In Conversation with the Newsmaker
In Conversation with the Newsmaker: POSRocket is an intuitive, reliable, cloud-based, point-of-sale (POS) platform with a customizable interface, which empowers merchants and allows them to run smarter businesses by seamlessly monitoring and optimizing operations – from staffing to inventory regulation to sales reporting – in real time from any device. Within two years, POSRocket has secured more than 350+ clients from various industries. Beyond Exclamation recently had the pleasure to be “In Conversation” with Zeid Husban, Founder of POSRocket, in which, he took us on the journey of POSRocket and beyond.
What seeded the vision to start an intuitive, secure, cloud-based point-of-sale system? Tell us the story behind the foundation of POSRocket. Also mention, how did you and Zaid come across to found POSRocket?
Zeid: I knew I was going to exit my previous company ifood late 2015, with 8 months to handover the company to the new owners. Therefore, I started thinking on what I could do next. I wanted to stay in the same field – technology – and by working in the same sector (F&B) for almost 5 years, I had good connections and I wanted to leverage my network.
I looked at the POS industry in Jordan and the region, which was definitely outdated. Compared to the cloud technology in the POS industry in the States and Europe, where it has been there for the past 8-9 years, it is gaining huge market share due to its flexibility.
Then, I started researching the space and I read a lot of articles. I even flew to Cairo for 1 week to scout the market and talk to business owners over there. I chose Egypt because there is a huge market cap and very controlled risk due to the low salary scheme over there.
Finally, I partnered up with a technical accelerator here in Jordan and we hired the first three engineers to start developing the product. So, we wrote the first line of code in April 2016 while I was still at ifood handing over the company. We had our first MVP installed in June at a restaurant in Amman. Then we tested the product for 2 months and my last day at ifood, which was July 31st, was also my first day at POSRocket.
I had the office and team ready, and less than a month later, we had our first paying client. Then, we opened our offices in Egypt in December 2016 and we have been expanding since then. Right now, we have more than 350 clients so far, processed over $17 million in sales and more than 700m transactions.
How did your Electronics and Communications Engineering degree and past experience in founding an online food ordering company help you grow POSRocket? Tell us how your journey was before and after POSRocket.
Zeid: Being an engineer always help you be analytical and it is all about problem solving, having a startup you face a new challenge every single day. Also in my previous startup, I worked with restaurants for almost 5 years and we really helped them generate extra revenues by bringing new business and orders. So, we built this trust between us and our clients. This really helped me with my current startup as I am leveraging this great network. I have learnt a lot from my first start up, which really accelerated the growth of my second start up.
We would like to know more about the team and building-blocks of POSRocket.
Zeid: We call our team members astronauts. We started POSrocket with only 3 engineers and the team grew to become 37 astronauts. We all have one mission and we call our office home, as we spend more time in the offices than we spend in our actual homes.
How exactly does POSRocket cater the clients? Tell us about your PoS services and their benefits?
Zeid: Traditional cash registers are a thing of the past. POSRocket modernizes this near-obsolete system by providing business owners with an intuitive, user-friendly, cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) platform. The customizable interface allows merchants to run smarter businesses by seamlessly monitoring and optimizing operations – from staffing to inventory regulation to sales reporting – in real time from any device. The much needed technology has seen significant traction in the MENA region, launching offices in both Jordan and Egypt. In merely 18 months, POSRocket secured 350 clients from various industries.
What makes your customer stick to you? How is POSRocket different from its competitors?
Zeid: POSRocket differentiates itself in MENA’s increasingly competitive POS market as highly a flexible one-stop shop solution. Purchasing the POSRocket hardware pack, includes iPad, printer, and cash drawer – and one of the three available subscriptions: basic (sales, inventory, basic data reports), Pro (customer profiling, mini CRM, HR solution), or Enterprise (advanced features for larger clients with multiple branches). Clients can track and access their data anytime and anywhere. Through 3rd party API integrations, such as booking applications, the platform can be customized and adapted to better serve different business segments. PocketRocket, the company’s promotions feature, evaluates sales data and recommends and advertises deals for clients to capitalize on low sales periods, increasing sales up to 5%. POSRocket will also allow clients to process PocketRocket orders as well as sell online through its own ecommerce platform, CommerceRocket, for a small commission fee.
What can be expected from POSRocket in upcoming years?
Zeid: POSRocket’s vision is to become the no.1 point-of-sale solution in the MENA region with its solid core product – POSRocket – and develop an ecosystem with a public API that enhances this solution. Bolstering current functionalities with updates like customer profiling, a mini-CRM system, and advanced inventory features will allow POSRocket to target larger, well-established businesses, multiplying and diversifying its client base. We aim to grow our portfolio to 6,000-7,000 clients and add new markets– within the next five years. Preparing POSRocket for rapid expansion, we intend to digitize the still face-to-face onboarding process.
Meet the Newsmaker
Zeid Husban is the Co- Founder & Chief Executive Astronaut of POSRocket. Zeid obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the UK in 2008. He then moved back to Jordan and co-founded ifood.jo, an online food ordering platform. ifood.jo attracted the eyes of investors from abroad and in 2013, the company sold a majority stake to the Turkish food ordering company Yemeksipeti. Zeid sold the rest of his shares in ifood.jo in 2016 after a successful acquisition by the global giants “Delivery Hero”. Now with POSRocket, he is hoping to revolutionize the point-of-sale industry in the region.