Invisible Collector

Pedro Mendes identified a massive inefficiency in how companies manage receivables. With 76% of money transacted worldwide based on credit, yet companies largely unstructured in their collection processes, he saw a clear market gap. Rather than waiting for customers to remember to pay, why not reach out proactively and intelligently stimulate payment before defaults happen?

Launched in January 2016, the Invisible Collector team spent roughly 14-15 months developing their cloud-based system alongside initial test customers. They built an AI-powered interaction engine that doesn't just send generic payment reminders—it determines the optimal timing, tone, and message for each debtor. The system can even run A/B tests on different collection strategies to see what works best. Development finally culminated in a commercial release in November 2016.

Instead of scaling with marketing spend or relying on word-of-mouth, Pedro's team took a surgical approach: LinkedIn direct outreach. They searched for CFOs and IT managers at utility companies and professional credit collection agencies—the exact personas with budget and pain. Their pitch was simple: a 2-3 line message asking, "Do you want to get your money faster? Please reach us. We have an online AI based system to revolutionize or to ramp up your collection process." The response rate was strong enough that they built a meeting, discussed the prospect's existing collection process, then demonstrated their solution. It worked—their first customers came via this direct-sales channel.

The LinkedIn + direct-sales model proved remarkably effective. Within a year of commercial launch, they'd signed 15 corporate customers—many of them professional credit collection companies who became both resellers and partners. Notably, Pedro's team avoided the trap of trying to build a self-serve product too early. Instead, they stayed hands-on, focusing on the highest-intent buyers: people already in the collections business.

By the time of this interview, Invisible Collector was generating $45,000 per month in revenue (15 customers × ~$3k average monthly fee), entirely bootstrapped with zero churn so far. The team had grown to 6 people across Portugal and Spain and was already cash-flow positive—a rare achievement for a young SaaS company. Rather than raise capital to survive, they were raising $500k at a $1.5M pre-money valuation specifically to hire expertise in online marketing channels and fund an AI product enhancement. Two serious investors (one corporate fund, one FinTech-focused angel from Spain) had already tabled proposals.