Heroes in Business - Suneera Madhani, Founder and CEO Stax system processing over 23 Billion in payments

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

Growing fast in fintech. Suneera Madhani, Founder and CEO Stax system processing over 23 Billion in payments is interviewed by David Cogan famous host Heroes Show and Founder Eliances entrepreneur community.  

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. That's right. And thank you again. I just love it. I love it. I'm always so energized on the mornings that we're doing interviews because quite honestly, having the opportunity to make a difference and share the difference in other people's life stories of how what they've done, the impact that they're making, helping either entertaining others, hiring others, giving people an opportunity and really helping to change and evolve this world that we live in. So thank you.

And I'm honored by it. Thank you too, for the feedback from a period of time ago when I interviewed the president of the United Nations. So please make sure you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com. Because as you know, it is the only place where entrepreneurs align. Because as you know, it is the only place where entrepreneurs align. All right, are you ready for this? We have somebody that went from going as an employee at a payments company to becoming the CEO. Are you ready for this? Of a billion- dollar corporation. We have with us Sunera Madani, founder and CEO of Stax Payments.

She can be reached at StaxPayments.com. That's S-T-A-X payments.com. Sunera, that's a lot of, that's a big dollar difference. It is, David. It's a billion dollar business and growing. I'm really excited. All right. Thanks for having me today.

Absolutely. And we're honored to have you here today. All right. Take us, though, from the beginning here. You're a regular employee. And I mean, there's no really such thing as regular. You're a special employee. Everybody's special.

They have their skill set and all that. But you're an employee at a payments company. Things are rocking and rolling. You're doing your thing. How then did this happen? Well, it's like trying to summarize the last 10 years of my life in a minute. However, it happened because I cared about my customers and it happened because I'm a daughter of immigrants and I understood small businesses and I understood how payments were the heart of every single business. Yet the company that I worked for and the companies that I ended up working for in the payments industry just didn't care about the people in the business and what it actually took to run a business and what they needed to actually scale their businesses. Instead, it was just about the profits and about the literal transactions, when transactions at the end of the day are data. And so I saw something in that data

and said, we can utilize all this data and actually help empower these businesses to grow and scale. And that's what I saw. I took it back to my bosses and my team. And I said, we need to be doing more. They didn't listen. I went back and said, we need to be doing more and here's how we're going to do it. And I had this idea to launch the first subscription and payment. So instead of it all being transactional, flat monthly subscription, unlimited credit card processing for the small business. And I didn't get the support. So I decided to start my company at the age of 26. And here we are a decade later doing $23 billion in payments and the newest fintech unicorn on the block. Phenomenal. I mean, you're disrupting the industry.

You created a lot of people probably also mad at you that are competitors going, why didn't we listen? Why? You know, all of that type of stuff. So listen to your employees. your employees. You created a top 10 fastest growing fintech company and you're processing, what is it, $23 billion in payments? Yeah, $23 billion in payments and growing. I mean, we're scaling so quickly. We're heading off to international now. We support over 30,000 businesses. We have over 150 software partners that are utilizing our API to support payments through their software for their customers.

And so it's been quite the journey, just building the technology and the tool sets. And just at the end of the day, it comes down to we simplified what was a really big problem. There's a lot of complexity in our industry, as it is for many industries. but we took that complexity and just try to make it simple and really focus on the customer experience. Now, the thing is, is, too, is, is, is, you know, you're a female minority and, you know, right, how challenging that is in its place within business, yet let alone trying to raise venture capital. So talk to us about that. I mean, it's like, how was that coming in? How was that even getting the foot in the door and having people open up to you and go, hmm, okay. It was extremely difficult and it is extremely difficult. I mean, it is starting a business is hard enough than scaling the business

and getting the support from, you know, from investors and venture capitalists when you don't have a seat at the table. I mean, it wasn't even about the opportunity for us to, I didn't even get an opportunity to pitch, right? I didn't come from affluence. I didn't come from, I went to University of Florida, which is a fantastic university to got a degree in finance and marketing, but I didn't come from an Ivy League school and had the financial partnerships or, you know, a network to go to. So I had to go solve for funding ourselves. And it was really challenging, David, not only, you know, not just about being a woman, but being a minority and then also raising capital. Our company's headquartered out of Orlando, Florida. So lots of challenges along the way. And it's definitely not equitable. I can tell you that.

I mean, less than 3% of venture capital goes to female founders, less than 1% goes to minority founders. And I'm giving you the stats of 2022, right? I'm not giving you stats of, you know, a decade ago. And a decade ago, it was even harder. And so it definitely is, it gets lonely, lonely, you know, as a CEO and as you're trying to scale a company, but it's, it's even lonelier as a woman of color trying to also build a company. And, um, we did it anyway, right. Defied all the odds. And, um, you know, recently just closed our $245 million Series D. So we've had a lot of success, but it wasn't easy. I've got lots of scars on my back and a lot of stories to tell one day. Phenomenal. Well, you're going to have to write a book.

There's a book in you. I think there is. So what do you think about now? I mean, you know, you're head of this company. You're the founder, CEO. And by the way, again, you're listening, watching company. You're the founder, CEO. And by the way, again, you're listening, watching me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. Make sure that you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. The only place where entrepreneurs

align because we have with us Sanera Mandani, founder and CEO of Stacks Payment Systems. And she could be reached at stackspayments.com. That's S-T-A-X payments.com. So what goes through your mind? I mean, you shared with us about the VC thing here. You're in your office, the door's closed. It's quiet. You got your phones on mute just to take a breath. You know how long it took here. 10 years of his overnight, 10 years as an overnight success. What, like, what do you think about? What, what are some of the things that come to mind? I mean, if, if there is a moment to, to have a moment, right? I think the things that come to mind for the last 10 years, when it's nice and quiet, man, it's like the, it's been this, I think I haven't had a moment to really think, think post this last like there's always, you know, as entrepreneurs, there's always this next big thing or this next one.

It's like the hundredth customer, the thousand customer, the million in error, the hundred million, you know, this valuation, billion in value. And I felt like over the last 10 years, I've just been so heads down and focused on execution. So I really haven't had that moment to kind of like rise up to say, look around and be proud and say, oh, this is what we've done. And I would say the first time that I got to actually reflect on that was this summer, we finished their fundraise. In March, it was a really hard year just going through the fundraising process and scaling a company, all the things right. And took my family to Europe for, you know, just a little bit of quiet time. And I have two little girls. So alongside building a company, I also have a

six year old and a three year old. And so it's life is it's, it's so full, I cannot tell you. And so I took my first break over the summer and it was just a good time to reflect and kind of think about what's next, right? Everyone wants to say, ask me in all these interviews, what's next? And I think that that's like the, I think that that's always the question.

And I think now I'm just really, there's gonna be so, I've learned that there's always something next to chase, but honestly, the journey has been so fun and so incredible. And that there's always something next to chase. But honestly, the journey has been so fun and so incredible. And that's the reason why I haven't looked up. And so I'm excited to just continue on my journey, continue on the path, and hopefully have more of these moments and not wait 10 years to take a little bit of a break. But I'm just now looking at there isn't this next like, is it a billion to 10 billion to next, we've just built a really great business, we want to support as many customers as we can. And honestly, it's about

empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs as well. There's not a lot of women that get to have the success that I have, I don't take that for lightly, there's not a lot of people of color that have the success that I have. And, you know, my co founder and I, we don't take that lightly either. And so really thinking about how we can have an impact on, you know, this next generation of entrepreneurs to also pave the path and pave the way for them. In fact, how do you open more of those doors? Now you're certainly in an incredible position to be able to open those doors for women and minorities within the tech industry.

Yes, absolutely. How do we do it? We give time, right? We give time and there's a huge portion of impact for Stacks that matters. Stacks Cares is one of our, it's our philanthropic arm of our company and a major initiative is women in business

and supporting women in business. And so we have our resources here at Stacks. Personally, I have, you know, a really amazing community for female entrepreneurs that I support that I created called CEO school, because I didn't go to CEO school. And here I am today. And so I bring in, you know, female experts, like leaders across all different industries and CEOs to help to help motivate and mentor and just help women in business to scale their businesses. I have a podcast that's a top 25 podcast for entrepreneurs, for female entrepreneurs, CEO School that can be found on iTunes, Spotify, et cetera. So I'm doing my part in helping inspire

and share the knowledge that I've learned because it needs to get out of the boys club and be equitable for all. Sure. Absolutely. Great. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. So you mentioned that you have two daughters. What kind of secrets are you going to be sharing with them as they get older in regards to being able to make their mark? You're making a mark in society. You're employing a number of people. You're going to hopefully make people who are invested in you a nice, healthy return and giving people opportunity, helping minorities and females in that. So what are some of those secrets you'll be sharing with them? I think for my girls, it's the same things that I think my parents taught us, right? It's to whatever you do to,

you know, to do your best at it, Right. And I think it's showing up with pride in, in your work and in, in, in servicing others and being kind. And it's all the lessons that I feel like I got to learn from my family that I want to pass along to my daughters. And I hope that those like life lessons are the ones that translate into their mark, not necessarily, like life lessons are the ones that translate into their mark not necessarily i i don't want their worth to be defined by their work and i think that as a society we define people's worth based on our work and as a child of an immigrant this was so important to me to define our worth as a family but it was only i could only do so with my work. But I hope now through this generational, like this, the legacy that I'm going to create, my daughters can be anything that

they want to be. And that's my hope for my daughters and daughters all over the world, that whatever they decide to do, that they can have an equitable opportunity to do it at their best level. And that's what I hope for, for my daughters. And, and hopefully they don't have to be defined by their work. And they get to be defined by what they're excited about, and what they're passionate about. And I hope they get to do that. Well said, well said. Well, Sanera, you paved the way for women and minorities in business and tech. You've also created one of the top 10 fastest growing FinTech company processing over, what is it?

Over 23, 24, by the time we're done with this interview, approaching a whole lot higher than that. Billion dollars in revenue and payments, billion dollars of payments. That's a hero, Sunera Madani, founder and CEO of Stax Payments. Make sure you go to StaxPayments.com. That's S-T-A-X Payments.com because you've been listening and watching me,

David Kogan, host of the Alliance's Hero Show. All right. Here we go. Hey. Your daughter's a watchman.