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At Cashfree Payments, we foster an inclusive culture where everyone thrives. Our secret? A culture that’s as welcoming as it is innovative, where meritocracy isn’t just a jargon but a way of life. That’s the essence at Cashfree Payments, where we’re all about creating equal opportunities for everyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from.
What matters is the impact they create.
Speaking of impact, this International Women’s Day we are kickstarting our series celebrating women around us at Cashfree Payments. In this premiere of our series Women of Fintech, we sat down with three outstanding Cashiens in influential roles for an insightful discussion about work, #LifeAtCashfree and more.
Read on for their stories illuminating the warmth and inclusivity that defines our culture.
Collaborating with bright minds
When asked about her career shift from being an iOS Developer to becoming a Senior Technical Program Manager at Cashfree Payments, Ishani Dhiman exuberantly replies – “I was driven by my fascination with bringing order to chaos!”
Ishani has been at Cashfree Payments since 2022 and has witnessed the company grow and evolve into a Licensed entity. Sharing about how she navigates her role, she says – “As an integral part of Cashfree Payments, a fintech entity, my role holds paramount significance. Within the company, I seize the opportunity to collaborate with the tech teams, risk and compliance experts, and legal professionals. This collaboration is pivotal to ensure that we deliver cutting-edge technology within the dynamic pace of our environment. This empowers us to concurrently uphold compliance regulations and thus safeguard the interests of our users.”
She adds that throughout her tenure at Cashfree Payments, her learning curve has undergone exponential growth. Collaborating with bright minds has afforded her valuable insights into the end-to-end lifecycles, diverse knowledge about various business units, and a profound understanding of the challenges prevalent on a large scale within the Fintech industry.
Ishani recalls her experience while discussing our culture of diversity and inclusion as ‘commendable’! Her experience within the organisation has been exceptionally positive, primarily attributed to the open and unbiased atmosphere that prevails. In her own words – “One notable aspect is the ample opportunities provided to engage in discussions about career growth with senior leaders. I am proud to highlight the presence of numerous women in senior roles within Cashfree, serving as inspirational figures who display remarkable finesse at work.”
With a rich experience and wisdom gathered from over 10+ years of work experience, Ishani believes that Fintech is a perfect place to be at the moment – “Fintech is particularly captivating because India is at the forefront of innovative payment solutions. The intriguing aspect? It’s not a subject covered in standard college courses, making it a unique and valuable area to delve into. Apart from Fintech as a domain, I would advise young professionals to chase excellence and never settle for mediocrity – everything else will follow itself”.
Hailing from a small and joyous village nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, Ishani is also an avid musician apart from her corporate persona.
A problem-solver at heart
Chamma Sarraf, a recent graduate from IIT BHU and now an SDE at Cashfree Payments, reminisces about her journey into the world of tech: “I used to participate in hackathons and coding events at college actively. These experiences ignited my passion for problem-solving and innovation.” As a woman in Fintech, she brings a fresh perspective to our tech team, actively contributing to coding, programming, testing, debugging, and code reviews. She gets excited when it comes to solving complex problems with the magic of code.
Reflecting on her experience as a young Cashien in the engineering team, Chamma expresses, “My time here has been immensely rewarding. The collaborative environment has helped me integrate smoothly into the team, offering numerous opportunities to work on challenging projects, instrumental in my professional growth.” Rightly so, because at Cashfree Payments there’s a strong emphasis on personal development, evident through initiatives like the Tech Knowledge-Sharing Sessions and Individual Development Plan (IDP). Chamma appreciates the encouraging work environment saying, “I am grateful for the enriching experiences and the chance to contribute to meaningful work.”
Discussing her learning journey in the Verification Suite team, Chamma describes how she initially tackled bugs and technical debt, gaining a deep understanding of the codebase’s intricacies. As time progressed, she embraced new challenges, expanding her technical proficiency. Being on-call for critical issues further honed her skills, contributing to a steep learning curve and a fulfilling collaboration with the tech team.
Chamma finds the engineering culture at Cashfree Payments exemplary and unbiased noting, “Here, our leaders prioritize learning and growth, offering ample opportunities and resources. The supportive and collaborative environment fosters mutual learning and makes it easy to ask questions and grow together. It’s a space where everyone feels valued and motivated to excel, regardless of gender or age.”
Growth for all
Gauri Singh, Senior Product Manager at Cashfree Payments, has spent over 7 years in the Fintech Industry, working in start-ups and MNCs. She has built fintech products for mutual funds, lending, digital banking, payments, etc and recorded an immense scope for improvements and innovations. Before this, she was working as a UX designer in a service-based company. Thereafter, she moved into a product role where she built a 0-1 product, defining GTM strategy, and scaling it for large banks, all while tackling challenges, and chaos, and gaining a great deal of learning and knowledge.
Highlighting more on her role here, she says – “As a growth product manager, I focus on solving key problems that drive both short-term and long-term impacts for our internal stakeholders and end users. I keep on top of our sales processes, key problem areas & bottlenecks, objectives and overall metrics.”
Gauri goes on to share some key takeaways from her career as a Product Manager, with us.
- Find the right problem space to solve, no need to solve all the problems
- Build deep knowledge and expertise in the domain, and become a subject matter expert
- Have a clear vision of what needs to be done, and align all the stakeholders accordingly
- Zoom in and zoom out repeatedly during the execution phase to reflect on the above points
Gauri further shares about the green flags she noticed at Cashfree Payments, and why it became an employer of choice for her – “Here, we have women across the organisation in senior roles as well, which ensures diverse perspectives in decision-making. Merit-oriented hiring ensures an unbiased environment. Moreover, I have also noticed and appreciate that everyone gets to have a voice and opinion. It is also our set of values at Cashfree Payments, which help us double down on women’s representation and ample opportunities.”
We also sought some advice from Gauri for young professionals, especially women. Here are some gems she shared:
- Follow a quick learning process with a build-track-repeat formula
- Especially for fintech enthusiasts, it is important to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the market and follow key leaders/ competitors in the industry. Apart from this, data-driven decisions make one confident
- Take calculative risks and persevere as success in this space may come hard with make-or-break situations
- It is always good to find a mentor (preferably an industry expert) who can guide you through. There are also multiple communities and forums for women techies and PMs where you can connect smart minds.
Explore #LifeAtCashfree
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