Startup Interview with Ajay Rastogi, Co-Founder & Director of Zimyo HRMS

In Conversation With Ajay Rastogi, Co-Founder & Director of Zimyo HRMS

What inspired you to develop Zimyo HRMS?

I was working in Microfinance when I realized the absence of ‘formal credit’ for employees. It was surprising considering that the employees who would have had worked their lives in factories and had a PF account as well as investments to show, had no bank willing to lend them money when they needed it.

They wished their organizations cared for them as they had cared, giving away their youth, and countless career opportunities while they stayed and contributed to the organization’s growth in their own way. I wanted to help that person and that organization, too, to not feel helpless watching their employees suffer like that.

Need on both ends was identified, what was missing was identifying the mechanism of establishing if there was actual salary transferred, and who would know it better than the systems that run the HR and Payroll for the organization.

So, that’s how we started. FinTech riding over the HRTech, that was our innovation, and the inspiration to start Zimyo. We are a FinTech SaaS, an Employee Experience Platform that allows employee-centric organizations to offer one-of-a-kind workplace experience to their employees, along with offering Financial benefits like loans, insurance, and investments.

With so many HRMS software vendors on the market, what makes Zimyo HRMS different?

Not so long ago, startups and small businesses used to find it hard to attract or retain talent as they couldn’t provide employee benefits to the likes what their bigger enterprise counterpart could provide — like Financial Benefits, wellness programs, etc.

Zimyo allows businesses to offer that, with its one-of-a-kind Financial benefits solutions like — Personal Loans, Health Insurance, Investments, etc. apart from offering best of employee experiences to their employees with new-age HR Solutions like – Automated HR Processes, Employee Engagement, Surveys and Polls, Life-cycle Management, etc.

Where do you see Zimyo in the next 5 years?

Over 45% of employees are from small and medium businesses (with <2000 employees). We want to cater to at least 20% of that workforce, powering SMBs’ HR processes and people along the way.

We see Zimyo as a “go-to” Employee Experience platform for SMBs globally.

Are there any principles that your company follows to maintain the brand image?

Not a list.. but it reads something like this:

• No unpaid Internships/work

– Anyone who works at Zimyo will be compensated

– No work on Weekends and after-office hours, unless requested. It can’t be coerced.

– Everyone shall continue to remain agnostic of Hierarchies, Color, Beliefs (including political), Religion, Gender and anything that is discriminating

• Dance with someone who wants to dance with you

– No more pushing for people (potential businesses) who don’t want to be with you. Lookout for clients who want you as you want them

How do you keep yourself updated and motivated?

My team is the best source of motivation for me. Every morning I look forward to meeting them all and starting my day with that kind of inspiration and energy that fuels my passion.

What is the hardest decision you have taken so far?

Letting go of people when we didn’t have money to support ourselves.

What is the biggest challenge you came across since the inception of Zimyo to date?

Making a name for ourselves in a domain (HR) that is very “inner circle based” and where good business comes only from “Referrals.” To break that stereotype with a better offering, that was the toughest challenge of them all.

If you weren’t building Zimyo, what would you be doing differently?

Building Khwahish, it is my Social Venture Idea.

How do you measure success?

By the lives we would impact (with our Financial Offerings), and the job we will create while we are it.

Any piece of advice you would give to the emerging entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship, too, has to be learned. Find mentors who can teach you and customers who can question you. It is going to be a lonely journey, so find people who can give you company – be it team, friends, or family. Trust me; you will need them all.

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