Welcome to Settled Up, the Payment Expert podcast series where we get to know the person behind the profession.
This week, we speak to Kaivalya Paluskar, Head of Product at PaymentIQ, on the music, films, books, sport and comedy that shape him.
Read the full interview with Kaivalya Paluskar, PaymentIQ below.
What song do you put on before a big day, and what does it do for you?
It depends on the day. If a big podcast is coming up, I’ll put on something motivational. If it’s a big conference, where I know I’m heading into chaos, I do the opposite — I want to settle down, so I reach for something light-hearted. That’s how I go about it.
What album can you play start to finish, no skips?
Imagine Dragons is the band I keep going back to. The meaning behind some of their songs runs deep, which is what I like about them. My favourite is “Believer.”
What’s the film or box set you’ll happily rewatch forever?
For film it’s The Matrix — I’m a big fan and I can watch it again and again. On TV, I’ll go to Breaking Bad on Netflix, and more recently Black Mirror.
What’s the book you press on everyone you meet?
I’ll give you one for each side. On the professional side, Inspired by Marty Cagan of the Silicon Valley Product Group. It gave me a different perspective on the different aspects of product management.
Outside work, a recent one that touched me is The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim, a Buddhist monk. It’s about how you look at life, quite introspective. I’d recommend it for a vacation.
What’s the sporting moment you still go back and rewatch?
I’m a big cricket fan, and originally from India, so I’ll name two. MS Dhoni hitting a six to win the World Cup, and Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixes in an over. I can’t pick between them, but if I have to, I’ll go with the World Cup.
What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen – a sketch, a clip, a stand-up routine?
Max Amini. I like him a lot — he’s a good stand-up comedian.
We’ll be talking to Kaivalya Paluskar, PaymentIQ, on next week’s Payment Expert podcast – where we’ll explore why the cashier, the last screen before a deposit, is the costliest place to lose a player, and ask how Cashier Plus lets payments teams rebuild it without waiting on developers. Catch the full conversation then.
You can catch up on our latest episode too, where we spoke to Benjamin David, The Payments Association, about how financial crime leaders are feeling about the fraud threat and whether AI has changed fraud’s tempo through fraud-as-a-service.
