Welcome to Startup of the Week. A column by Switchboard Public Relations highlighting BC’s most innovative and exciting tech startups. Today, we’re featuring Victoria’s MazumaGo.
The story of just about every company begins with someone casually asking a question. For the fintech startup MazumaGo, the question was simple and to the point: Why is it so hard for businesses to send money in 2020?
Clearly, anyone who answers, “Because it’s always been done this way” isn’t in tech. But the fact remains that while consumers have consistently adopted digital payments over the past decade, businesses has lagged far behind. Paper cheques have continued to be the most commonly used payment method for commercial transactions.
MazumaGo took this as a challenge to build for the future. It’s disrupting Canadian B2B payments with a new standard for money transfers that gives customers what they want, “no limits, no percentage fees, and no bullsh*t.” The company’s vision grew out of follow-up questions as to why businesses would want to use cheques – and in response, it developed a simple, secure network for businesses to exchange funds.
Matthew Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of MazumaGo talks about what he wishes he’d known a year ago, the one question every startup should ask itself, and what gets him out of bed in the morning.
Q: In 50 words, describe what your company does?
A: MazumaGo enables Canadian businesses to send and receive no-limit payments online for a flat fee. Think of an E-Transfer with added security for business transactions and no transfer limit. Pay suppliers, collect payments from customers and transfer money between internal accounts at different banks – all in one simple dashboard.
Q: Why did you start your company?
A: Businesses are still reliant on outdated payment methods like cheques because there is no simple, cost-effective solution to transfer high-value payments online. E-transfers are limited to
an amount, wire transfers are tedious, and credit card payments result in high percentage charges.
Q: Congratulations on your seed raise! What advice would you give others in the startup community who are looking to raise funds?
A: Raising money is hard, but try to get in and out of the market as fast as possible so you can get back to growing your business.
Q: What do you wish you’d known a year ago?
A: I wish I could have known how long good technology takes to build. It’s a continuous improvement process to build something that not only does what the customer wants, but does
it in a way that is intuitive and user-friendly.
Q: What methods do you use to anticipate future trends?
A: We look at stats on payment methods and usages, but we also talk to customers to find out exactly what they are experiencing and what they are asking for.
Q: What has been most helpful to building your business?
A: Customer feedback and an amazing team. We talk to our customers a lot to prioritize our product roadmap and improve our offering. We have a great team of innovative minds. Each one of us has their own “superpower” and we work together.
Q: What’s the best advice you received recently?
A: Get clarity on the assumptions you’re making before making a decision. You can never assume something is true without testing it or researching it.
Q: What is one question every startup should ask itself?
A: What kind of impact are we going to have on our customers? If the results are not positive, then maybe you should be building something else.
Q: What gets you out of bed every morning?
A: Knowing that I get to work on something that I helped create.
Q: What would you like people to know?
A: You can sign up free on our website and get your first transaction free: app.mazumago.com
Want to be featured as a Startup of the Week? If you are a BC-based tech startup that we should know about, or would like to suggest one, reach out to startups@switchboardpr.com.
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