"What we’ve learned about building a business after 10 years of Afterpay”

It started with a conversation between two neighbours more than a decade ago. But the concept for Afterpay quickly took off and by 2014, co-founders Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen had registered the business name and were well on their way to securing their first retailers.

Since then, Afterpay has grown to encompass more than 348,000 merchants worldwide and attracted more than 24m customers*.

 As entrepreneurs themselves, both Nick and Ant understand the hard work, heartache and thrill of building a business. Here, they share some of the hard-fought lessons they’ve learned over the past decade of Afterpay.

Embrace the pain. You need discomfort to grow.

If I could go back in time 10 years, I would say ‘embrace the pain’.

Battling to win, and the hustle of each day, has a very specific type of pain and heartache. And while you might wish it away at the time, that's actually the thing you need to hold onto, because it will propel you forward and keep you hungry.

And you’ll find you actually miss the pain. When you’re being driven by intuition and instinct, you truly feel alive. It’s not supposed to be easy.

So, I would say embrace that pain and know that even if you crave coming out the other side, you’ll always need to find that discomfort in order to grow.

Be humble.

The number one piece of advice I would give up-and-coming entrepreneurs is to be genuine, humble and honest. My parents taught me so much about how to navigate people.

Stay focused on your mission.

It may sound trite, but it’s so hard to stay focused and true to your mission, especially as you start to see some success. It’s easy to be tempted to change direction or water down the mission by trying to do too much.

Afterpay gives people control of their most important asset – their money – which enables them to pay better and ultimately live better. I wholeheartedly believed in what we were doing when we started, and I stand by the mission still today.

Honesty is the key to successful co-founder relationships.

We’ve always had honest, frequent conversations. We also talked openly about balancing the opportunities around us while also growing responsibly and in a way that allows us to continue to deliver at a high level.

Work with good people.

Be relentless about surrounding yourself with the best people. It’s always about the people. Always.

Afterpay: a timeline

2014 Afterpay is registered as a business.

2016 Afterpay debuts on the ASX.

2017 Afterpay reaches one million customers and more than 7200 merchants partners, and launches in New Zealand.

2018 Afterpay launches in the United States.

2019 Afterpay launches in the UK market under the name Clearpay.

2020 Afterpay reaches 5 million customers in the US and launches in Canada. Afterpay also becomes the title sponsor for Australian Fashion Week.

2022 Afterpay becomes part of the Block family.**

^{*Block investor presentation, Q2 2024. *https://newsroom.afterpay.com/our-story}