Ten years ago, the CEO of Share.Market by PhonePe stepped into the fintech space feeling deeply vulnerable, unsure whether the mission he had set out on would ever succeed. But one thing was clear from the very beginning: the goal was worth chasing. That conviction became the foundation for everything that followed.
What started as WealthDesk gradually expanded into a full ecosystem of financial technology products. Piece by piece, he and his team built three interconnected platforms, WealthDesk, OpenQ, and Share.Market at PhonePe, each designed with a single purpose: to bring intelligence into retail broking and fundamentally reshape how everyday Indians participate in capital markets.
Building When the Odds Were Against It
Casting his mind back to 2016, the CEO recalls a time when discount broking was growing rapidly, yet the road ahead seemed unclear and full of obstacles. His team chose to push forward regardless, taking on challenges that others in the industry were unwilling to touch.
WealthDesk brought model portfolios, known as WealthBaskets, directly into the hands of retail investors, making it easier for ordinary people to invest in a structured and informed way. OpenQ took quantitative research, which had long been reserved for institutional players, and made it accessible and practical for everyday investors.
Then came Share.Market by PhonePe. The CEO describes this as the most transformative chapter of his professional journey, the hardest mile and the most epic win, a platform that brought the vision to a massive scale and introduced millions of users to a smarter way of investing.
From Bootstrapped Dreams to Acquisition
The journey was far from smooth. The Share.Market CEO openly describes the path as one filled with bootstrapped beginnings, difficult funding rounds, and pivots that felt terrifying in the moment. The eventual acquisition and integration into the PhonePe ecosystem was a defining milestone, though he does not shy away from calling the entire experience brutal in its demands.
Yet despite the intensity, he says it was fulfilling beyond words and rewarding in ways that are difficult to measure. So much so that he says he would willingly go through the same experience ten times over.
Throughout this journey, he credits the people around him, colleagues past and present, investors, and industry allies. He specifically mentions Sameer, Rahul, and the wider PhonePe team as the ones who truly carried the story forward. In his view, they were not just contributors but the actual story itself.
With a decade of work now behind him, the Share.Market CEO is not stepping away from the industry. He is framing this moment not as a farewell but as a relaunch.
He points to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence as a defining force reshaping every major industry today, and argues that capital markets and wealth management are no exception. He believes this moment represents one of the biggest opportunities yet for anyone bold enough to seize it.
The CEO says he is entering this next phase with more clarity, more boldness, and more drive than at any previous point in his career. The challenges he intends to take on in Chapter Two, he notes, are even larger than those he tackled in the first decade.
Source: LinkedIn post by the CEO of Share.Market by PhonePe
