"Just do it!"
Spartak Buniatyan Tweet
Spartak Buniatyan has been in the technology development field for over 20 years with a heavy emphasis on developing technologies for large-scale Software as a Service enterprise with a particular focus on scalable digital infrastructures and payments. He is the founder and CEO of PayEngine, where he oversees the business and development operation. PayEngine provides a payments platform designed to help vertical market software vendors maximize payment revenue, eliminate liability and reduce complexity, and own and improve customer experience.
The company’s white-label offering empowers businesses to add payments services alongside their core software products, and migrating from other platforms can be completed in a matter of days. PayEngine serves SaaS companies across a range of verticals, including automotive, residential and commercial services, construction, health care, utilities, transportation, and more.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Spartak Buniatyan: I have been in the technology development field for over 20 years with a heavy emphasis on developing technologies for large-scale Software as a Service enterprise with a particular focus on scalable digital infrastructures and payments. I am the founder and CEO of PayEngine, where I oversee the business and development operation.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Spartak Buniatyan: Both! There are people with innate leadership skills where from a young age they were hustling and finding ways to make money. On the flip side, many technically sound entrepreneurs spent decades working as scientists and engineers, learn how businesses work, and use that experience to start their own company, and are just as successful.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Spartak Buniatyan: Getting it done. Making it happen. Never giving up. Finding a way to your goals.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Spartak Buniatyan: PayEngine is the unique payments platform for vertically integrated SaaS companies. As an example, imagine a B2B2C company, like ServiceTitan. They build software for a specific vertical, in this case, HVAC and plumbing contractors, who then sell their services to consumers. Instead of handing off payments to a processor like Stripe or Square, vertical SaaS companies can partner with PayEngine and offer payment processing (aka payment facilitation) themselves. This creates a more seamless process and adds another revenue stream.
We’ve been helping various vertical software companies adapt their payment facilitation strategies as well as helping with the technical heavy-lifting on the technology implementation. Having done this over and over again, we began to recognize the opportunity to lower the barriers by productizing most of the common areas that are typically applicable across all the verticals when it comes to payments monetization for their customers.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Spartak Buniatyan: Customer discovery, customer discovery, customer discovery – speak to as many potential customers as you can to learn about their pain points and value creation opportunity areas before jumping into the deep end of any venture pursuit. As the cost and time to start a business continue to drop, assume that competition has increased and will be fierce. In our new remote world, this trend is accelerating and we’re now competing in a global market for employees and customers. It’s important to differentiate yourself and build an audience to prove that there’s demand for your products and services.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Spartak Buniatyan: Focusing too much on perfecting a product, instead of finding a way to incrementally build out a minimum viable offering while getting feedback and analytics from an initial base of customers.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain.
Spartak Buniatyan: Surround yourself with mentors that can help solve the bigger problems, when innovating, focus on creating value vs creating features (and know the difference between the two), take calculated risks, and act upon them.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Spartak Buniatyan: “If you build it, they will come”, finding product-market fit is the most difficult part of building any product. Iterating quickly on your ideas by speaking to as many potential customers as possible is vital for any startup business’s survival. Without interacting with potential customers, you are building things for an imaginary world that may only exist in your mind.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Spartak Buniatyan: Traditionally, technology-based companies have relied on hiring offshore-based developers to meet their limited budgets. Due to COVID-19, larger enterprises have been forced to implement remote work strategies, thus becoming more agnostic to the geographical location of their developer. This has increased the demand for offshore developers, thus raising the bar on the minimum expected compensations reaching close that that of on-shore developers.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Spartak Buniatyan: That luck leads to success. While luck may play a role, that alone will not build you a successful company. Vision, relentless dedication, and the right team are the key ingredients to success.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Spartak Buniatyan: Thinking outside the box, being decisive and bold, building relationships, having the listening skill and willingness to adapt.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Spartak Buniatyan: Standard answer, but just do it! There’s no replacement for taking action. It doesn’t have to be a formal business, you could start a YouTube channel, blog, any medium that you naturally gravitate towards. Figuring out ways to find your audience and consistently providing value is key.
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Spartak Buniatyan: Being a good dad and husband, because at the end of the day, family is what brings true meaning to life.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Spartak Buniatyan: My parents, have made me into who I am and have shaped the values I hold.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Spartak Buniatyan for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Spartak Buniatyan or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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