S4 E1: Blume Podcast | Razorpay: The Story Before the Billions
Dear Reader,
Picture this: It is 2014. You're trying to help small Indian businesses accept online payments. Then you realize getting a payment gateway approval is harder than getting a loan. And you've just been rejected by your 100th bank. Sounds like a dead end, right? Well, that's exactly where Razorpay's journey to becoming a $7.5 billion company began.
In the first episode of Season 4 of the Blume podcast, Karthik Reddy, co-founder and Partner at Blume, spoke to co-founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, on their incredible journey of building India's leading fintech platform.
While you may have heard countless stories about Razorpay's meteoric rise, this episode takes a different path. Instead of discussing business metrics or IPO plans, we delve into the raw, human story behind India's fintech giant - before it became a $7.5B juggernaut. From late-night crisis management to pivotal early decisions, Harshil and Shashank open up about their journey's origins and what drove two engineers to take on India's complex financial system.
The full episode is now available on your favorite podcasting app (links at the end), but we wanted to share our favorite highlights from the conversation.
Early Tinkerers
Before becoming fintech pioneers, Harshil and Shashank were two tech enthusiasts at IIT Roorkee who found each other through their love for practical coding. While their college curriculum focused on theory, they created SDS Labs - a coding group that still inspires students.
"We used to spend our evenings writing code, doing practical applications... That's how we got connected," recalls Harshil.
Banking on Persistence
Getting banking approvals proved to be their first major hurdle. As Harshil humorously notes, "I went to an HDFC branch next to my home and said, 'Hey, I want to start a payment gateway.' The guy looked at me and said, 'Do you want a payment gateway?' I said, 'No, I want to start a payment gateway.'"
In Patna, Shashank encountered branch managers who hadn't even heard of payment gateways. In the conversation, Shashank recalls how they graduated from t-shirts to shirts to full suits for bank meetings.
The persistence finally paid off when they found a relatively young bank executive who understood their vision. But even then, there was a catch - a security deposit of ₹25 lakhs. It was Shashank's grandfather who came through with property sale money, becoming their first angel investor in a way that perfectly captures the Indian entrepreneurial story.
First Indian Fintech in YC
Their Y Combinator selection was serendipitious - they had "zero expectations" of getting in. But their simple yet powerful proposition caught YC's attention: making digital payments accessible to everyone in India, especially small businesses who were being underserved by existing players.
YC transformed not just their company, but their mindset. Being among founders aiming for 10-100x growth made ambitious thinking feel natural. The program's singular focus - "just build product and talk to customers" - stripped away all distractions and set the foundation for Razorpay's future scale.
Making Payments Beautiful
Perhaps most interesting is their approach to product design. Coming from engineering backgrounds, they built Razorpay's interface differently from traditional payment gateways:
"Unlike everything else, people want to minimize the time they're spending on payments. We started putting Razorpay's branding front and center, focused a lot on how this looks, how this feels, how do we give that user comfort," explains Harshil.
The Power of Customer Service
Their commitment to customer service is legendary. Even today, Harshil personally monitors customer complaints on social media, often flagging issues to his team before they spot them. As he puts it, "In B2B, servicing is the key, a lot of our sales is always through word of mouth."
This customer-first DNA was forged in crisis. Early in their journey, when a payment gateway reseller suddenly pulled the plug, leaving all their customers stranded, the five-member team made a critical decision. They would personally call every affected customer, no matter how angry. "There were customers who literally abused us on phone, massively," recalls Harshil. But they kept picking up calls, explaining the situation, and finding solutions. Some of those same customers still use Razorpay today.
To hear the full conversation and many more fascinating details about Razorpay's journey, tune into the latest Blume podcast episode on:
YouTube:
Spotify:
Apple Podcasts:
You can also read the transcript here.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What aspect of Razorpay's journey resonated most with you? Let us know.
To know more about this season’s theme, Destiny Avenged, watch Karthik Reddy, co-founder and Partner, Blume Ventures deconstruct why this theme and why now.
Regards,
Team Blume