IPN Spotlight: Suneera Madhani (CEO/Founder of Fattmerchant)
After almost three years of corporate culture Suneera Madhani knew it was time she took her learnings and applied them to her real passion of entrepreneurship. With a background in business, advertising, and sales, Suneera established herself in a merchant services career and quickly realized that business owners are frustrated with their providers, due to a lack of transparency and never-ending gimmicks. She decided to found her company, Fattmerchant, with the promise to establish a transparent, subscription-based merchant services model that offers financial and strategic value to the everyday business owner. Since the launch of the company in mid 2014, Suneera has been recognized for her vast achievements and strength in business plans through various mediums including Forbes, Fast Company, Tech Crunch, Huffington Post, and has been recognized by Merchant Maverick as a 5 star merchant services provider.
What skills have helped you in your career?
Being able to think outside of the box is a skill that has continuously driven me throughout my career. This is the skill that allowed me to grow my vision for Fattmerchant and a new way of merchant services. Before Fattmerchant, there was no such thing as subscription-based merchant services. We are the first provider to offer 0% markup processing with no ancillary fees or contract. Without my ability to think outside the box, Fattmerchant would have never come to be.
My innate ability to lead a team has also been an invaluable skill throughout my career. At the end of 2014, Fattmerchant had only 2 full time employees. Today, we are a team of 18 and still growing. Being able to effectively lead the company and aid each individual in growing in their position, makes Fattmerchant a strong, united team.
What do you wish you had known or done differently throughout your career?
At the end of every day, week, or year, you will wish you had done something differently. Mistakes are inevitable when you are starting a business from scratch and working to get it off the ground. When I really think about it, however, I would not change any one of those mistakes. Last year we had 2,000% growth as a company and that was enormous. Now, we’re coming in 2016 and we need to keep up that momentum and continue to grow.
What is next for you in your career?
As Fattmerchant continues to grow and scale, I will maintain my position as CEO of the company. We will be raising a Series A round shortly and I will be at the forefront of this next step for our company. In the coming year, we will continue to build out our marketing, sales, and technology departments to meet the growing demand for our business model and technology.
I am also looking forward to increasing my involvement in the Orlando community, particularly through working with other local startups. Through the inception, implementation, and success of Fattmerchant, I have learned many business lessons and am eager to share this knowledge with other up and coming businesses.
What do you do for continuing education and improvement?
I am an avid reader and read at least 2 books a month, one on my kindle and one through my audible account. Some of my favorite books I’ve recently read have been “Girl Boss” by Sophia Amoruso, “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, and “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. By constantly reading books like these, either on my couch at home or listening on my drive to and from work, I am able to continue my education and constantly improve in my professional life. Each book teaches me something new and shows me a way that I can be better in my position and a better leader for Fattmerchant.
What advice would you offer to others?
The advice I would give would be to set realistic, actionable goals. If you feel passionate about something, you should 100% go for it! But that doesn’t mean you need to quit your job today. Find the customer demand for your idea or product and you will have the validation you need to take that running leap towards changing an industry.
Areas where you can help other Ismailis:
• Start up business plans
• Fundraising
• Professionals interested in payment technologies