The Paytron difference – 3 traits that create a winning formula for success
Paytron’s co-founder Jaco Veldsman (2nd from the right) pictured with (from left to right) AirTree Ventures’ James Cameron and FinTech Start-up of The Year 20222 category sponsors – Ashurst’s Rebecca Cope and Stuart Dullard.
Winner of FinTech Start-up of The Year 2022 – Paytron, has a long list of achievements to its name for a company that is only 2 years old. Founded by Jaco Veldsman and Francois Henrion in 2020, the duo set out to address the pain points of accountants and businesses dealing with too many disparate apps when it came to managing business spend.
Fast forward to 2022, Paytron has raised $4.3 million in funding whilst firmly establishing itself as a leading full-suite workflows and spend management platform. The company represented Australia at the UK FinTech week in London in May, was identified as one of Australia’s top 50 start-ups attracting millions and currently sees more than 20% growth each month. Paytron also recently won Xccelerate22, kick starting a partnership with Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s venture-scaling arm – x15ventures.
The rise of any fintech is not ground-breaking news, but the rate of Paytron’s rise in such a short time span has gathered significant global attention. Co-Founder Jaco Veldsman unpacks three traits that has created a winning formula for Paytron since its inception.
1) A drive to do things better for customers
“We always think back towards caring about the end customer. If you look at the Finance industry in general, very often there are solutions in the market, but the solutions don’t fully solve a specific problem. At Paytron, our team possess a drive to understand the core problem the customer has and more importantly, how we can solve it in a better way.
Paytron didn’t give accountants and businesses their first corporate credit card or first payments service, but what we’re doing is offering a better solution to the pain points experienced. That’s what gets us excited – wanting to provide a better solution for our customers. How we can help get them to their destination quicker, easier, with less friction, and less work. And it’s resonating with customers because we’re experiencing a high conversion rate from our demos.”
2) A passionate and empathetic team
Behind every successful company are talented individuals who continuously show up day in and day out giving their best. Even with all the success Paytron has acquired, Veldsman and Henrion have never been ones to hog the limelight for themselves, always being the first ones to recognise their team’s contribution to Paytron’s success. “We were only able to achieve the growth that we’ve had because of the people in our team. You can’t execute industry-leading ideas without the right people. Especially when you’re in the early stages of a start-up – it requires people to have passion towards their work in order to keep everything running smoothly.
On top of that, when you have a team that is also empathetic and cares deeply about the customer, about their experience, about their problems… it comes through in the growth of our product’s capabilities and customers can feel that. Every feature, every button, every element in Paytron has a purpose in helping our customers and their stakeholders get the job done. Too often, when you’re in the business of providing software, you can get caught up in developing your product based on what other software can’t produce, but at the end of the day, we aren’t solving problems for computers, we’re solving problems for people. Our team cares about the “why”. Empathy is key to unlocking the ability to create a product that will truly make a lasting impact.”
3) An obsession to keep caring about the problem
In an industry where innovation is rife, staying relevant to your customers can be a tricky uphill battle. Yet for Veldsman, he’s confident maintaining relevance will be an easy task for Paytron. “It’s easy to stay relevant. Just keep caring about the problem, that’s it – there’s no secret sauce. It’s very simple. I think the rewards will flow when we naturally keep solving problems and exciting people. Our focus will always be on the customer, what problems they are facing and how we can deliver on that. Winning awards like FinTech Start-up of the Year, it’s validation that we’re on the right path and truly bringing value to our customers and the industry.”
