On The Money

WITH THE LEGENDARY BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY BUYING INTO HIS DREAM, PAYTMS VIJAY SHEKHAR SHARMA SEEMS ON A ROLL. HES GOT BIG PLANSBUT CAN HE MAKE THEM WORK?

- Arnika Thakur

WE MEET AT a coffee shop in south Delhi near his home, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm, predictably, pays for his coffee using Paytm. It’s not unexpected; Sharma believes in his product and has never shied away from using it publicly—whether to donate to the recent Kerala flood relief efforts or to pay for a cappuccino. That belief in his company could have been one of the things that attracted investment firm Berkshire Hathaway to Sharma and Paytm.

There’s a lot happening at Paytm and Sharma is not averse to talking about it, but what’s on top of my mind is obviously his visit to Berkshire Hathaway’s office in Omaha and what happened there. “I went as a fanboy,” says Sharma, still looking somewhat star-struck. While Sharma did not get to meet the legendary Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, he’s delighted with the selfies he took next to Buffett’s memorabilia.

Tell me about this meeting, I ask, and Sharma settles down to talk. He was in Toronto when he got a call from Mark Schwartz, Paytm board member and former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific. Schwartz had met Todd Combs, an investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway. Combs wanted to know more about “our company”, Schwartz told Sharma, and that set the ball rolling. A meeting between Sharma and Combs was arranged, and a few days later, Sharma was in Omaha. What happened at the meeting has been covered in exhausting detail, but Sharma adds his own fanboy touches: all the selfies he took at the Berkshire Hathaway office, including his fast-food meal complete with Buffett’s favourite Cherry Coke.