From Design in the US to Entrepreneurship in India: An Impactful Journey

Peeyush Goyal (MPD ’14), co-founder of SalaryBox, an employee management app for small businesses in India, shares the challenges and learnings of being a first-time founder.

Part of Carnegie Mellon University’s mission is “to impact society in a transformative way” – the exact sentiment that compelled Peeyush Goyal to leave the United States and return to India, his homeland.

“In India, there are problems that need resolution, which are no longer problems of the developed Western world. There are multiple domains here in which something impactful can be done. I didn’t know what exactly I wanted to build or even how to get started, but I did know that it wouldn’t be in the US,” Goyal recalled.

In the latter half of 2020, Goyal co-founded SalaryBox, an employee management app, with Nikhil Goel, a classmate from his undergraduate days at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

“Building something is a calling. It's an endeavor driven by a sense of purpose. It's not solely based on reason, logic, or rationale. The concept we discussed resonated with both of us, and, most importantly, our shared intentions were focused on crafting something meaningful, enduring, and influential. If your goal is solely to make money, startups may not be the right fit. What's crucial is an internal motivation that propels you to build something magical."

Prior to SalaryBox, entrepreneurship had previously not been a part of Goyal’s background.

Between the culturally prescribed paths of medicine or engineering, Goyal opted to study chemical engineering, a major he contemplated leaving in his second year as his true passion leaned towards design.

“Driven by a passion for design, specifically the foundational aspects of design research and ethnography, I devoted my spare time to crafting college magazine covers and immersing myself in design thinking literature. Amidst my desire to pivot towards a design-centric path, my parents advocated for the completion of my formal studies, underscoring the significance of obtaining the coveted IIT tag. Looking back, I feel like that was the right decision,” Goyal said.

After undergrad, Goyal followed his interest in design thinking immediately to the Master of Integrated Innovation for Products & Services degree where learnings on new product development and user research methodologies later became practical resources for his journey as a new founder.

"Identifying the minimal viable product (MVP) was crucial. We quickly shipped an MVP with minimal backend code within 10 days. We knew we were building something useful when we garnered 1000+ organic downloads in just a few days without any marketing spend."

Originally, the duo aimed to promote financial inclusion for blue and gray collar workers through an API for existing payroll software. However, conversations with potential customers revealed a more significant issue.

 “Right now the payroll software penetration is less than 10% amongst millions of businesses in India that employ blue and gray collar workers. Existing solutions are desktop-first, hard-to-use, clunky, and don't address the needs of a small business owner,” Goyal said.

SalaryBox came to fruition due to this user research and three changes within India that primed the market for a new way of conducting business: the ubiquity of smartphones, increased access to the internet, and a burgeoning awareness of using mobile apps for business management.

“The problems that emerging markets are facing are very simple, and the solutions to them are very simple as well. We built a basic product to track attendance, made it available on the Google PlayStore, and started seeing an influx of downloads,” Goyal explained.

The founders then picked up the phone and spoke with more than 5000 customers to uncover unmet user needs and dive deeper into their pain points.

“We keep fine-tuning the product based on customer insights. It's not about persuading customers to adopt; rather, it's about identifying their needs and providing the right solution,” Goyal said.

The team raised a $4 million seed round in November 2021, funding they’ve used to hire, enhance the product, and grow the userbase.

The SalaryBox App has been installed on 2 million+ devices and now offers a full range of features for easy attendance and payroll management. For instance, customers can disburse salaries to all staff in the click of a button.

“The people management and scaling journey has been full of challenges and a lot of learnings. It’s about identifying the problems you are facing in the team, where the team is at with respect to skillset, and where the company is at with respect to stage. Scaling is about trusting people, delegating the work, and being mindful of whether the trust that you are showing to the team is being reciprocated with the right level of output and the right level of work or not."

To help navigate these challenges, Goyal turned to his network for support.

“People have this fear of starting up, but once you do, you realize that you have a strong community of people willing to help you. Every time I’ve contacted friends or former colleagues, they’ve given me time and advice selflessly and without any expectations. I am incredibly grateful for the invaluable support received,” Goyal shared.

SalaryBox recently has launched banking integrations that enable businesses to pay employees directly through the SalaryBox application, taking the company one step closer to the initial vision: financial inclusion for more workers.

"We want to keep scaling consistently and help millions of businesses manage their payroll end-to-end, from attendance records and salary payouts, to filing of mandatory compliances. Enabling financial inclusion for 300 million+ blue-collar workers remains our long-term goal, one that drives and inspires us daily," Goyal said.