March 21, 2022

Founders Stories Podcast: Ben Pfisterer on taking on the big four

We talk to Ben Pfisterer, CEO and co-founder of Zeller, an innovative payment terminal now taking on the Big Four Banks in Aus

Kate Stannett

June 24, 2021

Founders Stories Podcast: Ben Pfisterer on taking on the big four

We talk to Ben Pfisterer, CEO and co-founder of Zeller, an innovative payment terminal now taking on the Big Four Banks in Aus

Kate Stannett

In this week's episode, we talk to Ben Pfisterer, CEO and co-founder of Zeller, an innovative payment terminal now taking on the Big Four Banks in Australia. Raising A$81M in the last 12 months, Zeller is Australia’s most valuable pre-launch startup. In the first month alone, over 1,500 Australian businesses have switched from a big-four bank and signed up for Zeller, far exceeding early growth expectations. At Zeller, financial management for businesses is simple. whooshkaa:843815

Time Stamps

  • 0:52 - Introduction to Zeller
  • 1:59 - The problem: financial management isn't a simple process
  • 7:44 - Critical lessons and skills learnt through management consultancy
  • 10:51 - Finding his feet at NAB and leading the development of contactless payments in Australia
  • 13:47 - How to convince an industry of imminent change
  • 16:46 - A simple explanation of payment infrastructure
  • 18:03 - Ben's life changing decision to quit his job and start his own business, Kinetic
  • 20:55 - What is it like working with jack Dorsey, Co-founder and CEO of Twitter and Square
  • 24:02 - Square transitions from a fast-moving startup to a much slower-moving established business
  • 26:58 - How the idea for Zeller came to be
  • 28:05 - Meet Dominic Yap, co-founder of Zeller
  • 30:54 - Making the decision to raise capital instead of self funding
  • 32:36 - Ben breaks down what Zeller is and how they help Australian businesses
  • 36:05 - Building a strong team - talent attracts talent
  • 39:05 - Founded in early 2020, COVID was all Zeller knew
  • 42:45 - How early adopters of Zeller impacted the industry

Ben Pfisterer Bio:

Ben Pfisterer is the CEO and co-founder of Zeller. Before starting Zeller at the start of 2020, Ben launched Square in Australia back in 2014 and was Country Manager through to the end of 2019 (also becoming Head of APAC in 2018). Ben also spent a number of years at NAB and Visa focused on innovation in the card payment space, most notably leading the deployment and growth of contactless payments in Australia. The relationships formed and knowledge from this time allowed him to successfully launch Zeller. Ben and his co-founder Dominic Yap have the ability to scale something from scratch and surround themselves with super talented individuals to go after their vision. This combination is critical to success in disrupting the financial services industry.

Podcast Notes:

Zeller, a Melbourne-based fintech founded by Ben Pfisterer and Dominic Yam is a payment and financial services startup aiming to simplify financial management for small to medium sized Australian businesses. Zeller believe accepting payments, managing finances and paying receipts should be simple, but unfortunately it isn't always the case. Zeller is taking on the big four banks and holding them accountable with lower fees, improved customer support and far simpler processes.