In today’s episode of Tales from the PROS, I talk with Marwan Forzley, who is CEO of Veem.com, a next-generation global B2B payment network that enables a quick and secure way of sending and receiving money. Since its founding in 2014, Veem is backed by Goldman Sachs, Google Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and many many others.
In addition, Marwan is an innovator, visionary and enjoys launching new products in domestic as well as international markets through disruptive tech and global strategies. He is the author of “Small Business in a Big World: A Comprehensive Guide to Doing International Business”.
In this episode, we talk about Marwan’s journey to entrepreneurship and his experience of building a global payment network such as Veem. We talk about how Marwan spotted the gap between SMB and their payment problems, and how Veem disrupted the global payment space.
Don’t Miss:
1. How did Marwan came up with the idea of ‘Veem’ - 4:15
2. What sets a business on the path of success - 17:00
3. What it takes to be a strong business leader - 28:15
In today’s episode of Tales from the PROS, I talk with Marwan Forzley, who is CEO of Veem.com, a next-generation global B2B payment network that enables a quick and secure way of sending and receiving money. Since its founding in 2014, Veem is backed by Goldman Sachs, Google Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and many many others. In addition, Marwan is an innovator, visionary and enjoys launching new products in domestic as well as international markets through disruptive tech and global strategies. He is the author of “Small Business in a Big World: A Comprehensive Guide to Doing International Business”. In this episode, we talk about Marwan’s journey to entrepreneurship and his experience of building a global payment network such as Veem. We talk about how Marwan spotted the gap between SMB and their payment problems, and how Veem disrupted the global payment space. Don’t Miss: 1. How did Marwan came up with the idea of ‘Veem’ - 4:15 2. What sets a business on the path of success - 17:00 3. What it takes to be a strong business leader - 28:15 Listen and Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tales-from-the-pros/id1371067192 Topics We Discuss: 1. Marwan’s inspiring story of how he got to where he is today 2. Marwan talks about how to establish a market fit for a product or service 3. The key factors that set a business for success, from startup to an operating and scaling company 4. Some struggles and obstacles that Veem faced and how you overcame them 5. The future of payment systems and technology 6. Thoughts and advice on how to be a strong business leader 7. Marwan defines his story in ”one-word” Follow Marwan Forzley Website: https://www.veem.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marwanforzley Twitter: https://twitter.com/forzley/ Follow Me and Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/mgeorgiou22
Show Notes
In today’s episode of Tales from the PROS, I talk with Marwan Forzley, who is CEO of Veem.com, a next-generation global B2B payment network that enables a quick and secure way of sending and receiving money. Since its founding in 2014, Veem is backed by Goldman Sachs, Google Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and many many others.
In addition, Marwan is an innovator, visionary and enjoys launching new products in domestic as well as international markets through disruptive tech and global strategies. He is the author of “Small Business in a Big World: A Comprehensive Guide to Doing International Business”.
In this episode, we talk about Marwan’s journey to entrepreneurship and his experience of building a global payment network such as Veem. We talk about how Marwan spotted the gap between SMB and their payment problems, and how Veem disrupted the global payment space.
Don’t Miss:
1. How did Marwan came up with the idea of ‘Veem’ - 4:15
2. What sets a business on the path of success - 17:00
3. What it takes to be a strong business leader - 28:15
Tales From The PROS is a tech storytelling podcast that interviews top leaders, founders, and authority figures in the tech industry, telling their stories of how they got to where they are today and the struggles they overcame. These are fireside chats and open conversations hosted by Michael Georgiou, who is the Co-founder at Imaginovation.
Tales From The PROS | Business Leader Stories | Entrepreneurship | Storytelling | CEO's | Business Inspiration | Leadership | Humility | Gratitude | Technology
Marwan Forzley:
Well well, it's a it's a bit of both because, like, nothing builds overnight. It takes time to scale and build these things. But you know you got something when, when you got customers and you're not sure where where they came from. Because that's, like, one thing that was super interesting in the early days. We we we would got customers, and we nobody really ensured, like, who got them in.
Michael Georgiou:
This is Tales From the Pros, where business leaders and influencers share their stories of inspiration, struggles, and successes. And I'm your host, Michael Georgiou. Hey, everyone. Welcome to Tales from the Pros, and this is Michael Georgiou, your host and cofounder of Imagine Ovation. My amazing guest with me here today is the CEO of Veeam, the global b to b payment network.
Michael Georgiou:
With over 300 300,000 small and midsized businesses around the globe, Veeam provides simple, secure, and trackable payments to over a 100 countries. Since the company's founding in 2014, Veeam is backed by Goldman Sachs, Google Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and many, many others. He is an innovator, visionary, and enjoys launching new products in domestic, US, and international markets and building companies through disruptive tech and global strategies. And he is the author of Small Business in a Big World, a comprehensive guide to doing international business. Please welcome the awesome Marwan Forsley.
Michael Georgiou:
Marwan, thanks for being here. I appreciate it.
Marwan Forzley:
Thank you for having me.
Michael Georgiou:
Absolutely. Yeah. The honor is all mine. You know so, Marwan, as I told you before, you know, this is a a business storytelling podcast, and it's, I I think it's very important for for you as a not only the CEO, but for you even just as a as a human being, right, to to just talk to the audience and kinda tell them, like, you know, really, you know, where you came from and and, you know, how you got to to where you are today at at such an amazing company as as Veeam.
Marwan Forzley:
Mhmm. Thank you. So I started Veeam in, 2014. I used to run ecommerce for Western Union. Got into Western Union through an acquisition of the company called Ebill.
Marwan Forzley:
Me, which was a payment option at the checkout that connected, shopping carts to online banking systems. And prior to that, I was in another startup that ended up in Nokia in the voice over IP space. So I, pretty much, my my entire career has been focused on, you know, building start ups and, essentially, they end up, with larger companies. So that that's been the, the bulk of my career. We started Veeam on a very basic idea that, you gotta simplify payments for SMBs, both domestic and cross border, both payables and receivables.
Marwan Forzley:
It's almost like whatever you need to do to do your payments as a business, we'll do it for you all centered around the same principle. It's gotta be really simple, easy to work with, highly supported, transparent pricing, and a delight. Just a delight to deal with. That's the entire premise of why we started, this company.
Michael Georgiou:
I love it. You know, and, just from doing some research on you before, so you're in California now. You're in the Silicon Valley area. Okay. And so you're from Canada.
Michael Georgiou:
Is that right? And you're,
Marwan Forzley:
I'm Canadian. Yes. I'm in Ottawa. Yes.
Michael Georgiou:
Awesome. Yeah.
Marwan Forzley:
So I'm Canadian that ended up, going to the US as part of my, previous company. So we, transitioned the company to New York. And and then on the acquisition by Western Union, I actually ended up, also, moving to the San Francisco office.
Michael Georgiou:
Love it. Love it. Yeah. I I'm a I'm a 100% Greek Cypriot.
Marwan Forzley:
Okay. Yeah.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. So I'm actually from Cyprus. My mom and dad, everyone's there. They're, you know, and, but I've kind of lived lived everywhere, and I was born in London as well. So Oh, wow.
Michael Georgiou:
Been around.
Marwan Forzley:
You're like the United Nations. Yeah. Yeah. A whole bunch of countries in one person.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. That's cool. You know what? And so, Marwan, with when it comes to when you started Veeam and and it was you said 2014. Right?
Michael Georgiou:
Right. Veeam got started. Yeah. So when you came up with the idea, and I know that you talked about simplicity and, you know, you were solving probably a lot of different problems. How do you really how did you really establish a a market fit for that product?
Michael Georgiou:
You know? Because I know you mentioned simplicity. But how did you know, like, you know, this is the product that I really wanna pursue? This is the product that is is gonna make a lot of money. It's gonna make a lot it's gonna provide a lot of impact, to many small, medium sized businesses.
Michael Georgiou:
How did you know that it would get adopted so well and just you know, and which allows you to thrive and scale and operate it?
Marwan Forzley:
Mhmm. You know, there's 125,000,000,000,000 in, dollars that circulate around the world all on bank wire. And, if you look at the structure of that market, the bulk of the money moves through banks on Bankwire. So when we first started the company, we're like, you know, it's, it's a different era now. We gotta be able to simplify cross border payments.
Marwan Forzley:
We started from that angle that, you know, when you're doing a a payment to Mexico or Brazil or India or Philippines or wherever you're sending money to, it really should be as simple as a domestic payment, as simple as paying for coffee. You shouldn't be able to distinguish the difference actually between them. Whether I'm paying for coffee or I'm paying for my supplier in Mexico, it's the same thing. And as simple as it sounds, it's actually a bunch of headaches because to do that, you gotta have the ability to operate in multiple countries, multiple currencies. You gotta be able to have compliance, infrastructure, and regulation and the regulation know how in multiple markets, domestic, USD, Canada, Australia, Europe.
Marwan Forzley:
You know, you're learning about all these markets. The other thing that's, important is understanding how to build products that are global in nature that a customer in Germany or a customer in Pakistan would be able to figure out how to use the product. It's not heavy to use. It's simple to use. So these are all components that you have to assemble together put together to run a service that's simply enough for users to use it.
Marwan Forzley:
So it's a lot of practice. It's a lot of iterations. It's a lot of refinement on the initial ideas that you start with. It's a lot of conviction that if you solve the the problem, people will like it. And when they like it, they bring other customers to the table, which is what we've seen today.
Marwan Forzley:
Once when customers like something and they find it simple to use, they go get other customers they work with who then come and join Veeam. And that's a good chunk of the growth we've seen in the company.
Michael Georgiou:
And in the way beginning, when you started Veeam, was, the adoption rate for user acquisition, was it really high really quickly when you launched it, let's just say, when you launched it in beta? Was it just a very just boom boom boom. Was it just very quick adoption, or was it kind of, like did it did you scale it? Did you kinda see it grow over time as you increased your, you know, your your marketing, your budget, your marketing strategies and tactics? Then it started to drive in more users?
Michael Georgiou:
Or was it kind of just it just kinda took off? Sometimes with these products, they take off with, like, their virality or their referral. You mentioned, like, you know, you they'll refer one customer to the other. How did it kinda happen, for you guys?
Marwan Forzley:
Well well, it's a it's a bit of both because, like, nothing builds overnight. It takes time to scale and build these things. But, you know, you got something when, when you got customers and you're not sure where where they came from. Because that's, like, one thing that was super interesting in the early days. We we we would got customers, and we nobody really ensured, like, who got them in.
Marwan Forzley:
Because, you know, at the at the time, it's like, you know, what do you know about this customer? Why nobody's spoken to them? Like, how did they start using the product? Turns out that somebody else got them in, told them we're on Veeam, and they started using Veeam. And so it's a little bit of both.
Marwan Forzley:
It's like you need to have that I routed that that delight so people like the product and they go tell their customers that, hey. Use this product. It's good for you. But at the same time, you gotta be patient with it because this stuff's not it's not like first of all, it's not a walk in the park. This this stuff is complex because you're dealing with regulated services.
Marwan Forzley:
And then 2, it just takes time to build up the customer base, to build up the experience, to build up the know how, the the reliability, the security. Because you're dealing with people's money, you wanna make sure that everything is up to snuff before you actually start moving their money. So it's a combination of the 2 together you need to have at the same time.
Michael Georgiou:
I can't imagine the amount of iterations that you had and just the amount of testing, right, that you had to go through for the product because Oh, yeah. If you think about it,
Marwan Forzley:
right, you're dealing with
Michael Georgiou:
someone's money. You know? Yeah. Because We don't think about that on the other side. Right?
Michael Georgiou:
On the customer side, don't think like, oh, what is Veeam going through to get us this product? Right? This is really working. This is making easy for me to pay to pay my developers overseas. Right?
Michael Georgiou:
It's easy to do that. But you don't realize on the customers sometimes don't realize how much work it takes for you as the company to provide this product, the service. It's it's crazy. You know? So it's good to it's good for you to give them that perspective.
Michael Georgiou:
You know?
Marwan Forzley:
Yeah. Let's say you you you know, let's say, Michael, you have a developer you're working with, Pick A Country, Brazil, and you wanna pay that developer. So for you as a user, it should be really simple. I pick my developer in Brazil. Here's the amount of US dollar I'm sending.
Marwan Forzley:
Send. That's it. That's all you want the experience to be. But on the back end, I gotta have infrastructure to pull money from your bank account, gotta have infrastructure to convert it to real from USD, gotta make sure I understand what is required in the US side, what's required in Brazil, gotta figure out how to communicate to your counterparty in Brazil, make sure that they're supported, make sure that they got their money on time. So when you actually start passing through the amount of infrastructure needed to move that money, as simple as this payment to your developer in Brazil, there's significant amount of infrastructure behind the scenes to get it to happen.
Marwan Forzley:
Just like when you order Uber, for example, and, you know, you see the car coming to pick you up, but there's quite a bit of infrastructure built up to do just that behind the scenes. So the final output is you see the car coming to pick you up. But behind the scenes, there's, like, people and people, you know, engineering, operating, supporting, servicing. Same thing here, but for money.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, when I guess, I I don't know the exact years that, that Veeam, got funding. I know you guys got funding from a lot of different, investors, right, the different seed rounds and all that. But was it immediate, for Veeam?
Michael Georgiou:
So when you when you built did you have to build the product first and then have investors look at it because they can they can play with something that's tangible? Right? They can play with an actual system, and then they, you know, kind of write that check. Or is it just way down the road when you're already operating, you know, you already have revenue coming in? You know?
Michael Georgiou:
Because I think I I I asked that question because I think sometimes startups have the wrong idea when they they are seeking funding, and just in in many different aspects. Right? I've dealt with hundreds of startups where sometimes they they just have an idea. They have and some of them are are are really, really good ideas, but they don't have any platform that they've built yet. They haven't actually built any sort of tangible product for investors to look at and play with.
Michael Georgiou:
So for you at Veeam, did you already have the product kind of built and then investors investors just kind of came along and then and then which allowed you to obviously you know, you had budgets and funding for different reasons, of course. Right?
Marwan Forzley:
Yeah. I mean, I I'd say, like, for, like, different there's different styles and different processes, different situations, and different types of investors. So, you know, when I first started the company, we built up the first version of the product on our own. And then once we had customers and revenue, we started getting institutional investors. Other entrepreneurs do it differently.
Marwan Forzley:
If you can get institutional investment early, sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not the best. It just depends on what you're trying to build. But you wanna be in a position where once you get institutional money, you have revenue, you have customers. You wanna have the customer stand up and say, I believe in this.
Marwan Forzley:
I like it. So the more you can build on your own to value to verify that there is going to be demand and there's a fit between what you're building and the customer, once you have customers are willing to say, hey. I this is a good service. I'm gonna use it. I'm gonna recommend it.
Marwan Forzley:
You got something. Then that's a good basis to go get money, to get institutional money. Now, it's easier said than done because sometimes to get to that muscle, you need money to get there. So you kinda have to either figure out a way to get, you know, what they call angel money or friends and family to help you get there, or you simply bootstrap and try to do as much as you can on your own to get it to a stage where it's built up, and then you you go from there.
Michael Georgiou:
What are your thoughts on bootstrapping, a business? Do you think it's just, you think it's a lot harder to grow the the company?
Marwan Forzley:
Well, it's a it's a longer
Michael Georgiou:
People say yes or no, so that's why I asked that.
Marwan Forzley:
It's a longer process. It takes a longer time. But, you know, before venture capital existed, you know, the entire all businesses were bootstrapped. You you you know, you had to find a way to generate revenue early on and keep it going on your own for a long period of time before you got to a stage where either the bank, you know, lent you money or you got investors to put money in depending on the type of business you have. It's it's easier, to raise money.
Marwan Forzley:
It feels this way that it's easier to raise money and build up something and and go with it. You gotta remember that depending on what you're trying to build, some products are suitable for venture money, some are not. So it's a combination of what it was that you're trying to sell and build, and how much are you able to do on your own? Can you get to a stage where you have customers, you have revenue, and then raise capital? I would say that's probably the better formula.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. Yeah. I've I've heard that from numerous people. It's it's always easier when you have money coming in. Right?
Michael Georgiou:
Because the investors are gonna, when they're audit when they're vetting you and they're auditing you. Right? And and they're, they're doing their due diligence. They are looking at how, you know, how can they get a return on their investment quickly. Right?
Michael Georgiou:
Quicker sooner rather than later. You know?
Marwan Forzley:
Yeah. And, also, you're taking venture capital money to accelerate if you're not in a position to accelerate. It ends up not helpful because you're sitting on this money you're not sure what to do with. So you wanna make sure that once you get institutional capital, like, venture capital money, you're in a position to go because you gotta you gotta you gotta run with it. So that's another dynamic.
Marwan Forzley:
Like, sometimes if you do it too early or prematurely, it it it may end up backfiring on you.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. No. That I think that's that's really, really great advice. It's important for people to understand that they have to have a plan and strategy in place. And not even just the plan and strategy, they have to be able to execute, which means they have to have the resources.
Michael Georgiou:
Right? They have to have the the people the the the power of the people behind to be able to execute, that acceleration.
Marwan Forzley:
But you you kinda have to be ready for it. Yeah. It's like if you take money prematurely, you, you're on the risk of of not sure how to execute on that money, which becomes problematic. If you wait too long, though, on the other hand, it's also not that good, especially if the market is hot. And and and, you know, there's appetite for what you're building in the market.
Marwan Forzley:
So then bootstrapping is not that healthy because you're constraining it. Money opens it up. So it just depends on the market you're in, on the product that you're selling, on the overall macro conditions of the market. That's all plays into it.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. And this is, it's a perfect segue into what I wanted to discuss next with you, Marwan, is is, just like your in your experience, you know, all the years of of your experience in in, you just in business and entrepreneurship, where do you see as like the key factors that set a business up for success. So from start from a startup phase to Mhmm. An operating and scaling company phase, what are some pieces of advice or just just things that you feel that are really important and powerful to go from here to here?
Marwan Forzley:
Yeah. I I think it's a combination of things. 1 is, you wanna make sure what you understand when what's differentiated about the budget what you're building, what's really unique, And what's unique and and not quickly accessible by the customers you're trying to service, is it difficult for them to access capabilities that you're producing? Because if you can make what you're producing available to them to the masses, then it then it it connects, and you you're you're off. You you you you have a good start.
Marwan Forzley:
The other thing that's important is persistence. Like, I just there are some stories where people hit it off in a couple of years. You know? It's like a big business, but the bulk of the businesses are, ideas that take time to develop, take quite a bit of persistence, quite a bit of know how, and the ability to weather storms along the way. Not everything's gonna work out.
Marwan Forzley:
And so the ability to recover from setbacks is something that is important for the entrepreneur to make sure it's not only just the the founder or the CEO or the entrepreneur, it's just the team, the entire team. There's going to be setbacks along the way, and so you gotta be able to be resilient to that. That's a key part of the success as well. It's a combination of resiliency, persistence, being the right team at the right time, having the right product. Let's say the right product differentiated solutions that the customer feels that this is different from what I've done in the past.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. I this I have a saying, and I always say this. If it was that easy, then everybody would be doing it.
Marwan Forzley:
Sure. Yeah.
Michael Georgiou:
I know it sounds ironic and like kind of cliche and everything, but it it really is true. Right? I mean, if it was that easy. Right? Because it's hard.
Michael Georgiou:
It's really tough. I mean, you know, I I think in the outside world, when I mean outside in terms of, you know, from, people who are who don't own a business or who or or don't have, they don't have all the responsibilities that you as a CEO may have, you know, they see it very differently. And sometimes they see, companies like yourself, like, oh, getting all the seed money and all this, you know, revenue and all this stuff, but they don't realize the the grind and the fire and the tenacity and the the hard work, the perseverance like you talked about. Just everything. All these different elements that, really, take a take a toll on you and and the company and just it's hard work.
Michael Georgiou:
It's it's a lot of work. You know?
Marwan Forzley:
Yeah. Like, there's a like the saying goes, there's no never a dull moment, in in start ups or or newer newer companies. You kinda have to, make sure that you have a healthy degree of persistence, resiliency, and the the ability to just keep going. Some days are good. Some days are not the best, but, you know, you just you just, you just keep going.
Marwan Forzley:
That's a good chunk of what makes start up successful.
Michael Georgiou:
Roll roll with the punches. Just gotta keep moving.
Marwan Forzley:
With the punches.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. Yep. Love it. Love it. And, you know, Marwan, you mentioned before even, just like challenges and obstacles, you know, and I'll talk about that just for a few minutes.
Michael Georgiou:
When it comes to you building and growing this company, or even just your your past in entrepreneurship and and just, you know, growing businesses, what are some of the obstacles that some of the toughest obstacles or challenges that you've faced, you've experienced that were really a test, like, or just a really big test? And how did you overcome them? Because we all know that I mean, we just talked about it. Right? It's it's really, really tough.
Michael Georgiou:
So, you know, kind of what did you what are a few things that you went through that were just really, really difficult?
Marwan Forzley:
I think understanding, what you can do in a short period of time it's always been the most challenging thing for, growth startups because you're, you have a limited amount of runway, and you're trying to pack as much as you can during that time so that you go to the next phase of the pro of the development. And so one of the harder thing to do is figure out, k, how much is how many month do I have in front of me, and what kind what do I need to do to get where? And it's really challenging because in the especially in the early days because you have so many ideas on what you can what you wanna do or what you can't do, and customers tell you I want this and I want that. And the ability to narrow down things to, concrete steps that you execute on so that you have enough build up from the freights you're into the next one so that you raise money again to carry you to the next phase. These are all important decisions that, define the type of success you're going to have.
Marwan Forzley:
And that balancing act between runway, what you're gonna be able to do, and how how much do you have to do to get to the next milestone. These are, like, tough decisions that you have to go through, as you build up and and scale. And, you know, the the faster you go, the bigger the the bigger the the decisions and the more impactful decisions become because you're dealing with it's like it's like, it's like you're driving a fast car. You know? If you, if you're doing a turn and you you take the long turn, that that's hard to recover from when you're when you're flying with with the car.
Marwan Forzley:
So Yeah. It's, it's definitely a challenge, and a lot of I know a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with that because you're trying to figure out how to balance the various things at the same time. And that's very specific to, you know, venture capital funded businesses. To more traditional businesses are have different dynamics to them and that you're you don't have the same time pressures that you typically do, when you're when you're dealing with a venture capital funded business.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. I can imagine the amount of pressure. You gotta you gotta make sure that kinda you're ready to go for the next for the next phase. You know? It's, I can't imagine the amount of planning and just the the the type of execution you guys have to go through.
Michael Georgiou:
But I guess it kind of Yeah. It comes with the territory. Right?
Marwan Forzley:
It does. You know, planning, thinking, simulating different things, talking to different team members. I mean, it's an ongoing process that you keep iterating on.
Michael Georgiou:
Right. Right. You know, and and, Marwan, with what you're seeing now with just, you know, your area of, like, you know, payment systems and and even just technology in a general sense, technology. Where do you see it going? Because you know things are evolving like crazy and just the world is is nuts.
Michael Georgiou:
Right? I mean, it's just so many it's going in so many different directions. There's a lot of money circulation, but there's also just a lot of, yeah, I would say craziness for now. Just a lot a lot going on in the world, and and a lot of good as well. A lot of good
Marwan Forzley:
as well. Well, the way I see it is, basically, if you if you think of, in the world of tech, which which is a fast moving world, Fintech is an area that's going to see significant growth and changes for the foreseeable future because that's an area that I have not seen innovation for a very long period of time. And it's been bubbling for a while. It's instead of been heating up, and now it's, like, you know, erupting. I mean, it's like I mean, it's a hot market to be in.
Marwan Forzley:
And within the world of Fintech because Fintech is multiple things. I mean, you got payments. You got lending. You got mortgages. You got, security and fraud, and, you you know, there's all kinds of subsegments within that world.
Marwan Forzley:
Payments in particular is also probably one of the hottest segments in in already a hot segment, which is Fintech. And it has to do again with, all the changes that are going on to the systems to make it so that, the experience is up to date. It's, you know, the, it's a modern experience compared to what you're what you're used to in the past. That is important because as we increasingly live in online world, with COVID and with, payments becoming part of everything you do. Payments is getting embedded into shopping, into trade finance, into trade in general.
Marwan Forzley:
It's it's an it's an application that gets plugged into all kinds of other applications. And so it makes it that's why it it's there's a sizzle to it because it's something that's utility, but that utility is strategic because everybody counts on it functioning to be able to conduct basic commerce. So it's a super important concept to get right, and that's why it's a hot area right now. It's a it's an area that's going to stay like this for a while. It's going to see innovation for a long period of time before we, see other areas emerge that are that are more significant.
Marwan Forzley:
But it's, it's an exciting time to be to be in Fintechs in general. It's an exciting time to be in payments in particular. Just so much is going on and so much is happening. It's it's incredible.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. And and it seems like with a lot of, a lot of these, different SaaS systems, I think, from what I'm noticing is personalization is very important. You've touched on simplicity, keeping things very, very simple. I think people are are tired of dealing with, you know, cluttered systems, clunky systems, you know, uninitiative. We we just don't have time for it.
Michael Georgiou:
People are just tired of it. They want something very simple they can use. And as I mentioned, personalization and also security, you know, making sure that things are secured. And I know you guys have taken care of that. Yep.
Michael Georgiou:
You know, security aspect of it. So all those things are are obviously very, very important.
Marwan Forzley:
Yeah. Absolutely.
Michael Georgiou:
Yeah. No. That's that's great. You know, and and and just your just real quick, Marwan. In in your, experience with being a business leader, and, you know, a leader in general for, for this company and even in comp you know, your previous companies, what are your thoughts on what it really takes to be a strong business leader?
Michael Georgiou:
You know, because I think leadership the word leadership's thrown around a lot. So Mhmm. It's always good to ask people who are living it and doing it and breathing it. You know?
Marwan Forzley:
Yeah. I mean, there's there's a lot of stuff that's written on this topic, you you know, books and books. I'd say, like, one thing that I noticed that that is maybe helpful here that, you won't find this silly in books, but it's it's a good experience to to go through. Like, companies are like, I call companies. They're like kids.
Marwan Forzley:
They're like they're like human beings. They evolve. And, just the way that human life goes from, you know, being an infant to toddler to teenage years to adulthood to, later in life, different different phases have different needs. And so companies are like that. You know, the early days when you start a company are different than when you have 10 employees, which is different than when you have 100, which is different when you have a 1,000.
Marwan Forzley:
So, with every phase, it has its own challenges. And one of the key thing is to understand what are the key things to figure out in each stage of the life cycle of the business. It's just like, having kids. You know, if you have a kid that's 2 years old, you gotta essentially deal with the kid. If they wanna, you know, eat with their hand and they're 2 years old, I mean, that's acceptable.
Marwan Forzley:
It's actually really cute. If have a teenager doing the same thing, you'd be like, okay. Well, what are you doing? You have a plate and you have knife and fork, and that's what you should be doing. And so it's the same thing in business.
Marwan Forzley:
Like, you know, different different stages of life have different needs. And being able to recognize that and adapt the processes and tools to the stages you're in is something that is, important skill set to learn, along the way.
Michael Georgiou:
Love it. Love it. And if, Marwan, just, you know, look at your story, you know, on a career or even just life perspective, how would you define your story in one word real quick?
Marwan Forzley:
I'd say, basically, persistence, really. It's it's just you have an idea. You you you you understand the the vision of what needs to be done, but nothing happens on its own. You gotta be really persistent to get it to the stage where people understand what you're delivering. They experience it.
Marwan Forzley:
They find it different than what they have access to. They appreciate it. They tell other people about it, but all that requires a high degree of persistence in order to get there.
Michael Georgiou:
Amazing. Marwan, thank you so much. And I know everyone can find, your company. It's www. Veeem, v e e m, dot com.
Michael Georgiou:
Is that correct?
Marwan Forzley:
That's correct. Yes.
Michael Georgiou:
Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. It it was a pleasure. I really appreciate it.
Marwan Forzley:
Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.
Michael Georgiou:
Absolutely. It's my pleasure. Thank you, everyone. Michael Georgio on Tell Us From the Pros, and until next time. Thanks, guys.
Michael Georgiou:
Please subscribe to our YouTube page and also follow our social media. There are links somewhere around here. But, we really appreciate it guys. Thanks for all the support and I'm gonna be giving you awesome content continuously. And we look forward to seeing you soon.