Gregg Jackowitz founder of Paid Easy. The quickest way to open and close bills at your favorite places.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your company - what is Paid Easy all about?
PaidEasy is a mobile payments provider. We integrate with merchants Point of Sale System without the use of any additional hardware. Unique to this industry as most of our competitors require some sort of hardware component. We give the user the ability to view, split and pay their bill in real time. Proprietary to PaidEasy, we have technology that knows when a user is in a participating merchant and give them the ability to open a bill and close it with the touch of 1 button.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I started in the .com/tech industry running a sales team for one of the largest nightlife directories, NewYearsEve.com. Working there is what helped me gain impactful sales skills. From NYE.com I moved to a business development role at Oyster.com. After they were acquired by TripAdvisor I moved in the finance world as a financial advisor at Mass Mutual where I was named as one of their 2014 rising leaders. The idea of PaidEasy originally came to me back in 2011. I built a business plan and a prototype. Seeing the failures of Google Wallet and other mobile-based application, I realized that the market was not ready for this just yet. Once ApplePay was announced, they brought with it validity to the market. So I decided to leave my career in finance and focus on my passion, PaidEasy.
Q: What are some of the projects you are working on right now?
Currently, we are in development and are set to launch at the end of March. We have a large restaurant group that is on Board.
Q: What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
We have a unique strategy behind PaidEasy. We plan to acquire merchants throughout the hospitality industry as well as credit card processing companies so that they can offer our app to their existing clients as a value added service to them.
Q: How do you bring ideas to life?
Someone once told me that anyone can have a good idea. Good ideas only come to life based on good execution. That being said, we developed PaidEasy based upon the user. Determining what we as users would want and how easy of an experience we would want. Customers these days want to have a frictionless experience when using an app. Uber has really set the gold standard when it comes to this. We are developing our model to be more of an Uber like experience.
Q: What's one trend that really excites you?
The payments industry right now is an extremely exciting space. No 1 company has really set themselves apart from another. I think that this is a space that is ready for serious disruption. The company that can make the experience as seamless and frictionless as possible is the one that is going to be successful.
Q: What were the top 3 mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
I'd have to say that the biggest mistake I made was letting the market preparedness for an application like mine dictate how and when I was going to do it. Plenty ideas have come and gone, If Paideasy was developed in 2011 when the idea was originally coming to fruition; things might be a bit different for me.
Q: How do you go about marketing your business, and what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
We haven't launched just yet. But when we do we are going to let the viral world take hold. Friends inviting friends to get money off of their bills we think will be powerful.
Q: What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur - and why?
Be resiliency. Being knocked down once and quitting, you will never be successful. Think Mark Cuban said it best when he said "It doesn't matter how many times you fail. Each time only makes you better, stronger, smarter and you only have to be right once. Just once," he says. "Then everyone calls you an overnight success and you feel lucky. I still feel that way."
A great network. Without support I don't think I would be able to do what I am doing. Sleepless nights are that much easier when you have someone that's going to tell you everything is going to be great and everything is going to work.
Clear vision Problem Solving. Not just developing an app because it's cool, but developing something that solves an issue. Waiting for the check at the end of the meal is the worst part of dining. This is a pain point for many. PaidEasy we hope will solve that.
Q: What are the top 3 online tools and resources you're currently using to grow your company?
Q: What are three books you recommend entrepreneurs to read?
LeanStart up, Lean Analytics. Lean UX. The lean books are really great.
Q: What is your favorite entrepreneurship quote?
"Its not in the dreaming, its in the doing"
Q: How can our community get in touch with you?
Crunchbase: AngelList: https://angel.co/paideasy https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/paideasyThe following two tabs change content below.
