Jeff Becker and Helmut Wyzisk were friends throughout college and beyond. Like many friends, they always tossed around the idea of starting a business together. They stumbled on the perfect concept inspired by a shared frustration: their earbuds kept falling out during workouts. They decided they would invent an affordable attachment to make standard earbuds fit better. But could their idea become a reality? With the right tools, it was bound to be a success.

From Humble Beginnings

The friends started to raise capital in the same way a lot of entrepreneurs do: the crowdfunding site Indiegogo. They called their product, Earhoox. Within one month, they raised $10,000, and found they'd hit on a mass-market demand. In 2013, they then set their initial run at 1,000 Earhoox and sold them from Wyzisk's apartment. Their next step was to start an ecommerce site and modernize their outdated payment processing system. Knowing that PayPal has a strong reputation as a service that provides flexible payment options, simple setup, and seamless payment, they knew that it would be essential to get their business off the ground.

Love at First Payment

Their first PayPal payment was to the CAD designer who turned their sketch into a usable design file. The entrepreneurs found that PayPal was just what they needed to make all of their vendor transactions. Wyzisk says, "It was a trustworthy way to get them funds that both we and they felt comfortable with." Trustworthy indeed, as PayPal is used by more than 197 million active accounts. ¹The power of brand recognition makes business owners and customers rely on PayPal for protection against fraud. Becker and Wyzisk even benefited from PayPal's streamlined invoicing system: "When we started we didn't even have an invoicing system," Becker says. "It was really convenient to be able to send money via PayPal." PayPal sends customers an online invoice that they can pay directly via PayPal, credit card or debit card. In 2016, there were 1.8 billion PayPal transactions made.

Building Customers and Online Presence

Becker and Wyzisk then used PayPal Payments Standard to process their company's online card and PayPal payments. It was much simpler than their past system, which had so many forms, circuitous agreements, and credit checks. Wyzisk says, "It was by far the fastest choice for our business—our payments system was up and running in a day." PayPal is fast: You can add the PayPal button to your website and start accepting payments online in about 15 minutes. Their next goal was to maximize their online sales and increase their online presence. "A good payment processor helps you target people online," Becker says, "and the e-commerce channel was really where we wanted to put our focus." That targeting helps explain why up to 5.3% more customers are attracted to businesses that use PayPal than that those who do not. ²Customers are looking for payment flexibility, and research shows that these new buyers will spend more and help contribute to your business's growth. PayPal has mobile app integration, too, which caters to the traveling entrepreneur. Becker says, "I do so much business from my phone, and PayPal is one of the apps I use most frequently." So far, they've sold over 70k online and in more than 1,000 stores around the world.

New Goals and Exceeded Expectations

When Wyzisk and Becker first started their business, they never considered it would go international. Now, they get orders from 84 countries. Wyzisk says that PayPal "gives us the confidence to ship large orders internationally because we know payment is imminent." PayPal lets you accept many different currencies securely from more than 200 markets without any wiring fees or wait time. The business trajectory of Earhoox was much more than its founders expected. And thanks in part to PayPal, they continue to grow today.

Simple friendships can grow into rewarding business partnerships. But the most critical member of that partnership is PayPal. If you're thinking about starting a lifelong dream of yours, consider PayPal for its transparent fee structure, payment method flexibility, and trusted reputation by entrepreneurs worldwide.

PayPal can be a trusted business partner, starting at $0 a month, and signup takes as little as 15 minutes! Follow this link to start accelerating your business with PayPal today.

_{¹An active customer account is a registered account that successfully sent or received at least one payment or payment reversal through our Payments Platform, excluding transactions processed through our gateway and Paydiant products, in the past 12 months.²As reported in Nielsen's Online Buyer Insights, which measured online & mobile purchasing behavior 52 weeks pre-/post-PayPal integration to calculate lift in net new customers who completed a purchase using PayPal. Weighted average results across a group of 15 small- and medium-sized merchants; findings are based on actual transactions, measured among ~39MM US Zip11 Households. Study completed January 2016.}