10 Things You Didn’t Know about Shailaz Nag
Shailaz Nag is an Indian businessman. Currently, he is serving as the CEO of DotPe, which is an Indian-based company that offers a digital platform for Indian retailers. However, it should be mentioned that Nag is an entrepreneur as well, seeing as how he is the co-founder of DotPe, PayU India before DotPe, and Ibibo Group before PayU India.
1. Studied At the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
It seems safe to say that Nag has a very good understanding of accounting. After all, he spent four years studying at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. For those who are unfamiliar, that would be the biggest professional accounting body that can be found in India, which in turn, makes it the second biggest professional accounting body that can be found in the entire world. The Institute of Chartered Accountants is surpassed by just the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants when it comes to its number of members as well as its number of students.
2. Studied At the Welingkar Institute of Management
A lot of people choose to spend some time working before they go for a MBA. However, there are those who choose to pursue a MBA as soon as possible. Nag was one of the latter. After the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, he went to study at the Welingkar Institute of Management, which is now called the WE School. In 2002, Nag graduated with a MBA from the school.
3. Studied At Harvard University
Close to a decade later, Nag spent some time studying at Harvard University. During that time, he focused on e-commerce ecosystems as well as e-commerce strategies, which make sense because he was very involved in that sector. Presumably, Nag went to Harvard University for the purpose of making himself better-prepared for his expected responsibilities.
4. Co-Founded PayU India
After all, Nag co-founded PayU India in April of 2011, which is important because that is the same year that he spent studying at Harvard University. Those who are curious should know that the company is a payment gateway aimed at e-commerce. Something that explains much about Nag’s subject of study during that time. Please note that PayU India isn’t quite the same as PayU. The latter is involved in the same field. However, it was founded much earlier in the Netherlands in 2002. Subsequently, it saw the establishment of other units in other countries, which happened through a number of ways.
5. Served As a Managing Director At PayU India
Nag spent more than eight years serving as the managing director for PayU India. The position isn’t as well-known as that of CEO. However, managing directors are nonetheless very high-ranking individuals who tend to answer to CEOs. They are responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations in a way that CEOs aren’t. Furthermore, managing directors are sometimes responsible for managing the relationship between companies and the shareholders of those companies. Something that can be very important for their smooth functioning.
6. Left PayU India Along With Other Senior Management
Eventually, Nag left PayU India in July of 2019. It isn’t 100 percent clear why that happened. However, it is interesting to note that Nag wasn’t the only one who resigned at around that time. After all, the CEO Jitendra Gupta also departed before him, so his departure meant that PayU India underwent a massive change in its top leadership.
7. His New Startup Is Dotpe
Nowadays, Nag is running a new startup called Dotpe, which has been around since February of 2020. He was a co-founder for this one as well. However, Nag is serving as the CEO rather than the managing director of Dotpe, which is quite a change of position. Presumably, this is a reflection of his influence over the startup as well as the extensive experience that he has built up through his career.
8. His Company Benefited From the COVID-19 Crisis
Nag’s startup is one of the numerous companies that benefited from the COVID-19 crisis. Essentially, the pandemic gave people very good reasons to minimize personal contact. As a result, businesses with the right business models benefited a great deal from a surge in demand for their products and services. Dotpe doesn’t sell products and services in that sense. However, it exists for the purpose of helping interested parties sell their products and services. Thanks to that, Dotpe benefited from that surge in demand in a somewhat indirect manner.
9. His Company Benefited From Demand For O2O Marketing
Speaking of which, one of the things that Nag’s startup benefited from was the surge of popularity of O2O businesses. In short, O2O stands for online-to-offline. As a result, it refers to businesses that engage their potential customers through the Internet, thus building to the point when said individuals can be convinced to visit their brick-and-mortar premises. Such a business model can provide similar benefits to e-commerce. For example, it reduces the amount of personal contact. Similarly, it enables better management of the sales process, which can be particularly important for businesses that are operating out of more cramped settings. In any case, businesses that operate on a O2O basis still need online infrastructure, which explains much about how Nag’s startup benefited.
10. His Company Is Backed By Google
It is interesting to note that Nag’s startup is widely known to be backed by Google, which is a formidable name when it comes to tech-related matters to say the least. This has presumably contributed to DotPe drawing the attention of the Singapore state-owned investment firm Temasek. However, it is important to note that Nag’s startup itself has been seeing massive growth because of increasing digitalization in India, which promises to continue for quite some time into the future. As a result, it isn’t hard to see why investment firms might be interested in harnessing that kind of potential to boost their profitability.