Focus: Profile – Paul Masson – Helping consumers stay afloat

Paul Masson is the kind of guy who puts his hand up for everything. Action netball? Yes! Work calls at 3 am on a Saturday? All part of the job. Stepping out of an established career to be part of a fintech? Absolutely!

That’s how the 36-year-old has come to be part of a company growing so rapidly that its merchant base has expanded from just a handful at the time of its launch at the end of 2021 to several hundred less than 18 months later. In the last year alone, Float’s transaction volumes have grown by over 2 200%.

‘This is a solution that really speaks to what South Africans need right now,’ Paul says simply. At a time when even essentials have to be considered and reconsidered before adding to cart, an instalment solution is highly attractive. The difference with Float, however, is that while other solutions grant credit to consumers, ‘Float offers shoppers a smarter way to use their existing credit cards by letting them split their payments over up to 24 interest-free, with fee-free monthly instalments using their available credit limits’.

‘That’s important, because we are not adding more credit to the system,’ Paul points out. ‘Essentially, we’re cash flow technology, enabling and scaling responsible credit card usage.’

In other words, Float is all about responsible spending – something Paul feels very strongly about. True, Float makes life easier for cash-strapped consumers by helping them buy expensive goods, paying them off over a longer period without penalties for late payments. But these shoppers have already been vetted by the banks who have granted them credit in the first place in the highly regulated credit card industry. Of course, the solution offers benefits for merchants too, helping to drive consumer traffic. ‘At a time when South African consumers are getting battered by interest rates, we’re making it possible to buy what they need, when they need it.’

Sharpening key skills

The road to Float began with a conversation Paul had with his parents back in high school when he was undecided about his career options. ‘I knew that I wanted a job that paid well, offered mobility or would allow me to one day establish my own business,’ he remembers. Giving a nod to his love of animals, his parents suggested veterinary science; however, after psychometric testing, Paul decided accounting was the way to go. ‘I didn’t actually know much about it back then. On my first day of varsity, when we were handed a textbook on commercial law, I thought that maybe I had been giving the wrong book!’

Four years later, he was not only more informed, but also vastly more resilient. ‘Board exams were relatively easy compared to varsity finals!’ Paul laughs. On the plus side, the challenging nature of the course prepared him for articles at Deloitte, which he ‘loved’ for a number of reasons: from the exposure to different parts of the business to different types of companies.

Interesting though the work was, Paul wanted to be part of a niche team where he would have the opportunity to learn a business and grow with it. When Alexander Forbes asked him to join as a group senior financial account for a small team, he was eager to accept – which is how he came to meet Alex Forsyth-Thomson, who in a few years’ time would become the founder of Float. Until then, though, the two came to work closely, first as members of the junior board and then on a team that was created when their respective departments were merged. It was a gruelling time, Paul remembers, working until all hours of the night, weekends included. ‘I didn’t mind, though. Alex and I both work well under hard conditions, and we sharpened our tools enormously during this time.’

Alex left two years before Paul, telling him that he expected them to work together again – a statement Paul was reminded of when, sometime later, he called Alex to ask his opinion about a job offer. ‘Alex had been looking at business models around the world, and decided that the credit card-linked instalment approach offered throughout Latin America, and now offered by the likes of Visa and Mastercard themselves, was most suited to the South African context – with some adjustments, of course.’

He persuaded Paul to meet Float’s investors and was correct in his assumption that Paul would be impressed. All the same, it took three months of due diligence before he decided to join the company. He shook hands with Alex in July 2021, and Float went live with a beta version that same month, when it also received its first rand of revenue. It opened to market in November that year. Since then, the business has raised two subsequent funding rounds, including their recent seed round, and is in the process of raising a debt facility to fund its rapidly growing instalment plan book.

Float’s future

Paul says that big things are in store for Float. ‘Right now, we’re concentrating on bringing more merchants on board and deepening our instalment platform’s capabilities. We’re also growing our understanding of our merchants’ needs so that, in future, we can develop more products that will support them.’ These may range from broader payments to other financial services products. ‘That’s still a long way away, but there is certainly enormous potential,’ he enthuses.

As far as the world of entrepreneurship is from the corporate ladder, Paul maintains that he wouldn’t enjoy his current adventure half as much if it weren’t for the skills he developed as a CA. ‘I feel that it’s critical to understand the fundamentals of finance if you are trying to build a business. Thanks to my experience, I have an appreciation of what investors are looking for; I know how business operates, and I have a fantastic network. It’s all been part of the journey.’

Paul’s tips for surviving entrepreneurship

• Don’t neglect your health. ‘I’d struggle if I didn’t pay attention to staying fit. It’s an essential part of maintaining balance.’
• Surround yourself with the right people. It’s especially important to have a partner who supports you through the ups and downs.
• Keep educating yourself. This needn’t necessarily be formal learning, but reading about your industry will help you stay abreast of key trends and developments.
• Be protective over your time. Entrepreneurship means long hours and hard work, so be meticulous about timekeeping.
• Be brave and willing to make errors. If you’ve been keeping up with your learning, any decision you make will be from an informed position – so don’t be afraid to take the plunge.
• It’s important to maintain emotional stability and resilience, as you’ll experience both significant triumphs and setbacks along the way.
• Keep the bigger picture top of mind, but make sure you are involved in the detail.