Vijay Sharma – Indian Entrepreneur

The founder and CEO of Paytm, Vijay Sharma is a part of the future with a mobile platform that brings users everything from news to jokes, cricket scores to exam results, ringtones and more. In 2005, he founded One97 Communications, which is now the parent company of Paytm.

At the young age of 37-years-old, he is at the heart of a billion dollar company. However, it was not an easy path to success, as Sharma faced many days where he had no money to eat or for the bus.

Now Sharma operates out of a suburb in Delhi, Noida, where the headquarters is located. The office is not a typical work environment, with posters plastered all over the place with inspirational quotes from The Doors and others.

Sharma grew up in Aligarh, then at the age of 15-years-old enrolled at the Delhi College of Engineering. However, he didn’t speak any English or understand it and this became a huge problem in school. He was not able to keep up with the language and found himself struggling. Eventually, he taught himself English. While in college, he started a company that would be the beginning of his lucrative career online.

The masculine name Vijay is the modern transcription of Vijaya, which means “victory” in Sanskrit. The name is common in India and there are many notable people that have it as a given name, from Vijay Anand the Hindi film producer, writer, actor, and director to Vijay Amritraj the former Indian tennis player.