“I’m aware I look young for my age,” Judah Hirsch, CEO of Salarium, confesses. “When I was first putting up Triple-I Consulting people would ask me, ‘Oh, is this the company your dad put up?’ I’d just nod and agree. Why not?”
Then Judah looks straight at you with laser focus. “It’s all in the eyes. A person can look young, but you’ll see who they are when you look into their eyes.”
His eyes hold an unwavering gaze. It can get unsettling from someone who has always looked fresh out of college. Those eyes are Israeli — but born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and Filipino by admission. “I’ve been here for my entire adult life!” he exclaims. “I’m half-Pinoy.”
Well, the real half-Pinoy is his beautiful wife, Melody (the other half is Swiss). Judah and Melody have three children, who they’re bringing up to speak German. Talk about an international bunch.
We sat down with Judah in the enclave of his beautiful office to chat about Salarium and all things real estate.
Tell me about Salarium.
Salarium is a way to pay your employees. We calculate the salaries, and process the payment onto salary cards. Thanks to our partnership with UnionBank, we’re also able to issue pay cards to the employees of our clients. We’re the Filipino payroll company with the most aggregate experience.
We are the only company in the world that has a free payroll system. Sure, we are a payroll company — but we’re a fintech (finance and technology) company more than an HR company. We give our clients the software for free, and they pay their employees on our platform.
Why do we do this? Companies often compare labor cost to tech cost. When you offer software, it’s a hard sell; companies often can’t afford it. By giving out the software for free, we’ve made it easier and cheaper for Philippine companies to pay their employees. We’re 80% cheaper than the competition.
So you’d say your software reduces the capacity for human error?
Humans are still involved in the process. But Filipino companies are intimidated by technology. A lot of them use Excel sheets to calculate payroll. That’s prone to human error, and it causes a lot of problems. Nevertheless, Salarium has 24/7 support — with humans, in case there are questions that warm bodies can answer. Plus we have a high-touch after-sales service.
Your office encourages creativity — it’s filled with art. It’s a very human office.
James Haresco painted the murals on the walls. This is a converted warehouse — the total lot is 1400 square meters. We wanted a nice, comfortable place to work; our top value is work-life balance. What I mean by that is — don’t bring your personal life to work, and don’t bring your professional life home. So we make the office comfortable so people enjoy being here.
It’s very well lit with lots of natural light. A lot of the walls are glass, for that open airy feel. There are many rooms to allow people to work privately — hold meetings, concentrate on what they’re doing, etc. — but the walls are glass. So, privacy and transparency all at the same time.
It’s utilitarian. There’s bits of interior decorating here and there, but the office is utilitarian.
It’s not really an office building, is it?
We really wanted this space. It’s a converted warehouse. Even our first office, which we outgrew, was a converted nightclub. We don’t like traditional office spaces. Riding in elevators first thing in the morning — it’s the worst way to start your day.
We’re planning a big renovation next year, to free up more space. We’re putting up a wooden deck with a barbecue grill! It ties in to our philosophy of providing an airy and enjoyable place to work.
You’re scaling and growing, and developing new spaces in your office. How do you see your space developing as Salarium continues to grow?
This is a five year lease with the option to renew for another five years. We doubled the size of our team in the past year. Now we’re 120 employees. That growth will just keep on growing. We might get another space in the future and divide teams across two spaces.
How do you see real estate’s growth?
This country has grown 4 times since I moved here 14 years ago. Properties cost 4x more than 14 years ago. Right now, it’s a bit risky. It’s single-market oriented, focused on Chinese POGOs. The Chinese saved the commercial and residential markets. I was hoping for a market correction in 2015-2016…real estate was flat, I think it even dropped 1%. I was going to buy properties with my wife after the market correction. But it never corrected! It just kept going up. Nobody could have predicted the surge of 3 million Chinese and the effect it had on the economy. I wonder if the market correction will ever come.
You sponsor Kristian Hernandez, the boxer. Why?
Perhaps there’s no immediate connection between payroll and boxing. But we like the values he stands for. Hard work. Striving to reach a goal. Grit. These values are core to the concepts we talk about in Salarium.
Last but not least, how’d you meet John Riad of HousingInteractive?
John is one of my oldest friends. When I put up Triple I Consulting, he let me sublease part of the HousingInteractive office in a sweetheart deal. It really helped me out. John is a sweetheart. He’s just a sweet, genuine person.
For more information on Salarium, check them out at salarium.com / +63(2) 8271-1523
