Rom Lakritz is a passionate entrepreneur. He founded Anchor, a U.S.-based company that helps business owners thrive by allowing them to focus their time and resources on doing business and not billing. Launched in 2021, Anchor’s cloud-based autonomous billing solution redefines B2B billing, collections, and payments. By providing an end-to-end billing and collections solution and removing all manual labor from these processes, Anchor eliminates the risks of fraud and human error in B2B payments. In an interview, Rom speaks on an array of topics.

Excerpts:

Conception of Anchor

“Everybody wants to get paid on time. In B2C billing, that’s how things are, but B2B is a whole different story. It can take weeks before the process is completed and the money is in your account, which adds a heavy tow on your cash flow and weakens the foundation of your business,” observes Rom. He adds that as an experienced entrepreneur, he understood how painful the process was, especially for smaller, service-based companies. “You want to focus on your business and services, but instead, you have to waste money and energy on chasing clients with invoices.” Anchor’s platform allows companies to automate this clunky and multi-stage process, saving their valuable resources for more important tasks and eliminating the risk of human error.”

Anchor’s mission is to allow businesses to thrive instead of just survive by creating the first Autonomous Billing & Collections platform, turning an old and hefty process  from a frustrating burden into a seamless experience  for both vendors and clients.

Fintech – innovating and growing rapidly

“The key to successful innovation, both in fintech and any other industry, is delivering exponential value to your clients. Never settle for half-measures, don’t focus on fixing granular problems when there’s a larger problem that needs a solution,” suggests Ron. “Fintech companies must look to transform entire business processes and change the paradigm of how companies do things, not do small tweaks here and there. Don’t treat symptoms if you can fix the root cause of all plights.”

Anchor’s solutions

“Anchor’s platform is an all-around solution that automates the entire process for accounts receivable, enabling every business to automate all stages of getting paid, from proposal to reconciliation, using one unified system. To solve the challenge of billing, we needed to start before the billing cycle even begins: at the agreement stage. It starts with a digital agreement between your business and your client that you share with your client through a link. Once the agreement is digitally signed by both parties, which is a quick and easy process, our system will ask the client to provide a pre-approved payment method. From this stage, the automation takes over, and both parties can enjoy effortless payments.”

Leadership traits

“I am sure that a good leader is someone who first and foremost leads by example. It helps to be good with people, and keep in mind that it’s all about delivering real value to who you work with, whether it’s your team, your investors, and, most importantly, your clients. We aim to create the gold standard for how businesses do business. That requires putting in long hours, hard work, grit, and heart into it.”

Word of advice

“Too often, companies offer siloed solutions to singular problems, which, in the end, only gets the user so far. If you fail to deliver enough value to your user, they will churn the moment someone else comes up with a product that alleviates more of their pain points in less effort. Another point that I feel is sometimes misguided is placing all of your bets on unhinged growth relying exclusively on VC funds. Growth is a must, but it has to be powered by a sustainable, solid business model that makes your company profitable at the end of the day.”

Success Mantra

“First of all, cherish the talent around you. The world is full of bright people that can do many things better than you will ever be, so you must always recognize and reward their contribution in every success. Another key rule is to make the most of your time. This goes not just for effective time management at work, but also for taking the time to unplug and vent some steam off.”