Why I Left My Comfort Zone to Build UdharPay — The Fintech Startup Nobody Asked For (But Everyone Needed)

Every Startup Begins with a Moment of Frustration

Every startup begins with a moment of frustration so intense that ignoring it feels impossible. Mine happened on a Sunday afternoon.

I was visiting my friend's kirana shop in Daltonganj. He was sitting behind the counter with a worn-out register, flipping through pages, circling names with a red pen. I asked him what he was doing.

"Udhar list," he said without looking up. "Trying to figure out who I need to call this week."

He had ₹47,000 outstanding across 23 customers. Some had been pending for three months. I asked him why he didn't just call them.

He looked at me like I'd asked something naive.

"Bhai, ye log regular customers hain. Agar call kiya aur unhe bura laga, toh woh dusri dukaan pe chale jaayenge. Udhar toh doob jaayega, customer bhi."

That sentence stopped me cold. He was choosing to lose money rather than risk losing a relationship. And he had no tool — no system, no app, no process — that could do the awkward part on his behalf.

The Day UdharPay Was Born

That was the day UdharPay was born in my head.

What is UdharPay?

UdharPay is a WhatsApp-based payment reminder SaaS for small and medium businesses. It automatically sends personalized payment reminders to customers who owe money — with their name, the exact amount, the due date, and a UPI QR code to pay instantly.

The shop owner does nothing. The system does the awkward part.

Why This Problem Is Bigger Than It Looks

India has 12 million kirana stores. That number does not include salons, hardware shops, medical stores, coaching institutes, freelancers, and distributors — all of whom give credit regularly.

Conservative estimates suggest the average small business in India loses ₹5,000 to ₹20,000 every month in uncollected credit. Not because customers are dishonest. But because the social friction of asking for money is too high to consistently overcome.

Khatabook and OkCredit proved the market exists — they reached millions of users tracking credit digitally. But tracking is not collecting. Knowing you are owed ₹47,000 does not put ₹47,000 in your account. Sending a personalized, non-confrontational WhatsApp reminder with a UPI QR does.

That gap — between knowing and collecting — is exactly where UdharPay lives.

The Decision to Build

I am a solo developer. I run Coderiva, a small digital agency in Pune. I have built e-commerce platforms, Chrome extensions, React applications, and Spring Boot backends. I know how to ship things.

But building a product for yourself and building a product for 12 million shop owners are completely different challenges.

I had to decide: do I build this properly, validate it, and launch it globally? Or do I treat it as a side project and watch someone else eventually do it? I chose the first option.

The First 50% — What We Have Built

In the first phase of development, we have built:

• A full marketing website with landing page, features, pricing, about, and contact pages
• Firebase authentication with Google login
• A two-step business onboarding flow that collects business name, type, country, city, UPI ID, and WhatsApp number
• A customer management system
• A ledger entry system with due date tracking
• A dashboard with outstanding amount visibility
• Stripe integration for three subscription tiers

We have not yet integrated the WhatsApp Cloud API — that is coming in phase two. But the foundation is solid, the UI is live, and the first beta users are being onboarded.

What I Have Learned at the 50% Mark

Building in public has been the single best decision I made. Sharing the journey on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Reddit before the product was complete gave me:

• 73 waitlist signups in the first week
• Feedback from actual kirana shop owners that changed two features before I built them
• A growing audience that feels invested in the outcome

The loneliness of solo development is real. Building in public makes it less lonely and more accountable.

What Comes Next

Phase two of UdharPay development includes:

• WhatsApp Cloud API integration via Meta Business
• Cloud Functions for automated scheduled reminders
• Analytics dashboard with collection rate metrics
• Admin panel for monitoring users and revenue

We are targeting our first paying customer within 30 days of WhatsApp integration being live.

If you are a small business owner in India, USA, or Germany who gives credit to customers — I would love to hear your story. The problem I am solving for my friend is the same problem millions of people face every day.

UdharPay is for all of them.

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We build custom websites, apps, and e-commerce stores. Based in Pune, India.

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