#productmanagement

Are you a resident of your country? 
Or an element in the very fabric of your country? 

First are called Indians/America/.. 
Second are India/America/.. themselves, just smaller in size.

Don't see much difference in the two?

Ownership, accountability and attitude

When you're an employee in your company, you do your job, take your pay and go.

When you're a stakeholder in your company, you work longer and do stuff for free. Also get more rewards

People who feel they are living in a  society are likely to behave according to expectations set by others. They believe societal customs are well defined and should be obeyed.

People who believe they constitute a society realize customs can be redefined by them. They will generally be more outspoken and seem to 'care more'.

What's the short takeaway?

Recognize you influence the societies /companies/communities you join.

Use your influence to make the community better, for yourself and others.

Don't avoid responsibility by (falsely) believing the community is an abstraction.

Humse hai zamana, hum zamane se nahi

Your salary and designation are lagging indicators.

People become promoted AFTER demonstrating the capability to teach/lead/relate with colleagues.

Focus on demonstrating your abilities, external rewards will automatically follow.

How to demonstrate abilities?

1) Projects: Do as many of them as you can. Can't stress this enough.

Want eng -&gt; product transition? 
Build a couple of side-projects. Your resume will stand out

Want IC -&gt; Manager transition?
Organize a team activity [hackathon, volunteering]. Keep doing it.

2) Iterations:

You don't need 10,000 hours to become great at something [that's a myth]

You need 10,000 iterations. 
After every attempt, you should stop, think, organize and then proceed with the next round.

Reflect on what worked, what didn't.
Plan for the next time.

3) Attitude adjustments:

Life starts at T=0. Remember that.

Irrespective of who you are, you can change. 
Which means irrespective of circumstances, you can find a way to smile.

Don't stop at problem identification. 
Suggest alternative solutions. 
Promote Win-Wins.

4) Learning: 

By reading, watching or listening.

Because you were born a blank slate. 
Which got a few coats, thanks to neighbors.
Now that you're old enough, 
how about intentionally rebuilding yourself?

/fin

Ideas on growth

About to close an angel round after 3 weeks of heavy-duty pitching. Garnered sufficient resources, now onto step 2 💪

Some notes on the experience (as an early stage founder) 👇:

1) Dream Big: The world is changing veryy fast. There's limited capital for venture investments and if you aren't hitting a big market, you will struggle to raise VC/Angel capital.

2) Guesstimates are important: Yes, its very hard to estimate market for most new products. But there's a finite amount of attention, capital and time in the world. 
If you can't clearly see the opportunity you're attacking, you're likely to fail.

3) What's your pain point >>> Who's your customer:
A bit controversial but in my experience, if you solve a genuine problem, customers will find you.

4) Never pitch alone: Always have a co-founder/advisor joining you on the investor presentation. They will probably be able to pickup clues you miss.

5) Talk less, answer more: If you've shared your pitch deck with the VC, assume they've understood your hypothesis. They're coming on the call to put some very specific questions.

Ask and answer those questions. Avoid selling.

6) Beware time-wasters: There are VC firms who will engage with you to "learn the business", "understand your idea", "know your metrics".

Get some refchecks before doing your pitch. Will save you weeks of distracted effort

7) 6-month strategy and 5 year vision BOTH are important.
You must have a grand vision but you must also have the ability to break it down & achieve it.
You're raising money to achieve business outcomes. Be specific about both short-term goals & how they tie into long-term vision

8) You always get another chance: Don't treat investor pitches as one-time opportunities. Home Buyers will inspect a potential flat 100 times before purchasing. When someone's coming to buy your company equity, they're effectively trying to make a similar bet.

Give them time

Lessons from pre-seed fund raising

I am late to this party but wohooooooo 🎉🎉🎉

UPI e-vouchers will change the world of Direct Benefit Transfers (and gift cards) forever. 

Read 👇 to understand how (1/10) :
#upi #payments #fintech #DigitalPayments https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1397867220303159297

(2/10) GOI's press release explains E-voucher as a 'digital payment option which enables financial transactions linked to a specific purpose which can be used only by the intended user'

What does that mean?

(3/10) E-vouchers are digital gift cards built on top of UPI.

Basically, GOI can now create a subsidy scheme by identifying
A)  The people who need assistance
B) Shops where these guys should be able to spend

Once this is done, transfers can begin in &lt;24 hours.

(4/10) Why are E-vouchers better than today's gift cards/existing government solutions?

A) Lowest charges (no KYC, cards issuance costs, ..)
B) No need for custom tie-ups with merchants. UPI is accepted everywhere. Merchant validations are handled out of the box by payment Co.s

(5/10) GOI can now replace every subsidy program with direct transfers to citizens. No need for "licensed establishments" aimed at servicing the poor/needy.

(6/10) Let the citizen choose who sells him groceries, fertilizers, fuel, medicine, etc. Just assist him where needed.

Targetted Direct benefit transfers have also been shown to reduce corruption and increase societal progress

(7/10) Today, 9% of India's budget goes into subsidies for various programs. Corruption is rampant. 

(8/10) Approximately 50% of money spent by states on Food subsidies is diverted through illegal channels to the black market. 

Ditto for fertilizer, medicines and various other programs.
E-voucher allows GOI to bypass them all. 

(9/10) For the crypto enthusiasts: E-voucher (if allowed to) can enable ERC-20 like tokens on India's TradFi stack.

Startups/orgs can create their own vouchers, allow consumers to buy/sell from the UPI app of choice. Redemption could happen on self/partner merchants.

(10/10) A lot depends on the product experience, operating guidelines, commercials established by NPCI. I am sure they will do a good job.

E-vouchers will be very big in the next 10 years🍾

Many Congratulations to @NPCI_NPCI @dilipasbe @Product_nation @sharads @dimplejain07  and other individuals who've brought this to life. 

Can't wait to hear the official announcements soon.