345: $15B Payments Processed A Year: GoCardless’ Hiroki Takeuchi

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2011, Hiroki Takeuchi launched his first business GoCardless with his co-founders. Just under one decade later, they are processing over $15b in payments every year!</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Takeuchi’s first business began as a service to help streamline the messy process of collecting payments informally. Over the next several years, funding, scaling, and pivoting led him to create a simple service that helped collect recurring and one-off payments from customers. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Takeuchi’s approach to business is inspiring. Not only was he a first-time entrepreneur scaling a global business without experience, but he also knows the pains of imposter syndrome and anxiety over hiring overqualified experts. This interview with Nathan Chan serves to remind us all that greatness isn’t just past experience, it’s the willingness to learn that makes someone a great entrepreneur.<br /> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Key Takeaways</strong></span><br /> <br /></span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">How Takeuchi launched GoCardless in 2011 as his first business, and how he developed the idea</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Evolving the initial business idea from something that sought to solve the problem of collecting payments informally, to a global fintech empire</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The importance of having a complimentary co-founder, and how Takeuchi first began planning with his co-founders</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Why Takeuchi decided to leverage existing services in order to streamline launch</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Demo day, and overcoming getting 64 “no’s” before they got a “yes”