The story that came before.
Most founders have a story about a breakthrough idea.
For Battlepay co-founder Vasu Chaturvedi, it was something quieter.
Before there was a product, there was resolve.
“It was about building the right kind of company,” he says.
Working across the gaming industry had shown him two very different ways of leading people. He had experienced unhealthy workplaces where talented people slowly became jaded, but he had also worked under leaders who understood that culture influenced how people collaborated, solved problems, and ultimately whether a company could succeed.
Long before Battlepay existed, Vasu already knew one thing. If he ever built a company, it had to be different.
Not just in what it sold. But in how it treated people.
Preparing to Build
That belief stayed with him.
Around 2018, Vasu began noticing a shift within gaming. Gaming commerce businesses weren't simply surviving anymore. They were proving that sustainable companies could be built around digital products and player ecosystems.
It was an opportunity that refused to leave the back of his mind.
But there was one condition.
For Vasu, entrepreneurship only made sense from a position of strength. Financial stability was about more than paying bills. It was about protecting your ability to make good decisions.
Because if you're making decisions just about how to survive till the next month, you're not going to be looking at opportunities that could allow you to grow.
He knew it was a commitment that demanded patience, knowing unexpected setbacks would inevitably come.
Those setbacks arrived sooner than expected.
Shortly after Battlepay was established, the uncertainty surrounding the real-money gaming (RMG) sector made banks and payment providers cautious about working with gaming businesses. One of the founders' earliest challenges wasn't acquiring customers. It was convincing partners that Battlepay was a legitimate gaming commerce platform.
But Vasu didn't panic. It was simply another problem to solve.
If you're able to weather through all those storms, you're going to be able to build something great because nothing comes easy.
His co-founder Romeo Misao shares a similar perspective.
There isn't really a playbook.
As an entrepreneur, every day presents a challenge you've never encountered before. You simply learn, adapt and keep moving.
Curiosity, he believes, becomes one of your greatest strengths.
Finding the Right Problem to Solve
As Vasu and Romeo spent time studying the gaming commerce market, they began looking at the player's experience through a different lens. Every purchase represented a promise between a player and the seller. Too often, however, that promise went unfulfilled.
Customers would make payments only to discover the seller didn't actually have the inventory. Support would ask them to wait days before receiving something they had already paid for.
It doesn't work like that.
He compares it to walking into a shoe store, paying for a pair of shoes, only to be told they weren't actually available.
If you made a payment out of trust, then you have to be accountable for it.
Battlepay would take a different approach.
Never sell something you don't already have.
Trust, Vasu believed, shouldn't begin after the purchase.
It should exist before someone decides to make one.
Trust Takes Time
The same thinking carried into how the founders approached creators and community.
Building a creator ecosystem looked very different from working with established esports organisations. Many creators were teenagers, some navigating their first brand partnerships without even having a bank account.
The founders spent hours on Discord. Not selling, but listening. They got to know the people behind the usernames and slowly became part of the communities they hoped to support.
It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience.
He reflects on it almost matter-of-factly, as though there was never any other way.
Those early conversations laid the foundation for relationships that felt less transactional and more collaborative, allowing the founders to build alongside creators rather than simply work with them.
Choosing a Co-Founder
Those same values found their strongest expression in the partnership between the founders themselves.
Long before Battlepay, Vasu and Romeo worked together at Garena. Over the years, they came to understand the standards each held themselves to.
For Vasu, what stood out was Romeo's sense of ownership.
It could be something as simple as a Discord post. Even if it wasn't part of his role, he would still be looking at it. He would still be trying to figure out ways to make it better.
Vasu believed that if Romeo cared that deeply about improving someone else's company, he would bring even greater commitment to building one of their own.
Romeo admired Vasu for something equally compelling.
He describes Vasu as someone who remains remarkably calm, even when circumstances would naturally make people anxious. While the team works through the challenge at hand, Vasu is already thinking several steps ahead, anticipating obstacles before they arise.
Romeo also came to expect an extraordinary consistency in Vasu's work. Every idea was carefully thought through, every detail considered. That preparation gave him confidence that, whatever challenge lay ahead, Vasu had likely already explored the possibilities.
Together, they recognised in one another the qualities they believed mattered most: ownership, thoughtfulness, and a commitment to doing the work well.
That shared respect shaped the company they would go on to build.
The Standards They Live By
The founders spent as much time thinking about the people building the company as they did the product itself.
Leading teams had taught Romeo that talent alone wasn't enough.
I've seen some of the most talented people who never experienced something as simple as kindness at work.
Over time, he stopped believing leadership meant constantly acting like the boss or watching over people.
You never know what the other person is going through. Even if they're an ace performer, that doesn't mean being nice to them goes off the table.
For Romeo, kindness isn't a perk of good leadership. It's a basic expectation.
Leadership also means recognising that every decision reaches far beyond the business itself.
With a team of nine, he explains, every challenge carries a human weight. “It's nine people's households, their lives, their careers... everything depending on the way that you deal with the problem.”
Those beliefs shape how they hire.
Given the choice between someone who's technically exceptional but damages team morale and someone who may be less experienced but is humble, collaborative and eager to learn, Romeo knows exactly who he'd choose.
To explain it, he turns to gaming.
A team filled with star players who refuse to work together rarely wins. A coordinated team, even if every individual isn't the strongest mechanically, almost always performs better when it matters.
Technical ability can be developed. Character is far harder to teach.
Looking back, the story of Battlepay begins long before the company itself. It begins with two people who cared deeply about how work should be done, how people should be treated, and what it means to build something that lasts.