Growing up as a young woman in Albania, Orsela Cani spent much of her early life under the impression that a woman’s duty was to fulfil her traditional role as a housewife.
Despite the strong and fulfilled women she knew who adhered to this, Orsela knew from a young age that such a path simply wasn’t for her. She couldn’t help but feel she was different from those around her; while Albanian society pushed the agenda that her predetermined duty as a stay-at-home housewife was inevitable, her heart told her otherwise. She wanted more. With an ambition too great to be contained, little did she know her journey as a fintech founder and payroll pioneer was about to begin.
Orsela moved to the UK at 16 years old. Adjusting to a new country, language, and culture wasn’t easy, but she embraced every challenge that came her way. With unwavering determination, Orsela not only adapted, but thrived. She didn’t let any obstacles stand in her path to success. Coming to the UK and completing her education was just the beginning; she set her sights on conquering the world of finance
Through hard work and perseverance, Orsela forged a remarkable career in finance that continues to inspire everyone around her. Since starting her career, she has accumulated over 20 years experience in both finance and technology, having also successfully led and built a number of prosperous financial teams. Soon enough, she was quickly looked up to as a visionary expert in the fintech space. After building a name for herself in the industry she had worked so hard to shape, Orsela was at a very comfortable point in her career.
However, embers of an entrepreneurial flame began to flicker. Throughout her career, frustrations with the many inadequate payroll systems she came across began to grow. She had first-hand experience of the many challenges that staffing agencies and recruitment companies faced when dealing with legacy systems to process payroll for flexible workers. Having been in the shoes of those living paycheck-to-paycheck, she’d often work overnight to ensure payroll errors were fixed in time for employees to get paid when anticipated.
In fact, in a survey by Bullhorn, those with poor experiences with staffing firms were 87% more likely to report that they weren’t paid on time. Orsela could sense an undeniable drive within her, eager to take charge and transform the way payroll was managed in the recruitment industry. She had to make a decision – play it safe and continue with her career as it was, or take a risk and bring her vision of revolutionising payroll to life.
The choice was clear – Orsela yearned to give workers the financial empowerment and transparency they needed, and a reliable payroll solution built from the ground up to serve the worker was the answer. It was time to fulfil her duty as a fintech leader, and contribute to a financially well, literate, and independent society.
As a result, in November 2019, mywage was born.
With an unwavering drive for success, Orsela recognised that her entrepreneurial journey would be far from a walk in the park. Regardless, she fearlessly embarked on her mission to bring her innovative tech ideas to life. She understood that pitching a new business and securing capital would present unique obstacles, particularly as an Albanian woman in the tech industry. As anticipated, she encountered a number of difficulties in accessing support for startups, obtaining funding, and being heard by venture capitalists. For tech starters, learning to accept rejection tends to be a crucial part of the process, let alone the unintentional bias brought upon by being an Albanian woman.
Despite these hurdles, she remained resilient and committed to her vision, continuing to work tirelessly towards its realisation. With a strong focus on innovation, reliability, and customer obsession, mywage soon overcame these challenges.
Her admirable desire to challenge the status quo is what has brought Orsela Cani to where she is today. “People will constantly try to question your knowledge, expertise, and why you do what you do, and it’s important to remind yourself that self-assurance is your best friend,”, she says. “Constantly being looked down upon by others for taking an “unconventional” path, particularly coming from a culture that emphasises the need for traditional gender roles, has required me to learn to embrace that I’m not like others. Trying to fit in will never work in your favour – you’ll never please everyone, so just be authentically you.”.
4 years later, mywage is steadily taking the payroll landscape by storm. Built from the ground up, mywage serves the needs of the flexible workforce, empowering business owners and workers alike with a payroll platform that gives you complete control, visibility, and transparency. Unlike other platforms, mywage was crafted specifically to handle the large volumes of temporary workers that comes with staffing, by effectively handling the ever-evolving complexities of varying shift patterns and pay rates.
Orsela has made it her mission to fight for pay transparency for workers everywhere. So many workers are living paycheck-to-paycheck, while others lack the financial visibility to make well-informed financial decisions. Because of this, her primary objective in running this business is to empower the future of work with transparent payroll forecasts, to enable positive monetary well being for the future.
Orsela Cani remains an unwavering source of inspiration for aspiring young women who aspire to pursue a career in the tech industry, despite the apprehension fueled by societal expectations.
“The way that I see it, nothing is more powerful than speaking up on both your obstacles and personal success journey. It enables others to see that if I can do it, they can too!” – Orsela Cani, CEO & Founder of mywage
About the Author
Orsela Cani is founder and CEO at mywage. mywage is a futuristic & Innovative Salesforce Native Payroll Solution. mywage was created because we found so many payroll systems inadequate. We had first-hand experience of the many challenges that staffing agencies and recruitment companies faced when dealing with payroll for employees and contractors.
