Vidhi Mehta: A New-Age Leader With Age-Old Technical Proficiency And Knowledge
Vidhi Mehta
CTO
Vidhi Mehta engages in an exclusive interaction with CXO Insights to share a glimpse of her professional voyage as one of the top CTOs of the country.
1. Give us a brief detail about your educational and professional background along with your entrepreneurial journey.
Obtaining a Computer Science degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2007, I started my career as a developer with Accenture, Chicago in Technology Consulting. After working with them for nearly 4.5 years, in 2012 I joined AutoTrader.com (now Cox Automotive) in Atlanta, US to work with their strategic initiatives team which is a small yet highly specialized unit within the organization, delivering new cutting-edge technology solutions for the company. In 2013, I moved to India and launched my own startup, Hoopoe. Using an app-only product strategy, the idea was to connect small local independent businesses to shoppers, empowering them with technology to increase their reach. Sometimes, I still wonder how different things would have been had I been a little more persistent and continued on that journey. In 2015, I joined Future Group working directly with the directors and the leadership team to develop a product strategy for omnichannel retail at Big Bazaar, Hometown and
Future Pay. For the last 3.5 years though, I have been the CTO at Moneyfront, a digital wealth management platform, spearheading the company’s technology initiatives.
2. What role do you play in the growth of the organization? How do you assist the organization in achieving the organizational goal?
Initially, we focused only on Direct Plans of Mutual funds, but today we also offer Sovereign Gold Bonds, Corporate Bonds, Government Bonds, Corporate FDs, PMS, AIFs, and several other Financial Products. We also have a B2B vertical through which we have a white-labeled solution offered to over 600+ distributors across the country. We have an analytics arm where we help larger corporates/AMCs with enhanced reporting solutions for their relationship managers. I am involved in finalizing the architecture, technology stacks as well as tech initiatives that the platform needs to create the backend for supporting the growth of the company. With my technology team, I have supported the company’s growth from 150Crores routed through the platform in mutual funds to over 2000+ Crores in direct plans.
3. In such a dynamic and broad technology landscape, what are your strategies to make your team handpick and master the most suitable technologies that will benefit Moneyfront?
I typically hire developers with deep knowledge and experience in the desired language and framework as needed by my designed architecture. As an early-stage startup, we don’t have big training budgets and therefore most of my employees are already masters in the desired technology for which they have been hired. However, I do constantly encourage my team to use online learning tools like Udemy and Coursera to gain more skills horizontally across frameworks used within Moneyfront, so that they can step in if we need any
2. What role do you play in the growth of the organization? How do you assist the organization in achieving the organizational goal?
Initially, we focused only on Direct Plans of Mutual funds, but today we also offer Sovereign Gold Bonds, Corporate Bonds, Government Bonds, Corporate FDs, PMS, AIFs, and several other Financial Products. We also have a B2B vertical through which we have a white-labeled solution offered to over 600+ distributors across the country. We have an analytics arm where we help larger corporates/AMCs with enhanced reporting solutions for their relationship managers. I am involved in finalizing the architecture, technology stacks as well as tech initiatives that the platform needs to create the backend for supporting the growth of the company. With my technology team, I have supported the company’s growth from 150Crores routed through the platform in mutual funds to over 2000+ Crores in direct plans.
am involved in finalizing the architecture, technology stacks as well as tech initiatives that the platform needs to create the backend for supporting the growth of the company
3. In such a dynamic and broad technology landscape, what are your strategies to make your team handpick and master the most suitable technologies that will benefit Moneyfront?
I typically hire developers with deep knowledge and experience in the desired language and framework as needed by my designed architecture. As an early-stage startup, we don’t have big training budgets and therefore most of my employees are already masters in the desired technology for which they have been hired. However, I do constantly encourage my team to use online learning tools like Udemy and Coursera to gain more skills horizontally across frameworks used within Moneyfront, so that they can step in if we need any
assistance with small feature enhances across platforms.
4. In your journey over the past several years, which are the milestones that have bestowed you with utmost satisfaction?
When I launched my own company and got my first order through the android mobile app. I was supporting local businesses and empowering them with technology tools they had never used before. For the first time, I felt like I had a purpose, as I was able to imagine and create something that was making our lives convenient. This was my first milestone.
The second milestone in my life has been achieving the Emerging CIO/CTO of the Year – Women in Tech 2020 award, which was overwhelming due to the timing of the award which was about 8 months into returning from maternity leave. This award was a testament to my resilience and dedication towards continuously building ground breaking products that improve people’s lives.
The third milestone that I consider immensely satisfying was when I trained a group of high school girls through the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) on Java and using the Eclipse IDE. I recently also had the chance to work with CodeTigers to inspire middle-school children across the world, especially girls, to learn how to code. I realized my passion for teaching and using my background to influence young girls to study computer science, I would like to dedicate more time towards in the coming years.
Vidhi Mehta, CTO, Moneyfront
Skilled in product delivery, user experience design, product strategy, Vidhi Mehta has over 8+ years of experience leading multiple teams with a passion for mentoring employees. Currently working with Moneyfront, Vidhi Mehta is delivering cutting edge technology solutions for the company owing to her enormous technical proficiency and industry experience. As a mother to a 20-month-old toddler, balancing personal and professional life has had its challenges but she strongly believes that setting priorities and building a good support system can truly help you achieve your goals.
Hobbies: Tennis, Swimming & Hiking
Cuisines: Thai & Italian
Favorite Travel Destinations: Torres Del Paine - Chile, Queenstown - New Zealand and Aspen, Colorado
4. In your journey over the past several years, which are the milestones that have bestowed you with utmost satisfaction?
When I launched my own company and got my first order through the android mobile app. I was supporting local businesses and empowering them with technology tools they had never used before. For the first time, I felt like I had a purpose, as I was able to imagine and create something that was making our lives convenient. This was my first milestone.
The second milestone in my life has been achieving the Emerging CIO/CTO of the Year – Women in Tech 2020 award, which was overwhelming due to the timing of the award which was about 8 months into returning from maternity leave. This award was a testament to my resilience and dedication towards continuously building ground breaking products that improve people’s lives.
The third milestone that I consider immensely satisfying was when I trained a group of high school girls through the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) on Java and using the Eclipse IDE. I recently also had the chance to work with CodeTigers to inspire middle-school children across the world, especially girls, to learn how to code. I realized my passion for teaching and using my background to influence young girls to study computer science, I would like to dedicate more time towards in the coming years.
Vidhi Mehta, CTO, Moneyfront
Skilled in product delivery, user experience design, product strategy, Vidhi Mehta has over 8+ years of experience leading multiple teams with a passion for mentoring employees. Currently working with Moneyfront, Vidhi Mehta is delivering cutting edge technology solutions for the company owing to her enormous technical proficiency and industry experience. As a mother to a 20-month-old toddler, balancing personal and professional life has had its challenges but she strongly believes that setting priorities and building a good support system can truly help you achieve your goals.
Hobbies: Tennis, Swimming & Hiking
Cuisines: Thai & Italian
Favorite Travel Destinations: Torres Del Paine - Chile, Queenstown - New Zealand and Aspen, Colorado