Leadership Spotlight: Ken Serdons
‘The most rewarding part of my job is helping people grow to levels they never thought possible’
The world of payments holds few secrets for Ken Serdons, Mollie’s Chief Commercial Officer. When he joined Mollie in September 2019, he already had six years of experience in fintech. However, what he did not experience before, is the enormous growth potential he sees for Mollie(s). For our customers, the product, and the people at Mollie.
Love for growth
‘I like to see things grow. I always had a thing for gardening. As a kid I grew my own vegetables, we had quite a big vegetable garden. Moving to London, I had to give that up because the flats are all quite small. Now I just have some plants.’
At Mollie, his love for growth can still be fulfilled. In fact, it’s the main reason Ken joined. ‘When I looked into Mollie, I was fascinated by a lot of things. First, how extremely well it’s positioned itself in the complex European payments market. Second, our customers love us. Unfortunately, that is rather unique in the payments market. And there were only a handful of people working in Sales. I have seen several other payment companies who needed a much bigger Sales organization to build a similar customer base. So I thought: the product and partner network must be amazing.’
‘And then I got to know the culture. Here you have all these people with a heart for Mollie, for the customer, for the colleagues. People are so eager to just grab the potential and are willing to learn! Great potential and great culture: my first month at Mollie was amazing!’
Growing big and growing fast
It sounds like a perfect start. And nine months in, Ken has something to show for as well. ‘I’m actually blown away about how fast we’re growing. We’ve doubled the transaction volume since last year. In Germany, our growth is 1,000% year-on-year. Our vision is clear: we want to become the most loved PSP in Europe. That means expanding and having the best product. The results speak for themselves; we’re improving every day.’
‘But the most fun thing about my job is nurturing talent. To see existing talent grow, as well as adding new talent. It’s great to see how these teams evolve and take themselves to the next level.’
Ken as a mentor
People from Ken’s team often describe him as a mentor. He smiles when we tell him. ‘That’s the most rewarding part of the job’, he says.
‘To help people grow to levels they never thought they were able to achieve. To help them and expand the impact you have as a leader, that’s the most exciting. It’s also super important. I could try and solve a problem myself, but my time is best spent coaching people so they become more effective. That’s when the flywheel kicks in.’
Customer and technology first organization
With Mollie’s focus being to grow and expand, one could ask if this is the time for our tech company to make the shift towards becoming more of a commercial organization. But Ken does not think so: ‘Mollie’s success depends on the brilliance of our technology and products. That’s our DNA. A commerce team can complement that and accelerate the growth but without great products to sell, a commercial organization will never be successful.’
We are accelerating our international expansion and are welcoming more and bigger customers. So putting the customer at the heart of everything we do is critical to Mollie’s success. We are a “Customer and Technology” first company.
Expanding the team
All that expansion means more people are needed, also in the commercial team. Ken: ‘This quarter (Q2, 2020), we’ve hired already more than 10 people in the commerce team. We are investing heavily, especially in making our growth super scalable through smart marketing and partnerships.
We asked him what it is he’s looking for in new hires. ‘Well, it’s a combination. First of all, we need people with analytical horsepower. People who can grab a complex problem, break it down and solve it piece by piece. Second, we need drive and energy; people that have a passion for the work they do and for our customers. And thirdly, we always look at the fit within the team and within Mollie. That does not mean that we hire the same types of people, on the contrary. Diversity is important. We look at what skills and personalities we need to complement what we’ve already got.’
To close off, we ask Ken what he thinks the future of payments holds for Mollie:
‘Well, we simplify complexity. So the more complex this world of payments becomes, the more important our role will be. We see ourselves as “founders of growth” and believe we can support many more customers with realizing their own growth journey.’
