Venture Leader Fintech Enhancing Payment Solutions – Venturelab

The Swiss National Startup Team welcomes new members after our expert jury selected ten startups for the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022 program. In anticipation of the roadshow in London at the end of November, we would like to introduce our community to each of the Venture leaders. Meet Oliver Zemp, co-CEO and co-founder of ZEMP Business Solutions AG, who was chosen to be the team captain at the roadshow kickoff event.

Name: Oliver Zemp
Placement: Root
Nationality: Swiss
Graduated from: graduated in 1989 from KV Luzern
Job title: Co-CEO and co-founder
Number of employees: 21
Money raised: CHF 2.7 million
First point of contact with VentureLab: 2022 Venture Leaders

What does your startup do and why?
ZEMP reinvents tired desktop retail by converging POS and PAY into one seamless intuitive retail solution for B2C or B2B. It is available as a stand-alone app and can be integrated into any payment, banking or service product.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
Many months ago I decided to make my own dog food to provide our dog (SKYE) with the best possible nutrition. I noticed a common need so decided to mass produce and sell to other dog lovers out there. This led my wife to open the “Doggy Kitchen Boutique” where she takes care of all the needs of a dog owner. While she was starting this venture and I was working on enterprise technology, I noticed that her POS and payment needs were not being met by the tools provided. Being me, I decided after a long market research that no single option would be satisfactory, so I started building my own. Now a few months after the launch, we support over 100 customers.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow and how will it help you achieve your vision?
To find investors for the seed round itself; to improve our cap and summary situation against larger VCs; and to build peer connections to drive Switzerland together.

Who does your product help and how?
Small to medium-sized retailers with the ambition to see beyond the walls of the business through mobility and connectivity. From food trucks to treatment service providers, from events to major stadiums – we help our customers get closer to theirs even in the most unexpected corners.

 

“I need people around me who challenge me every day and love to see that throughout the business.”

What are you most looking forward to at work right now?
Currently, GENIE is getting into the hands of early customers, and it is the most exciting and terrifying moment of my professional journey. Every day we learn what the perfect user experience is. We are entering the market with some established partners, such as Sunrise – partners who realized quite quickly that GENIE is the future of retail and want to join us on our journey to change this industry.

How did you build your team?
I learned quite early that success is not a solo project and that leadership is not a one-way street. I need people around me who challenge me every day and love to see that throughout the business. First I hired in the field where I lacked the greatest knowledge and where there was the greatest need (as a CTO & QA) through friends and contacts, for example a former CTO of DropBox and a founder of Bexio. After that, our combined networks began to yield results, bringing in talent who share the passion and can work remotely. The latter is a challenging component, but currently we have managed to build a team that works independently while being strongly connected. That’s pretty impressive.

Which market are you targeting and what is the potential of your startup?
Anyone who needs to sell and accept card payments, which in Europe alone means 23 million users – that is, 23 million smartphones that can be turned into mobile business devices by installing GENIE. Our go-to-market (GTM) strategy has three phases: First, current Sharp and CASIO users who need/want to move into a digital point-of-sale (POS) environment; second, retailers with existing digital POS solutions that do not provide mobility; and third, events and stadiums looking to increase mobile location potential.

 

“Giving our users seamless access to all our products (GENIE, OCTO, SKYE & PAY) is a unique way to approach this type of SaaS technology.”

What are your most important achievements so far?
Giving our users seamless access to all our products (GENIE, OCTO, SKYE & PAY) is a unique way to approach this type of SaaS technology. It has been great to see our customer base grow by 50% quarter over quarter and learn every day about their use cases to optimize our products. The opportunity to work with and learn from global sourcing partners such as Payone, Nets, Worldline and Wallee is also meaningful, as was working with our Swiss GTM partner, Sunrise, and various onboard retailers in the DACH area.

What is one thing not many people know about you?
Dogs are at the center of my life; I just love dogs. ZEMP wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for that love. Any free time I have, I spend with Abby, our dog. She helps me relax and find the pace back in life. One day I hope that ZEMP will allow me to build a Pet Hospice to take in all forgotten animals.

What is your favorite podcast and why?
When I travel, I sometimes listen to the Payment & Banking Fintech Podcast.

What is your favorite book and why?
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. This book opens your mind to permanent habits, values, family, relationships and communication.

What is the most challenging thing about being an entrepreneur?
First, finding the best talent with not only the skills but also the attitude to work in our well-oiled team and remote environment. And secondly, it is important to recognize signs of industry/market change rooted in environmental, political or customer needs to ensure we are ahead of the game and have enough manpower to get after these new unknowns.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a founder?
Satisfied users! Receiving feedback and appreciation from our customers and partners not only makes my heart glow, but also makes our products and services better. It tells me that we are on the right track – putting the customer first and solving real needs.

What is your biggest professional failure and what did you learn from it?
Perfectionism! I wanted to solve all the problems our users have at once, in the best solution possible. This was my biggest failure as an entrepreneur and manager. I limited users to using a product that could already solve some of their problems and limited us from a massive learning curve at the same time. We missed out on initial revenue by not selling our MVP and are still feeling this fallout. A true lost opportunity. Perfectionism is death.

The ZEMP team in action

The Venture Leaders Fintech roadshow in London is organized by Venturelab in collaboration with Swissnex and supported by EPFL, ETH Zurich and Walder Wyss.

Our ZEMP APP(s) converge point of sale and payment seamlessly into one excellent customer experience, all on your smartphone or mobile device. Enabling 23 million ambitious European retailers to handle all… Read more