Janine Otto, Fibonatix’s Head of our DACH Business Unit, has been with Fibonatix for almost a year now. To celebrate her upcoming work anniversary with us, we sat down with Janine to hear about what she loves most about Fibonatix, her experience working with high-risk businesses and the FinTech space, and much more. Continue reading to see what she had to say!
How did you get your position at Fibonatix and what was your experience prior to joining the Fibonatix team?
I started working in the payments industry in 2010 at PayPal in Dublin, where I worked for five years in Risk Operations. After five years, I was headhunted by a German payments company, and I worked there as Head of Sales for two years.
After those two years, I found that I was missing the risk aspect of the FinTech world, so I moved to work as a business consultant for a consultancy agency for banks and FinTechs here in Berlin. As a consultant, I got to know more about how banks work and I learned a lot about how the European payment industry is regulated.
In 2021, Fibonatix approached me and offered me my current position. Even though, at first, I wasn’t interested in switching roles as I was content in my consultancy role, I was curious and surprised by the chemistry I experienced with the people who interviewed me and about the company and the role itself. I decided to take the job with this massive opportunity and the rest is history!
What’s your favorite aspect of the payments industry?
I’ve always worked in the payments industry, whether for FinTechs or from a bank perspective, and what I learned is that I prefer to work in a FinTech environment, mostly because of the fast-changing nature of the environment itself. There are steadily new technologies coming to the market, and there’s always something new to learn, new innovations, new payment methods, and much more.
In terms of my job, I really enjoy getting to know new businesses and their business models. I usually get to work and collaborate with really interesting people and businesses.
What has been your favorite project so far?
It’s hard to pinpoint one specific project that I enjoyed the most, but what I like in general is traveling to conferences or events and meeting potential partners and clients.
I also enjoy being able to provide our best services to high-risk businesses, which oftentimes struggle to find a stable payment services provider for their business, because of their ”high-risk” status.
What do you wish high-risk merchants knew?
Simply that Fibonatix can help them even if they have lost all hope that any payment provider will support them. Fibonatix makes possible what other PSPs can’t.
We work with several acquiring banks as partners, so we can guarantee stable performance for high-risk businesses. In most cases, we can help merchants who have already been declined by other PSPs, and support them in ways they may not have thought was possible.
What is the most unusual aspect of working at Fibonatix?
The most unusual aspect is actually a very small, but significant, thing. I’m talking about the working hours. The head office team in Israel works from Sunday to Thursday and I’m in Germany, so I work from Monday to Friday, so it’s taken me some time to get used to the difference in working hours between the two offices.
What do you appreciate most about Fibonatix’s company culture?
I have noticed that at Fibonatix, while we strive for excellence, mistakes can happen and these are actually welcomed so that we can grow and improve. I really appreciate that my own process of learning is always supported, valued, and understood, as through these learnings, we as a team are getting closer to perfection.
What’s one thing we might not know about you that we should?
Well, you already know that I lived in Ireland, but I also lived in Spain for a little while, too. I’m trained as a foreign language correspondent, so through my training I learned English, Russian, and Spanish, and to improve my Spanish after my training, I decided to travel to Spain to live there for a while. I’m also a professional translator, so I translate German to English and English to German.
Another thing that you don’t know is that this year I have visited four continents; America, Asia, Africa and, of course, Europe. I’m also going to visit our Tel-Aviv office very soon!
If you enjoyed getting to know Janine better, look out for upcoming events she’ll be attending on the Fibonatix LinkedIn page, as you may get the opportunity to meet her in person! Also, more Employee Spotlight interviews will be happening soon, so stay tuned to get to know more about other members of the Fibonatix team.