'Standing atop Mt Everest': moneyHop founder Mayank Goyal's idea of perfect happiness

Founder and CEO of neo-bank moneyHop, Mayank Goyal spearheads the company's vision of revolutionising banking for millennials and becoming an aggregator of financial services where the consumer’s financial needs can be addressed from a single touchpoint.

ALSO READ

I would like to come back as Joe Biden: Sudeep Singh, Founder of MPowered

A BTech graduate in telecommunications, a chartered financial analyst from Chartered Financial Institute, and a financial engineering graduate from Imperial College London, Mayank’s inclination towards fintech was an outcome of his personal pain points experienced while conducting cross-border banking. His investment banking background while working for Merrill Lynch and Jefferies, London where he developed investment strategies and trading algorithms further fuelled his desire to build a seamless and effortless cross-border banking platform.

While looking at opportunities in the fintech space in India following the boom of UPI, Mayank identified that the domestic payments market was completely exhausted. Unfortunately, during his stay in London, he struggled a lot in cross border banking. That was when Mayank decided to relocate to India to establish moneyHOP as a one-stop platform enabling seamless domestic and international transactions.

Besides being an entrepreneur, Mayank is the executive committee member of Pratham-Indian Charitable Trust. A keen mountaineer, Mayank has summitted Mount Blanc and Kilimanjaro. In his leisure time, he loves to play tennis, hitting the gym or go running.

Recently, YS Weekender caught up with Mayank to ask him questions from the Proust Questionnaire.

The Proust Questionnaire is about one’s personality. It finds its origins in a parlour game popularised by Marcel Proust — the French essayist — who believed that in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.

Here are Mayank's responses:

YS Weekender (YSW): What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Mayank Goyal (MG): Standing atop Mount Everest.

YSW: What is your greatest fear?

MG: Being one amongst the crowd.

YSW: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

MG: Frustration with repetition.

YSW: What is the trait you most deplore in others?

MG: Dishonesty.

YSW: Which living person do you most admire?

MG: Barack Obama.

YSW: What is your greatest extravagance?

MG: Watches.

YSW: What is your current state of mind?

MG: Growth.

YSW: What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

MG: IQ.

YSW: On what occasion do you lie?

MG: Harmless lies to make someone happy.

YSW: What do you most dislike about your appearance?

MG: My irreparable deviated septum (nose).

YSW: Which living person do you most despise?

MG: Despise is a strong word but Donald Trump?

YSW: What is the quality you most like in a man?

MG: Respect for women.

YSW: What is the quality you most like in a woman?

MG: Rationality and leadership.

YSW: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

MG: ‘Not too bad’ (Much to the annoyance of others).

YSW: What or who is the greatest love of your life?

MG: Mountaineering.

YSW: Which talent would you most like to have?

MG: To be able to pick up new languages effortlessly.

YSW: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

MG: Be calmer.

YSW: What do you consider your greatest achievement?

MG: Summiting Mont Blanc.

YSW: If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

MG: A curule seat in the Roman senate, I would have witnessed the evolution of human civilisation.

YSW: Where would you most like to live?

MG: On a mountain somewhere.

YSW: What is your most treasured possession?

MG: My grit.

YSW: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

MG: Not having access to primary medical care.

YSW: What is your favourite occupation?

MG: Leading moneyHOP.

YSW: What is your most marked characteristic?

MG: High energy and impatience.

YSW: What do you most value in your friends?

MG: Ability to be me in front of them.

YSW: Who are your favourite writers?

MG: Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky; Nassim Taleb; Ray Dalio; P.G.Woodhouse.

YSW: Who is your hero of fiction?

MG: Scrooge McDuck.

YSW: Which historical figure do you most identify with?

MG: Ayrton Senna.

YSW: Who are your heroes in real life?

MG: Hero is an overrated term but I admire Dwayne Johnson.

YSW: What is your favourite name?

MG: Tathagat – Has a powerful ring to it. Doesn’t it?

YSW: What is it that you most dislike?

MG: Disrespect for time.

YSW: What is your greatest regret?

MG: Not being able to meet my grandmother in her last days.

YSW: How would you like to die?

MG: Why would anyone want to die?

YSW: What is your favourite journey?

MG: Chicago to Kentucky to Tennessee (Bourbon Trail) – thanks to my wife for driving me all the way

YSW: What is your motto?

MG: Perseverance trumps all.