Gain insights on business growth in our series of bite size chats with Business Leaders, brought to you by The FD Consultant.
We interview high achieving individuals who we believe everyone can learn from, and who bring insight into the many aspects of successfully growing a business.
In this edition’s Insights Q&A, we welcome Patrick Smith, Founder and CEO. A serial entrepreneur, who launched two businesses by age ten, Patrick sold his first business at 18. Patrick later founded a London agency that grew to a 50+ team with 250+ clients in under two years. Now as Zally's CEO, Patrick aims to kill passwords and build the UK's next unicorn.
We hope you enjoy this edition of Insights with Patrick’s experiences and insights.
Hi Patrick, please tell us about your business
Zally was created to kill passwords.
We’ve created a brand new technology that uses behavioural biometrics and advanced AI to continuously and passively confirm that you are you. Passwords, two-factor authentication, FaceID and even Passkeys are point-in-time exercises that can easily be hacked or bypassed. In contrast, Zally passively checks in the background to determine that you are who you say you are continuously.
87% of customers abandon their online purchases due to forgotten or frustrating password experiences. This is a huge source of lost revenue for ecommerce businesses alone, at Zally we can provide business with more revenue and better customer satisfaction without any added effort.
It’s a win-win for businesses and consumers.
What are the key factors which have driven your success to date?
The team: We’re a people business that puts people first and foremost.
Continuous Learning: I am always striving to expand my knowledge and capabilities, ensuring that I listen to feedback from investors, customers, users, and the team. This feedback fuels my passion and reaffirms my belief that we’ve got a solution that businesses and consumers need and want.
Collaboration: I value collaboration and input from the team, our investors and the board. We have a diverse and highly experienced group of investors and individuals and are looking to add to this collective to expand our knowledge and expedite our mission.
Resilience: Setbacks and failures are great learning points, and they only make me more determined. I view them as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles.
Everyone hates passwords, so I’ve got the backing to succeed from all these people, too.
What makes you so passionate about what you do?
A few years ago, my Mum passed away from cancer, and this left my Dad, with dementia, alone to manage his affairs.
As everything is digital – it needs a password. Despite leaving post-it notes all around his house he constantly called me to remind him of his passwords – at all hours of the day. This led me to think there must be a better way.
With my own money invested, we got high-level accuracy results whilst building an MVP with behavioural biometrics, and Zally was born.
What do you view as your greatest achievement in this role?
Seeing the team work together, including everyone from development, data science and marketing. I want the whole team to understand what challenges each other faces and then brainstorm and find trailblazing solutions to solve them.
With this team, we can solve any challenge that comes our way.
What are the biggest challenges your business faces?
We have a technology that can solve a lot of headaches across all industries, keeping a laser-sharp focus on our initial goal and solving the password problem. We could do so much, but we only have a finite set of resources to do this, well, at least for now.
I fully believe that Zally is going to be Manchester’s next unicorn. Still, we know that the journey will be difficult, so we must focus on the immediate goals and grow the business quickly but sustainably.
What one piece of advice would you give to those who want to achieve or sustain high growth in their businesses?
Network and surround yourself with passionate people who are going to challenge you and advocate your cause. Naturally, if you’d like to join us on our journey, please reach out.
We hope you found Patrick's comments informative and thought provoking.
If you'd like to know more about Patrick and Zally, please visit the Zally website here.