This qualitative multiple case study examines the perception and application of social skills in

the day-to-day activities of employees in Digital Fintech Start-ups in Sri Lanka. This study aims

to examine emotional intelligence, persuasive communication and networking in the context of

PayHere and U Pay. It explores employee perceptions of the importance of these competencies

for customer relations, team working, engaging with stakeholders, service adoption, and business

development work.

The data were gathered using 12 semi-structured interviews; 6 interviews with employees from

PayHere and 6 interviews with employees from U Pay. Customer-support, technical,

business-development and managerial roles were represented by participants. The data from the

interviews was thematised and themes were developed.Themes were extracted from interviews

to identify patterns, differences between both cases and connections between three social skills.

The results indicate that the workers related emotional intelligence to awareness of customer

issues, self-control, handling of problematic interactions and teamwork. Persuasive

communication was correlated with providing the benefit of digital-payment services and dealing

with uncertainty and creating trust with stakeholders. Internal coordination, knowledge sharing,

referrals, partnership, access to business opportunities were related to networking. The results

also suggest that these skills were often applied in combination, not as individual skills.

The study adds to the literature by focusing on the competencies of the employees rather than

those of the founders or leaders. It also offers each of the areas in the context of how

technological services are turned into comprehensible and relationship-dwelling experiences in a

resource-restricted emerging-market context. The results could help digital startups with

recruitment and training and employee development.