1. Tell us about your role in SpotOn?
I work alongside Zach, Matt, Doron and the rest of our team at SpotOn running and growing the business. In practice, this means doing whatever it takes to help make our 550+ employees successful.
2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
I began my career doing FinTech investment banking and have always been intrigued by the convergence of software and payments. I believed that by merging the two, rather than having point solutions, you could provide valuable solutions at affordable prices and still build a profitable business. Our Co-Founders, Zach and Matt, both have 20+ years of experience in the payments space, and our third co-founder, Doron, has run small businesses himself. In many ways, our collective experiences both professionally and personally created the perfect team for us.
3. How do you think technology is developing the Finance Sector?
Although the finance sector has been slower to adopt, technology is taking antiquated processes and streamlining them. This ranges from how people transact, to how banks store and process information, and everything in between. I firmly believe that companies and businesses who stay at the forefront of technological change will have a competitive advantage.
4. How has the use of SaaS redefined payment system?
I don’t believe SaaS itself has redefined the payment system. I believe the cloud has enabled the use of software that can be continuously improved, and the SaaS business model has made it affordable for people to use. As it relates to SpotOn, an example of this is a restaurant getting access to a best-in-class point-of-sale. Historically, it could cost thousands and thousands of dollars and you’d be stuck with legacy software. Today, you have an affordable monthly subscription and we’re improving the software daily.
5. How has your partnership with Poynt benefitted your customers?
Our partnership with Poynt allows us to offer our clients a hybrid point-of-sale solution. They’ve built a great hardware platform and I’m extremely proud of the software solution our team has created on top of it. Not everyone needs an end-to-end POS, some need basic POS features, the ability to capture customer information for digital receipts and marketing, as well as a seamless loyalty platform.
6. How has the acquisition of EmaginePOS contributed in the growth of SpotOn?
We couldn’t be more excited about how the EmaginePOS acquisition has gone. EmaginePOS, now known as SpotOn Restaurant, is a best-in-class, cloud-based restaurant point-of-sale. Not only does it have great front-of-house capabilities, but also the back-of-house reporting is off-the-charts. Part of the purpose of our fundraising was to double-down our investment into that division, as we’ll hire over 100 employees in the next 12 months. SpotOn Restaurant will be a flagship product, and driver of growth, for years to come.
7. Can you explain how combining payment processing with customer engagement help merchants?
One of the primary competitive advantages for a small or medium sized business is RELATIONSHIPS. Our customer engagement tools give our clients the ability to build and enhance those relationships, whether through digital marketing, loyalty or simply being responsive to reviews people leave about their business. By integrating payment processing, we can collect the customer transaction data so that our clients can be more targeted and efficient with these engagement efforts to drive consumer behavior.
8. What advice would you like to give to the Startups?
You’re only as good as your team. If you invest in your team, and merge that with hard work and strong values, you’ll put yourself in the best position to succeed.
9. What is the Digital innovation in Fintech Industry according to you that will mark 2019?
It’s not a single innovation but more so the democratization of access to technology. Individuals and small businesses alike will have financial tools at their fingertips that they’ve historically never been exposed to.
10. How do you prepare for a Technology-centric world?
You remain aware and agile. Companies that build processes that can’t be tweaked will inherently be slow to adapt. If you embrace the fact that technology will be ever-changing, and build your processes around that assumption, you can be quick to adjust and take advantage.
11. Can you tell us about your team and how it supports you?
Our team is incredible. We hire for three core competencies: you’re a hard worker, you have a big heart, and you truly care about helping our clients. I believe our team exemplifies these traits. Rather than support me, it’s my job to support them. If we stay on this path, we’ll continue to be successful.
12. What are the major developments you are planning, in recent time?
Our product team of over 60 people is constantly focused on improving product, not just creating new product. So, while there are a number of products that we’ll roll out in the latter half of this year, I’m equally excited about refining what we have and constantly looking for ways to improve our customer experience.
13. Which Book are you reading these days?
“The High Growth Handbook,” by Elad Gil
14. Can you give us a glance of the applications you use on your phone?
For sure: the SpotOn Mobile app for Consumers, the SpotOn Dashboard for Clients and TheSpot for Sales Partners 🙂
