\n<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve talked to a lot of entrepreneurs over the years, but John Caplan<\/a> might be the first one to tell me, flat out, that the best entrepreneurs are basically unemployable. As CEO of Payoneer<\/a>, John runs a company that quietly powers the global economy \u2014 a financial services platform serving two million customers around the world, moving roughly $100 billion a year for entrepreneurs selling on Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, and beyond. Since taking the reins, he\u2019s helped grow Payoneer from a $500 million business into a billion-dollar one. Here\u2019s his playbook.<\/p>\n Dan Bova: Can you give us the elevator pitch for Payoneer? What\u2019s something about crossing borders that entrepreneurs aren\u2019t thinking about that you\u2019re solving for?<\/strong> What is it about entrepreneurs that makes you want to help them? Can you talk about the steps you took that allowed you to grow to a billion-dollar company? Do you have any advice for leading someone who\u2019s smart but really risk-averse \u2014 afraid to make a mistake and almost paralyzed by that fear?<\/strong> Working on an international level, are there cultural norms you\u2019ve had to learn about working with people from different countries?<\/strong> For an entrepreneur wondering if they can trust a company like Payoneer with their business, what questions should they be asking?<\/strong> Any behind-the-curtain stories from your business or background that might be fun to share?<\/strong> I\u2019ve talked to a lot of entrepreneurs over the years, but John Caplan<\/a> might be the first one to tell me, flat out, that the best entrepreneurs are basically unemployable. As CEO of Payoneer<\/a>, John runs a company that quietly powers the global economy \u2014 a financial services platform serving two million customers around the world, moving roughly $100 billion a year for entrepreneurs selling on Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, and beyond. Since taking the reins, he\u2019s helped grow Payoneer from a $500 million business into a billion-dollar one. Here\u2019s his playbook.<\/p>\n Dan Bova: Can you give us the elevator pitch for Payoneer? What\u2019s something about crossing borders that entrepreneurs aren\u2019t thinking about that you\u2019re solving for?<\/strong>
John Caplan:<\/strong> Payoneer\u2019s an incredible company. We are 22 years old, and we provide all the financial tools an entrepreneur who operates their business cross-border needs. Think of us, in some ways, like a bank alternative. If you\u2019re an entrepreneur in Vietnam and you\u2019re selling products to Latin America and hiring talent across the Philippines, you use Payoneer\u2019s multi-currency wallet to really run your financial operations. We have two million customers in 190 countries, just about $100 billion of activity in the Payoneer accounts around the world, and we\u2019re over a billion-dollar revenue business and nearly $300 million of adjusted EBITDA.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bunch of things \u2014 the first thing is holding multiple currencies. If you sell in one currency and get paid in another, having a multi-currency wallet is not easy, because your local banks around the world don\u2019t provide that capability. The second thing we solve is providing everything in the palm of your hand \u2014 using your mobile phone as your financial command center. And I think the third primary benefit is all of the accounts receivable and accounts payable tools an entrepreneur needs. Maybe it\u2019s cards that they give their employees when they go on business trips with limits on them, or being able to send an invoice and a link to get paid quickly. A very simple set of tools that make running a business globally easy from day one. If you\u2019re at Procter & Gamble, you have a whole finance department that does that. But if you\u2019re a 100-person company in the Philippines, banks aren\u2019t really built for you. We exist for the entrepreneurs of the world \u2014 really the backbone of the global economy.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I am an insatiable entrepreneur myself. And, in a funny way, the best entrepreneurs are really unemployable at some level. We rebel against authority, and we want to make the world a better place. I\u2019ve often thought of entrepreneurship and leadership as two different things. Entrepreneurs are driven by passion and vision and sometimes naive hope, and leaders are driven by trying to build systems to turn those ideas into economics and a reality. I\u2019ve spent my career doing both \u2014 starting things from scratch and scaling them. The thing I enjoy most is coming into a company like Payoneer and running it with the entrepreneurial passion I\u2019ve had my whole life.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>This is the fourth or fifth big-scale transformation I\u2019ve led, and I really have a transformation playbook. It starts with cutting all the noise out, talking to customers, and actually listening to their needs instead of looking at your competition. That\u2019s thing number one. Recognizing how they create value so you can help them create the value they\u2019re trying to deliver is the second. The third is building a culture and a community of executives with a shared passion for the mission to make other people\u2019s lives better. And then a rigorous, data-driven decision-making process, so the numbers tell the story and we make decisions out of that data. At the end of the day, I act fast and I act fair, and people who work with me know I\u2019m committed to the results and the team delivering those results.<\/p>\n
I think it depends on the capacity. If fear is paralyzing someone, that can be a leadership issue \u2014 you\u2019ve got to create psychological safety for the people on your team. But some of it is a chemical thing \u2014 if someone\u2019s too risk-averse, they shouldn\u2019t be an entrepreneur. It feels good to me to wake up every morning and try to earn my job again. I start with zero credit in the morning, try to earn some, go to sleep exhausted from what we built, and try to get up tomorrow and do it again. At the end of the day, I think my job is to remove the biggest obstacles standing in the way of our next growth unlock.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an awesome question. We\u2019re 2,500 employees on staff and 4,000 people in total, on the ground in 30 countries \u2014 every culture you could imagine. I was on a Zoom this morning with a colleague in Mumbai, a colleague in Dubai, a colleague in Tel Aviv, me in New York, and somebody in London, all of us with different backgrounds. The great unifying principle behind all of us was that entrepreneurs around the world are the same. There\u2019s a common DNA \u2014 a restless desire to improve the world around you, take care of your kids, and create wealth and impact. The problem-solving skills and leadership approaches aren\u2019t always the same \u2014 some people are command-and-control, others are more collaborative, some use a lot of data, others move on instinct. But at the end of the day, the viewpoint is: Can I make something the world needs? Can I treat my customers fairly? And will I get paid fairly for it?<\/p>\n
I think first \u2014 you know it when you see it. There\u2019s no amount of glossed-up marketing that can get in the way of an organization that authentically has your best interests at heart and is trying to do the right thing. So trust your gut would be the first thing I\u2019d suggest. In a space like ours, there are lots of great financial services firms, and entrepreneurs have plenty of choices, but very few of them are actually built by entrepreneurs and for entrepreneurs \u2014 that\u2019s what we\u2019ve tried to do here. We built the capability to pay contractors and employees around the world compliantly because, by talking to our customers, it was clear that an insurance firm in Louisiana has people all over the world and needs a way to pay them compliantly \u2014 because if they don\u2019t pay them, they won\u2019t do the work, and they can\u2019t scale their business.<\/p>\n
When my grandfather came to the United States in 1904, he and his brother started a business in 1912 that is still in our family \u2014 Oscar Heyman and Brothers<\/a>, a luxury jewelry manufacturing firm. He and his brothers worked in the Faberg\u00e9 factories in Russia and brought that capability to the US. What runs in my veins is this idea that if you really want the dream, it\u2019s hard work, but you can do it if you\u2019re willing to make the sacrifices and create real value and put your mind to it. I\u2019ve lived my whole life sort of obsessed with helping people build companies. My barber \u2014 I helped him open a barber shop on 85th Street because he was too smart to be working for anybody else. At 55 years old, I\u2019ve finally got to the place where spending Saturdays with my barber, figuring out how he can grow his business, is actually fun for me. I\u2019m not sneaking off to play golf \u2014 I\u2019m helping him figure out how to set up his Square so he can get paid and do his marketing.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
John Caplan:<\/strong> Payoneer\u2019s an incredible company. We are 22 years old, and we provide all the financial tools an entrepreneur who operates their business cross-border needs. Think of us, in some ways, like a bank alternative. If you\u2019re an entrepreneur in Vietnam and you\u2019re selling products to Latin America and hiring talent across the Philippines, you use Payoneer\u2019s multi-currency wallet to really run your financial operations. We have two million customers in 190 countries, just about $100 billion of activity in the Payoneer accounts around the world, and we\u2019re over a billion-dollar revenue business and nearly $300 million of adjusted EBITDA.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bunch of things \u2014 the first thing is holding multiple currencies. If you sell in one currency and get paid in another, having a multi-currency wallet is not easy, because your local banks around the world don\u2019t provide that capability. The second thing we solve is providing everything in the palm of your hand \u2014 using your mobile phone as your financial command center. And I think the third primary benefit is all of the accounts receivable and accounts payable tools an entrepreneur needs. Maybe it\u2019s cards that they give their employees when they go on business trips with limits on them, or being able to send an invoice and a link to get paid quickly. A very simple set of tools that make running a business globally easy from day one. If you\u2019re at Procter & Gamble, you have a whole finance department that does that. But if you\u2019re a 100-person company in the Philippines, banks aren\u2019t really built for you. We exist for the entrepreneurs of the world \u2014 really the backbone of the global economy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n