So last Thursday I was scrolling through business news, you know, just killing time before lunch. Saw this headline about some dude buying a fancy tech company for millions. That’s when the name Kiran Shetty popped up – kept seeing it everywhere that morning. Thought to myself: who actually is this guy? Decided to dig deeper during my afternoon coffee break.
Starting The Search
First I just typed “Kiran Shetty” into Google. Got tons of results but mostly corporate press releases. Not helpful. Then I added “background” and boom – found his old interviews on some finance blogs. Took notes like a madman while my coffee went cold.
Piecing His Story Together
Turns out his journey’s wilder than I thought:
- Born in some tiny Indian fishing village called Ullal
- Dad drove a rickshaw for cash, mom sold fish at market
- He literally studied under streetlights because they had no electricity at home
Can you imagine? Kid walked barefoot to school carrying shoes to save leather.
The Career Surprises
What shocked me most:
- Started as bank clerk counting coins in Mumbai
- Switched to fintech before fintech was cool
- Built that big company Remitly basically by accident while helping immigrants send money home
Found this crazy story where he maxed out 3 credit cards to pay early employees during 2008 crash. Absolute madlad energy!
The Inspiring Part
Three things stuck with me after researching:
- Still visits his hometown every monsoon season
- Forces every new hire to carry cash through Mumbai slums to understand real money struggles
- Turns down investor meetings if they won’t visit his childhood neighborhood first
Dude’s got steel in his spine. My takeaway? Maybe stop complaining about bad WiFi when this guy studied by candlelight.
Spent like two hours going down this rabbit hole. Wrote up everything in my notebook while eating cold pizza. Seriously makes you rethink what’s possible from nothing. Now when I see boring banking apps I always wonder – wonder if some rickshaw driver’s kid is coding the next big thing right now.