How I Discovered the Blueprint to Build a Fintech Ecosystem

Organisations can be envisioned as ant colonies. Picture a small ant colony, initially simple with ants performing basic tasks. As the colony expands, its complexity mirrors a sophisticated ecosystem. This parallels the journey of fintech businesses starting with a basic product, like Zaggle’s Expense Management SaaS. As they grow, their organisational needs evolve, intertwining with larger market systems and demanding more complex decisions from their leaders, not just to survive but to thrive in a competitive landscape. This article reflects on my evolution as a leader at Zaggle, highlighting how my perspective on leadership and decision-making transformed as the company matured.

The flip side of blitz-scaling

Joining Zaggle, a now-listed B2B Fintech entity, as the Head of Sales for its flagship B2B SaaS product - the Expense Management System, I embarked on a mission to blitz-scale the sales engine. Within six months, our revenues increased twentyfold, leading to my promotion as the Business Head, overseeing the entire P&L. It was a moment of validation for me personally. This role, however, presented new challenges. Previously focused on sales, I now faced issues in delivery, customer success, product development, QA, and engineering.

The business’s rapid growth led to various glitches. While as head of sales I was used to leveraging the enterprise sales teams to close large accounts, digital sales teams to close SME accounts and the marketing and call-center pre-sales team in getting in leads through the sales funnel. The overarching tasks were very sales and execution oriented. Addressing these new challenges required a deep dive into each function, shifting focus from sales to holistic business management. I would have to redefine the way I looked at business, even if it meant removing the pedal from the sales pedometer. Like an ant colony experiencing unrestrained growth, our lack of organisation was affecting quality. We faced product bugs, customer issues, and competitive threats. It became clear that a product business is akin to a multi-organ organism; all parts must function in harmony. I prioritised problem solving and worked diligently with subject matter experts until the bottleneck in each niche' was resolved.

Rediscovering order amidst chaos

Prioritizing and sequencing efforts was crucial. We first tackled customer onboarding issues, then paused new product features to focus on QA and bug fixes, significantly reducing complaints from our large enterprise customers. Direct interaction with customers and the introduction of technical consultants helped implement best practices across the teams.

Thankfully, the operations function was able to scale with our client funnel without breaking and so no attention was required there. Institutionalising best practices in engineering teams, however, was the toughest and most important priority with cascading positive impact across the board. For instance, we prioritising Web over App sprints, fixed the release cycle cadence and automated QA testing via APIs and Zephyr (JIRA plugin).

Making pre-emptive moves

Regular brainstorming with senior leaders provided perspective. I realised that mere problem-solving wasn’t enough; we needed to anticipate and preempt issues for sustained growth. This realisation led to strategic investments in systems and processes, like enhanced CRM and ERP tools, and exploration of inorganic growth through M&As.

Though I had transitioned from a sales head to a business head with an all-hands-on-deck approach by balancing priorities across functions, I still found this approach inadequate. Within a few months I had hit another glass ceiling. To effectively keep growing, mere execution of problem-solving templates wouldn't do. Strategic decision-making now became paramount.

It all boiled down to decision-making

I had two choices to pursue future growth. One way was to go for vertical growth avenues like getting an NBFC license or acquiring a processor business. The other was to narrow our focus to our existing customers and go for horizontal integration and growth, which meant building capabilities like Account receivables, account payables and spend management into our product. The vertical growth route entailed considerable regulatory oversight and monetary investment. The horizontal growth route meant committing to months of product development efforts and going head on with industry giants operating in that space. Though there is always a lot of number-crunching and analysis before taking any decision, but before the final decision, every leader has to rely on their gut to some extent, and that is also what I did.

A mature colony in the animal world creates its own ecosystem, influencing other species and natural systems. Similarly, Zaggle built an ecosystem with our product suite, integrating Banks, NBFCs, Enterprises, individual users, and merchants. But ecosystems are notoriously infamous for being fragile. And so the continuous adaptation to the ever-evolving environment is a pre-requisite for future survival. This lesson from my time at Zaggle remains integral to my decision-making approach today.