Hey folks! Gautam Marwah this side. While you all know me as the friendly neighborhood podcast host who sits with India's rising Startup founders, I have a day job too. I'm a Product Manager at Pine Labs, an Indian merchant platform unicorn (US$ 3.5 billion valuation) that provides payments technology in the offline space.
But let me be more specific. I'm a Product Manager at Plural, an early-stage startup inside this US$3.5 billion behemoth that focuses on the online world.
Pine Labs reminds you of those white card-dipping machines you can easily identify at your local kirana stores. This might probably be the first time you're hearing that Pine Labs operates in the online space. Online is a brand new territory for Pine Labs. You're probably impressed by my grit and determination to join the newest product offering of an established business (to be honest it wasn't my choice, my super-manager assigned me to this vertical).
I might sound cynical right now, but that isn't a correct reflection of how I feel. I have loved every minute of every day working at this job. Sure, there have been days when I have been frustrated, cursed my co-workers, cursed myself for my mistakes, and a lot many more emotions, but I can still confidently say that I have loved every day of this job (in a quick retrospect I take back the "every minute" from my statement).
A primary reason why I love my job so much is that I have had the opportunity to work with some of the smartest minds in the fintech industry of India towards a single goal: launching Plural, today. You can probably understand why this email is so emotional and different from our regular schedule. I felt a lot of things today:
goosebumps (when I saw the launch video announcing Plural),
sleeplessness (thanks to a call at 8:00 AM from my manager pointing out a mistake I made that needed to be fixed before the launch event at 11:00 AM),
excitement (when I saw myself talking about the product during the stream of the launch event {yes, I haven’t really outgrown my nerd phase, I will always continue wearing Star Wars t-shirts to important events}),
a rush of adrenaline when I saw the Plural event ending,
….and a lot more.
They say a Product Manager's greatest tool is documentation. While this entire post might just feel like a random rant, I do consider myself an adequate PM. I'm just truly at a loss for words for today.
So that's enough from me. For your questions -
What is Plural exactly?
Why are people calling it the online payments infrastructure of the future (okay sure, only Pine Labs marketing folks are doing that so far but it really is true)?
Where can I learn more about Plural?
Here’s Plural.
And here’s the video that gave me the aforementioned goosebumps.
Arigato! We'll be back with a brand-new podcast episode next month. Happy Dussehra (and the resulting long weekend).
Also, it’s still day-0 here. We have a lot of job openings. Apply.
We all appreciate you for showing the level of determination and sitting out with us for resolving the issues at the earliest.
A big congratulations for whole Plural team.
P.S.- Loved your T-shirt man 😁