My Lens

A social enterprise founder who's built up a business from nothing and scaled it fast.

Na’ím Anís Paymán is a Bahá’í of German and Iranian descent who grew up in Albania and later moved to the UK to pursue his studies. Paymán is a serial entrepreneur seeking to bring meaningful innovation to the world. His inspiration is mostly from his belief in Bahá’í faith.

While studying Natural Sciences at Gonville & Caius College at the University of Cambridge, he set up Paymán Club, a provider of short-term accommodation in Cambridge and Oxford. After graduating, he oversaw the growth of the company to a number of cities across the UK and further afield. To support the ongoing growth while retaining a high standard of service, he felt it necessary to adopt state-of-the-art software.

After extensive research, the team at Keezark, were unable to find a software provider that met their real-world needs as multi-location serviced apartment providers and managers of hospitality businesses. Paymán thus decided to start developing software by serviced apartment providers, for serviced apartment providers. Besides wanting to have a powerful Property Management System and Channel Manager, he also felt it important to create a piece of kit that enabled everyone to grow their direct bookings. Hence, he founded Zeevou as a truly encompassing automation hub for hospitality providers.

Prior to even launching fully, Zeevou won 2 awards:
The Best Channel Manager in The Shortyz 2020
and The Innovation & Excellence Award 2020.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent shrinkage of buyer activity in the hotel market, Paymán began purchasing hotels and guesthouses across the UK. As the number of good deals available outpaced the funds at hand, the idea of Paymán Investments was born. This allowed for the creation of a tax-efficient business structure, while also reducing the risk to any one investor by spreading their funds across a large investment portfolio.

“I’m trying to democratize the hosting marketplace. Building a network of hosts globally without a massive marketing budget means you can get better rates because there’s no intermediary.”

A piece of an interview with Elaine Glusac. She presents Zeevou Direct in her article in The New York Times as one of the rising alternatives to Airbnb, referring to it as “a platform for direct booking.”

In his spare time, he enjoys playing the clarinet and classical guitar, exploring traditional Persian chanting, as well as cooking and learning new languages. He is also involved in the running of a number of ancillary businesses, such as CustomEyes.me and Studenio, and has also contributed to setting up The Ward & Brown Foundation.

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@ Na’ím Anís Paymán 2024