Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an Entrepreneur
I am Deepak Dabhi, co-founder and CEO at PayKun Payments Solution. I am a part of this amazing product for two and a half years now.
We have been providing PCI secure online payment gateway solutions to domestic and international Indian businesses. They can accept online payments with multiple payment mode options with or without a website or app.
I have been living my dream as an entrepreneur and the college dream of owning a successful business. This journey has been more of an adventure involving a lot of risks. At every step, the next level demands a better you, and more than reaching a destination, enjoying the journey is more important – whether it is rough or smooth.
When you get the accomplishments for the hard-work done, all the struggles seem fruitful. The path involves learning, development, and improvising according to the demand of time and situation. With the goals of short term and long term before our eyes, we work on them and achieve them.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate Career?
When I was doing my diploma, it was very clear in my mind that I am going to start my business and won’t be pursuing a job. So, after our respective graduations we five PayKun founders – I, Nikunj Yadav, Vijay Yadav, Prashant Kambad, and Nirav Solanki – had started with a freelancing business. In fact, that business gave us an idea to develop the PayKun Payment Gateway.
We tried to get the payment gateway activation to accept the online payments from our clients and customers for that business. But, we could not get it as it was a startup.
So we decided to build a payment gateway of our own. And the idea of PayKun was born.
Our main goal was to simplify the payments for startups and SMEs. Today, it has been a solution for businesses of all sizes to accept online payments.
So, we came together with different skills and the same mindset that we will succeed. Well, none of us were having intentions of doing a 9 to 5 job because entrepreneurship gives more flexibility of time, freedom of work, and opportunities to pave a path of our own. We can experiment and explore in our own place but that is not always possible in a job.
With good things, it also has difficulties but I was ready for both because I had that confidence that the eventual results would be all worth it. That is why I call it an adventure.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges?
For me, the pressure and challenges are the chance to learn something new. My efforts would be to take it easy and do not take any stress. I would put all my energy to solve the problem at hand instead of wasting my focus on worrying about it.
Learning from that challenge is important, so I think in this way that it is all these challenges and hard work that has brought PayKun to where it is.
How did you come up with the name for your business/startup?
Our company’s name is PayKun. It is a combination of two words. ‘Pay’ means to make the payment and ‘-Kun’ is an Arabic word meaning ‘being’. And we meant it as – there is an easy payment gateway now in existence.
What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
There were many difficulties at the time of inception because all of us were new in the Fintech area. We had to do a lot of research and learn many new things. RBI authorization, server setups, legal requirements, technical development, banking, and security compliances, staffing, etc, all areas demanded a lot of effort.
It was a bit more challenging as we have developed PayKun in tier-3 city. Since then, we have come a long way. We do face issues today but it has become easier due to the learnings and experience.
What keeps you going?
It is my belief and my positive nature that keep me boosted. ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ is the motto of my life.
Other important traits are patience, hard work, dedication, and persistence. As per me if I believe it is possible.
Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
Developing a payment gateway in a tier-3 city is itself the biggest achievement. Our main target was to give ease of access and we have made this possible. Today, PayKun is trusted by many merchants.
Another important one was to render the payment gateway services at the lowest charges and we have among the lowest transaction discount rate (TDR) in India. Also, there are no other charges for set up, maintenance, or integration.
How many hours a day do you work on average & can you describe/outline your typical day?
Every day is different and there are no set hours. I work as much as I can but it is important for me to have flexibility so that I can contribute maximum and can do multiple tasks in my own preferred time.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring Entrepreneur?
I will give this message to the aspiring entrepreneur based on my experience that you might find everything difficult and impossible initially but believe me it is not impossible. If you work hard you will be able to achieve it. The important elements are patience, focus, and constant learning. Also, your strength is in building a good team.
