Unfiltered Talks with Paytm Founder | Vijay Shekhar Sharma

In this episode, recorded at Product Unconference 2025, Sandeep Jethwani sits down with Vijay Shekhar Sharma to unpack how founders stay relevant across multiple technology cycles.

Vijay explains how technology evolves in waves — from chips to PCs, operating systems to applications, mobile to cloud, data to AI and now agents. Every wave creates winners, and every winner eventually becomes the foundation for the next. Romanticising past success, he says, is the fastest way for companies to lose relevance.

The conversation traces Paytm’s repeated reinventions, from payments to devices and now towards AI-led workflows. Vijay shares why pivots are rarely sudden decisions, how founders shift the centre of gravity of organisations over time, and why not everyone moves together during change.

A key part of the discussion focuses on AI for small merchants. Building on the Soundbox that transformed digital payments, Vijay outlines a vision where AI becomes a thinking partner for kirana stores — helping them decide what sells, what doesn’t, when to stock up, when to push offers, and even when to advertise.

Not AI for demos or dashboards, but AI for everyday business judgement. The episode also touches on leadership inside public companies, ESOP wealth creation, governance, and the parts of the journey that continue to weigh on founders even after scale and success. This is a candid, first-principles conversation on relevance, reinvention, and betting on the next wave, straight from the stage at Product Unconference 2025.

Timestamps:

[00:00] – Intro & Teaser
[00:44] – Bangalore: From IT Capital to Product Capital
[01:48] – 25 Years of Paytm (One97 Communications)
[02:41] – Shifting Orbits -- From VAS to Soundbox to AI
[03:00] – The "Chief Relevance Officer" Mindset
[03:50] – The Theory of Tech Waves (Chips, Cloud, AI)
[06:11] – How to Pivot a Large Company -- The "Center of Gravity"
[07:33] – Vijay on Ignoring the Noise: Being an "Inside-Out" Founder
[09:05] – The 1/3rd Model -- How to Align Teams
[11:25] – How to hire a Product Leader?
[14:28] – The Rap Song & Video Earnings Call Story
[17:04] – AI Vision -- A "CMO" Agent for Small Merchants
[21:36] – How AI Changes UI Design?
[23:50] – JTBD & Thinking about a Product
[28:30] – Does Money Buy Satisfaction?
[30:07] – The ESOP Story -- Creating 100 Billionaires
[35:47] – "The Millionaire Employee" Book
[36:49] – AI Regulations -- The Autopilot Analogy
[39:13] – Book Launch & Conclusion


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