DiscoverThe Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan599: They Rejected Her Idea, She Turned it into a BILLION Dollar Business | Suneera Madhani (Best of Foundr)
599: They Rejected Her Idea, She Turned it into a BILLION Dollar Business | Suneera Madhani (Best of Foundr)

599: They Rejected Her Idea, She Turned it into a BILLION Dollar Business | Suneera Madhani (Best of Foundr)

Update: 2025-10-23
Share

Description

Suneera Madhani built Stax from an idea her employer rejected into a $1B
fintech unicorn processing over $25B in payments.

In this interview, the Stax co-founder shares how she went from selling
credit card terminals out of her car to pioneering the first
subscription-based payment processor, raising over $500M in capital, and
scaling a company now generating $120M+ in revenue.

From turning down a $17.5M acquisition offer to building an omnichannel
platform before “fintech” was even a word, Suneera breaks down the
strategies, resilience, and leadership lessons that took her from a
scrappy founder to one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in
tech.

What you’ll learn from this interview:
• How Suneera turned a rejected idea into a billion-dollar company
• The scrappy marketing tactics that got her first 250 customers
• Why she turned down a $17.5M acquisition offer early on
• The lessons from raising over $500M in funding and navigating
investors
• How to build an MVP using white-label solutions and customer feedback
• The importance of execution and focus over “big ideas”
• Why resilience, intuition, and community are critical for long-term
success
• The rebrand from FatMerchant to Stax and what it taught her about
scaling

By the end of this interview, you’ll walk away with proven insights for
scaling a fintech or SaaS company from zero to unicorn status—so you can
apply the same strategies to grow your own business with focus and
resilience.

SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend
with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundrhttps://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial

PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application

CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/

CONNECT WITH SUNEERA MADHANI
Website → https://staxpayments.com/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/suneeramadhani/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/suneeramadhani/

FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast

Comments 
In Channel
loading
00:00
00:00
x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

599: They Rejected Her Idea, She Turned it into a BILLION Dollar Business | Suneera Madhani (Best of Foundr)

599: They Rejected Her Idea, She Turned it into a BILLION Dollar Business | Suneera Madhani (Best of Foundr)

Foundr Media