Cashcow’s Co-Founder is driven by a simple goal – to lead ‘the best company to work for in Malta’

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented changes in the corporate sphere, most of which were, admittedly, less than favourable.

Having said that, the time we forcefully spent away from the office served as a wake-up call for employers all over the world, as the overall notion of the ‘office space’ was questioned, challenged, and eventually changed for good.

When companies had no choice but to abide by the changes COVID-19 was forcing upon them, digital start-up Cashcow showed no resistance and embraced them with open arms.

Now, the company’s on a mission to create one of the best Malta-based companies employees could ask for.

Founded in 2017 by three Finns, Cashcow is an SEO-focused company specialising in sending valuable leads to a variety of partners. Since its foundation, this up-and-coming enterprise has grown to employ a team of more than 15 people spanning countless nationalities.

“We had been working in the affiliate marketing space for some time and had a different idea about how to build and run a website,” Cashcow Co-Founder Mika Kujapelto tells MaltaCEOs.mt.

“We also had different ideas about how to build a company in an industry where all you really need is a laptop and an internet connection to work. Because of that, we don’t have strict nine-to-five working hours or anything like that – people can work flexibly and remotely,” he says.

This digital start-up was first put under the spotlight thanks to its first website, Casino Professor, launched soon after the company’s foundation.

This platform specialises in online casino comparisons, treating visitors to a range of online casino reviews, bonuses, and ratings penned by the Cashcow team.

“At first, everything was in Finnish, but very soon we added English language support as well. Once we started generating sales, we used the money to include more languages to our website,” Mika recalls.

“Throughout 2017, it was still only the three Co-Founders that were employed by the company, but in 2018, we hired our first employee and have continued to hire people ever since, based on our needs,” the continues.

Since then, Cashcow has grown beyond its iGaming niche, operating several affiliate websites appertaining to a variety of sectors. What they do have in common is that they all grew organically.

“The hardest part of the process has been getting the first sales in. Of course, there have been other hiccups here and there, but not knowing whether the site will ever manage to attract visitors and generate sales was the most stressful and challenging point of the process,” Mika shares.

Leading a start-up from its inception means that you’re there at some of the company’s lowest points – however it also means that you get the satisfaction of seeing every facet of the business develop, grow, and improve.

“Seeing Cashcow’s employees grow and become more and more skilful in their job has been my favourite part of the whole process. Watching people that have been with us almost from the beginning thrive is a very rewarding thing to see,” the Co-Founder says.

Caschow’s choice to base itself in Malta is a symptom of the country’s ever-growing start-up industry; an industry that has made leaps and bounds in a relatively short amount of time.

“Leading a Malta-based start-up has been a very positive experience overall,” Mika recounts.

“Of course, every place has its ups and downs, and Malta is no exception to this, but since many of our clients are based here and there is a large expat community, Malta was the obvious place to be,” he continues.

Being surrounded by such a diverse community of foreigners also provides Cashcow a much larger pool of multilingual talent, something that is vital in the company’s industry.

COVID-19 might prove to be the biggest catalyst of change in the modern corporate world. Whilst Cashcow chose to embrace the changes it brought on to remain relatively unscathed, the pandemic has still left its mark on the company’s operations.

“I think COVID-19 left its biggest impact on how we work nowadays. Although people had the option of working remotely before the pandemic, most of us still enjoyed coming to the office on a regular basis – not necessarily the entire day, but still a few hours on a daily basis,” Mika says.

“Now, things are quite different. Even though our headcount has remained more or less the same, the office is quite empty compared to what it was before COVID-19. People enjoy working from home more and they have more free time for other things. Home has a larger meaning now than it did before the pandemic,” the Co-Founder concludes.