Paystar and competition in the field of fintech

Financial services and the field that we know today as fintech have always been the focus of entrepreneurs due to the large number of transactions and very high market value. Attention to the capacities of this area ecosystem Tehran’s entrepreneurship is not limited and successful collections in other cities of the country have also been activated in this sector. One of these collections P Star has started its activity in the field of payment in Rasht and according to the successful steps it has taken, today it is on the threshold of opening its office in Tehran. Ecomotive talked to Seyed Maitham Mirnazimi, the CEO and one of the founders of this Startup You will read the description below.

Where did the story of P Star begin?

I am Seyed Maitham Mirnizami, a civil engineering graduate from Gilan University, CEO and one of the founders of “P Star” startup. Before starting Pstar around 1993, I used to go to programming classes and Internet businesses I met when with payment area I got to know and decided to enter it, there was still no name of fintech in Iran. To start working, I got help from the experience of friends who were working in Dargahs, and I also got to know this space with the help of more and more scientific courses. We started from the forums and explored the feedback.

I was not very familiar with the market and its needs; But little by little, I realized the gaps and needs that existed regarding the doors. At first, I talked with groups such as banks and travel companies and realized that there is a possibility of creating a new market in the field of payment. In the summer of 1994, we registered the company and after three months, the company was registered. In the winter of 1994, we started teaming up and founded Paystar as a payment gateway.

How was the product development process after the formation of the P-Star team?

After a year, I came to the conclusion that the idea would be feasible in terms of programming, and almost in 1995 MVP we arrived. It was at the same time that the filtering problems started and we had doubts about the implementation of the work, and on the other hand, we could not cancel the contract and wait for better conditions.

Finally, a series of protests in Khordad 1995 led to the removal of a part of the filtering, and because another part of the filtering was still continuing, we stopped for a while; Because at that time some ports were added and filtered immediately. At the beginning of 1996, the issue of legislation in this field became serious and the situation improved a little. Meetings consisting of the Ministry of Communications, the Judiciary, payment companies, the Central Bank, the Electronic Commerce Development Center, etc., were held and these meetings are still ongoing, but the final result has not yet been reached; Of course, we hope that the conditions will be arranged.

With this situation, how did you enter the market?

Because I had worked in this field before, I was somewhat familiar with the market; But from the aspect of laws, I was worried about how the future of this industry can be predicted; Because many violations could happen in this area. From the beginning of our work, our decision was to present ourselves directly as a payer and to seek legal permits and not to present ourselves as an intermediary or concentrator so that we can stay in the scene.

When the central bank decided to directly provide payment assistance, we found the conditions suitable to be among the first to get permission for payment assistance. We started working with a series of users and entered into cooperation with a number of payment companies, and finally we decided to present ourselves at the Innotex exhibition so that if a decision is made about us in the legislation, we will be present, and the first result of that is We were invited by the e-commerce development center, who asked us to cooperate. We talked about how to identify businesses that do not yet have this symbol and how to remove violations and obstacles.

Did the filtering problem happen to Paystar too?

No, because we knew about the filtering process and managed it; Because we wanted to have a healthy activity and be sustainable, on the other hand, a series of unhealthy competitions happened between the portals and caused the portals to go out of the space of supporting each other to some extent, and an inflammation was created that we did not enter into and waited until more suitable conditions were created. to be

How was the P-Star team formed?

I started the work alone, after a while we started the work with my brother, who was a student at Gilan University, and we talked with different people in the university and other places, and finally with a team of three people who had work experience in the payment department. We signed a contract at our own expense and the first part of the work was completed by the summer of 1995.

In the beginning, we only needed programmers in the team; Because we had not yet entered the market. The programming work that reached an acceptable stage, we came to the conclusion that due to the size of the market, we cannot advance the work alone, and since we had a “collaboration in sales” system, we could enter without advertising. Marketing In this way, we formed the marketing team and started working with Mr. Abadifar, who was one of my friends in the university. At the same time, a person in the technical support department also joined us. Currently, the team is growing and expanding in the field of marketing, and its size has reached 9 people so far.

How do you see the competitive environment in fintech?

I think fintech in Iran is in its growth stage and still has a long way to go. In Iran, we made progress in the payment sector; But since there are many problems in this area due to the laws of the country, and it can be said that the people who are currently in this area are those who have been there from the beginning and there are many other people who have ideas in this area; But due to the lack of laws, they have not entered the field yet; Like us, we could enter faster in 1993; But for some reason we did not do this. The startups that were active at that time, such as Jahanpi, do not exist now, and today the number of startups in the field of payment is much less, and they are divided into two general areas: a P2P area and a B2B area, which is “Zarinpal” and startups Most of them work in the business part, but for example, “Bahamta” works in another part; While we work in both parts.

What services differentiate Paystar from its competitors?

Competitors were different in 1993 and 1994 and each had services that the other did not have; We thought of providing a comprehensive system that meets most needs. We provide all the services that payment companies have. In addition, there have always been concerns in order to build the trust of users for buying and selling, and in this regard, we created “e-check”. Also, “customer dispute resolution system” is one of our other services that prevents problems for both us and the customer; For example, customer complaints about our users are handled in this service.

Another service is related to settlement of accounts that users had problems with; Because many gates kept the money; But we tried to do it in another way if we are going to keep the money and a healthy transaction happens, and we used methods to make the settlement happen faster which other portals don’t have this advantage. And another point is that because the discussion of fintech and payment gateways seems attractive to some people and some people are interested in entering it, we added “collaboration in sales” so that these people instead of going after their idea and wasting money and time In this system, share both our idea and our profit.

In banking portals, they do not distinguish between customers, the difference is that they identify the user’s identity and do not give the user anything in return; But what we did in the “Customer Club” was to make our partnership more profitable for the user, and on the other hand, the fee that the customer pays us will be less. Every user who becomes a member of PStar automatically becomes a member of the customer club and for every transaction he makes or every friend he invites, he receives points from PStar, which determines the level of usage by Star. These ranks determine the discounts and commissions he gets, for example, the fees of a three-star P-Star user will be halved and he can get a 30% commission from us.

Another issue that many portals have not worked on is the use of P2P service. We were not only looking for stores in Pistar, and we even have a general audience and anyone can use our system.

Another service that Paystar offers is “Charge Shop” through which anyone can have their own store in a few seconds and sell charges in family groups and the profit goes back to themselves, and also the personal payment page is in the form of through which the user can profit.

What share of the target market has Pstar achieved?

Having market share depends on various issues; Because everything is not under our control; Many issues, including the law, limit us. People can take full advantage of the absence of law and profit, and no one will tell them that they did something wrong; Because they have not done any illegal work, they have gained income due to the loophole in the law; If the legal issue is resolved, we can implement many of our ideas and we can enter into direct talks with banks and PSPs, and if this situation happens to us, we can provide new services, and this will make many of the needs that exist now and We can’t fix it, it’s covered where the market gets much bigger than that; But at the beginning, we tried to strengthen our communication by building trust through legislative institutions and those who can be trustees, in order to be better known. We entered to expand the market share by participating in exhibitions and building marketing teams to talk directly with businesses.

Don’t you want to go to investors to speed up the growth of your business?

By the way, the challenge that has recently been added to our work is working and partnering with banks; Apart from PSPs, we talked with a number of banks and if we prove ourselves in the near future, things will happen in this direction and we will have partnerships with banks.

final word…

In the product development discussion, Paystar will not end only with these services and we may also enter in different fintech sectors such as wealth management, which of course depends on the bank accelerator we contract with, and we have to see from an API. That gives us how to use. In the next step, according to the feedback we received from our audience, we have on our agenda the launch of the mobile application, which will probably be completed by mid-autumn, and finally, I hope that those who enter the business with an idea like us will be able to wait a long time. Don’t win because the delay will cause the idea to become obsolete, waste time and money, and leave the competitors behind, and I hope that the road will be smoother for them.

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