They say the older you get, birthdays have a sobering effect, making you more introspective and contemplative. At six years young, CoinSwitch has a few years to go before we reach this point, but this month, I’ve been thinking about what makes us uniquely, undeniably, us.
The idea of CoinSwitch was born at a hackathon, when our founders Ashish, Vimal and Govind were jostling for a way to make crypto investing more accessible to everyone. The lifelong friends identified a significant industry-wide gap—the absence of a simple solution for buying and selling crypto. What followed is the story of how CoinSwitch came to be, as these friends turned founders, and how they turned their vision into a reality. That’s a story you may already know.
The more I think about it, this particular moment in our history laid the groundwork for CoinSwitch’s culture, which evolves and grows through each of our employees everyday. The passion to solve user problems through technology, to build at scale, and keep iterating helped us grow to 1 million users within 6 months of the launch of our mobile app!
This drive to innovate and make a dent in the universe kept us focussed on what mattered the most, even as we switched-on the propellants. And it continues to inspire and motivate us through the cyclical markets—bull or bear.
We have come a long way. Today, we are 500-plus strong, building in crypto and beyond—multiple pods, multiple products, shared values—for a user base of 19 million and counting. While each and every one of us understands and absorbs the CoinSwitch way, we knew it was time to put our values down to words…to frame a mental model for the team and those who’ll join us going forward.
Before I leapfrog into that story, there’s another character you know should about. Well, less a character, and more a 5-word phrase everyone at CoinSwitch knows by heart.
Make Money Equal For All
These words capture why we do what we do. They inspire us to strive for greatness with everything we build, from products that make buying crypto as easy as ordering food online, to the world-class wealth tech destination we’re building for India. They are the fuel behind all our decisions.
We are championing the movement to demystify and simplify financial products for everyone in India. And we mean EVERYONE. No matter their background, where they live, their bank balance or their knowledge of investments. All Indians deserve the same opportunities for wealth creation.
With a razor sharp vision statement in place, articulating the principles that support its realization became all the simpler. We gathered inputs from across the organization. Ways of making this vision a reality. Of course, words like ‘Inspiration’, ‘Best’, ‘Think Big’ and more came up. But there were others we found just as interesting. Like ‘Challenge’, ‘Disagree’, ‘Innovate’, ‘Heart’, and ‘Together’. At the end of the research phase, we identified a few key themes: customer obsession, data-driven decision making, prioritizing innovation and more. Our internal creative teams helped fashion these into memorable values that are peculiar to just us.
Drumroll…
So without further ado, here they are. CoinSwitch’s own company values. I’ve often heard people say that working at CoinSwitch is an emotion that words cannot describe. I couldn’t agree more. We’ve attempted to capture a glimpse of that essence in our values, to cultivate a mindset that we can imbue into our daily work. I believe the strength of our company culture can be found in a value system that will lead us to a future of growth and accomplishment.
Crazy About Customers
Our goal is to ensure our users’ experience is the best possible, every day. Their problems are ours too. In fact, we take it personally and go the extra mile to solve them.
Let’s just say, ‘obsession’ was a tad too tame. We’ll bend backwards to win our user’s trust and build a world-class platform that helps them grow their wealth and diversify their investments. Every decision we make is intended to improve their experience.
Where Logic Meets Magic
We’re dreamers but we also like to stay grounded. Data & analytics are the bedrock of our decision-making, with a dash of CoinSwitch awesome sauce.
Contrary to popular belief, the best storytellers understand numbers. Because the data can tell stories that help make critical decisions and understand our users’ needs better. Of course, we like to add our right-brain magic to make the story even more compelling.
Lights, Camera, Bias for Action!
We’re thoughtful and deliberate about what we do. But we have a strong bias for action. We lead by example, with more than just words.
Business moves fast. And so must we. We believe in taking calculated risks and the power of speedy decision making. Anticipating potential bottlenecks and prioritizing aggressively help us move at a lightning fast pace.
No Hate, Just Innovate
We like to keep things positive while we work on changing the world with path-breaking ideas. We come with diverse stories but everyone has a place here.
I’ve observed first-hand how innovation thrives in a nurturing environment. If something has ‘never been done before’, we’ll make that our starting point. We make room for all ideas, backgrounds, perspectives and people.
Stand up For Your Beliefs
We speak up and disagree with respect when we mean it. We own what we commit to and drive it to larger organizational goals.
I believe great teams can take feedback and give it just as well. It takes courage to challenge authority and maturity to not take things personally.
Together, We Scale
We treat each other with love and empathy. We’re a team of dedicated, passionate people, bound by a common goal, who thrive on collaboration. Our progress is only real when shared.
This is my favorite of all the values. CoinSwitch brings together some of the brightest minds in the country. Each of us is capable of excellence; and when we combine our forces, we can build the extraordinary.
These values represent our best. They’re not commandments, but serve us with a framework to do what we do best: Build the ultimate investing destination for our users. As we grow and transform into a one-stop wealth-tech destination, we’ll learn, evolve, and adapt, just like our values.
