About
About Priya
In 2015, I co-founded ZestMoney. ZestMoney is a Fintech
company focussing on the consumer lending market in India.
ZestMoney provides checkout financing (online and offline) via
partnerships with retailers and banks and NBFCs.
Prior to ZestMoney, I focussed on new market development for
Wonga, one of UK's largest fintechs. I have also worked in
investment banking, management and technology consulting.
I was recognised among India’s top 100 women in Finance by the
Association of International Wealth Management in India.
I am MBA from London Business School and an engineer from
IIT-Varanasi
About ZestMoney
A better life is for everyone. And ZestMoney helps make it
accessible for millions to upgrade, to enhance, to rise, while
keeping it affordable.
Buying with Zest gives you the freedom to shop right now and
repay in either 3 or more EMIs. You get to pick what works
best for you.
With a quick 3-step approval process Zest is accepted at over
10,000 online & 75,000...
offline stores.
The app has over 16,500 5-star ratings, and an average 4.7
rating on the Playstore.
Founded in 2015 by fintech professionals Priya Sharma,
Lizzie Chapman and Ashish Anantharaman, Zest is backed by
global digital financial services investors including PayU,
Ribbit Capital and Omidyar Network.
more
Show Notes
Show Notes
Priya shares her journey from being an engineer to becoming a
founder and the challenges she faced along the way. She
discusses the importance of partnerships and the role of
risk-based pricing in the lending industry. Priya also talks
about the evolution of ZestMoney's product and strategy, and
how they stayed focused amidst various opportunities. She
emphasizes the need to remain true to the company's vision and
make decisions quickly. Priya also shares her approach to the
CFO and COO roles and the importance of creating and growing
functional departments. In this part of the conversation,
Priya discusses the roles and responsibilities of a CEO and
CFO, the importance of hiring for roles and evaluating
functions, balancing short-term fires and long-term vision,
maintaining and evolving company culture, advice for founding
a startup, key successes and lessons learned at ZestMoney,
crucial lessons for fintech startups, diversity and inclusion
at Zest Money, making tough decisions in challenging times,
and what motivates Priya to keep going.
Quotes
Quotes
“Finance is all about allocation of money.”
“Fire fighting is part of the game.”
“Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.”
“If I look at Zest, then obviously we had the idea and we had
the concept and we were the initial sort of seed behind it,
but then whatever it became later on and a lot of the success,
it was a team effort.”
“Investment banking… it's a different mindset. And I just
thought that being on the company side would be more
creative.”
“I had so much conviction on it… that was the biggest pull
that then trumped every pros and cons list and everything… I
couldn't get rid of that concept in my head.”
“The difference between developed markets and developing
markets is that developed markets are more efficient at
allocation of money and developing markets are less efficient
at allocation of money.”
“As a founder... keep the decision making fast. Don't dwell on
it too much, or say yes or no quickly.”
“Everything sort of lags behind always a little bit in
startups. I don't think anyone can say that, they're
completely ready for the growth and the challenges that are
going to come up.”
“Culture is always an evolving thing. And it's actually
something you can't really ...
control.”
“Ultimately culture has to be in line with your business
objectives.”
“It's a marathon and a sprint at the same time. So pace
yourself and keep your strength and keep your own cool and
calm first. I would say that to me personally.”
“We've kind of been giving away a lot of our technology and
our product for free and we need to be able to start getting
into that mindset of capturing value.”
“As a founder, you believe so much in your vision and
mission and you live it and you become it and you're own
life and your purpose is defined by it.”
more
Lightening Round
Lightening Round
Sweet or Savory
Sweet 
Books or Podcasts
Podcasts 
Thinker or Doer
Thinker 
Introvert or Extrovert
Both
Guilty Pressure
Chocolate
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How does someone can impress you?
Intellectual
If not a CFO, what would you be?
CEO
Ideal place to retire
Goa
#1 items on your bucket list
Signup for Everest base camp trip
What can make you 10x more productive?
Switching Off Mobile
