Week 45: Pete Janes, ShieldPay
This week marks the end to my London founder series with Peter Janes, CEO of ShieldPay, the safest way to send and receive money. ShieldPay’s technology protects the buyer and seller in any payment by verifying both individuals, securing funds from the buyer and only releasing them to the seller when both sides are happy. When I first heard about the startup, I admittedly assumed that apps like Venmo and PayPal already covered our bases. Yet it wasn’t until I decided to sublet from a person off Craigslist and needed to pay a hefty sum upfront that I personally felt the pain. I was putting my trust in a third party, and what really did I know about him? We shared a few mutual friends on Facebook and did FaceTime briefly, so we both decided to put ourselves at risk and transact with a stranger. In my case, things worked out, yet as Pete explains, many people are not so lucky. Using an escrow third party system helps eliminate one’s exposure to peer-to-peer fraud.
I was especially excited to chat with Pete as ShieldPay is his third startup; one was a rapid success while the other ended up failing, and Pete will be the first to tell you that the latter ended up helping him more. High off the triumph from his first company, failing at his second diminished Pete’s ego and taught him the importance of finding product-market fit before taking on external funding. Pete’s other big learning experience stems from his former rugby career, where he saw firsthand the importance of diversity on a team. As he notes in the episode, hiring people who act or think the same as you do is when you start missing out on opportunities. But really, sports and failure go back to grit, a recurring theme on this podcast show. Building grit can be done in a myriad of ways, yet it remains the critical ingredient to a startup’s success.
Stage 👉 Seed
Location 👉 London
Industry 👉 FinTech
“I’ve learned more from the failure than the success on what’s required to build a successful company”
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
- The story behind ShieldPay’s origin, and why the company isn’t targeting the friends and family transaction space
- How many UK startups use the country as a testing ground for ideas before scaling out into alternative markets such as the U.S.
- Why Pete decided to enter the Techstars Barclays accelerator, even though he already was a serial founder
- How aspirations to play professional rugby eventually led Pete to a career in media, and later, his first startup venture
- Why raising too much capital can kill a startup, and what to consider when accepting venture funding
- How playing sports for the majority of his life instilled in Pete the importance of diversity on teams
At the end, Pete shares another London startup he’s a big fan of, in addition to the entrepreneur he’d most want to interview (hint: he’s also from the UK).
P.S. Thanks to 52 Founders alumn Jonathan Baker for the intro!
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