Start-up Q&A: How GoCardless (YC S11) are giving the credit card companies a run for their money

by Alexis Ohanian2/15/2012

Getting paid can be a nightmare. Whether you’re collecting small sums from your Fantasy Football League or you’re a crafty sort selling mittens online, accepting payments is expensive and time-consuming. Only big companies like British Gas have the luxury of accepting Direct Debits and the alternatives all carry a punitive charge. Until now.

Tom Blomfield, Matt Robinson and Hiroki Takeuchi are three Oxford graduates who defied the odds to get into the Direct Debit niche, jumping regulatory hoops and smashing development challenges to launch a brand new kind of payments business. GoCardless lets any business or individual accept Direct Debits for a 1% transaction fee (to a maximum total – that’s right, maximum – of £2). It’s one of those businesses that are so simple you don’t know how it hasn’t been done before.

MT caught up with Robinson and Blomfield on the day of their public launch to find out how they did it.

Great Q&A about how GoCardless got started disrupting payments with Direct Debits.

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Author

  • Alexis Ohanian