Richard Carter, founder and CEO of Lopay, knows what it takes to build a business from the ground up.
Lopay is a payment platform that helps small businesses accept card payments in a cheaper and faster way than industry giants like Zettle and Square.
It allows businesses to take payments with lower transaction fees and get their money instantly, rather than waiting a few days. Since its launch in 2022, Lopay has saved its 50,000 UK clients over millions in transaction fees annually.
But Carter's journey wasn’t always smooth, nor was it accidental, and his story offers valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs aiming to turn their ideas into thriving businesses.
From identifying a market gap to fostering resilience, here are his secrets to entrepreneurial success.
Lopay is a payment platform that helps small businesses accept card payments in a cheaper and faster way than industry giants like Zettle and Square.
It allows businesses to take payments with lower transaction fees and get their money instantly, rather than waiting a few days. Since its launch in 2022, Lopay has saved its 50,000 UK clients over millions in transaction fees annually.
But Carter's journey wasn’t always smooth, nor was it accidental, and his story offers valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs aiming to turn their ideas into thriving businesses.
From identifying a market gap to fostering resilience, here are his secrets to entrepreneurial success.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm here with Richard Carter, the co-founder and CEO of LowePay.
00:05Why don't you explain a little bit about yourself and what your company does
00:08and for those who might not be familiar with it?
00:10Yes, so Richard, the founder of LowePay.
00:13Ultimately, we are, I guess, a better, faster, lower cost version of Zettle,
00:19sum up and square, with the objective of empowering small businesses
00:24to get their money faster and not pay as much for it as they need to
00:31at the lowest possible cost.
00:33How did this sort of idea to explore that kind of area come to you?
00:38What inspired you to start the business?
00:41Well, I have another business called OrderPay,
00:44which is focused on ordering and paying at the table in hospitality.
00:47And that business took off somewhat in the post-COVID trading restrictions
00:52where we had to have social distancing.
00:54So we used the QR codes to order and pay at the table.
00:58That took off and we were across thousands of venues in the UK.
01:01And I spoke to a lot of hospitality businesses that were finding it tough
01:05in those trading times after COVID.
01:09And one of the things that blew me away was how much they were paying
01:13to take a card payment, but also how long they had to wait to get their money.
01:17It just blew me away that they were paying, you know, 2%.
01:20And then if they took money on a Friday, they weren't getting it until a Monday.
01:23And if it was after 6pm on a Friday, they might not get it to Tuesday.
01:27And these are folks who are already up against it.
01:29And 80% of their revenues were Thursday to Saturday.
01:32And they were all having to wait.
01:34You know, they wanted to cash and carry on a Sunday and, you know, buy their stuff.
01:37So I saw that there was a real gap for instant access to funds.
01:43And also that there was, it seemed that there was some, you know,
01:47unreasonable prices being charged in the market.
01:51You mentioned this was all sort of taking place as a sort of response to COVID, post-COVID.
01:55What sort of timeframe are we talking for when you started the business?
01:59Well, we started the pilot for the business at the end of 21.
02:03So I guess coming out of the learnings and wide scene from COVID,
02:05and then we launched Lope in January 2022.
02:09And, you know, I'd say that unashamedly, I'd looked at some of those giants
02:14like Zestel, SumUp and Square.
02:15And I'd looked at, you know, what are the things that they do really well,
02:18because they do some things really, really well.
02:20And then sort of saying, well, how can we do those things better?
02:23And sprinkling our own bit of magic on top of that,
02:25which is our reward scheme and our instant access.
02:28So we set about launching the business in January 2022.
02:32We focused initially on taxi drivers in London
02:36because we thought they were really being very poorly served.
02:39I don't know if you've got a cab in London, but quite often when you do,
02:42they go, don't use that one in the back, mate.
02:44Use this one in the front.
02:45And they pass you a card reader through.
02:46And that's because they're paying three to five percent for the terminals in the back.
02:51So we thought we'd help those guys out.
02:53And it turned out to be a really good sector to go after initially,
02:56because if you perform for them and treat them well and, you know,
03:00deliver on your promises, they're amazing advocates.
03:03And they tell everybody when they're something that's good.
03:06And we engineered into the product a referral scheme where if you refer a customer,
03:10you get a thousand pounds in free payment processing.
03:13And so do they.
03:14So we were very fortunate in having this really viral growth from an early start
03:21with a bunch of really happy users.
03:23So, yeah, and then that spread to then going back to a number of those people that we've met,
03:28obviously in COVID and those hospitality venues saying, hey, guys, we've solved the problem.
03:32You get your money straight away, it goes straight to a card.
03:35And by the way, if you spend on that card, it further reduces the already really low rates that we charge.
03:41So we're actually now the world's lowest cost, highest rated app to take payments.
03:48And if you're not happy with it being the lowest cost, you can make it free.
03:53And people say, what's the catch?
03:54Well, the catch is you have to use our expense and reward card.
03:57And if you use that, it's free.
03:59If you use it, you can offset those fees further to zero.
04:02So really feel pleased about how we're solving that initial problem,
04:06but really helping UK small business.
04:09I think we say what our aim is, it's to increase the GDP of small and micro businesses in the UK and in other geos.
04:16That's really what we're passionate about doing.
04:19Yeah. Speaking of that bug, what's the most sort of rewarding thing about startups, running your own business?
04:24What keeps you going?
04:26What gives you that work ethic and what drives you forward?
04:29Interesting. The things that keep you going and get you going are also the things that worry you,
04:34because having lots of friends who have invested in your business,
04:38you want to make sure that it works, obviously.
04:41But in terms of what keeps you going, the challenge is amazing.
04:47Taking on the giants, there's nothing like taking on a few decacorns, right?
04:51You've got SumUp worth over 10 billion, Zettel, multiple billions, Square, multiple billions,
04:57and coming along and taking on the giants.
04:59I quite like that. That's quite a cool thing to do.
05:03We've got an awesome team of 30 guys and girls at Lope, which we just have great fun with.
05:12We're really flexible in terms of our work approach.
05:15Everybody's very collaborative, very flat structure.
05:18It's super exciting to think that you've built something, you've built something that people like,
05:23and then it's not only relevant in your country, it could be relevant in other countries.
05:28There's something generally quite cool about knowing that you're saving people money.
05:33It's very rare to have something that's a pseudo-utility, and it's less than half the price of other people,
05:39and when they use it, everybody benefits.
05:41It's a very rare situation, so I enjoy it, enjoy it a lot.