Founder Spotlight: Judah Hirsch of Salarium

Founder Spotlight: Judah Hirsch of Salarium

Remedying the Payroll Problems

By Michaela Villaroman

 

An efficient and reliable payroll system is key to a well-organized company. It is vital to the welfare of both the organization and its employees, whose concerns are directly involved with the scope payroll systems comprise.

 

From monitoring time records of staff to keeping track of due compensation for their proper and on-time salary, the payroll system serves as a glue that binds employers and employees together; it ensures that everything operates smoothly and incessantly.

 

That being said, any malfunction or inconveniences experienced with the payroll system becomes a great nuisance for both the company and its employees. These errors amount to loss of time and even loss of morale amongst personnel. It is then truly essential to integrate a simple, secure, and dependable payroll system for the benefit of the company’s entirety.

 

 

STRIKING SALT

 

 

TechShake was able to interview Judah Hirsch, the founder of Salarium, an end-to-end payroll solution that covers time and attendance, payroll computation, and dispersion of salaries into an e-wallet program. He shared with us his journey to creating the successful company.

 

Judah started his career at the young age of 18. He had already set up his first biodiesel company in Israel. It didn’t turn out to be a successful venture, but it did give him a taste of what the entrepreneurial world was like. He then came to the Philippines where he worked as the general manager for a call center. And upon finishing his contract, he returned back to the entrepreneurial scene to start his own companies in the Philippines.

 

The idea of Salarium came about from Judah’s consulting firm company. “One of the main source verticals there is payroll outsourcing, so we were doing it as a service for many years. And then I saw the need to have a software platform to do it,” he explained. This marked the beginning of Salarium.

 

The company name has an interesting origin. Salarium is the Latin word for salary, salt, and soldier. Judah said, “Because Roman soldiers used to get paid their salary in salt, salt used to be worth more than gold.” Salarium proves to be a relevant and fitting name for the thriving payroll system enterprise.

 

Choosing to start the new business, Judah shared that it was a difficult endeavor at first. “I didn’t know anything about engineering. I just hired a bunch of engineers in June of 2013 and started building something. That’s the worst way to start a software company,” he joked. But everything worked out fine. After rebooting the whole tech of the company, they were able to finally build their product and launch it on October 2014.

 

Salarium became a hit. Unlike other businesses, Salarium was in a unique situation. “Most start-ups build a product and the challenge for them is to get the customers. We had a different problem - we had customers; the challenge was to build the product,” Judah shared, “So once we were able to successfully build the product, we had customers from day 1.” And their clients have continued to grow since.

 

With all its success, the decision to give the software away for free was met with turmoil. Judah said that it was “a very difficult decision for companies because you’re cutting your legs off.” Ultimately however, that choice paid off. Salarium now offers their payroll system software for free and has garnered more users from the change.

 

 

BRIGHTER FUTURE AHEAD

 

 

Judah plans to expand regionally in the Philippines next year. He understands that a complex solution, like payroll, needs to be heavily localized. Scaling the company would definitely require work, but Judah is up for the challenge.

 

“I try to keep moving forward. That is a motivating philosophy of mine - just keep moving forward,” Judah shared. It is apparent from his determination and outlook that Salarium is in great hands. We can expect that the company will continue on its prosperous path.

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