The work and project management software market is big and competitive. Every single individual, small or large company needs a system that will help improve collaboration, task management, work time tracking, and reporting.
With so many viable solutions out there though, it’s hard to pick the one that will help you the most. The process can be complicated, it takes time, and only after two or three months have passed you can say for sure that you’ve made the right choice.
We caught up recently with Jan Lukacs, Co-Founder & CEO of Paymo, a work management software, to talk about the fierce competition in this industry, the benefits of using a project management software, and why Paymo might be the best solution for small and medium creative and service-based businesses.
Co-Founder & CEO of Paymo
Q: Can you tell us a few things about Paymo, how it came to life, and how was your journey to this day?
It all started back in 2007 when we were running an outsourcing agency. Getting paid by the hour requires you to know exactly how much time goes into each task and project. Because we didn’t have a clear picture of this, we decided to look for a time tracking solution that would have allowed us to know how much time we invest in each project and, consequently, how much we should get paid.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find what we were looking for. So we decided to scratch our own itch and start building an application for internal use only. It had basic task management features, a solid time tracking module, and invoicing capabilities.
We were very pleased with the result and also gave it to a few friends and fellow entrepreneurs. A few months later, we realized that this project has huge potential. “Wise tracking pays more” was the slogan and UVP. Therefore it wasn’t hard to come up with a name. Paymo was born.
In the beginning, most of our clients were freelancers looking to accurately track time and invoice their clients. As time passed by, small companies started using Paymo, and the list of feature requests started to grow: reports, more advanced task management, expense tracking, etc. Slowly but surely, Paymo evolved from a basic time tracking and invoicing application into a more robust work management software. A significant part of Paymo’s success is due to our ability to switch gears at the right time and add those mandatory extra features early on.
Q: What is your target market, and where are your customers located?
Most of our clients are small-medium creative agencies and, in general, service-based businesses. These are companies that are looking to better organize their work, track time by the minute, collaborate on the same page, and send accurate invoices to their clients.
There also architecture and law firms, consultants, universities, and some other service-based businesses. Obviously, there are no restrictions on who can use Paymo. It’s more about how the software fits certain workflows and work habits.
In terms of location, most of our customers are based in the United States, UK, Canada, and Western Europe. We do have though paying customers in more than 100 countries.
Q: Why an “all-in-one” project management software? How do your customers benefit from using Paymo?
“All-in-one” became a cliché a few years back. Everybody was using it, no matter what they were doing or how representative it was for their product. We hated the term so much that we stopped using it altogether. On the other hand though, “all-in-one” was more than a trend: it was an indicator of where the market is headed to. There was this need of having all the tools and features you’re using at your fingertips, integrated under the same roof. And for a good reason: when you manage a team and multiple projects, you need features like task management, time tracking, resource scheduling, discussions, reports, file sharing, etc. It makes sense to have all these in one app. They are better integrated, and you don’t have to constantly switch between apps, you don’t have to pay for several services or take into consideration cumbersome integrations. And these are only the most obvious ones.
To answer your second question, the list of benefits is pretty long. When you develop a work management and productivity app, you want to focus on helping your customers to better organize, prioritize, and manage all work-related activities. To remove those feelings of confusion, anxiety, and sometimes chaos.
The software should answer basic but important questions like:
- “What should I work on today?”
- “Where does my time go during the day?”
- “Who’s responsible for this task?”
- “What keeps us from moving the project forward?”
- “As a manager, how can I have a birds-eye view of my team’s projects?”
And this is exactly how Paymo helps its customers, by offering clear answers to all these questions through a solid set of features and a modern, yet intuitive interface.
When we look at our customers, we see better-organized and less-stressed teams, increased transparency, and profitable businesses. This makes us happy and proud 🙂
Q: You’re in a very competitive market. What’s your plan for growth in such conditions?
The competition is fierce indeed and, as a bootstrapped business, it’s pretty clear that we have to “fight” smarter. There are bigger brands with millions of dollars in marketing and advertising budgets, but nothing is impossible. The market is huge, but we also have a mature and competitive product.
On top of that, there’s no “one size fits all” solution. Businesses and workflows are diverse, clients are searching for customizable platforms, and operational costs can become an issue. As a bootstrapped business, the only pressure you have is from your own customers, who constantly expect a better product and a better experience. Under these conditions, for the moment, the main focus will remain the constant product improvement and organic growth.
Q: Speaking of competitors, how do you differentiate from them? What makes Paymo special?
We basically have two types of competitors: “light” and “heavy”. The ones that focus on a specific module (for example, time tracking or resource management), and the heavy ones, those who offer a similar set of features. The biggest differentiator from the first category is obviously the number of extra features that we offer.
When comparing Paymo to the other category, things are not so straightforward because most of the work and project management apps have almost the same functionalities. What’s different in our case is the fact that Paymo has kept time tracking at its core, and almost everything from task management to invoicing revolves around that. It’s the best native time tracking feature you’ll ever find in a work management software.
Another differentiator is our full-featured free plan for Universities. So if you’re a school or university, you can use Paymo for free without any feature restrictions.
Q: What should your customers expect from Paymo in the near future?
Great things! 🙂 We’ve just launched the new and improved mobile apps for Android and iOS devices, packed with most of the requested features, like collaboration and project planning (the previous version was a basic time tracking app).
The client access, which allows our customers to invite and collaborate directly in Paymo with their clients (or guest collaborators), is currently tested by a few customers. In parallel, we’re focusing on improving the speed and the overall user experience.
Last but not least, there are a few features we plan to launch in early 2021, that I’m sure will be much appreciated by our creative customers. Like the file preview that will allow teams and guests alike to give feedback by annotating images and commenting directly on them – without the need for a separate file versioning tool.
About Paymo
Paymo is a highly rated work management software that allows you to track your team’s progress, collaborate in context, and make smarter decisions. It does so by acting as a single source of truth, where several modules like planning, resource scheduling, time tracking, and billing feed into each other to co-exist under the same roof – without messy integrations.
Learn more about Paymo by visiting https://www.paymoapp.com.
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