Introducing Paystack Fintech Office Hours

We're excited to introduce Paystack Fintech Office Hours - a series of intimate, 1-on-1 conversations aimed at providing insight and guidance to startups building all types of financial service products for Africa.

Paystack is fortunate to sit on multiple sides of the fintech table. We serve as a payment infrastructure provider, interfacing with banks, regulators and card schemes. We also work closely with hundreds of some of the most ambitious fintech companies in Africa as their payment gateway. This provides us with many unique perspectives on what it takes to start and scale a fintech on the continent.

With Fintech Office Hours, we're looking to leverage everything we've learned in the service of a new generation of African fintechs.

How it works

Office Hours are private, 1-on-1 Zoom calls where you'll have a chance to speak deeply with people who've been in your shoes. These calls will be led by Paystack Technical Product Specialists, the team that works closely with both startups and corporates to implement our most critical and most robust integrations.

Depending on your needs, the Technical Product Specialists might also invite domain experts from across the company - designers, marketers, legal, etc. - as well as experts from our wider network of groundbreaking fintechs. We'll always check with you in advance about who we're thinking of inviting to your session, so you'll never be surprised by who shows up on the call.

The content of the discussion will focus entirely on your specific challenges. We'll cover a broad range of topics, including but not limited to

• the APIs and tools you need to build elegant solutions
• licensing and compliance issues when scaling
• product management and software development
• user acquisition, sales, and growth
• hiring, people ops, and much more

After your Office Hours session, you'll be added to a private community of Office Hours alums. These are your peers, company builders like yourself who're working to build the next wave of disruptive African fintechs.

Applications will open for two weeks each quarter, and each cohort will have up to 10 fintechs each.

Who is eligible to apply?

Fintech Office Hours are intended for teams who've seen some early success in the market and are looking to take things to the next level. Kindly consider applying if:

• You're building a financial services product. This can include accounting and invoicing solutions, savings, lending, and investment apps, and everything in between
• You have a working product that is live in the market and in use by the general public
• You're targeting users in Nigeria or Ghana
• You're seeing strong growth in your monthly Total Processed Volume (TPV). 10% month-on-month growth is decent.

In future, we intend to open this opportunity to all fintechs, but we're limiting this first cohort only to companies with an active Paystack account. Once we work out the kinks, we definitely intend to open this opportunity up to everyone.

Common questions

What's the application deadline?
The deadline to apply for the Q2 2020 cohort is Sunday, May 31st at 11:59 pm WAT

Where do I apply?
You can apply here.

Note: applications are open for two weeks each quarter. If you miss the application window, kindly follow us on our social channels to find out when applications open for the next cohort: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. We'll also announce future application windows to our email list.

When can I expect to hear back after I apply?
We'll start sending out responses within the week after the deadline, so you can expect to hear back latest by June 7th.

What is the selection criteria?
The selection criteria is pretty objective.

• You're building a financial services product. This can include accounting and invoicing solutions, savings, lending, and investment apps, and everything in between
• You have a working product that is live in the market and in use by the general public
• You're targeting users in Nigeria or Ghana
• You're seeing strong growth in your monthly Total Processed Volume (TPV). 10% month-on-month growth is decent.

What happens if I'm not selected?
Due to the number of applications we expect, we likely won't be able to provide a custom explanation to everyone who didn't make it, but we'll certainly try. Regardless, we'll be running this every quarter, so definitely apply again.

Will I get funding if I'm selected?
No, Paystack Fintech Office Hours are not a fundraising program, and you will not receive funding if you're selected. What you will receive, however, is the kind of founder-to-founder insight that can only be found from working in the trenches.

Another world is possible. Let's build it together.

Paystack was founded on the earnest belief that with the right tools, entrepreneurs in Africa are unstoppable. We're inspired by the example of the thousands of fintechs who're pushing the continent forward, and we're committed to helping create thousands more.

Today, Paystack processes over 50% of all online payments in Nigeria, but it wasn't so long ago when we were just starting out. We've never forgotten the many people who helped us forge ahead with a well-placed word of advice, and we're excited to pay that kindness forward for a new generation of financial service technology companies.

If you fit the eligibility criteria, please don't hesitate to apply to Office Hours. We want to help, and we can't wait to meet you.