My biggest mistake: Spiro Rokos, co-founder and CTO of Slyp

Slyp is an automated ‘smart’ receipt company co-founded by Spiro Rokos, Paul Weingarth and Mike Boyd, first inspired by a 50cm long receipt handed out at a department store in 2016.

Surely — the founders thought — there was no sense in every part of the payment process being digital apart from a long, sure-to-fade, paper receipt.

Rokos and Weingarth were working at PayPal together in the sales and marketing team before teaming with Boyd and taking Weingarth’s idea from that receipt and launching as PingData.

Now they’re finding a space in the market as Slyp, but an overenthusiastic prototype — a ‘maximum’ viable product — made the initial pitch to customers and investors more difficult.

The mistake

Going in all guns blazing, the Rokos, Weingarth and Boyd wanted to build an almost completely functional prototype, with every possible feature jammed in.

Instead of a prototype with basic click-throughs, they built the mechanics out with the backend in place and connections with a POS system.

Seeking to create a ‘next level’ customer experience, the two went above and beyond what was needed at the time: to concisely sell their idea to the banks and businesses that would actually use it.

“I think we left a few too many things in play,” said Rokos.

The context

Early on in their business journey, the founders were looking for investors and banking partners they could work alongside to build Slyp out as a function within their banking app.

That would help them build out the product, test it, and validate its success.

The impact

The founders didn’t bring the product to market with the first bank they pitched it to.

As Rokos explained: ”When you looked at the receipt, there was just a little bit too much going on.”

It was a little confusing for customers who would see digital receipts for the first time within their banking apps.

When you’re in your banking app, you’re there for a specific reason, Rokos learnt. Existing within another product was not the same as building a new app where customers expect many features and functionality.

So the team re-engineered the prototype and returned to the banks, with NAB signing on as a strategic partner in 2018.

The lesson

By moving away from all the fancy features, Slyp stripped down what it needed to do to the core basics — a receipt as proof of purchase with a vendor and buyer, which was completely tax compliant.

Source: supplied.

“Simplify the product from the get-go and set (realistic) expectations on what should be delivered to the market first,” said Rokos. “We could have demonstrated the smart receipt technology without needing to build a fully functional prototype.”

Slyp was brought to market with NAB in 2020, which has since been used as a base to secure deals with retailers including Kmart, JD Sports, Chemist Warehouse, Country Road, while working with the other major banks.

The teams haven’t lost their passion for everything a receipt can hold, but now they are firmly in the market and have built relationships with vendors where they can have bigger conversations about what’s possible in a receipt.

And there are no regrets either.

“We wouldn’t do anything differently because dreaming big and scaling back taught us so many invaluable lessons along the way,” said Rokos.