E88: Ketan Patel (CEO, Mswipe Technologies)

The Desi VC: Indian Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startups | VC

Ketan Patel is the Chief Executive Officer of Mswipe. Founded in 2011, Mswipe has gone on to become the leading digital payments and financial solutions company supporting the growing merchant community across India.

Ketan joined Mswipe in 2021 after 18 years at Kotak where he oversaw management, business development, operations and the use of emerging technologies to disrupt the finance industry. During his time at Kotak, he has headed key verticals including Private Banking, Composite Business Solutions and E-commerce. In his latter years at Kotak, he became a startup specialist helping build 4 businesses from scratch for the bank, one of which being CASHe, a credit-enabled financial technology platform that offers a wide range of consumer lending products and services, which he helped transition from a startup to a profitable and future-ready business.

Ketan is a well-known industry veteran in the world of finance and has been recognized for his work many times over his career, including receiving The Economic Times' Young Entrepreneurs Award in 2020.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. What inspired Ketan to pursue a career as an entrepreneur? (4:56)

2. What has Ketan learned about himself as a result of his entrepreneurial journey? (7:01)

3. What is Ketan's perspective on the role of a CEO? (10:03)

4. Managing stakeholders as a business grows (12:35)

5. Why is self-awareness as a leader critical to success? (17:10)

6. Looking back on Mswipe's early days (19:44)

7. Scaling organizational culture and principles (23:35)

8. Long-term value implementation lessons (29:40)

9. Decision-making framework for leaders (36:50)

10. Dealing with adversity as a CEO (41:06)

11. Words of wisdom for his younger self (46:02)

12. What is Ketan's vision for Mswipe? (55:56)

13. What would the next chapter of Ketan's life look like? (58:48)

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Mswipe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mswipe

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