Anish Patil

Most answers are often hidden in data - from validating product-market fit to understanding customer satisfaction and evaluating segment profitability.

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Defining and tracking the right metrics and focusing the organization on a few "North Stars" drives clarity in business goals while building a strong culture. This could mean emphasizing credit/risk focus in lending or a custodian of capital mindset in wealth management.

Successful fintech companies consistently demonstrate:

• Founders and teams with through-cycle experience in financial services - strong founder market-fit
• Nuanced offerings with clear differentiated experiences for their user segments
• Operational rigor and tight cost controls - essential for building successful financial services in India
• Regulatory compliance from day one - no shortcuts
• Deep investments in finance, control systems, data protection, and analytics

Define your customer segment clearly and offer a differentiated product experience.

This could mean providing access to previously unavailable products or services at affordable prices. Building such a product with sharp go-to-market execution solves the two most critical challenges in today's market, especially as financial services penetration and competitive intensity increase.

Focus on regulatory compliance from day one by:

• Investing in relevant licenses
• Bringing on a compliance officer early
• Establishing strong finance, accounting, and controls functions
• Prioritizing data protection and customer trust

Wealth-tech, Insurtech, Fintech-infrastructure, and lending present exciting opportunities. The next growth wave will be powered by "Emergent India" - the next 30-40 cities, 30-40M users seeking experiences currently available only to Tier 1/Metro audiences. 

We'll see massive uptick in discretionary financial services as India moves from $3000 per capita to $8-10k per capita in GDP.

Ratan Tata, for the Tata Group's philosophy of doing "good business the right way" and his personal approach of "taking decisions and then making them right."

Book: "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" Podcast: All-In Podcast