A video that’s gone viral (nearly 200,000 views in a day for this post on Facebook) shows Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma at the company's new year party, talking about the competition and dancing in a scene that could be straight out of HBO’s Silicon Valley.
The Paytm chief executive's new year party video starts off with Sharma shouting, "Jo hamare saath nahin hain, wo royenge," (those who are not with us will cry). There’s a lot of fist-pumping and the speech gets a lot more interesting. See for yourself:
Warning: The below video contains strong language that could be seen as offensive
Amongst other things, Sharma shouts, "Ek saal me woh kiya jo unhone dus saal me nahin kiya" (In one year, we did what they couldn't do in ten years). After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his sudden demonetization drive, Paytm’s transactions and earnings shot up, making it a massive beneficiary, and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, without offering any evidence, said Paytm stands for “Pay To Modi.”
Rather dramatically, Sharma then shouts that 2017 will be Paytm's, since because its team is fearless in devoting its “brains, blood, and lives” to the company. Soon after, he curses loudly in Hindi, to the great delight of the audience, and then talks about making the competition “wet its pants.”
It was a private celebration and a team-building event, and Nikhil Pahwa, founder of Medianama, tweeted, "People sending me Vijay Shekhar video asking what is he high on… He doesn't drink or get high. Just mad passion and competitiveness."
In the Paytm new year party video, you can hear the thrilled response from this team, but the viral video may provoke some criticism for Sharma, who is widely acknowledged as start-up guru.
Disclosure: Paytm's parent company One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.
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