In this weeks Search For Mana, listen to Zilch CEO and Co-Founder, Philip Belamant, British Entrepreneur of the year 2021, who has taken the business from series A to Unicorn faster than anyone else in Europe has managed with any other company. He and his team still have control of more than 50% of the equity, and their international expansion starts next year.
Philip sat down with Lloyd Wahed CEO of Mana Search to discuss the journey that has seen Zilch achieve over 1 million users in 13 months.
Zilch grew their team from 40 to 200 people in a year, and Philip believes his superpower is building teams through finding the best people and binding them together with a vision.
Like many entrepreneurs on the Searching for Mana Podcast, Philip was a restless student, not impressed with his university education that seemed more about regurgitating data than anything more creative or problem-solving. He had the good fortune to have a father who was an entrepreneur and shared his passion for technology and building products.
Philip found out as a young man that active engagement is the best way to learn, there is nothing wrong with trial and error, and not being afraid to pivot if that produces a better result.
His attributes in his own words include, “perpetual dedication to the cause” and “I work at it all the time” his firmly held belief is that “no-one is special” but “put in the time and surround yourself with the right people” to find success.
For Philip, his opportunity came from the democratisation of money and free credit was the way for him to make a difference. He argues that there is nothing new in “buy now pay later”, however for most companies in that niche the retailer is the customer, but going directly to the consumer and enabling them to use any retailer through Zilch is the key to their strategy.
