Versofy: Ross Mains-Sheard & The Solar Spark

Ross Mains-Sheard (00:00)
So basically, when we started out, actual original original business model was a storage aggregation website for self storage facilities.

when we started, we had over 350 different categories on our platform, anything from dog walkers to architects and and doctors and kind of everything in between. We basically wanted to digitize the yellow pages effectively. And over the years, we used to narrow our focus again and again.

There were very limited finance options available. And that was really the biggest barrier to entry is that it was reserved for the fortunate few who had the 150,000, 200,000, 300,000 rand lying around that it could.

could afford to pay cash for a solar system. So that was the problem we aimed to tackle.

Chase Le Roux (00:59)
Welcome back to the scrums.com fintech arena. This is the ultimate podcast for fintech leaders eager to stay at the forefront of industry trends. Today, we're excited to be chatting to Ross Mains-Sheard, who is the CEO and co-founder of Versofy Solar, which is a leading company in South Africa's solar industry. Since its inception in 2015, Versofy has evolved significantly.

It started out as an online marketplace connecting customers with professional service providers. And in 2020, Ross and his team recognized the growing demand for sustainable energy solutions. Ross then led the company through a strategic pivot to only focus on solar energy, which subsequently broadens its horizons. And today, VersiFi Solar is renowned for making clean and reliable solar power accessible to South Africans through

both innovative and flexible payment options. And under Ross's leadership, the company has become a beacon of innovation and sustainability with the ultimate goal of empowering businesses, empowering communities to embrace the renewable energy revolution. Ross is a true expert in the space and I'm excited to be chatting to you today, Ross. Welcome to the scrums.com FinTech Arena.

Ross Mains-Sheard (02:07)
Awesome, thank you. Very excited, thank you for having me.

Chase Le Roux (02:10)
Yeah, to get stuck into a little bit of what Versofy's about and probably the best place to start, You know, this journey started for you just over 10 years ago. Maybe you can share a little bit about that journey and what was it like jumping into the fintech space.

Ross Mains-Sheard (02:26)
Yeah, sure. It's been a meandering journey, that's for sure. I think in retrospect, you start to see a few key pivotal moments that really are illustrative of...

our growth and where we've come from and where we are going. So basically, when we started out, actual original original business model was a storage aggregation website for self storage facilities.

Not a lot of people know that that's actually the origin. And there were a few learnings in that that led to Versofy.com, the platform, which was effectively a reverse classifieds.

That's effectively where the name came from, verso, reverse, classified, fi. And it's kind of needed, versified was our kind of catchphrase. So we created a verb, not dissimilar to uber or google, et cetera, et cetera. But basically, the original idea was to flip the traditional kind of lead generation process or the seeking of a

professional service on its head. And basically what we did was we put the onus on the supplier to win the business of the customer and not for the customer to go do all the hard work, open up a hundred Google Chrome tabs, filter the guys that kind of tick their boxes only to be let down, down the line where someone either was unavailable or not interested in doing the work. So that was the birth of Versofy.com as a platform.

We went live early 2016 and that journey in and of itself went through a lot of pivots, changes, tweaking, tried a lot of different business models in that journey and finally started to find our groove in about 2018, 2019. And I'll come back to a pivotal moment, a retrospective pivotal moment through the lens of FinTech.

in a second, but effectively, we had found our groove kind of 2018, 2019 as mentioned, and then COVID hit. And like many other businesses, were forced to adapt and evolve to the new reality. I think we had about 3,500 SMEs on our platform at that stage, but I would say the vast majority, maybe even 90 odd percent of them were owner-run businesses who

under the rules and regulation of lockdown, were not allowed to operate. So our revenue came to a grinding halt, as it did for many other businesses, and we were forced to make a pivot. And I think in hindsight, it was the best forced pivot we could have ever hoped for. We decided to narrow our focus. We had had upticks of success every time we had narrowed our focus.

in the prior kind of years. So when we started, we had over 350 different categories on our platform, anything from dog walkers to architects and upholsterers and doctors and kind of everything in between. We basically wanted to digitize the yellow pages effectively. And over the years, we used to narrow our focus again and again. And

every time we did that,

by removing categories and being a little bit more bespoke to a certain industry or vertical, we had an uptick in success naturally because our kind of focus was we could design a product for a said industry. So when 2020 hit, we decided to do that at a much more dramatic scale. At that point in time, we'd really focusing on

the property sector. So we had about 30 odd categories on the platform at that stage, all to do with property maintenance. So, icon installation, tiling, building, architects, rainwater harvesting, et cetera, et cetera. But our biggest and most popular category and the one that we had the most success in was solar. So when we decided to narrow the focus

down to one vertical and really dig deep into solving a problem for that said vertical, solo was an obvious choice. And this was not pre-load shedding, but pre-load shedding at the level that we saw in the subsequent years of kind of 2022, 2023. In 2020, I think there was a subtotal of about 20 days of load shedding. So that wasn't the driver for solo adoption at that point in time. It was more the...

the cost saving, the environmental aspects. But the biggest problem with solar, particularly at that time, was the cost, really. The only way you could get a solar system was to pay cash for it. There were very limited finance options available. And that was really the biggest barrier to entry is that it was reserved for the fortunate few who had the 150,000, 200,000, 300,000 rand lying around that it could.

could afford to pay cash for a solar system. So that was the problem we aimed to tackle.

And we did so very successfully by introducing kind of flexible payment solutions to make solar accessible to more people. And where we couldn't compete with the banks in terms of cost of funding, we very quickly outshone them in terms of.

speed of execution and deployments of capital and just making solar really simple to understand it, to get installed. So that was really the origin of the solar focus, which happened kind of, yeah, mid 2020 when COVID was in full force.

Chase Le Roux (07:55)
Thanks for that, Ross. I think it's 10 years ago, platform businesses were still a pipe dream. lot's happened in the last 10 years for you guys specifically, as you've explained, but also across the sector. And almost every business needs to be a platform type business. What inspired you to actually

move into that direction? Did you see that a platform, a marketplace at that point in time was where the future was going to be? Was it something in your personal life you said, yes, this is a problem I'm trying to solve? What sort of inspired you to move to that platform type mindset?

Ross Mains-Sheard (08:33)
I've always loved the tech industry and been a big follower of Silicon Valley and the dream, the innovation that was coming out of the tech space. think we and yourself included are in a very unique generational position where we've lived a life before computers, cell phones, internet, as well as posts.

we were like in the throes of that coming to the fore. So we've got a very good grasp of technology and what it can do. My previous business was an eventing based business. It was very much analog driven, not much digital. We sold beer basically. So it was very hands on, very mechanical in a lot of ways. And it was an amazing business. It taught me a lot of very valuable kind of.

skills from running a small business, but I always knew that you could unlock so much more using technology. And this was now, we'd obviously, there was the web1.0.com bubble that burst kind of in the 2000, late 1990s, early 2000. We then saw the rise of the web 2.0 in the

2004 to 2010 kind of era with social media and whatnot. And it was really coming out of that, 2013, 2014, when these platform businesses started to become a thing, most notably through, I suppose, Uber and Airbnb. And that was a big inspiration for me to ride that wave really, I think that was what we were trying to achieve.

We always had this undercurrent of supporting the SME, myself having come from an SME background. Being in business in and of itself is a near impossible task. mean, statistically, the majority of businesses fail. Just being in business is hard enough. Our kind of goal at that point in time was to make business simpler by allowing the artisan so that.

whatever, upholsterer to just upholster, to do what they love doing, to do what they're at doing. And we take the administrative kind of burden off of them in the form of lead generation, in the form of a CRM effectively. We ended up building a CRM when I didn't even know what a CRM was, weirdly enough. But that was always kind of the undercurrent of allowing business people to do what they're good at.

by solving the administrative problems that are inevitable in any business. So that was really the inspiration to start it. It was obviously hugely exciting. I was young, didn't really have a lot to lose by doing it. And it was, yeah, I think just a calling really to get into the technology sector.

Chase Le Roux (11:20)
That's amazing Ross. And I think now, know, speeding up to today, Versofy Solar is an exceptionally well-known brand, right? And you guys have managed to penetrate the market at a remarkable rate. And at least that's what it looks like for everyone else. You in the trenches, it probably feels a little bit longer. But I mean, you know, that differentiator that you've mentioned on is making solar power accessible to everyone.

has really been a game changer. I'm a customer. I wouldn't have been able to afford an entire solar panel. if you're South African, you know that this is a requirement to do business. suppose once you've got that market penetration and you've absolutely got the customers, I suppose the question is, how do you continue to differentiate yourself from some of the...

competitors out there, specifically in the South African markets. And are you looking at international businesses? Are you looking to expand into Africa? What are some of your thoughts there?

Ross Mains-Sheard (12:18)
Yeah, I think you have to constantly evolve and innovate to stay ahead of the curve. When we started, and again, it was a lot of learnings I took from the original business model. So pre-COVID work from home wasn't a thing really, know. So we would...

we would do all the hard work only to be let down by people outside of our control. So as an example, you needed a whatever, a plumber to come to your house. In order to do that, you'd have to take off work. And we would do everything in our power to make that happen, send reminders, blah, blah, blah. And then the plumber wouldn't show up, or would show up three hours late. And we would just reflect poorly on everybody, really.

When we first started, we didn't try and change the world from like an innovation perspective. We just really try to do the basics, but do them well and enable the basics to translate into a good experience. So a good example of that was like, we adopted WhatsApp in our process in so far as when you needed a site visit, what we do is we just set up a WhatsApp group with ourselves.

the customer and the installer involved. And we had scheduled that site visit and everyone was kept in the loop with send notifications. And it just created this pleasant experience for customers by not doing anything really revolutionary, but rather just simplifying the process and being transparent and keeping everyone informed of where they are. That was kind of the starting point. And we really saw a lot of success in that early on.

that resonated with people shockingly, like just doing what you say you're do is 90 % of the battle, I suppose, from a customer centricity point of view. And then we just really started to drill deeper into everything else, every other touch point. How can we get your kind of credit approved quicker? How can we be on site quicker? How can we get you solar in...

half a day, install from traditionally a week. And we just slowly but surely tried to make it simpler. We were one of the first, if not the first to productize solar as well. The idea there was to use a andiccio pizza menu as inspiration and choose your base and add your toppings, but know what you're gonna get and what you're paying for, for an extra panel or an extra battery.

and we'd really just distill it into, know, an extra battery is gonna cost you an x rand hand per month. We try to remove the T's and C's that are really go hand in hand with traditional finance products and the small print and like tricking people. We just try to be a lot more transparent as to what you're getting. And...

It's a long answer to your question, but the point I'm trying to make is we set a standard and that quickly got adopted by our competitors and the whole category has evolved into that space. mean, solar now is pretty much all productized, it's all commoditized. Offers something that we kind of innovated. We were the first to bring embedded insurance into our products. So we insure all of our assets on behalf of our customers.

that is going to become commonplace in a couple of years. We were the first with our own native app that is now getting followed. So like, I think imitation is flattering in a sense, but you cannot rest on your laurels and just assume that because you were the first to do something, one, you were the best at doing it. Often the age old saying of the second mouse gets the cheese. You know, can perfect what

Chase Le Roux (15:58)
Yeah.

Ross Mains-Sheard (16:00)
what others have gone before you, but you have to keep evolving. You have to keep adding value to the customer in order to stay relevant. And it's all around us. mean, I think, look at food delivery apps as an example, like Checkers 6060 have done an unbelievable job, but to the point where if you're a supermarket and you're not offering that same service, you're irrelevant. So that's what I think keeps driving innovation is...

constant improvement and our competitors have done good jobs at keeping a pace but also setting the pace in other things. And I think we're doing a very good industry job by just raising the bar across the board. In terms of new markets, it's always on our radar. I think there's a lot that we can offer the rest of the world. South Africa.

is a great feeding ground, particularly in the energy space, just because of the challenges we are facing and therefore the solutions are often groundbreaking. I was in Germany last year for a solar show and like battery tech and the adoption of it and the way we, the experiences we go through become a shining light for the rest of the world because they don't have power outages like we do. They don't have load shedding. So there's a lot.

of learning that happens in South Africa that we can export as opposed to the rest of the world. So that's something that we're excited to do. But equally, I think we've got our own challenges to solve here in South Africa. We are a very, very proud South African company. We love South Africa. It's kind of part of the ethos of what we're trying to do is solve South African problems so that we can bring South Africans home, all those friends that we have living abroad.

I'm a firm believer that South Africa is the best country in the world to live in. We have a lot of problems, but as an entrepreneur, we therefore have a lot of opportunity to solve those problems. So yeah, there's still a lot to be unlocked, I think, in the fullness of time.

Chase Le Roux (17:56)
Absolutely. it sounds like I'm hearing a lot of focus on empowerment, empowerment of businesses, the sustainability of that very passionately South African. There's other problems that need to be solved. I think you're just seeing that you guys have launched a new water-based business.

is the focus for Versofy moving into the future a lot around the sustainability and being able to offer essentially basic needs and services to our businesses in South Africa.

Ross Mains-Sheard (18:30)
Yeah, 100%. I mean, the thesis really is what is the problem and what, like, look at any pitch deck templates, I suppose. Slide one is what problem are you solving? And slide two is how big is this problem? Like, how big is the market? And energy is obviously a massive problem in this country. And it's been reflective in the growth that we've had and the success we've had in...

comparison to my previous business or the previous iteration of the business, which was the marketplace, the demand just wasn't as big because the problem wasn't as big and the incumbent solution, albeit not 100 % optimal, wasn't that big a problem. But when it comes to load shedding and you're not having power and not being able to study or work or kind of cook,

It's a very, very pressing problem. And therefore, if you offer a solution, know, the opportunity is huge. And water is no different. I think there's a lot of parallels with water and and solar or energy. There are a lot of nuances as well. It's not a direct replica. But we live in 2025 and we're having water outages It's just a reality we face as South Africans. There's failing infrastructure.

And we just try to solve it in a simpler way, but we've also seen the impact that awareness has and what technology can, the role technology can play. And what I mean by that is, I don't think any one of us knew how many kilowatt hours we consumed on a daily basis prior to the energy crisis. Everybody who gets solar for the first...

I don't know, six months, but particularly the first six days is glued to their app. They're looking at it 100 times a day. It's like, people are all of a sudden aware you become energy Nazis and you're turning off flipping lights everywhere. And I think water is no different. Water is the most precious resource we have. It's imperative for life. But there's a lot of wastage in the system through ignorance.

and negligence, I suppose. And what we're trying to do with water is not only just provide a reliable water source, but also start to digitize it, to show people how much they're using, when they're using water, pick up leaks. I mean, I think we've all heard the story where you get a bill three months later, because you get three estimates and all of a sudden you've got a 60, 70 grand water bill. Nobody wins in that scenario, because one, the people can't afford to...

pay that bill, the municipalities inevitably write off a portion of that. But two, most importantly, water is lost in the system, which is through monitoring and through kind of live data, we could mitigate that and avoid that altogether. Some scary stats, I'm paraphrasing, but something like 50 % of water that leaves the...

the facility ends up at its final distillation. The rest gets lost through leakages in the system. just small little incremental kind of advances using or improvements using kind of pretty rudimentary tech really, but just bringing it all together, think solves a lot of the problems for us. So that's kind of what we're trying to solve in Versofy is we've...

tackling the energy problem. There's a huge water crisis on our doorstep, particularly in Johannesburg. We want to solve that, but we wanna be seen as this smarter utility, a tech-based kind of company that's solving real-world problems for everyday South Africans, really.

Chase Le Roux (22:00)
You've it really nicely there. think that, know, Versofy itself is a highly innovative business, you know. However, the sector or the industry or the needs or the problems that you're solving have existed forever. And sometimes innovation isn't about the brand new, you know, we don't have to reinvent the light bulb. Sometimes it's just about making things simpler, right? And I think you guys have done an incredible job at that.

And coming up to the end, unfortunately, Ross, but I have two more questions for you. The first one being is, you know, as a CEO, as a co-founder to the business, you know, you've consistently had to go through all of these micro adjustments that ultimately led to this innovation and the sustainability. You guys as a business are inspirational in terms of the market impacts, you know, the social impact that you guys are able to make a difference on.

I suppose where it really makes quite a challenge is looking at and trying to understand your leadership philosophy to say, how do you keep your team inspired? How do you keep them driving forward? How do you keep them in this sort of environment or this culture that fosters innovation? What are some of the tips you can give to some of the businesses out there?

Ross Mains-Sheard (23:13)
think for us the benefit we have and it's the biggest lever I pull constantly is what we do matters. We are solving real problems for real people as I said before. It's not like a consumer good or a new diet pill or a new fad kind of thing. I think that's what gets me personally out of bed in the morning. It's something that we...

try and remind our team at any given opportunity. As I said earlier, running a business, any business is extremely challenging. Working in a business is challenging. But as per anything that is challenging, the reward is that much sweeter when you get through it. So I think what we try to do to keep our team motivated and inspired is really to reinforce

what we are trying to achieve and what we are doing and the impact that that has in the the throws of 2023 in the chaos like we had such inspiring stories of ambulances stopping at our our customers homes because they are the only people with power in the area to recharge defibrillators as an example or like the story of of you know the the wife keeping her husband on on life support and

all the way through to something a bit more simple where it's like my kid can actually study for matric exams or whatnot because we literally keeping the lights on. So that to me is what inspires me personally and I think the rest of our team. And it's something that I'm very passionate about and why I've chosen this industry is because it does make a difference in people's lives. And one of our core values is to make a dent.

responsibly and I think that's what we're trying to achieve. So yeah, that's the biggest inspiration I draw at least.

Chase Le Roux (24:57)
It sounds like, at least for me, once you're solving a problem, what you're doing for your customers is the net effect that it has often actually when it's working, when you have product market fit and when you're actually solving problems, you're almost creating or starting to see use cases that you never thought your product was going to be able to solve for, which is amazing. Last question, quickfire question, what's your favorite book and why?

Ross Mains-Sheard (25:21)
Sure, I've got a few. I'm big into biographies and kind of business books. So I love Losing My Virginity by Branson. I haven't read it in more than a decade. I think I need to test it often and reread it. But he's just a hugely inspiring entrepreneur. It's very easy to get sucked into the Bezos and the Zuckerbergs and these guys, but I just feel like Branson's a lot more.

relatable in so far as he didn't go to Harvard or Stanford or he's not just like boy genius. He's just really got grit and determination to unlock things. So I love that book. And then one I've reading more recently or read more recently is a lesser known book, but I think a great book for any entrepreneur to read. it's a book called The Road Less Stupid. And basically it's just how to avoid dumb tacks and do the right things, do the simple things because

I think we all make a lot of mistakes that we can avoid that end up costing us a lot in what he terms as dumb tax. So that's been a hugely inspirational and practical book that I'm trying to follow of late.

Chase Le Roux (26:27)
Awesome. Definitely going to go take that, take a look at that Ross. Thank you. So our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Great to have you on board to Ross. Special thank you to you, man. Thank you for sharing your expertise, giving us a deeper understanding into how some of these topics are impacting businesses on a day to day. And to the listeners, if you found today's conversation valuable and you want to stay ahead of the trends, please subscribe to our podcast and join us next time.

as we continue to uncover the stories and strategies behind the world's most influential fintech leaders. Until then, keep innovating and remember that the future of finance is just a conversation away.

Awesome. Ross, thank you. Appreciate it.

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