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September 30, 2022
What started as a simple idea that two friends discussed over a drink has shaped into a high-growth fintech start-up operating successfully in the challenging South East Asia market today. PowerCred has been built on the foundation of a simple idea driven by the passion and entrepreneurial spirit of its co-founders and a team that truly believes in the potential of the idea. A highly skilled team with passion and dedication towards Building PowerCred has been crucial to PowerCred’s consistent growth.
As a part of our ‘Building PowerCred’ series, we got Ankita Sharma, a founding member of the product team at PowerCred, to share the story of her journey so far of building a product in line with PowerCred’s mission that she truly believes in- promoting financial inclusion of small businesses in Southeast Asia.
I joined PowerCred in April 2022 with over 6 years of previous experience of having worked in the fintech and digital lending space. My interest in this challenging space first got me interested in PowerCred. As I learnt more about the problem that PowerCred was aiming to solve with alternate data, the problem being the lack of visibility and adequate access to credit for small businesses in the Southeast Asia market, I got more interested in coming onboard. Looking at the product we’ve built so far and the enthusiasm of the team that is making a mark in the market in such a short span of time, I am happy I decided to join PowerCred.
With my domain knowledge and previous experience as a product person, I build tech and the product for PowerCred to help financial service providers unlock the power of alternate data of small businesses. I leverage my previous experience of having worked with teams to build a great product as my contribution towards building PowerCred.
Considering the fact that PowerCred is a fast-growing startup, there are definitely more responsibilities in terms of managing a team and building a flawless product. There is also a lot of involvement in the decision-making with respect to the product and other macro-level decisions as a founding member of the team.
During the initial days of any startup, an individual’s role is never restricted to fixed job responsibilities or areas of expertise. Similarly, my role and responsibilities have extended beyond just building the product and features on it. I also manage a team, ensure customer success and support sales wherever they need support from tech.
Working at a fast-growing startup, each day brings with it new challenges that form a part of the journey of building something new from scratch. Right from hiring the right talent to getting new partners on board, every little step in the process is crucial to shape our foundation. As someone who hasn’t been a part of building a company from scratch before, the whole process is new and challenging for me but it’s an absolute delight to be learning and growing each day.
I follow a few tech and industry blogs to stay informed and updated. When the time permits, I like to upskill with courses relevant to my field of work. Also, to stay updated about the ecosystem that we operate in, I do competitor benchmarking and read up on LinkedIn.
The people of PowerCred and the space and flexibility to build the product and other tech for PowerCred. I also love to connect with my team on calls where we collaborate and I am able to gain a better understanding of their concerns that I can address and boost their confidence.
I would like to see PowerCred become a market leader in the alternate data space in Southeast Asia.
Have questions about our product or interested to know more about the tech we are building? Ankita would love to answer your queries and tell you more about what’s being built by the product team at PowerCred. You can write to her at ankita@powercred.io or connect with her on LinkedIn.
PowerCred aims to promote financial inclusion in South East Asia by helping financial service providers leverage small business alternate data to build better financial products for their customers. If this interests you, you can get in touch with our team or simply book a demo to know more.
