Ramalingam, Founder, Vpaycash.com (Eway India)

“E-Commerce Pays Back”

“Vpaycash has made it a reality in India by paying the online buyer 100% of the commissions as cash back. In other words we incentivize e-commerce in an economy where ecommerce is still nascent. Together we believe in revolutionizing the online commerce by bridging the digital divide & alluring the mobile & online user population to the real efficient online commerce.” 

E-Commerce is a different animal from your usual mode of conducting business. Ramalingam states “Transparency is the greatest differentiator. We pay 100% of the commission that we earn as cash back to the buyer. Second biggest differentiator is our mobile service integration which can include the offline population to enjoy the same services with the mobile. This is still in pilot. We are loyal to our customers & work on their behalf. Hence our revenue model depends on the of Rs.499/- service fee that the user makes to us if we perform i.e., if the user is able to earn at least Rs.499/- using our site then we deduct our service charges out of his earnings else he does not carry the onus to pay.”

“Since we are primarily an online model we look forward to scale across India which is already a reality. We are looking forward to add at least 1000 vendors by the End of the year so as to provide a variety to the user to pick from. The vendors are being enabled with technical support & tracking solutions so as to scale our base. We are appointing agency task force to help us scale across the country with a target of 100,000/- users before the end of the year.”

His decision to pursue entrepreneurship has been fuelled by many factors, Ramalingam told us about them saying “First we firmly believe that our idea can inculcate a great change into online commerce in India. Service innovation provides a satisfaction which a 9-5 job cannot provide. The last but not the least is the constant challenges that we have to be face, boundaries that will have to be broken, physical laws that will have to be tested in making this dream a reality, interests us more than anything else.”

“The biggest challenge has been in believing this idea or self-realization whether we have it in us what it takes to achieve this feat. Other challenges include having our family by our side & overcoming the occasionally impending fear of failure & rejection. Every time we decide to call it the quits, we pondered over it again & again, brain stormed with our team, talked to our family, called in our advisors to know where we have been then & where we are now. Even a simple achievement has made a big difference in drawing our energy.”

His learning lessons have come by way of decisions which seemed to be mistakes, but have paid off in the long run. He reveals “The biggest mistake was to build an in-house team to build the software instead of buying out the software where we failed miserably. This has also become a success factor as the team has given us the edge to manage & scale drastically at a faster pace rather than thinking about the investment every time we need to buy something.”

“A short time span of less than a year has made us grow from a team of 4 to a team of 10, which is a part of the core team right now. The agency force being recruited across the country to market the idea is making our growth exponential with over 20 members joining us in each city Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad & Noida. We still do not have any branches but would soon have them established in each of these cities.”

 Ramalingam lists their achievements stating “* Making our application scalable to 1000 concurrent users & testing future scalability * Scaling our agency task force from just 7 at the start in at Chennai to 20 in each city today are our biggest achievements today your organization recognized : We have been finalists @ Genesis venture validation platform in Eximiusâ 09 IIM Bangalore We have been one of the companies chosen by TREC-STEP, Cisco corporate VC, SIDBI to be listed to receive soft load funding from “launchpad” an incubation program.” 

He has thought of giving in and taking up a regular job, but his passion has not let him retreat into a 9-5. He says “Every time we had a cash crunch we did fiddle the idea of earning in a regular job to fund the company but finally did decide every time that we had alternate routes to ensure funding & stay afloat to achieve what we set out to do.” 

His determination has been bolstered by “Family, Friends and most important of all every time the idea is appreciated by someone like Genesis or our customer we find the strength to target the next break through.”

He aims “To be the number one cash back site in India with 5000 vendors & 500000 valid users.” 

He advises those willing to take the plunge saying “Build the idea that you love. Believe in your idea and it would transform you. If you don’t wait until you believe.”

YourStory wishes the Visionary Ramalingam and Vpaycash.com a healthy future, and swift growth in the rising field of E-commerce.