Billdesk’s MN Srinivasu on building quietly and sustainably

Billdesk does not have a CEO.
Instead, it just has three co-founders: MN Srinivasu, Ajay Kaushal and Karthik Ganapathy. And they don’t have separate designations.
In fact, Billdesk has no formal hierarchies or designations. People are hired as members of a team. That’s it.
The three co-founders continue to work from a single desk in the same room 23 years after they started the company.
For a 23-year-old organisation that handles over $150 billion in payments, Billdesk is surprisingly lean at just over 800 employees. And that's not the only thing contrarian about it. It has been profitable for over a decade and a half now. 
When I asked Vasu—that’s how others usually address Srinivasu—how old he was, his answer was, “Billdesk is 23, I am 55.”
Welcome to the 25th episode of First Principles. For this episode, I threw in many new questions based on the subscriber feedback I’d been receiving. What often keeps founders going is the urge to prove something. What is it for Vasu? How has his view of a leadership team evolved? How does he prefer to be “managed upward” by his reportees How has what excites or challenges him changed Managing people isn’t what founders have in when they start out. And yet, it is the most important thing that determines their success. How has Vasu’s managing style or philosophy evolved since he started Billdesk in 2000? Over the entire conversation, we also talk about: Why Billdesk doesn’t handle person-to-person payments, for instance, via UPI. How the three co-founders hired and coached their first 100 employees Why Billdesk does not incentivise chasing glory metrics Why the three co-founders continue to work from a single table even today Stay on and keep listening for another wonderful conversation around leadership, long-term thinking and perspective.
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