Patrick Stäuble, CEO and founder of Teylor, tells us about digital SME lending.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Teylor.
Patrick Stäuble: Prior to Teylor, I worked for a Zurich-based Fintech, first as a product manager and later as Head of Business Development. Having dealt with many banks and other financial services firms, I quickly noticed that digital progress in SME lending seriously lags behind other areas. The result is a structural issue in the SME lending market as manual processes cause slow processing times and high costs for SME borrowers, banks, and debt investors. The Teylor platform solves these problems with digital technology.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Patrick Stäuble: Reading a lot helps. Leaders are readers, said Harry Truman. I think there is a lot of truth in that. Reading broadens your horizon and gives you new ideas and a wider perspective. So despite the extreme workload I have at Teylor, I still make time to read every day.
How does Teylor market its product/services online?
Patrick Stäuble: We use several channels. Online is just one channel besides offline channels such as our call center and our wide network of specialized finance brokers. As you ask specifically about online:: Firstly, we produce a lot of useful content for our target audience. As we have done that for several years, we now frequently get featured in leading newspapers and magazines, which helps us in terms of marketing and branding. The second online channel is our website, where we get a lot of organic traffic. As we’ve now been around for a while, people know our name, and they value our offering.
What is your hiring process, and how do you retain your employees?
Patrick Stäuble: Hiring is a priority at Teylor as we are growing very fast, and scaling only works if you have the right team in place. We prefer hiring people through our own network, as personal referrals are still the most successful HR channel. However, as we grow fast, referrals get saturated quickly, so we need other channels as well. We use online job boards and specialized headhunters for that. As for the second question, how we retain employees: I think people today want to understand the purpose of their work, and they want to work alongside equally talented colleagues. That’s why we place a lot of emphasis on our company culture. People who work at Teylor understand clearly why we do what we do and what role they play in our mission. We have a diverse team, but everyone is on the same page in terms of what they expect from Teylor and what they are required to provide.
How are you funding your growth?
Patrick Stäuble: We have just closed another financing round with both angel and venture capital investors. We are going to use these funds to expand internationally and become the leading European fintech lending platform. It’s certainly an advantage for us to have such fantastic investors both on the equity side as well as for our Private Debt Fund. Their input has been remarkable, not only in terms of money but also in their strategic and operational expertise.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Patrick Stäuble: We don’t really have any direct competitors. Most lenders are only doing lending, meaning they don’t develop or provide technology. And most fintechs are only doing technology, meaning they aren’t lenders. Teylor does everything, making us the link pin in the SME lending market. Our platform provides digital financing solutions for SMEs and Software-as-a-Service solutions for banks so they can digitize their own lending processes. We also provide institutional investors access to SME loans as an asset class through our own Private Debt Fund. That makes us a comprehensive platform for all stakeholders of the SME lending market. Nobody else solves SME lending problems the same way we do.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Patrick Stäuble: We implemented our Software-as-a-Service solution with one of the leading factoring providers in the German-speaking region. Our technology has helped this company grow incredibly fast and be a leader in its market. I could tell you many such stories, and it’s these successes make us proud at Teylor and prove to us why we do what we do. The SME financing market needs digitization for the good of the lenders and their customers. Think of how many jobs are created just by helping businesses finance their growth and how that triggers innovation and productivity. It’s a good thing what we’re doing here.
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