[100 Emerging Women Leaders] Roshni Aslam's bitcoin rewards app offers shoppers a seamless experience

“I come from a financial background. I studied for a master's in finance in the UK. After graduating, I wanted to get into the financial world in terms of a job and a career. It was actually my older brother Roshan, who is also the co-founder along with me at GoSats, who suggested crypto,” she says.

Roshan suggested that she look into crypto because of her finance background, and thus began Roshni’s research on it. In contrast to the stir that crypto is causing today, back in the day, the space was still fairly nascent and hadn’t taken off.

“I liked crypto. I was fascinated with something so different,” says the woman entrepreneur.

Despite being interested in the space, Roshni didn’t immediately understand the term and the associated technicalities because there was very little information about it.

But Roshni's fascination with crypto was strong enough for her to start looking at employment opportunities in the space, and she ended up landing a job at a crypto hedge fund as an investment analyst.

“I was also trying to think in my mind if this was a traditional financial role, how would it differ?” shares Roshni.

Even when she switched jobs and started working in a bank, Roshni was constantly drawing comparisons and trying to understand how things would work if they were crypto-based. That was how GoSats was eventually conceptualised—as a bitcoin rewards platform that would enable users to earn free bitcoins every time they shop.

More recently, bookings for India’s first bitcoin rewards card started. “It basically means instead of earning cashbacks, you earn bitcoin rewards for shopping,” Roshni breaks down the crux of the GoSats app.

The founders of the app faced challenges right from the ideation phase. During their research, they discovered that the Indian market had bitcoin exchanges but no bitcoin rewards system. However, there were companies abroad that were successfully offering crypto cashbacks.

GoSats was the first mover in the category in India, but Roshni emphasises that it was not easy to convince people about why they should opt for bitcoin over the traditional rupee.

What is her advice to women leaders? Do not be afraid to pursue what your heart thinks is right.