Rode Luhaäär. He’s an enthusiast and entrepreneur who has years of experience as an e-marketer and digital strategist. During his career in the digital field, he’s been overseeing execution and delivery of activities such as digital concept, e-business concepts, creative solutions design, software development, SEO, social media marketing, and global solutions. Over the last few years, he’s been an active member of a startup community and currently manages a large software company called, Paytailor.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? — Lean Startup
What CEO do you follow? — n/a
Favorite online tool? — n/a
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Think faster”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:30 – Nathan introduces Rode to the show
03:10 – Paytailor is a smart payment solution allowing merchants to get paid the way they want
- 03:26 – Paytailor gives merchants an app and the users a card wallet
- 03:45 – Paytailor is a SaaS company
03:50 – Paytailor charges €10 monthly
04:05 – Paytailor’s revenue comes from the monthly fee
04:10 – Average number of customers is 40
04:20 – MRR
04:28 – Paytailor has raised €70K in a convertible note
04:45 – Paytailor was launched in 2015
- 04:55 – Paytailor started as a side project
05:15 – Team size
05:24 – Paytailor’s development is based in Estonia
05:38 – Why did you give up good pay in the digital field to start Paytailor?
- 05:52 – “We see a problem”
- 06:31 – Paytailor also has a 1.8% per transaction fee
- 06:58 – Paytailor’s payment gateway
07:14 – Rode is 32
07:32 – What Rode is being paid as a founder
08:09 – Rode’s plan for 2017 is to expand in Europe
- 08:30 – “We don’t want to be a financial institution”
08:50 – Rode sees that they have to expand as they make adjustments
09:31 – Last month sales is €450
- 10:50 – Paytailor has 20 taxis as merchants
- 11:22 – Some of the merchants’ usage is once a month
13:14 – Paytailor’s focus is to test out different kinds of users
13:24 – Paytailor currently has 4 bars as merchants
14:44 – Paytailor’s merchants are not using their service exclusively
16:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

If you can see a problem then try to create a solution.
Expanding helps your company to improve and grow.
You have to start somewhere – regardless of how small it is.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 576: Will This Mobile Payments Startup Survive with CEO Rode Luhaaar?

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders