By Amanda Barnes for MendozaSun.comAn innovative start-up company in Mendoza, which helps tenants pay their landlords online or at ATMs, has been awarded $40,000US by Start Up Chile. PagaTuAlquiler is a new company started by Adrian Fisher and his partner Guillermo Horno which makes rental payments quicker, easier and safer allowing tenants to pay their monthly rent online, at ATMs or at rapipago’s across Argentina.
Although designed initially for Argentina and launched here in Mendoza in August last year, the project has been gaining more recognition and created more excitement abroad than in the country it was specifically designed for. As the first rent payment system of its type in South America, PagaTu Alquiler is seeing doors open across the continent even though people have been slow to embrace it here.
Adrian Fisher, from Arizona, has been living in Argentina for the past six years and having experienced some of the ‘charm’ of Argentinian organisation, he decided it was time to create a system that would make rent payments easier for the occupant and the landlord:
“For the last few years I was always having problems paying the rent,” Adrian tells the Mendoza Sun. “I would be at my house, and out of the blue my landlord would ring the bell at 11pm or midnight to come to collect the rent unannounced. I couldn’t believe how it was here! Sometimes he would come every month, other times he would forget for a couple months and then suddenly arrive demanding two months' rent on the spot! It was a pain in the ass for him, and it was a pain in the ass for me. I should be able to pay my rent like I pay my water bill – regularly, easily and when it’s convenient.”
Already owning his own web design and web application company, Malbec Media, Adrian decided with partner Guillermo to start a second company off the back of that to create a system allowing people in Argentina to pay their rent in an easier, faster and secure way. Based through their website www.pagatualquiler.com the landlord sets up a free account online from which they can track payments, manage their properties, see payment history and keep tenants details online.
PagaTuAlquiler then provides payment cards to the landlord to give to their tenants so that they can take the barcoded card to their closest RapiPago or pay online at their convenience each month. The company processes and deposits collected payments directly into the landlord’s bank account. The system even sends out text reminders and email alerts if a tenants payment is late.
“It makes people’s lives easier,” says Adrian "The long term plan is to expand it to more types of payments and bills, making everything a little easier. The software we built makes accepting payments within Argentina much more accessible than before, letting property owners use the big payment channels like RapiPago or the Red Banelco without the hassle and overhead of going direct. The end result is transparency all across the payment cycle which is amazing – especially here for Argentina.”
Although the project has been fully functioning for a year, it was not without its difficulties to set up. “It is really hard to do business in Argentina,” admitted Adrian. “To form a company here takes a long time and it’s relatively expensive. It took us about a year to do paperwork and set up our company the right way. There are not that many business loans available here if you don't have hard assets to put up, cash is king to get off the ground.
"In a country where many people prefer to keep their life savings in cash, rather than in a bank, paying online into the bank isn’t very popular yet. “ “So far the renters love it [many of them foreigners] but the property owners are still a bit unsure. In Argentina there still isn’t much trust in banks and working online. But the cool thing is that this can work in other places.”
And that is why PagaTuAlquiler is now expanding over the border, with a $40,000US grant from the Chilean government. The Start Up Chile initiative is a new government initiative which started last year and aims at attracting foreign talent and entrepreneurs to Chile (as well as local talent) to start up their own businesses by giving them a ‘no strings attached’ grant to hopefully set up successful businesses based in Chile, inspire a new generation of Chilean entrepreneurs and secure Chile’s financial future.
“What Chile is doing with the StartUpChile initiative is actually pretty amazing, I think they have a smart plan to change the current business culture rapidly by investing in both foreign and national entrepreneurs in mass. They are also working to make business laws inside the country more flexible for anyone who wants to start a company. If it works out for them as planned I can only see the creation of many new opportunities for Chileans as a whole."
In exchange for the grant, Adrian and his partner Guillermo will be promoting entrepreneurialism within Chile to try to encourage young Chileans to follow innovative ideas and set up new companies. The initiative supported 110 new start up companies in its first round of the year offering $40,000US grants, working visas and an office space in Chile, and is supported by the government and entrepreneurs around the globe.
This is an exciting move for PagaTuAlquiler and one that Adrian is confident will be successful. “Santiago is a massive city compared to Mendoza, it’s very modern and with a great infrastructure. People are used to paying with credit cards and paying electronically probably more so than anywhere else in South America. The attitude towards money is quite different from what I can see so far. It is pretty promising!”
And with a this grant and support behind them, Adrian’s two years of work on the project here in Argentina is starting to pay off. The company has already had interest from Mexico and Columbia to explore potential opportunities for their system, and they are starting to test the company model in the US.
So have Argentineans, who are slower to trust banks and online finances, missed the boat? No - the company is still going to maintain an office here and will continue working with all its existing clients and any future clients. Adrian believes that the culture regarding technology and new ideas will continue to evolve here, giving commerce in Argentina a brighter future:
“Argentina has great potential,” explains Adrian. “The country has awesome talent – really good engineers and some very creative people. Argentina's sometimes difficult system makes for people who are very creative and quick on their feet. The good thing is when you want to start a project in Argentina you can find people that are brilliant. When you want to grow your business and challenge the old way of doing things that is when it's a bit more difficult… But everything is changing. Technology is improving and with new initiatives offering free bank accounts etc, online projects that make life easier will be successful in Argentina… it’s just a matter of time!”
For more information visit www.pagatualquiler.com and www.startupchile.com
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