Meet the Founding father of StonePay

When investing, your capital is in danger.

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An enormous problem in B2B relationships is realizing the reliability or trustability of latest firms you’re employed with. Will they pay invoices on time for instance? StonePay observed a spot out there to present companies ‘popularity scores’ primarily based on actual information. Consider StonePay because the Tripadvisor for companies, the place your popularity issues! You may construct your small business’ popularity or consider your consumer’s popularity primarily based on virtuous cost habits, validated by the supply-chain neighborhood.

We wished to know extra, so we sat down with Founder Filippo Mazzei for an interview.

To start out off are you able to inform us a bit about your self?

I’m a dynamic individual with a powerful curiosity in new companies and innovation. In 2016, I moved to the UK from Italy to review Enterprise and Administration at College of Westminster. New applied sciences have at all times me: I took half in my college’s Begin-Up Co-Creator programme contributing to the ideation and launch of the start-up ‘Pleased Pupil’ in 2018, which is now up and working providing overseas college students a set of options to assist combine into London’s college life.

What did your profession appear to be earlier than StonePay?

I began work in a sports activities advertising company primarily based in London named Mughoot, the place I used to be a part of the enterprise improvement staff accountable for companion relationships. After this I had the possibility to hitch one of many main B2B marketplaces within the pure stone commerce business. I used to be put accountable for the event of SmartFair, their on-line event-driven exhibition answer to help promoting their wares; facilitating 1000’s of firms in the course of the first pandemic wave when commerce occasions and exhibitions needed to be held remotely. Our on-line catalogues carried items valued at over US$250 million.

When and the way did you realise that there was a market being underserved? 

When engaged on SmartFair I realised that B2B when it comes to total enterprise transacted is far bigger than B2C; and for brand spanking new companies it presents a neater and extra concentrated market to deal with than B2C. I recognized two main enterprise dangers within the B2B buying and selling neighborhood: the dearth of corresponding occasion belief, and the large acceptance of late funds. 

In our SmartFair platform, the ‘procuring cart’ was a high-value container and all transactions had been settled by time period funds; letters of credit score are now not viable due to prices and delays incurred.

Transaction dangers stay all upstream, and lack of belief between buying and selling events impacts enterprise buying and selling relationships in each a part of the world.  

These dangers imply that many enterprise operators do enterprise principally with events they already know. The choice for brand spanking new relationships is to accumulate data from credit score rating firms, credit score bureaus, and different monetary establishments in regards to the different occasion. However this information is difficult to search out and expensive, after which it’s usually incomplete or outdated.  So I rapidly got here to the realisation that this present monetary information answer was merely not sufficient to engender belief between firms which might be usually not in the identical jurisdiction and even generally on reverse sides of the world, talking a unique language.

What does StonePay do?

Once we got down to construct StonePay we questioned how we might acquire such verified enterprise data? We didn’t wish to method it like one other credit score rating system, counting on exterior monetary information. We wished to start out and finish with the neighborhood to assist democratise belief. Our mission was bold, to create a brand new customary of belief that helps speed up buying and selling by facilitating establishing the phrases of commerce with a brand new companion, consumer or vendor. 

We got here up with a easy and constructive method the place every firm can management their ‘Repute Rating’ by virtuous cost behaviour – turning confirmed cost historical past into popularity factors. This method utterly revolutionises the present paradigm. StonePay captures information from the 2 events immediately concerned within the transaction, confirming one another’s efficiency, that’s it.

This manner each firm can construct their score and belief profile, which is safe and of their management to be shared or stored non-public if they want. Your corporation popularity report will be shared to symbolize the corporate’s trustability, to acquire higher credit score circumstances or enterprise phrases, and usually to speed up enterprise by the promotion of larger belief.

You may name it the ‘Tripadvisor for enterprise’ or the ‘TrustPilot of B2B buying and selling’ however it’s extra worthwhile, it’s a trust-mark licensed by a neighborhood of B2B firms. Expertise is altering finance. Assist us speed up this transformation. StonePay challenges conventional norms, optimises belief by a virtuous cycle and makes it simpler for everybody to do extra enterprise.

What does your aggressive panorama appear to be and the way does StonePay differentiate itself?

In B2B late funds are an enormous worldwide downside, primarily addressed by three sorts of answer:

• Accounting software program platforms 
• Credit score insurance coverage firms
• Credit score rating apps 

All these present options are primarily based on monetary information that’s usually incomplete and outdated. Monetary audits cowl solely part of the issue, they aren’t dependable or out there in each relationship. Additionally right now’s usually accepted method relies fully on exterior management: it implies that an establishment or software program app evaluates and provides a rating. We wished to vary that, let the neighborhood take care of that. We deliver the ability again to the person and to the enterprise and buying and selling neighborhood.

How do you intend to create a scalable and worthwhile enterprise mannequin?

First, the enterprise mannequin. StonePay app will at all times and without end be FREE (freemium). ts fundamental objective is to achieve the utmost variety of customers worldwide and provide a non-public and safe popularity score that they management. We have now a distribution technique primarily based on viral processes in-built, and have numerous approaches to mitigate the widespread ‘chilly begin’ downside. You may learn extra on this in our pitch. Within the subsequent section we’ll launch a Premium model which is able to add extra superior options comparable to branded profiles and notifications, branded and customised reviews and extra. Providing providers like credit score and loans, credit score insurance coverage, bill financing, collections, HR, and so on.

Second, the go-to market technique. We consider too many start-ups depend on generic advertising methods,  promoting or social media campaigns, to extend the variety of downloads. However what follows is the actual downside: will there be energetic customers that recurrently check-in on the app? Is it sticky?  

What number of apps are downloaded in our telephones however by no means used? We realised that to maximise the app’s traction and utilization, StonePay must be very simple to make use of. And it has to work proper out of the field and require no change in enterprise processes and work routines.

That’s the reason one in all our first steps after crowdfunding is to finalise two API modules for the principle accounting options (Xero, Quickbooks) with a view to combine StonePay with no coding required.  You may simply think about what number of invites are be generated by every firm in an invoicing cycle.  

We’ll make a sequence of agreements with software program homes with a view to add a free StonePay script of their accounting software program to let their prospects earn factors whereas doing one thing they’re already doing, with no interruption and even change to their routine. One other component of our go-to market technique can be to develop partnerships with a spread of ‘influencer’ firms. We’ll develop a branded StonePay model for them. These clusters can be one other vital supply of energetic customers for us. We provide one thing very particular for such massive firms: a brand new technique to monitor and reward cost and assortment at their very own firm. StonePay can present granular evaluation on cost and invoicing exercise, and provide a brand new technique to incentivise sure cost and invoicing behaviours.

What do you intend to do with the cash you elevate? 

We have to present StonePay with extra strong components when it comes to the present staff and new administration and develop the technical staff. By way of expertise, our fundamental objective is to develop the APIs for the 2 hottest accounting options, and to enhance our web-based StonePay model.

What do you like to do in your free time? 

What I like most is travelling. I’m very fortunate to be born in an exquisite nation, so each time I’ve the possibility, I’m going again to Italy and take my automotive to go go to new locations. I’m a sports activities fanatic and like to play soccer and tennis. I additionally actually take pleasure in watching Method 1, and Moto GP. Lastly, since my earliest years I’ve been a present leaping fanatic and I used to be knowledgeable present jumper earlier than transferring to London, representing Italy in worldwide reveals round Europe.

When you weren’t constructing StonePay, what do you assume you’d be doing?

I’m fairly positive I’d be working in a startup. After my expertise at SmartFair, I’ve developed a powerful need to be a part of bold initiatives which might be nonetheless originally of their journey. Contributing at such an early stage of the method entails many duties, however undoubtedly pays again when it comes to satisfaction.

What’s the largest lesson you’ve learnt to date constructing StonePay?

All of us make errors, it’s how we take care of them that actually counts.

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