Manifesto

The manifesto is a collection of beliefs that we hold close to our heart. It's a great introduction into how we think.

Our manifesto

Business finance sucks. We make it suck less.
Let's be honest, who doesn't think business finance sucks? It will always suck. If our goal was to make it awesome, or breathtaking or fill in the blank platitude, we'd be lying to ourselves and our customers. Instead we strive each year to make business finance suck just a little bit less than it did the year before. Now that feels realistic.

Everybody only wins, when nobody loses.
We want to create win/win situations for our partners, customers, investors and employees. If you can make something where everybody wins, you have a stronger ecosystem. We will stand stronger than the soulless finance companies by creating a company based on trust and transparency.

Business as a force for good.
We built Fellow Pay to be a force for good. An agent of change in a business finance market that always lets one side of the relationship down. We envision a world of cooperation, rather than bad relationships. One of financial inclusion and fair financial products for all small businesses.

Honest transparency.
Telling the truth is the only option. To ourselves, our teammates and our customers. Also, big words aren't impressive. They just make us look less smart. Simple communication, always.

Empathy and service.
For too long marketers and advertisers have manipulated people to buy things they don't need. We promise to our customers to communicate to them with empathy and to provide them only what they (really) need.

A Calm Company
Chaos should not be the natural state at work. Anxiety isn’t a prerequisite for progress. Sitting in meetings all day isn’t required for success. These are all perversions of work — side effects of broken models and follow-the-lemming-off-the-cliff worst practices. Step aside and let the suckers jump - Jason Fried.

Knowledge sharing and education.
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Our absolute goal is to make SMEs financially literate so that they can grow sustainably.

Independent thinking.
Our team is made of independent thinkers who are comfortable working off script. We're not interested in employing cogs for our machine. We use automation for that. If you're independent, creative and a little entrepreneurial you'll fit right in here. Be patiently impatient.

Human-centered capitalism.
We're only interested in starting businesses for the right reasons. To create products that (actually) solve humankind’s higher needs. "Humans are more important than money" - Andrew Yang.

First principles
How do we know that the best way to do something has already been discovered? We don't. And that's why we always challenge what other people believe to be true. 5% better isn't good enough. Either we re-engineer it, or we leave it alone.

Creativity.
"Creativity is the last legal unfair advantage that a business has over it's competitors" - Bill Bernbach.

Continuous learning.
Move fast and figure it out along the way. "Everything is figureoutable" - Marie Forleo

Freedom.
We do believe in the benefits of being remote company. That's why a part of the company is remote and not restrained by the traditional and antiquated office setting.

Conversational customer communication.
Humans don't say "I apologise for the inconvenience I've caused". We say "sorry". That's it. We've become acustomed to hearing that spiel because almost every company uses it. But its cold and impersonal. Instead, we speak to people like people. That means we say "I'm sorry" instead of apologising on behalf of the company and we speak to customers like we would to a person in the street. Like a human!

Don’t make me think.
Why are apps and products often so difficult for people to use? Maybe because the people who made it didn't put their customers needs first. Our first priority is our customers. And that means creating a product that is simple to use, doesn't freak them out and delivers what they expected every time they use it.

Intrinsic motivation.
When we work on what we are naturally motivated to work on we give our all. Likewise, when we do tasks we aren't motivated for we tend to do only what is required and nothing more. We promise to all of our employees that we will try our best to give them as much time to spend on what motivates them, saving the tasks they hate for others who are.

Even the playing field.
Factoring is difficult for SMEs. We make it easy. In fact, we promise that every product we create will be easy for SMEs to use.

Be the painkiller.
You can think of us like financial pain relief. Ready to use whenever you need it.

Financial inclusion for SMEs.
We promise to create financial products that are fair and just for everyone who uses them.

Be thoughtfully different.
We're all for breaking the status quo, but we don't do it just for the sake of it. If something can be drastically improved, we'll take on the challenge.

Small teams.
We believe we're most effective when we work in small teams. It's a popular myth that large teams get more done. We choose to be fast and agile, instead of slow and bloated.

Do it once, properly.
Automate it, and then you don't have to do it again and again and again. Rid the mundane and repetitive. Allow people to do meaningful work.

Thoughtful data-driven decision making.
Every tech business claims they're data driven. But data has one fatal flaw - it's information from the past. We prefer using a little bit of data on top of our gut and intuition to make decisions about our future. Data is powerful but it can't solve everything. Use it wisely.

Never, I told you so.
Because we are rewriting the rules of business finance we're often running into battle without a map. That means we're likely to get a lot of things wrong. Anyone who joins our team must revel in that environment. Therefore, we won't tolerate the words "I told you so".

Never assume; always ask
Bad things can only occur from NOT asking and making assumptions. We are here to support each other and we appreciate openness and honesty. If in doubt, ask before you take action, never make an assumption.

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