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Startup Spotlight – FuPay

For individuals and businesses alike, traditional payment methods can be cumbersome and time-consuming. That’s where FuPay comes in. This revolutionary payment platform provides a seamless and efficient experience that addresses many of the challenges posed by traditional payment methods that can be slow, inconvenient, and often come with high transaction fees.

FuPay offers fast and secure transactions that can be completed with just a few taps on a smartphone. With millions of dollars in payments processed each day and top-notch security features, The platform utilizes cutting-edge technology to offer fast and secure transactions that can be completed with just a few taps on a smartphone. 

By streamlining the payment process and offering top-notch security features, FuPay aims to provide a solution that addresses many of the challenges posed by traditional payment methods. Whether you’re a business owner or a consumer, FuPay’s goal is to make financial transactions easier, faster, and more secure. Overall, FuPay is quickly becoming the go-to choice for businesses of all sizes.

Competitors

Fupay operates in the highly competitive mobile payment and financial management industry, with several other players in the market. Here are some of Fupay’s main competitors:

• Afterpay: An Australian buy now, pay later service that allows customers to pay for their purchases in four interest-free instalments.

• Zip Co: Another Australian buy now, pay later service that offers interest-free payments and other financial services to customers.

• Klarna: A Swedish fintech company that provides online payment solutions, including a buy now, pay later service.

• Venmo: A popular peer-to-peer payment app in the United States that allows users to send and receive money, split expenses, and make online purchases.

• Square Cash: A mobile payment app in the US that allows users to send and receive money, make purchases, and manage their finances.

• Revolut: A UK-based digital banking and payment platform that offers a range of financial services, including a mobile payment app.

These companies offer similar services to Fupay and are also focused on serving young people and millennials. However, Fupay differentiates itself from its competitors by providing a more comprehensive platform that combines payment and financial management features. Fupay also has a strong focus on financial education and empowering young people to take control of their finances.

Funding

Fupay has raised a total of AUD 23.5 million across multiple funding rounds to date. Here is a breakdown of the funding series of Fupay:

• Series D funding – March 2022: Fupay raised AUD 4.5 million from unnamed investors
• Series C funding – September 2021: Fupay raised AUD 2 million from unnamed individual investors
• Series B funding – May 2021: Fupay raised AUD 12 million from  Australian financial services firm FlexiGroup, along with Reinventure, Apex Capital Partners, and Artesian
• Series A funding – 2019: Fupay raised AUD 5 million from Westpac’s venture capital fund Reinventure and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes both Australian companies.

Reinventure and Apex Capital Partners have participated in multiple funding rounds for Fupay. Both venture capital firms participated in Fupay’s Series D funding round, which raised $25 million, as well as in previous funding rounds. Additionally, Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian and a prominent tech investor, has invested in Fupay in multiple funding rounds.

Acquisitions

Fupay has not made any major acquisitions to date. The company has primarily focused on developing and growing its core payment and financial management platform, as well as building partnerships with other companies in the fintech and financial services industries.

That being said, Fupay is still a relatively young company and may consider strategic acquisitions in the future as it continues to expand its reach and capabilities. 

Founder

Michael Fredericks is one of the co-founders of Fupay, a mobile payment and financial management platform for young people. He is also the CEO of the company. Fredericks is an experienced entrepreneur and business leader with a passion for fintech and financial inclusion.

Before founding Fupay, Fredericks worked at several companies involving disruptive technology, property and financial services. Onthehouse changed the property data landscape in Australia forever by empowering consumers with property insights, sales data and valuations for free and built a monthly audience of over 3.5M Australians.

Through his previous experience, he gained a deep understanding of the financial industry and saw firsthand the challenges that young people face when it comes to managing their finances.

Inspired by this experience, Fredericks decided to launch Fupay in 2017. The company’s mission is to provide young people with a platform that makes it easy to manage their finances, make payments, and achieve their financial goals.

Under Fredericks’ leadership, Fupay has grown rapidly and has received significant funding from top investors. 

Fredericks is known for his entrepreneurial spirit, his deep understanding of the fintech industry, and his commitment to social impact. He is passionate about using technology to improve financial inclusion and has spoken on this topic at numerous conferences and events.

Overall, Michael Fredericks is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and fintech leader who has played a critical role in the development and success of Fupay. His vision, passion, and commitment to innovation and social impact have helped Fupay become a leading player in the fintech industry.

Investors

Fupay has received funding from a range of investors, including venture capital firms, financial institutions, and individual investors. Here are some of the notable investors in Fupay:

Reinventure Capital: Westpac’s venture capital fund, has invested in several fintech startups in Australia.

Mike Cannon-Brookes: Co-founder of Atlassian and one of Australia’s most prominent tech investors.

Apex Capital Partners: An Australian investment firm that focuses on early-stage technology companies.

Artesian (Alternative Investments): A global venture capital firm that has invested in a range of startups in Australia and around the world.

FlexiGroup Limited (FXL): An Australian financial services company that provides payment solutions and other financial services to customers.

Unnamed individual investors: Fupay has also received funding from individual investors who are interested in supporting the company’s growth and vision.

The support of these investors has enabled Fupay to raise significant capital to support its growth and expansion. Additionally, the expertise and networks of these investors have helped Fupay to develop its platform and reach a wider audience.

Insights

Fupay is a fintech company that provides a platform to manage all bank accounts and financial transactions in one place. Fupay stands out from other fintech companies because it allows users to connect multiple bank accounts from different banks. The platform uses artificial intelligence to provide personalized insights and recommendations to its users. It has a strong focus on security and privacy, using bank-level encryption to protect users’ financial information. Fupay promotes financial wellness by offering financial education content, budgeting tools, and personalized financial advice. 

It also encourages users to give back to the community by donating a portion of their cashback rewards to charity. Fupay has received significant funding from investors and has completed several acquisitions to expand its services. Overall, Fupay is a promising fintech company that empowers users to take control of their finances and achieve financial wellness.

In personal finance, keeping track of bills, expenses, and payments can be a real headache. With so many financial responsibilities to manage, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and fall behind on payments. This is where Beforepay comes in – a revolutionary new app that aims to simplify and streamline how we manage our finances.

Beforepay is an innovative new financial app that provides users with a convenient way to access their earned income in advance, allowing them to better manage their financial obligations. With Beforepay, eligible customers can advance (or ‘Cash Out’) up to $2000 for a fixed 5% transaction fee.

Beforepay charges a single, fixed transaction fee of 5% on each advance. The fee model is deliberately simple, transparent and inexpensive to give customers total control.

Beforepay does not charge any interest, late fees or other ongoing costs, unlike

traditional lending products. So, on a Cash Out of $300, the transaction fee would be $15, and the total repayment would only ever be $315 – never more.

The app works by connecting to a user’s bank account and tracking their income and expenses in real time. Once a user’s income is deposited into their account, Beforepay automatically calculates how much they are eligible to borrow and makes the funds available for withdrawal. The app charges a small fee for this service, but it’s a small price to pay for the peace of mind that comes with having access to your earnings when you need them.

Beforepay is not just a cash advance app, it’s a financial wellness platform designed to help users achieve financial stability and freedom. The app provides users with tools to help them better manage their money, including a budgeting tool that tracks expenses and helps users stay on top of their bills.

Another unique feature of Beforepay is its flexible repayments feature. This feature allows users to pay their bills on time and avoid late fees by splitting their bills into smaller, more manageable payments. Users can set up automatic payments for their bills, and the app will ensure that payments are made on time and in full.

Beforepay is a game-changer in the world of personal finance. It provides users with a convenient and easy-to-use platform for managing their finances, making it easier to stay on top of bills and avoid late fees. It’s also a great tool for those who may be living paycheck to paycheck, as it provides a safety net for unexpected expenses or emergencies.

Competitors

While Beforepay is a unique and innovative financial app, it’s not the only player in the game. There are several competitors in the space, each offering similar services to help users manage their finances. Here are a few of the top competitors to Beforepay:

EarnIn: Like Beforepay, Earnin allows users to access their earned income in advance. The app charges no fees or interest, but users can choose to leave a tip to support the service.

Dave: Dave is another app that offers cash advances to users, as well as budgeting tools and a fee-free checking account. Unlike Beforepay, Dave charges a $1 monthly membership fee.

Branch: Branch is a financial app that provides users with access to earned wages, as well as a fee-free checking account and budgeting tools. The app charges a small fee for cash advances.

MoneyLion: MoneyLion is a comprehensive financial platform that offers a range of services, including access to earned wages, personal loans, and credit monitoring. The app charges a monthly membership fee for its services.

While each of these apps offers similar services to Beforepay, it’s important to consider the unique features and pricing structures of each platform to determine which one is right for you. Ultimately, the choice will depend on your individual financial needs and preferences.

Funding

Beforepay, in just a few short years, has already raised over $30 million in funding from reputable venture capital firms.

Beforepay has more than 750,000 registered users as of December 2022

• Beforepay (ASX: B4P) raised AUD $35 million in its initial public offering (IPO) in January 2022. This funding will be used to continue the company’s growth and expansion, as well as to develop new features and services for its users.
• Series A Round – Beforepay (formerly known as Cheq) raised $9 million in a Series A funding round in September 2020. The funding was led by Tidal Ventures, with participation from Reinventure, Apex Capital Partners, and existing investors.
• Pre-Series A Round – The company’s Pre-Series A funding round was announced in September 2020 and raised AUD 9 million (approximately USD 6.5 million). The funding round was led by Alium Capital Management, with participation from a number of other investors, including AirTree Ventures, Reinventure Group, and the former CEO of ANZ Banking Group, Mike Smith. 
• Seed Round – it was led by Reinventure Group in 2019. It has been reported that Beforepay raised a total of AUD 1.6 million ($1.2 million USD) in its seed funding round from a group of investors, which included Reinventure Group and Artesian Venture Partners.

Overall, Beforepay has raised over $30 million in funding to date from top venture capital firms. These funds have allowed the company to continue developing its platform and expand its services to help even more people achieve financial stability and freedom.

Founder

Tarek Ayoub is a financial technology entrepreneur with a background in finance and technology. Before launching Beforepay, he had previously worked at PwC Australia. This is where he gained experience in building and scaling technology platforms.

Ayoub founded Beforepay in 2019 with the mission of helping people achieve greater financial stability and freedom. He saw an opportunity to use technology to provide an alternative to traditional payday loans and help people access their earned income when they need it most.

Under Ayoub’s leadership, Beforepay has grown rapidly and received funding from top venture capital firms. The company has also been recognized for its innovative approach to personal finance and has won several awards.

Ayoub is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ayoub’s background in finance and technology, coupled with his entrepreneurial drive, has made him a respected leader in the financial tech space. With his vision and leadership, Beforepay is poised to continue its growth and help even more people achieve financial stability and freedom.

Investors

Beforepay has raised over $30 million in funding from top venture capital firms.

ALIUM Capital Management: In August 2021, Alium Capital Management led an AUD 9 million ($6.6 million USD) funding round for Beforepay.

AirTree Ventures: In May 2020, Beforepay raised AUD 9 million ($6.6 million USD) in a funding round led by AirTree Ventures.

Reinventure Group: Beforepay’s initial seed funding round was led by Reinventure Group in 2019, although the specific investment amount is unknown.

APEX Capital Partners: In December 2020, Apex Capital Partners invested AUD 4 million ($2.9 million USD) in Beforepay.

Artesian (Alternative Investments) Venture Partners: In October 2019, Beforepay received AUD 125,000 ($92,000 USD) in seed funding from Artesian Venture Partners.

Beforepay’s investors bring not only financial support but also valuable expertise and connections in the financial tech industry. With the support of these top investors, Beforepay is well-positioned to continue its growth and become a major player in the space.

Insights

Beforepay is a fintech company that provides users with early access to their earned wages before payday. The company’s mission is to help people achieve greater financial stability and freedom by providing an alternative to traditional payday loans.

One of the things that stands out about Beforepay is its focus on user experience. The company has developed a simple and user-friendly mobile app that allows users to easily access their earned wages and manage their finances. The app includes features such as real-time transaction tracking and budgeting tools, which can help users stay on top of their finances and avoid costly fees and penalties.

Another notable aspect of Beforepay is its rapid growth and success in securing funding from top venture capital firms. The company has raised over $30 million in funding to date, which has allowed it to continue developing its platform and expand its services to help even more people.

Overall, Beforepay seems to be a promising fintech company that is addressing an important need in the market. With its focus on user experience and innovative approach to personal finance, the company is well-positioned to continue its growth and make a positive impact in the industry.

Refundid is an Australian-based fintech solution that provides immediate refunds on eCommerce purchases. The firm is headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales. The company’s main goal is to protect and change how customers transact online. Refundid removes the conventional two to three week wait by refunding the customers before shipping the goods back. They also protect the retailers by giving them ample time to get and inspect the returned items. 

Refundid has revolutionised customers’ loyalty and confidence driving an increase in retailers’ performance. As the provider of instant refund solutions, customers can choose their desired feature when returning the goods to the online retailer and get back their funds in real time. Refundid is the merchant provider for the likes of Shopify. They’re in charge of declining, accepting, pending, and archiving returns processed by the platform externally. 

Refundid was established in 2020 and launched in 2021 by co-founders Ilan Kessler, Judd Katz, Joel Aaron, and Brad Karney to cut customers’ waiting time. The company acts as the middleman between the retailer and the customer. They pay the customer and take the payment later after it has been approved by the retailer. The platform is 100% free to use. The Aussie fintech presently uses 65 active technologies for its platforms. Some of them include SPF, iPhone/Mobile Compatible, and Viewport Meta. Refundid is used by 80 retailers, including Adore Beauty, Sass & Bide, Culture Kings, and Showpo. 

Investments 

Refundid has raised $15 million in 2 funding rounds and is funded by seven investors. The most recent one was on the 18th of July, 2022.

• Seed Round (July 18, 2022) – $12 million raised by 2 investors. Salesforce was the lead investor.
• Seed Round (September 2, 2021) – A$3 million raised in equity and debt funding by 2 investors. The funding round was led by Afterpay-backed AP Ventures. 

Investor profile

Salesforce Ventures

Salesforce Ventures was established in 2009 as a corporate venture branch of California-based Salesforce.com. The venture capital company invests in the next generation of technology and cloud-based firms. Salesforce Ventures assists enterprising founders in creating companies that change how the world operates. They have partnered and invested in over 400 most revolutionising software companies, ranging from seed to IPO. Some of the enterprising companies that they have invested in include Snowflake, Airtable, Hopin, Snyk, Tanium, Zoom, Databricks, Stripe, and nCino. Refunded is one of the latest additions to their investment portfolio. Salesforce Ventures led the funding round that raised a total of $12 million for Refundid, a local tech start-up in 2022.

Touch Ventures

Founded in 2019, Touch Ventures is an Australian leading investment holding firm that focuses on scalable investment opportunities and high growth with a proven revenue model. They also provide high growth and capital to enterprising companies that are focused on afterpay’s experience, customers, and merchants. Their areas of interest include consumer, finance, retail innovation, and data with a preference for globally expansive businesses. Touch Ventures has made eight investments, one of them was the funding round organised by the Aussie fintech Refundid in 2022. Touch Ventures has also invested in the likes of Her Black Book, CredShare, Preezie, Till Payments, Postpay, and Sendle. 

AP Ventures

Headquartered in London, AP Ventures provides capital funds for technological companies that address global issues. They invest mostly in hydrogen production, transportation, storage, and its application to provide solutions to structural constraints. Their partners have been creating high-growth technology companies since 2014 across the hydrogen value chain. In 2021, Refundid raised $3 million in a funding round led by Afterpay-backed venture capital fund AP ventures, which is also backed by retail veteran Paul Greenberg.  

Shearwater Capital

Shearwater Capital was established in 2018 as a growth firm that invests in growth-stage companies. The capital venture company is located in New South Wales. Shearwater is interested in SaaS and b2b payment sectors. The company has made a total of eight investments. Its last one came up on the 16th of November, 2022 when $2.5 million was raised by ClearCalcs. The company is passionate about New Zealand and Australian technology businesses. Some of the companies in their portfolio include Playground, Audience Republic, Refundid, Diffuse Energy, Sitemate, Fuel50, Amber, Lyka, Zero Co, and Buildxact. 

Achievements

• Refundid bagged two nominations at the 2022 NORA Awards in the Best Tech Startup, and Best Returns Solutions categories. 
• Refundid has revolutionised eCommerce returns where online shoppers get instant refunds. It is opposed to the long wait associated with the traditional way of shopping online. 

Board of directors

The Australian company Refundid has five people on its executive team. 

• Brad Karney is a co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer at Refundid. 
• Judd Katz is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Refundid.
• Illan Kessler is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Refundid.
• Joel Aaron is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Refundid.
• Paul Greenberg is an angel investor. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of the National Online Retailers Association (NORA). Paul is also one of the founders of Auctionbrokers.com.au and Deals Direct. At Refundid, he acts as the advisor. 

A very new company leveraging Web3 technology and way ahead of the curve. Most people are just getting their heads around Crypto and Blockchain while these guys are already building software for developers to create Web3 apps.

Spice AI is a startup technology company that assists developers to create intelligent apps that adapt and learn. The Seattle-based company was founded by Luke Kim and Phillip LeBlanc in June 2021. With a footprint in Australia, Asia, and other parts of the globe, the company is expanding and has a number of developer roles open. 

Since inception, Spice AI has raised $14.5 million in funding. One of the founders, Luke Kim, was the co-creator and founding manager of Azure Incubation at Microsoft. At the time, he was head of the team that developed Dapr and other technologies. He spent fifteen years working on related projects before he created Spice AI. 

Philip LeBlanc worked on distributed systems at Microsoft and GitHub before joining Spice AI alongside Kim. he has been building some of the world’s largest distributed systems for more than ten years. 

Spice AI is creating a Web3 foundational platform for developers to use. To do this, they are building the infrastructure to create applications that are ML/AI-driven and can solve complex data problems in Web3. The platform will prevent developers from spending lots of money on building their own data engineering and infrastructure. The young company is also interested in providing real-time perspectives from time series data across chain power intelligent apps for various sectors and industries. This system will help in fraud detection, retailing, and security trading. The Spice.AI runtime runs as a microservice and is written in Python and Golang. 

Investments

With more than 20 investors, Spice AI has raised over $14 million in over two rounds. The most recent funding round, led by Madrona Venture Group, was completed on the 7th of September 2022, where $13.5 million in funding was achieved. Elysium Venture Capital and TA Venture are two of their latest investors. The first seed, which saw thirteen investors participating, raised a total of $1.1 million in October 2021. 

Funding rounds:

• Pre-Seed Round (14th of October 2021) – $1.1 million raised by 13 investors
• Seed Round (September 7, 2022) – $13.5 million raised by 16 investors

Investor’s profile

Spice AI has a total of 21 investors. Some of the notable names include Cardinia Ventures, Asymmetric, Protocol Labs, IEX Group, TA Ventures, Elysium Venture Capital, Madrona Venture Labs, Alumni Ventures, Blackbird Venture Capital and GitHub. Some of their individual investors and partners are Shane Mac, John McCann and Thomas Dohmke, who is the Chief product Officer at GitHub. 

Madrona Venture Group

Founded in 1995 in Seattle, Washington in USA, Madrona Venture Group is a capitalist venture company that helps startup companies incubate their ideas. They invest in early to developmental stages. The American company has raised a total of $2.9 billion in 13 funds. Their most recent funding in September 2022 raised a total of $430 million. Madrona was the lead investor in the seed funding that raised $14 million for Spice AI in 2022. 

Blackbird VC

The Australian capital venture group, Blackbird Venture Capitalist participated in the funding round for the Seattle technology company in 2022. The company was created in 2012 by Larry Marshal. Blackbird VC invests in hardware, technology, education, and other enterprising sectors in Australia and other places. Their investments cover seeds to accelerating stages. The company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

GitHub

Angel investor Nat Friedman, who is the CEO of GitHub, is one of the key investors at Spice AI. GitHub is a provider of code hosting services for developers to create open-source software and private projects in organizations. GitHub has raised a total of $350 million in funding since its inception. GitHub was acquired in June 2018 for a total of $7.5 billion in stock by Microsoft. 

Elysium Venture Capital

Elysium VC is an investment management group with main focus on creating global opportunities in technology. The company was founded in 2017 in Palto Alto California, United States of America. Elysium invests in fintech, artificial intelligence, consumer tech, software and blockchain. They help these companies in developing their business ideas, recruiting and product marketing. The company is one of the latest investors of Spice AI. Elysium VC participated in the second funding round that saw the startup tech company raised $13.5 million. 

Achievements

• Spice.XYZ has successfully created a platform that allows developers to access web3 data on all chains through SQL over high-performance Apache Arrow APIs. It has also eased blockchain application development.
• Spicerack allows developers to share their manifest with their reward functions. It allows other developers to access and reuse them for their use. 

Board of directors

Spice AI currently has 6 top executives, including the two founders and four members of the Board. 

• Luke Kim is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Spice AI.
• Phillip LeBlanc is the founder and Chief Technical Officer at Spice AI
• Thomas Dohmke is the CEO and Chief Product Officer at GitHub. He has made three investments, one of them was in the Spice AI’s seed round in September 7, 2022. 
• David Chen is the advisory partner at Spice AI and the Product Manager at Avatars (Meta).
• Tim Porter joined the team in September 2021 as one of the partners at Spice AI. He is the Managing Director at Madrona VC. 
• Joe McCann is the advisory partner at Spice AI. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer at Asymmetric. McCann has made 9 investments so far. His latest investment was at the Spice AI’s seed funding round in September 7, 2022. 

Insights 

Very impressive to see the amount raised by this company in just a year. With the global emphasis on blockchain, web3, and AI, I think there will be a lot more investors looking for companies like this in the coming year.

Will be keeping an eye on Spice AI. Noticed they have just a couple Youtube videos up from a year ago, but it looks like they are expanding their team and will be making more waves soon.

Shotstack will be a company to look out for with explosive growth in the near future. Very exciting what they are doing in the video space with automation. Having personally integrated and experienced their brand and service, I’m a big fan of Shotstack.

They haven’t received funding as of yet so there’s not a huge amount of publicity online, but the business is doing quite well bootstrapping and on target to hit some big goals.

Shotstack enables anyone to massively scale their video production capabilities using automation. It’s a video editing API and high availability rendering platform that can edit 1000’s of videos concurrently. 

Their vision is to build a platform that enables the creation of new kinds of video based applications never thought possible before.

Founded by Jeff Shillitto in April 2019, he left his full time job and was accepted into a business accelerator program in Brisbane. Commuting back and forth between Sydney and Brisbane, he was committed and soon landed his first large client.

Derk Zomer joined the company in 2021 as Jeff was looking for a co-founder to handle business operations and take things to a new level. Together they have adopted a new pricing model, hired a few extra programmers and are on track to hit $40k – $50k MRR by the end of 2022.

Business Model

Shotstack currently has an entry $49 plan which includes 200 credits and subsequently 200 minutes of video output. They also have a free plan which I found incredibly helpful to get started with their API and build something useful before investing further $$. Their higher tiered plans are great for enterprise users and this is where they seem to be obtaining the majority of their revenue to date.

It seems the best use cases for their service is mass scale data oriented videos for industries such as real estate, or automotive, but the potential opportunities are endless.

The limitation of their service right now is the technical coding requirements to get started. They are working on GUI options to enable easier creation of templates but the service is ideally aimed at coding level integration.

If you are technical like myself, I found their API quite easy to learn and integrate with. 

There’s definitely opportunity here for a middle-man type vendor who can provide a tailored solution for specific verticals. I.e integration with specific CRM’s or databases to output specific custom made templates.

Integration

Having personally integrated with Shotstack using the Laravel framework on PHP, I found their API quite straightforward. Not professionally a programmer myself but I do like to play around and build my own custom web applications.

The videos I created were new candidate profiles who I have spoken to that are looking for a new job. The idea is to post these candidate details on LinkedIn and other social sites to attract hiring managers. The benefit of video is that it attracts more attention than just a text or graphic post.

What I did was implement an API connection with my CRM so that when certain candidate fields are updated it would automatically grab that user information, and send a CURL request to Shotstack. Once the video was rendered, it would send a notification back to my Laravel application which would then update my CRM with the video url.

I use Zapier to automatically post that video and associated information to various social sites and my CMS.

You can either use a web hook request with Zapier or you can simply use the RSS zap. It’s easy enough to create a RSS feed from Laravel with all the candidate details and video urls. When Zapier requests that url it outputs a feed of new candidates, but also runs other functions to find updated candidates and send new requests to Shotstack. This meant I didn’t need to set up a CRON job or server automation which is a nice little trick. 

The main benefit being it just works on autopilot when I update a field in my CRM. This is where I can see a middle man opportunity to work with companies in specific verticals that utilise unique CRM’s. 

Insights

It was very interesting to talk with Jeff and get his viewpoint on bootstrapping and his challenges and triumphs along the way. I’m not a Startup Investor (yet) but I dare say they are prime for investment funding to scale up their team and service offering.

Looking forward to seeing how this company evolves in the coming years.