Karthik Ramu and Akhil Maheepathi are the founders of Pare, a company that helps small businesses combat high transaction fees by providing a service that allows them to accept payments with 0% transaction fees and provide consumers with 10% + rewards. Currently, their focus is primarily on restaurants, personally reaching out to small business owners and explaining how Pare can best support them and mitigate their pain points.
The pair initially met at UVA’s top undergraduate consulting club, and have since discovered a shared passion for building things and startup creation. Before Pare, Karthik and Akhil built a meal exchange purchase platform, which led to the realization of just how much transaction fees impacted small businesses. Upon further research, they found that even small on-campus food trucks were paying $100/day and losing $25k/year to transaction fees. They explored this frustration and the emphasis on increasing scales, due to the fact that every other payment processor and/or pickup app has approximately the same rates. To address this major issue, Karthik and Akhil saw the opportunity to create Pare, alleviating the issue of these transaction fees through the use of crypto and blockchain technology.
One of the biggest challenges that the two have faced so far is simplifying the user experience. Reducing the complexity of crypto projects is a major issue and barrier to entry to the common people. They are working on making the wallet creation process and on-ramping as simple as possible while maintaining a high level of security and compliance with regulations. The two have also learned to be more open to new ideas that come with change, embracing the fear that comes with uncertainty to advance for the better.
Karthik and Akhil intend to make the most by learning from all the members in the batch, connecting with mentors and speakers, and getting strong feedback and advice from those around them.
Regarding words of advice to future and developing entrepreneurs, the pair encourages others to find problems and create constant communication with users and anyone willing to give feedback. According to Karthik and Akhil, “It’s a hard journey, but it’s all about persevering.”