Fintech execs get candid about early strategies

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“When I am in the zone, I see only the bowler and the ball and nothing else.”

That’s what international cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar said in an interview well over a decade ago.

In my mind, this quote often plays out like a movie: the crowd of screaming fans, anxious coaches all blur away as Tendulkar readies to hit another sixer.

I presume it’d be the same for the likes of Roger Federer – I have to confess that all the videos of teary-eyed fans and sobbing rivals circulating in the aftermath of Federer’s retirement have left me thinking. Lessons from the sports world are so replicable outside of stadiums and grass and clay courts.

Take for example what 2C2P’s Aung Kyaw Moe said in Tech in Asia’s recently concluded conference: he never saw himself as a founder or a CEO. Instead, he always thought that his job was to fix customer problems. That’s his ball to hit as a tech founder.

Today we look at:

• Strategies and insights from fintech executives that have shaped their firms
• How ShopBack channeled the power of its network
• Other newsy highlights such as Grab saying no to layoffs and a cloud kitchen startup from the Philippines bagging US$7 million.

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Straight talk

Image credit: Timmy Loen

At a session during the Tech in Asia Conference, Tessa Wijaya, co-founder and COO of Indonesia-based payment gateway Xendit, talked about how the firm’s first international client came “from a friend of a friend of a friend.” One has to be shameless, and that’s OK, she said.

Wijaya was one of three speakers at the session, talking about her experiences alongside 2C2P CEO Aung Kyaw Moe and YouTrip co-founder Caecilia Chu.

• Destination matters: “Whether we can get a billion dollars from one merchant or getting a billion dollars from 10,000 merchants doesn’t matter to us. We’ll look at how we can get a larger and larger TPV (total payment volume),” Moe said at the conference.

Keep your family close

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