Exactly a year ago, this day RangDe.in went live! We had a small get together to celebrate all the people who had made this beginning of our second innings possible. A disproportionate amount of effort had gone into the making of Rang De 2.0 and making the new platform launch-ready. Setting up a new platform compliant with RBI’s regulations and getting the NBFC P2P license was nothing short of a moon mission for us.
Starting up anything new is exciting. The energy levels and emotions run high and pushing oneself is far easier because of the adrenaline rush. The feeling of creating something new is always a fantastic experience.
But restarting something, especially after doing the same thing for 12 years, is a different ball game altogether. There is a lot more nervousness, because, perhaps, failure is not an option. After running RangDe.org for 12 years as an unregulated peer to peer lending platform, taking this leap to file for an NBFC P2P license and setting up a brand new platform was not easy at all.
A lot had to change, most importantly our mindsets. Unblocking those mental blocks, shaking off the complacency that sets in over years, breaking the barriers of self doubt and ensuring that we all remain together as a motivated team were all important personal challenges that all of us in the team had to go through.
When I look back now, having lived through some of the most turbulent times, I can’t help but smile. We have not done too badly considering that we not only were in the first year of Rang De 2.0 but were literally thrown into a crisis as a result of the pandemic.
The pandemic has taught us many things, helped us question the status quo and do the unthinkable.
Remote working: Even though we considered ourselves a new age organization, we had never experimented with remote working. A few of our committed team members worked from home but that’s about it. Now that we were pushed to remote working, our team has beautifully adapted to this. And performed like never before.
Setting lofty goals and achieving them: Soon after we realised the impact of the pandemic on our communities, the impact of our work started to take a whole new meaning altogether. Suddenly, our goals were bolder. We have been more ambitious than ever before. And we have been deeply grateful that we have the opportunity to do some meaningful work.
Staying true to values: Our values and focus on our mission has helped us wade through these difficult times. It has helped us do what is right for our communities and stay focused. Our interest free loans initiative for small and marginal farmers is a great example of doing what is right. And we saw how everyone rallied around us for this initiative.
I am so proud of our young team for showing unrestrained leadership and team spirit in these extraordinary times. While we are always grateful to everyone who supports us, sometimes extraordinary performance from the team is an expected normal and taken for granted. As we complete a year in these turbulent times, I want to take a moment today to express deep gratitude to the team that has unconditionally stood by us. And my heartfelt gratitude to our mentors who have been by us and guided us through the ups and downs. Last but not least a big thank you to all our Social Investors, who continue to script our success story in more ways than one. Visit rangde.in to start your social investing journey.