Cross-Border Transactions Redefined by Enrique Perezalonso of Palla

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Welcome to our podcast From the Ground Up where we interview startup founders exploring their journeys, their successes, challenges and lessons learned. We hope you be inspired in discovering what it takes to build a thriving startup. I'm your host Jake Aaron Villarreal and here with us today I'm excited to have with us Enrique Perezalonso, co-founder and CEO of Palla. We'll go ahead and talk a little bit about it and the details of specifically the problem it solves. But before we dive in here, uh Enrique, where are you calling in from?  

Enrique Perezalonso: I'm in uh calling in from Miami Beach, Jake.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Oh great. It's a great place. Are you originally from there?

Enrique Perezalonso: No, I'm originally from Mexico, but I moved here 11 years ago. So uh can't complain, weather's great here.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, it's a place I love to get to uh when I can. I used to live in New York City, so going south was uh part of the program when you lived on the East Coast uh to get into some of that warmer weather. Um so originally from Mexico. Um walk us through the journey. What was it that brought you um from Mexico to uh to Miami?

Enrique Perezalonso: Sure. So, so my history is that uh you know, I've worked for financial institutions in Mexico and Central America all of my life. And um uh you know, we were looking for something different uh like a leap year, gap year thing so to speak. So we moved here, my wife and I and my kids uh just to try it out, and we loved it. Uh we, I, I started working first as a consultant for financial institutions, large financial institutions here in the US for banks, specifically in the retail side. And I, I discovered fintech and started getting into it and the rest is history. So 11 years have gone by and here I am.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: That's great. You know, we work with a lot of companies and talk to a lot of founders that come out of great schools, they're educated, you know Ivy League and... Walk us through your educational background.

Enrique Perezalonso: Sure. Uh so, so I, I studied uh engineering in Mexico which is a great kind of quant background and it really served me well, believe it or not, really served me well for, for retail banking which is what I did most you know in my past. Uh and um, and then I got an MBA from MIT which was also great uh you know to, to... especially people you meet, and it really opens up your, your mind to new concepts, new ideas and, and really new ways to, to analyze and, and solve problems.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: I can imagine. It's a great school. Um and you know, working with companies that come out of there, it seems that they're always innovating some level of an industry. Um talk about Palla. Palla, which is an international payments company. When you built that and started to create what you've created today, what was the problem you saw that you felt like, you know, in the fintech space there was another opportunity to carve out a solution or an offering that really can scale?

Enrique Perezalonso: So, so let me back up and tell you what I was doing before Palla and why we decided to, to, to work on it and create Palla. Uh before I was working for a neobank. It was corporate-owned, but I, they hired me uh as the COO. And you know, we were working with mostly underbanked communities. A lot of them are Latinos, and the number one product that Latinos asked for were remittances. "How, how can I send money back home in a way that's easier?" In fact, we were seeing a lot of customers actually ship their cards back home and they, they would go to the CVS or all the recharge points putting money into the card so that their family members in Mexico could use it. And, and u- you know, we called them up thinking it was fraud and, and they're like "No, no, no, no, it's, it's not fraud, don't, don't cancel my card." So, so we, we knew there's this big need for, for a simpler way to send money.

Um the, the current uh way to send money you know, not just to Mexico but really anywhere in the world is, is, it's generally not such a good experience. It's um, it's mostly done in cash. Uh people go deposit cash into a little store and then they hope that someone in, in the other country can pick it up. Um, and we, we really looked for different... when, when we were still at this, this neobank, we looked for alternatives to, to enable this for, for customers. And what we found was really bad, like it was like very old technology, mostly cash based on the payout. So you know, we, I talked to my co-founders and we said, "Listen, there's a you know, there's a huge opportunity here. Uh let's, uh let's, let's do something." And the rest is history. Now we, we, we, we decided to found Palla. Uh and as you can imagine we went through many, many different pivots, many different iterations. But, but slowly it took shape and, and, and it, it transformed into what our customers wanted.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Talk about your customers. So if you're in the US and you have family in Mexico or any other country... um I'm from California, there's a lot of agriculture here, a lot of people are here from different parts of the world. Uh they want to send money back on a monthly basis to help you know provide for their families or friends or whatnot. How do they find you and what is it they need to use your platform for?

Enrique Perezalonso: Sure. So the way Palla works is that we, we became more of a platform. So we work with the banks in, with different banks and financial institutions and fintechs in the, in all of LatAm. We're in, in eight different countries right now, expanding into a couple more very soon. And we worked with the banks to enable their customers to request funds from the US. So you know, they, they were the kind of like the, the, the missing piece of the equation which no one was taking care of. So now if you're in Mexico, you can request money from anyone in the US. And what's great is that through Palla uh we're a white label solution, we are embedded into our partners' uh applications in, in Mexico and in the different countries. And here in the US what you see is really a checkout page for each individual customer. So for example Jake, if you're in, in Mexico you're going to send your, your payment uh link to someone in the US and they're going to see that uh Jake is asking for money. Uh you're going to see the, the, the bank where you have your account and it's, it's just like a, a checkout page. It's super easy, you check out, you enter your information and the money, Jake, you receive the money in seconds instead of having to wait hours or days, which is the, the traditional rails, you get the money instantly. So that really makes the experience so much better, not just for the sender but also for the receiver. Uh and, and you also guarantee that the person you're sending the money to is the person you want to get the money. And it's also instant, which is removes a lot of the, the, the, the problems with the traditional remittance where "I don't know where my money is, I don't know if there's going to be a problem, I don't know if they're going to get it." It's, it's, in a couple seconds the money is there, they can go, they can use it anytime day or night, 24/7. It's, it's great.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: That's really cool. So if you're a bank out there that doesn't have the infrastructure, you haven't spent a lot of u- money in building out the uh ability to transact funds coming you know, in and out of the country, you provide that integration for them and really the technology to, to make that happen in a white label um process.

Enrique Perezalonso: Exactly. We, we also worked with fintechs uh here in the US. And what we do is we, we, we give them an embedded experience where you know, they can initiate a transaction from the US to LatAm for payment to anyone. So anyone who has in these apps, for example, example Doi which is an app in the App Store, they capture the customers and we power the solution to send money to anyone in the Dominican Republic for example. And what happens is their customer never sees Palla, but we're handling all the compliance, we're handling all the operation, we're handling all the onboarding of the customer on the back end. And you know, we make sure that the, the customer in the Dominican Republic receive the funds. So uh ultimately we want to create a million little you know remittance companies uh with our partners, and, and both in Latin America but also here in the US.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, that's great. Uh what I think is even better about everything you just shared is the customer experience, with you know instant cash, you know, across borders, not have to worry about going through third parties you don't know about. It's your, it's your bank that you're using in whatever country you're in and being able to get that transaction done um seamless is, it seems like there's a lot of opportunity for that as a company. Talk about um your journey of going from concept to building it out. Did you go out and raise capital? Did you go through an accelerator? Uh how big are you today?

Enrique Perezalonso: Absolutely. So let, let me start first with uh kind of like the conceptual road map. Uh because as uh you know, and I've seen this a lot of founders tell me the same thing, that you never know where you're going to end up really. Uh you start with one idea and then uh you know the, the market and your customers just take you somewhere else and, and that's where you got to go, right? You gotta do what the customers want. But initially we, we started with uh kind of more of the traditional uh idea of a, a brand where we would capture the customer in the US and then we would give a, a card to the US uh consumer but also in Mexico. And we would have like a shared ledger. So it's kind of like a crypto solution in the middle, uh like a blockchain solution. So you could use a card in the US and Mexico.

And um we started looking at the budget for that and we said, "Oh, oh, this is like never going to work from a financial standpoint," right? It's super expensive. And so we started look-, we said, "Hey, let's get rid of the card in, in the US. We can, everyone in the US has a card, so we can just give the customer in Mexico a card." And, and then we also saw, you know, in, in that, and this was someone else who's told us, "Hey, forget about the, the issuing cards. There's a lot of people issuing cards." We said, "You're right." So we, we just became a uh kind of the platform or the app, right? Uh and, and halfway through building out the app that people were going to use in the US to send money back to um you know the card members in, in, or the, or the uh fintechs in, in Mexico, we, we realized that most of our, our partners in the region, like the f- and the, and the fintechs, they wanted to have their own brand out there. They wanted an embedded solution, and they wanted it to be branded with their own you know, you know, with, with, with their brand in the US. So we said, "Hey, let's just do it. We don't need to build a brand, we don't need to become a consumer-facing company. Uh let's just give them what they want." And that's when really things took off like crazy. Like uh as soon as we said, "Hey, we'll do everything embedded in your experience and with your brand," all the, the different fintechs, banks, financial institutions that we work with, they just went nuts. And uh you know, really things exploded for us, right?

So uh in, in terms of uh, of our journey for um, for f- fundraising and accelerators. We, we got accepted into Y Combinator in 2021. We were the Summer uh '21 batch of Y Combinator. And it was great. To be honest, uh I mean, I'm not on the younger side for uh for a founder, if you know what I mean. So, so uh they say you can't teach old dogs new, new tricks. But honestly, it was eye opening. Um, some things were very basic, which the way it has to be because some founders were like, uh probably don't have a lot of business experience, which is fine, you know. So it's great to go through a program like this. But my, my experience was always more in the corporate world, so it was great to get uh to talk with uh founders and, and, and really uh get very practical advice on, on things that you should be focusing your time on and things that you shouldn't, and things that matter when you're a startup and things that don't, right?

Uh and one of the things that matter a lot, of course, is, is the fundraising. And it's uh always looking at your runway and always looking at u- you know, "are you default dead or are you default alive," meaning uh you know what, in, in 12 months are, are you going to run out of money or will your, will your revenue, and your funding you know allow you to become break even. So a lot of very practical stuff that we've applied, that we've uh really taken to heart. So, so I'd say that it was very much worth it. You, you give away a little bit of your company but also uh I would equate it also to, to saying like you went to like a you know, like you went to a, a Harvard or something where you, you, you walk away with uh the, the Y Combinator badge which is, is very useful. It does open a lot of doors initially. So, so it's great to be able to say you're a YC Combinator company.

Uh and in terms of fundraising, we, we managed to, to raise a little bit of money before we went to YC, um uh but really after YC that really helped us procure a very nice seed round. And we just recently uh went through an extension round which uh we wanted to, to uh kind of maximize our runway so we have, we, we can continue to grow and get to, to a good place to do a Series A. Uh and um that's, that's really where we are right now. Um in terms of traction, we, right now we, we're live, like I said before, um we have around 10 partners that we're live with. Uh we're live, I believe it's eight countries. Uh we have another five partners that should be coming live in the next uh quarter. And we're constantly you know, we, we have a huge pipeline of, of banks that we're working and negotiating with. And you know, both banks and fintechs. So um, we're very excited about the opportunity we, we see. We're growing at double digits every month in terms of users and in terms of money sent. So it, it's a, it's a very exciting opportunity um, and, and I'd say it's also you know, sometimes it's scary you know, because you're, sometimes you feel you're on top of the world uh and everything's going your way and some of the days you're feeling like uh everything's a problem, you know. So it's a, it, it comes with the territory I guess.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Sounds like a startup founder no doubt, yeah. Uh yeah, we, we hear that a lot, we see it a lot, we've experienced that a lot ourselves. So uh yeah. I'll ask a couple questions as we get a little further down the path here. Uh as a company, um are you local to the US? Are you distributed? How big are you?

Enrique Perezalonso: So we're, we're small. Uh we were born in the pandemic. So, and that was a good thing because we, we were able to say, uh, "listen, let's just pick the best people wherever they are and let's not make people, you know, come to Miami." Not that they would complain, but uh uh "let's, let's just pick the best people wherever they are." Um so we have people working uh mostly in the US. We have people in uh in New Jersey, here in Florida we got three people which is the state where we have the most. But we have people in Virginia, we have people in Texas. And then we got a couple people in Mexico. As we've grown, we've found that the language skills are very important. So we, we started hiring people especially in Mexico. And, and also another thing that comes with um with being small, because we're only, we're only nine people, um is that you get to hire people that you know and that you're worked with before and that you know are, are you know, they're excellent, they're good performers, you know what I mean. So there's no, there's no guesswork and no uh you know, it's, it's, it's been a blessing that we haven't had to go out and, and start interview people that you know you never worked with. And because ultimately it's um you know, you can do a great job, but there's still like a, a, a percentage of people that won't work out. And when you're our size, that's just a lot of uh, a lot of wasted effort and time and money in, in onboarding and training people that ultimately are not you know, a good fit.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, as a founder, as a CEO, where do you spend most of your time? You're getting new customers, you've got clients that you're having to satisfy. Where's uh where's your time spent?

Enrique Perezalonso: Yeah, it's a great question. Um so, so, so I, I spend it wherever it's needed, right? That's a, that's a short answer. But uh the, the reality is most of my time is spent uh first of all on, on you know, customer you know business development. So new customers. Uh I'm Mexican so it's easier for me evidently to, to uh to talk with and onboard and, and get new customers in the American region, which is our focus. So I, I'd say that's most of my time. Uh and also in terms of uh other functional areas, um you know, I'm acting also kind of a CFO and as uh, I, I get very much involved in the compliance, which is a very, very heavily important part of, of the business. Uh and the great thing is that my two co-founders, one of them is, is, is an awesome, amazing product designer. So I don't even have to, to give that a second thought. And, and our CTO it's uh he's, he's, he's amazing as well, so he takes care of everything technology-wise. So I can really focus on the things that move the needle on, on what kind of falls on, on, on my end, which is "hey, let's get new business, let's get new customers, new partners, let's, let's uh let's grow the business," right? Uh and, and, and evidently the three of us pitch in on everything, but we, we kind of, it's, it's good to have a, a, a team of co-founders which is a little bit diverse in talents and in, in you know what we focus on, you know.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, I mean I think diversity in co-founders is absolutely imperative to really add value at different points in whatever you're doing, whether it's building the company or the sales cycle or marketing or product design. That's great. Um as the leader, and it sounds like a, a founder-led strategy of getting new business, um what's your thoughts around scalability from you new customer growth? And, and for some companies maybe you don't need a ton of new customers to really you know, significantly generate revenue. You know, for other companies they have to have you know hundreds and hundreds of new customers just to you know, break even. Um talk to me a little about that.

Enrique Perezalonso: So uh our whole strategy is, is um is partnering with distribution. Uh you know, the, the, the companies that have the distribution LatAm, right? So, so they can give their customers our product. And ultimately, we need to find partners that have that scale. Sometimes we partner with smaller companies, right? But it's more of a, more of a gamble in that they, they're going to do a lot of marketing and they're really going to push the product. Um but um for us, the, the key thing is being able to onboard these large institutions. So when you're talking about institutions that have millions of customers, they become slow and sluggish. And uh so, so our challenge is always "how fast can we go live once we convince them in, of, of the benefits of, of partnering with us? How fast can we get them to go live?" Uh because the larger companies grow, the, the more red tape you find, the more sluggish they become.

So um for us it's very important to have a very robust pipeline of different uh institutions of a decent size that we are in different stages of onboarding, because we know it takes time. It's uh, I've learned, believe me, I've learned to be very patient. Because um you know, like that prayer, right? That "God give me the, the, the, the strength to, to um to accept that things I can't change." Well, that, I say that a lot lately because you know, I can't just walk into, to a bank in LatAm and tell them "Come on like let's get this done now," right? So, so, so it takes a lot of nagging, it takes a lot of what I call "herding cats" uh to, to, to really get our partners up and running. But once they're up and running the, the product really is, is very uh you know, it, it takes off. It takes off. It, it, it grows. Um but we've also learned that you, even though uh you know we, we depend on our partners for, for uh you know, for that growth and to keep communicating the product, we need to make sure that we are in their face and we are making sure that uh our product is there and they're selling it. So we, we've kind of also taken approach of, of doing a, a lot of um customer success management, a little bit of consulting for them in terms of "hey, let's make sure we're running campaigns. Let's make sure we're always uh doing something." So, so we, we, you know, so their customers, which eventually are our customers, know that we're there. And, and when they need to receive money from the US they, they pick us to, to fulfill that.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, that's great. You know the market's been a little wonky over the last 24 months. From your perspective, um when it comes to the financial services sector, what's it been like for you building technology in that space? And you know internationally have you seen you know an ebb and flow? What's, what's the outlook look like for you?

Enrique Perezalonso: Well, the, the great news for us is that we are in the business that even though, that like you say, the markets have been wonky, uh a lot of adjustments going on, u- you know, especially in lending, I'd say uh on the, also I guess on the, on the, you know on the fintech side. Remittances, they just keep growing you know, year after year after year. Uh depends on the country, but they're growing at double digits every single year. Uh and you know a lot of people, a lot of economists have tried to explain it, so, so I won't go, I won't get into it. But we're in a very you know, the, the industry we're in is, is very high growth. Uh and the other big trend that's working for us is the fact that people both in LatAm and, and in the US are getting digitized. And they, they expect to be able to fulfill their transactions instantly, in real time, in a, in a way that's easy, with low friction. So those two trends have really worked for us and so we haven't felt any of the problems that maybe like other type of fintechs have. Uh and it's been great. I can't complain. Um even the last two years, I mean, the remittances to Mexico went from around 53 to 60 billion dollars in one year. So...

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Wow.

Enrique Perezalonso: It, it's, it's a very high growth market and you look at uh every single country in Latin America and the, the dependence on money coming from the US is very high. Um, El Salvador, 25% of all the GDP comes from money being sent from the US to El Salvador.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: That's wild.

Enrique Perezalonso: And in many countries including Mexico, one out of five people receive money at least once a month from the US. So it's...

Jake Aaron Villarreal: That's crazy.

Enrique Perezalonso: It's a huge part of the economy and it's a, which makes it a huge uh you know a huge problem to solve, you know. And, and that's kind of what we're trying to do. We're trying to do it in a way that's, that's better for the, for the consumer, which is cheaper, faster, more convenient and safer. Yeah, just to give you a little anecdote, and maybe I'm getting off track here, but there, there's uh remittance companies that will actually, they all pay out in cash, but they'll tell you "hey, if you get robbed, you know, 60 minutes after you pick up your money, we'll reimburse you because we, we'll give you insurance." That, that you know... so, so why not get it digitally? Like, so that's why we, we want to make sure people get, get their money in their accounts in a way that's you know, like I said, instant, and in, in a way that is more convenient, but also more, more safer, safer and more secure.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: And is it mobile accessible as well? Like from a mobile phone can you send...

Enrique Perezalonso: Yeah. Yeah. Typically um, like I said before, we don't have an app. We have uh, we have like 10 different apps, which are all web apps. So we also don't believe that uh you know, you need to have like 20 different apps in your phone. So we just uh you know, every time you get a payment link, you open it, it's a web app. You, you register... if it's some you know, if it's a new, new bank you just register once. And once you send money you can keep sending to the same payment link as many times as you want. And it's uh, I think you can do it like in, in four taps.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Wow, that's amazing. Makes me want to go travel the world and use your app or use your company's infrastructure in my own bank. Um so that's great. I, I did spend a lot of time in Central America and, and, and LatAm. And what are some of the big, bigger I guess, industry or not industries but economy, economies outside of Mexico in LatAm that you guys are seeing a lot of growth?

Enrique Perezalonso: So for us, the, the big countries that are receiving money is evidently Mexico is the biggest. 60 billion a year. Uh this year it's, I think it's slated to be over 65. So it's still like growing significantly. You have the Caribbean uh which is uh very small in terms of people, but they get uh, I think they get like 3 billion dollars a year. Dominican Republic gets around 10 billion dollars a year, which is also a very small country population-wise.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah. DR- DR it's incredible.

Enrique Perezalonso: Um then and you have very, very big you know pe- communities from people from the DR in certain parts of the US. Uh you also have um Guatemala, 10 billion. El Salvador uh around 6 billion. Um Honduras as well, another five, six billion. Nicaragua, which is growing like crazy. I've heard Nicaragua uh it's growing like crazy. A lot of people leaving Nicaragua. So uh you know, it's a very high growing market. And then you have like another tier of countries which are very dependent on remittances as well, but they're like a step down. Like they, they're big markets, but uh on a per capita basis they don't receive as much. So you have the An- the region which is uh Peru, Colombia, Ecuador. Those, those are kind of like a step down in terms of the, the, the, the flows of money. And then if you keep on going down in LatAm, it you know, the, you have other countries which uh, you know, they receive money, but just not at the same level. Uh it's probably a useful service, but it's not one of our out of five, you know, one out of five people that, that get money. Probably not. It's probably more like one out of 100. It's still a useful product, but it's, it doesn't have the same penetration. Uh so you have Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina as well.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Wow. All sorts of opportunities there. Um, we're gonna, we're gonna look for your company... I guess maybe not the brand because it's white label, but maybe we'll hear about the people that we work with. And you know, we help companies locally in the US and globally. And I can tell you one of the challenges for a lot of people is how do they get money and how do they get it out of the country to where their families are. So hopefully there's, there'll be some um cross-pollinization of you know, companies we're working with and, and maybe using your applications even though they're, even though it's a white label. Um...

Enrique Perezalonso: Yeah. Go ahead. No, if you, if you let me add there that uh, one of the things about being more of a platform and not being consumer facing is that we, we can expand into other use cases uh, which we are. So we've uh you know, we're in the early stages of enabling companies to do you know, payouts to Latin America. So we, we work uh with a couple companies, just a handful right now, that need to pay out um contractors, employees that work in LatAm. And um you know, we give them the APIs, they connect to us uh and then they just disperse the funds. And what's great is that they don't have to go to a bank and do a wire transfer and, and which costs a lot of money uh and then wait for that wire transfer to be completed. Uh with, with Palla, they just log into a, we give them a dashboard, they upload their, their uh you know, their payees and they just disperse it. And the money gets there instantly. So it's, it's, it's a, it's a nice product that we are uh perfecting and growing now. Uh so, so uh it's, it's great because we already have the rails, we already have the infrastructure. And then now we are kind of perfecting this new, new, new business line and, and you know, we, we, we're about to start like really uh pressing the accelerator on the sales there.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, that's great. I was going to ask you what's the road map look like for 2024. I think you're, you're hitting on it there. Uh anything else that you're building right now that you're excited about that you're seeing some real traction around?

Enrique Perezalonso: Well, I'd say um we, we were also getting into that, that issue that I told you about, that, what, which the banks that are you know, very slow. We, we kind of said, "Listen, what if we built the, the same way we have a web app in the US, what if we give the banks a web app in, in Latin America where their customers can register and they can ask for their payment link, and then they can get going instantly?" So one of the great things um you know, like I said, of having a, a good product designer and a good technologist on the team is that you can think of these things and, and, and make them happen very, very fast. And that wasn't my idea, by the way. But I never take credit because I'm, I'm not the product guy. Um but now we are able on the sales side, that's great for us, you know, for, for the sales people. We can, we can go out and tell the bank, "Hey, you can be up and running in, in, in two weeks, three weeks. It's really, it's more of the time you, you tell us to you know, how we, how you want this thing to look, than the time it takes to set it up." So um that's one of the big things that we're uh you know, we're pushing out in 2024.

Uh like I said, we're growing on the business side and also starting to explore new poles, right. Um especially uh like I said, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, very dependent on the US for payments, for remittances, payments. But as you go further down, there's other, other um you know, other hubs that are very important. Like, like Spain, where you have a lot of people from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, who also want the same experience. Also want to receive the pay- payments. And since we all, already have the distribution in those countries, it's, it would be great to have the hub so we can originate the payments from you know, Europe to, to those countries.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, that's great. Expansion outside of the US and um, God, why not? Sounds like you've got the team and you got the product. That's really exciting. I'm going to ask you now... I'm going to switch gears a little bit here. We're going to just ask you what we call three questions. Just really um three simple questions, three simple answers. So more personal for you. But where do you go to think big or to brainstorm?

Enrique Perezalonso: Well, I like to, I like for it to be quiet, right? Uh, uh, so, so honestly, a lot of it is, is just uh uh, you know, being by myself and, and kind of having the time to, to just think about things uh, and digest uh. You know, you, we're bombarded a lot of the time with uh competing ideas, with uh, with new information. So sometimes it's good to just, just get away uh. You know, lock yourself in the room, no phone, no TV, no computer. Just think about you know, take a moment to, to really think about "Hey, what can we do different? What can we uh you know, what are we doing right?" Which is something you should always ask yourself. "What are we not doing right?" Or, or, or better said, "What are the things that we could be doing differently? And what are the things that we shouldn't be doing?" So, so those questions are really important. And, and you got to be in a space where it's uh you know, you can really ask yourself of that and, and really be honest with yourself. Because uh as founders, we drink our own Kool-Aid. Or at least I drink my own Kool-Aid. And, and a lot of the time I don't question you know, I don't question things in sense, in the sense of uh if "are we going down the right path? Are we doing the right things?" So, so it's important to, to, to be able to take a step back and do it.

Um on a, on a team level uh at least the three co-founders, we like to meet at least quarterly and do this. Like, say, "okay." Uh even, even help re-, that even helps reset the dynamic between the, between us. And but we have to get a, you know, meet in person and really ask those tough questions and, and make those you know, tough calls. Because sometimes you know, it's uh, you, you're going down a path and, and sometimes you have to change tracks. And it's hard, it's hard because you're so invested emotionally that it's difficult. But, but you have to be, you know, courageous enough to, to do it and, and really if, if things are not working out you need to change tracks.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, absolutely. What, one uh piece of advice you got from another founder that you felt was priceless?

Enrique Perezalonso: That, what I would say is uh you know, build things that don't scale. Don't worry that they will scale initially. Uh meaning just get it out there. Just see if it works. And you know, you'll find a way, if, if it really works and it takes off, you're very lucky, right? You know, you'll figure out how to scale it and how to automate and how to make it uh you know completely automated. But don't be afraid to just try things and, and try things that might not be scalable, you know? So, so initially you might be like doing things on an Excel sheet on the backend and you know... but, but, but get it out there, see what the customer thinks. And because if they like it, you know, the, the, that you're going to have a great problem, which is like maybe being up all night with an Excel sheet while you automate that process. But, but you're getting a ton of customers. So, so don't be afraid to try things um that don't scale or...

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah. I love that. That's really cool. Last one. What works for you in staying positive when the business is going through challenging times?

Enrique Perezalonso: So that, that's a, that's a great question. Um what works for me really is, is uh I think it's, it's, it's more of a life outlook than a a uh uh than just a business outlook thing. And I think in life you just got to stay positive no matter what uh because life is going to beat you up. No matter, it's beating me up, I'll tell you that. So uh so, so you just got to stay positive no matter what. Because uh you know, it's, it's u- it, it's not worth it to worry about things that you have no control over, you know?

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, it's a decision you make.

Enrique Perezalonso: Exactly. It's a decision you make. So, so for me it's that. And, and I guess the older I get, you get, or I get, the more I've learned to be able to say, "Okay, this is what I can do and I'm going to do it. And I'm gonna bug people and I'm gonna get in people's faces and I'm gonna fight like hell for this. I have to recognize that there's things that are not in my control and I'm not going to, you know, I'm going to try not to stress about them." Yeah. And uh and, and honestly I've gotten better at it with uh with age. Because when I was younger, I, I stressed like crazy. And you know, and, and I found that now it's, it's just better to keep a cool head because you know what? Most of the things you fear are going to happen, don't happen. Right? So you know, a lot of that stress is just uh, just un-, you know, uncalled for. Uh and if it does happen, you're still going to stress. So, so, and you're still going to solve it, which is the other advice which I would say. That no matter what happens, you can solve it. You, there's always a solution. And if there's not, well there's not. But most of the time there's a solution. So it really helps me keep uh stressless and positive.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: Yeah, that's great. Yeah, things are never as bad as you think they are, they're never as good as you think they are. Just keep an even keel and keep moving forward and just show up and make yourself valuable. I think that's something that we hear a lot of. And I think that it's important to just keep that mindset as you go through the ups and downs. Every startup has them, every company has them, we have them in life. Up and downs is just, it's part of the deal about being on Earth. So anyway... um well great. Well you know, I want to give a big shout out to you for coming on the podcast and sharing your story. And um if, if companies, banks out there, other financial institutions want to find you, or other companies might want to think about using you, your product, where would they go to find Palla?

Enrique Perezalonso: Sure. I mean uh they can go to our website which is uh Palla, which is p-a-l-l-a.app. Or just uh send me a line. I'm, I'm at Enrique, E-n-r-i-q-u-e @ palla.app. So just shoot, shoot us an email, uh go to our website, we got a you know you can send us a message through there. Uh we'd happy you know we be very happy to work with uh... If you have a company, you need to make payments in LatAm, or if you're thinking of uh including remittances as part of your uh kind of embedded within your app uh or you know, we, we'd be happy to help.

Jake Aaron Villarreal: That's great. Well you heard it right from the horse's mouth. I love it. Enrique, thanks for uh sharing that. Uh and thanks for the listeners for listening today. We really appreciate you spending your time with us. I'm Jake Aaron Villarreal, the host of the podcast. Look forward to catching with, up with you all in the next episode. Until then, take care.  

Before we wrap up, I want to give a big shout out to all the entrepreneurs that have joined to make this podcast possible. And for all the listeners for listening, it means the world to me that you chose to spend your time with us today. I'm your host Jake Aaron Villarreal signing off for now, but can't wait to connect with you all soon on the next episode. Take care.  

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