I’ve known Aziz for a while. We regularly played ping pong at the Euroborg where we both worked. I was in the final phase of my company ApplicationNet, and Aziz did desk work as an accountant, or something similar. That was never entirely clear. An enterprising guy, Aziz, and in 2012 he, along with Merijn, bought a piece of software. The name of the software: Want my money!
Aziz came to have a cup of tea in my garden and told me about his latest acquisition. He asked if I wanted to take a look at it and perhaps was interested in helping to set it up. Aziz brought Merijn along, and I brought Rob and Jelger. Rob and Jelger worked at KPN, and we had enjoyed a very close collaboration over the previous four years. We wanted to continue that. So, did we start nicely with the five of us? Well, not really. We also needed someone who could actually build something. And that’s how Herman joined us. Herman had already worked on the code from Warpnet, so actually, Herman was the first, and we joined him. Immediately after, Sebastiaan joined us. The magnificent seven.
In 2013, we doubled our revenue compared to 2012 to €26,535 for the entire year. We suffered a loss of more than €400,000. And that loss didn’t decrease in the years that followed. Especially not when we also decided to become the main sponsor of FC Groningen. That was exciting, of course. Looking back, everything seems so logical. But when you’re facing it, you need to have strong nerves. Especially since we didn’t seek external financiers and thus covered all the losses ourselves. Most of the starting group went all-in. The last savings and more were invested in our beautiful company. The debt counter stopped at about €5 million when we finally had some money left over for the first time in 2020.
What makes Payt so special to me is that we have an incredible amount of quality in-house. Wherever you look in our organization, there are smart people who have a broader perspective than just their own function. It all seems so easy, but anyone who has worked at another company knows how different it can be. If you bring in the wrong customers, make bad software, or have too much staff turnover. How much time, energy, and customer satisfaction it costs when mistakes are made. Not that we don’t make mistakes. But they are limited, and we then resolve them neatly and preferably structurally. It is an honor for me to work for Payt and with all of you!
