In our relentless pursuit to identify and share with our community some of the unique and compelling startup stories from the ecosystem, this weekend we invited yet another passionate women entrepreneur Nikhila Sastry, Co-founder of MoneyPlanned, to know more about her startup story. Nikhila is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and passionate Fin-tech evangelist. She cofounded ‘MoneyPlanned’, India’s first holistic, tech-driven financial goal planning Superapp that is radically simplifying personal finances with a world-class UX. Let’s learn more!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Nikhila:
Talk us through your background and your journey as a woman entrepreneur, please;
I am a 24-year old Entrepreneur by choice, Engineer by education, Marketing Enthusiast by passion, and a Certified Investment Advisor by chance.
I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. Although I moved to Bengaluru recently, I must say that I truly identify with this city and its spirit.
Back in school, I showed high proclivity towards maths and science. Hence, engineering seemed to be the most obvious choice and I thoroughly enjoyed pursuing it.
However, my stint as an intern at startups and forums in my college has opened up new doors and helped unleash the natural leader in me. I saw a world of endless possibilities and the spiritual odyssey I was on, instilled in me a deep desire to create a positive impact in the world; a massive and lasting one at that. This desire eventually led to the genesis of my entrepreneurial journey.”
Born to two hard-working bankers, personal finance has been a part and parcel of my life since childhood. Also, my acquaintance with world-renowned coaches and my interest in wealth consciousness further propelled me to read up extensively on Money IQ as well as Money EQ.
I was fascinated by the world of finance but wondered why it was shunned away as a serious or cumbersome activity. I noticed that the realm of personal finances was unnecessarily complicated, fragmented, and extremely boring.
Money touches all aspects of our life. Yet, about 78% of Indians aren’t financially planned. There is a 40% disparity in the Dream Index and Plan Index of Indians. Most Indians dream big but fall very short of it due to lack of effective financial planning. We knew that technology can make such a service available to millions of Indians.
Investments, schemes, deposits, savings, and so on are only “means goals”. We saw that what mattered to people most was their end goals in life; be it experiences or possessions they desired in life.
What if you could open an app, select your dream financial goal, and it helps you achieve it in the best possible way? And the entire experience feels as easy as shopping online or booking a cab. MoneyPlanned was born in 2017 out of a simple vision to build an end-to-end technology platform to simplify financial goals. Helping MoneyPlanned users take charge of their finances fuels me each day to wake up with a renewed sense of energy.”
Recognized by Startup India as an innovative, MoneyPlanned has touched the lives of 3,000+ users so far and we are on a quest to reach 1,00,000 users in the next year. The pandemic has woken the entire world to the importance of financial planning and we have been seeing an increased adoption ever since.
Majority of our customers are urban millennials and I am thrilled to see how they love our app.
What is your long-term vision for MoneyPlanned and how are you planning to expand your service?
MoneyPlanned was born out of a simple vision to bring a Genie into everyone’s lives.
Our long-term vision is to create a robust, end-to-end goal-delivery platform that empowers and inspires our users to take charge of their finances and stay on top of their goals. We want to impact the lives of millions of people and work with the best-in-class, latest advancements of AI and ML technologies to become the biggest brand in the realm of personal finance.
Finance in itself is an incredibly huge space to operate in and we are well on our way to expand our service through meaningful adjacencies.
We are now empowering users to stay on top their finances by planning and tracking their goals effortlessly along with intelligent insights, smart recommendations, and timely reminders to achieve their goals.
Soon, we will be launching new features that will enable transactions through the platform of the best financial products.
We are all set to launch the “MoneyPlanned Academy”, an engaging and fun educational series of content on goal-based planning, investments, and several other engaging topics to improve the Money IQ as well as Money EQ (lesser-known pearl wisdom) of our users.”
By 2023, I am certain that MoneyPlanned will emerge out as the best app for personal finances and a Unicorn.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Honesty, Integrity, Transparency.
These are the three simple values I will always hold steadfast to as an entrepreneur.
My biggest business mantra is to ensure security for our customers. Hence, we have implemented the highest standards of bank-grade security with 256-bit encryption. A user’s data is not accessible to anyone but the user. Yet another is to co-create the product with our users to design experiences that delight them.
Gone are the days when customers settled for what was offered to them. Customers are always looking for a great experience and as an entrepreneur one has to be cognizant of their needs and challenges to provide value and create the best solutions for them. That is how MoneyPlanned evolved into the amazing product that it is today.
We have secured 2nd position world-wide amongst lakhs of websites in a global web design challenge by Wix. Since Day-1 of our journey at MoneyPlanned, we have dreamt of building a world-class product and that achievement was not just another feather in our cap but a manifestation of that dream.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress? What keeps you going?
Entrepreneurship is no cakewalk. It is an uphill battle. The biggest battle is perhaps the one between the heart and the mind.
However, I’ve made it a point to keep myself aligned with my purpose at all times while maintaining great levels of health and well-being; physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
A power-packed workout in the morning and a deeply meditative practice in the evening are my go-to for eliminating stress or pressures of any kind. To me, fitness is a means of pushing my limits. It encourages me to stay motivated and work harder every single day.
My mantra is simple – When in doubt, turn the lens inward. A quick check-in with myself every day helps me to stay in tune with inner-self and keeps me going.
When indecisiveness, doubt, and uncertainty linger, I turn to my extraordinary guides, mentors, and coaches for their able guidance and somehow it turns out that they always have the right answers and solutions to my doubts and challenges.
How do you maintain your work-life balance? Do you have any hobbies?
“Find something you love to do, and you won’t have to work a single day in your life.”
Honestly, my work doesn’t feel like work at all. Each morning I wake up with immense energy to seize the day. I have loads of fun every day as I interact with my customers, strategize new campaigns, and the list goes on.
I consider myself lucky to have a variety of interests and an indiscriminate sense of passion towards a lot of things.
I am a strong proponent of pursuing new and multiple hobbies. Hobbies keep me intellectually engaged and allow me to hold on to my sense of self and identity.
I am a trained Carnatic singer and I still continue to learn music. A few note-worthy pursuits I particularly love from my ever-expanding list of hobbies are writing (poetry and articles), public speaking, reading (almost anything), watching mind-bending movies, sketching, painting, dance, gardening, and exploring astrophysics.
I am an active member in forums like Rotaract Club and Toastmasters Club which help me pursue two avenues I absolutely love – Service and Public Speaking, and also provide a community space to bond with like-minded people over shared interests.
Last but not the least, spending quality time with friends and family as a way of unwinding and relaxing is something I’ve learnt from my father-in-law. The way he maintains work-life balance is truly inspiring and I will always look up to him to for it.
How was it like to Co-Found a company with your husband? Did you face any challenges in particular as a female Co-Founder?
Being Co-founders of a startup is in itself a marriage of sorts. I am blessed and incredibly fortunate to have a life partner who is my twin flame, my confidant, and the best Co-founder I could have ever asked for. My husband, Sameer Shashank, is an absolute genius and there’s at least one thing new I learn from him every day.
Sameer (Left) and Nikhila (Right)
As co-creators and co-founders of MoneyPlanned, we believe in equal partnership and being there for each other at all times.
Individually we are awesome but together we are an unshakable team. Our aligned life vision, similar belief system, complementary skills, and different perspectives we bring to the table make us a perfect match in all respects.
Being a young woman entrepreneur, the challenge has mostly been internal which I overcame with the help of my mentors and coaches. I now don’t have any qualms about being a woman leader in a male-dominated industry and the same energy is mirrored back at me most of the time.”
As first-generation entrepreneurs, things haven’t been easy. We had to learn everything from scratch and the initial days were the loneliest. However, we have bravely navigated through those challenges by leveraging the right resources to establish ourselves in the startup ecosystem. We love what we do and we know that this is where we belong.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
