You Don't Have to Be a Business Owner to Think Like an Entrepreneur Paul Mullis, President of Americas at Rillion, breaks down how his team navigated the company's launch in the United States.
By Dan Bova
In this ongoing series, we are sharing advice, tips and insights from real entrepreneurs who are out there doing business battle on a daily basis. (Answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Who are you and what's your business?
I am Paul Mullis, President of Americas, at Rillion, where I've spearheaded the launch of the company in the United States. Our goal is to help AP professionals and finance teams not only save time and money by minimizing manual work, but also provide greater transparency to eliminate bottlenecks in payments and invoice systems.
What inspired you to create this business?
The recent rise in remote or hybrid work, combined with the vulnerabilities that the AP industry faces with fraud, overdue invoices or incorrectly paid invoices, truly showed me a need to bring a cloud-based solution to the United States to solve this. We're lightening the workload of AP professionals, allowing them to quickly pivot to remote work and focus on more pressing deliverables.
Related: 'It's So Gratifying to Know You're Doing Exactly What You Should Be Doing'What has been your biggest challenge and how did you pivot to overcome it?
As we all know, it's a remarkable time in recruiting. While Rillion (or Palette Software) may be well known in the Nordics where it has been around for 30 years, we have to build an awareness of the company here in the U.S. in order to pull in the very best out there. That has meant breaking out of our comfort zones and finding creative ways to promote the company and attract talent – from a fully integrated LinkedIn strategy to a website redesign that truly showcases our startup mentality. By tapping into this, we've already seen tremendous growth.
What does the word "entrepreneur" mean to you?
I love the idea that being an entrepreneur can mean so many different things. I didn't start this company when it was started in the Nordics 30 years ago. But I've got a major chance to be entrepreneurial with this US launch, which brings a unique set of opportunities and challenges. It means focusing on growing an incredible team, building on core values, and creating new, refreshed ways of working and leading that build on the incredible momentum we've established. In short, I've got to be entrepreneurial at every step, and I expect my teams to be as well. Driven, creative and resilient.
What is something many aspiring business owners think they need that they really don't?
Many people think to be an entrepreneur means you need to be a business owner or founder. But that's not true. Thinking like a business owner — and caring about it as if it was mine — has made me a better leader, and has a massive impact on the results I produce with my team. I've been given that agency by leadership overseas, and it is a crucial aspect of how we're rolling out the Rillion North American business.
Is there a particular quote or saying that you use as personal motivation?
I love Maya Angelou's quote, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." At Rillion, we believe that while we are experts in automation, our passion is all about people. We are always considering the individual in everything we do, and that people-first mentality inspires me to continually grow our software and our company.
