Leaders In Payments

My guest on this episode is nothing short of interesting. Not only does she have a very successful finance company, she also has a blog and a gaming group that caters specifically to poker players! In fact, poker is a personal passion of hers that (she feels) has helped her become a better founder due to the many metaphors the game offers for life and business. Bluejay Finance Co-founder and CEO Sherry Jiang is this week’s leader in payments.For those of you who may not know, Bluejay Finance is a Blockchain technology company that strives to make it easier for private investors to tap into private market investments typically less accessible in the professional world. Sherry likens it to a crypto-based Angel List, only for private market investments outside venture capital.The two main players in their ecosystem include individual investors and borrowers (or asset originators). As for as their competitive advantage, BlueJay focuses on private credit as the asset class and offers the potential for granular investments that have the capacity to target the under $50 million investment sector (which is currently underserved) with a more passive income strategy.Tune in this week to hear Sherry talk about her journey to CEO, including the lessons she has learned when it comes to product versus people, testing, learning, and iterating – and the truth about the non-linear journey. We also talk about where she sees the industry going in the next 2 to 10 years as it relates to mobile payments, cryptocurrency and Blockchain.

Here to help me kick off the second episode of our Women Leaders in Payments series is Chase Payment Solutions Canada President Marilu Gaudio. Marilu grew up with first generation Italian immigrants, in a traditional Italian household focused on family and food. In fact, she credits her father for her amazing work ethic that has gotten her so far in her career. So, how did she wind up going into payments when one of her original career paths had her slated as a teacher? You’ll have to tune in to find out!As I’m sure most of you know, Chase Payment Solutions is a full acquirer, offering payment services and solutions for both small and large enterprise clients. Marilu’s department works closely with the Canadian payment network, corporate and franchise organizations, as well as financial institutions, associations, and technology partners to both integrate and optimize the payments ecosystem.When it comes to her guiding principles, she cites integrity, honesty, and resiliency as her top three. We also talk about the importance of treating others the way you, yourself, would like to be treated and the need for active listening in management roles. She also strives to always show up as a student, not an expert, in both life and business.Tune in to hear Marilu talk about her journey to President, including why she grades the current state of our industry on a C+ to B- scale when it comes to female leadership and where we can do better. We also discuss some of her most eye-opening career moments that taught her the value that comes from not attempting to be the expert on absolutely everything.

Here to help me close out our six-part series on embedded finance is Inktavo CEO James Armijo. After a brief stint in finance, James was quick to ascertain the truth that spending 16 hours a day working a spreadsheet would not lead to a tremendous amount of career satisfaction for him personally. So, he made the jump from finance to SaaS companies and payments and never looked back! As for what keeps him up at night these days, it has a little to do with payroll and a lot to do with the future of the embedded finance ecosystem. For those of you who may not know, Inktavo is a SaaS platform that supports apparel decorators (or screen printers) in their mission to provide decorative apparel to their local community. Their software is unique in that they provide an all-in-one platform for their customers to thrive and flourish, including customizable designs, web checkout, order tracking and (of course) embedded finance options.In talking with James about the embedded finance journey, it’s interesting to hear his take on the steppingstones and stumbling blocks present in such a prolific ecosystem. For Inktavo’s customer base specifically, lending is one of the most significant value adds they can provide in a much more streamlined fashion due to the data they have access to. Tune in this week to hear James discuss all things embedded finance, including the three-phase embedded roadmap and the benefit that comes from focusing on customer pain points versus just monetization when it comes to your embedded strategy. We also talk about where he sees the embedded ecosystem in the next 2-5 years as it relates to payroll and AP/AR initiatives.

My guest on episode 238 has a passion for football, tennis, F1 and (of course) payments! Only, not in that order. A self-proclaimed payments geek, Paramount Commerce COO Dave Roe is a product guy at heart with a self-driven mission to make the complex look simple – especially when it comes to payments!For those of you who may not know, Paramount Commerce is the leading bank-account-based payment solutions provider. The company itself just celebrated 20 years in business and has roughly 150 satisfied employees. They specialize in the online gaming and sports betting sector, as well as international e-commerce, and their two biggest offerings revolve around Interac-based payments products and instant bank transfer via the EFT rails.As for their competitive advantage that has enabled them to process more than $1 billion in payments, Dave circles back to their mission: to simplify payments for all sides of the transaction. We talk in detail about how the payment experience can make or break your conversion rate, as well as your customer relationship. Dave focuses heavily on their best-in-class payments experience and their strategic partnership strategy, as well as their genuine intention to make good friends with each and every customer. Tune in to hear Dave talk about his journey to COO and where he sees the industry going in the next 2 to 3 years, including the numerous changes expected in bank-to-bank payments, the advancement in open banking, and the expectation of real-time rails. 

My guests this week earned her very first dollar selling avocados with her neighborhood friend, took her first job as a retail warehouse employee and was actually one of the original baristas before Starbucks made it such a mainstream profession. So how did she wind up in payments? You’ll have to tune in to find out! Spoiler alert: it was a tough choice between deodorant and financial technology. Clover Network CMO Andrea Gellert is here to help me kick off our annual Women Leaders in Payments month!For those of you who may not know, Clover is the leading cloud-based POS solution for small and medium sized businesses in the U.S. They offer a front office solution for payment acceptance, as well as a technology platform for business management. As for their competitive advantage, Andrea touts not only their capacity to offer enterprise-grade solutions for small businesses but also their genuine emphasis on the human connection – creating a business model that focuses much more on the relationship than the transaction.We spend some time talking about her most eye-opening moments throughout the span of her career, including how to facilitate and sustain the startup pace-of-change, high-energy environment regardless of the company size, as well as how your efforts tend to get diffused when you explore absolutely every business opportunity for your brand.Tune in to hear Andrea talk about her journey to CMO, including the guiding principles that have helped her navigate her career and why it’s always so important to start any journey with the end in mind. We also discuss the most powerful lesson she learned from a round of constructive criticism that continues to influence her management style even to this day. 

Here to kick off the next episode in our embedded finance series is Maast Chief Revenue Officer Ernie Moran. Ernie has been in the industry for more than 25 years and is currently an integral part of the team that is defining embedded finance at his company. What’s his recipe for success? According to Ernie, a disciplined focus on delivering real value to the market always wins out. And there are few things that offer more value in our industry than embedded finance.For those of you who may not know, Maast helps software providers like ERP and vertical SaaS become a one stop shop for their customers by offering as suite of integrated services in their software platform. Their goal is to simplify money management for businesses while enabling software providers to unlock the hidden revenue offered through the embedded ecosystem in a manner that truly optimizes the customer experience.Ernie himself defines embedded finance as “everything to do with the flow of money” and gives a comprehensive overview of the three-step process required for the most efficient embedded model for any business. Also on tap for our discussion is the necessity of having the right products, at the right time, and in a manner that is easy to consume. We also talk about the ISO community and their role in the future of embedded finance. Tune in to hear Ernie talk about the embedded ecosystem including the embedded finance trend as it relates to the overall industry, the necessity for innovation to stay real-time and relevant, and the projected demise of organizations focused on selling traditional payment services. Ernie wraps up with some great concepts both software companies and ISOs should consider when exploring embedded finance.  

My guest this week has a genuine passion for people and was focused on financial services before the term ‘digital transformation’ even existed. EngageSmart President of Enterprise Solutions Kevin O’Brien is a true leader in payments.For those of you who may not know, EngageSmart is a SaaS platform focused on simplifying the customer and client experience. Their main verticals include health and wellness, utilities, insurance, customer finance and tax, while their goal is to create a more streamlined experience for their clients that look to engage their customers largely through payments. SimplePractice is a proprietary solution that caters to the behavioral health space with a virtual software solution capable of managing scheduling, payments and all the tasks in between. DonorDrive supports the non-profit space, while HealthPay24 helps health systems, physician groups and dental practices. And finally, InvoiceCloud is their largest digital solution targeting online bill pay in the utility, insurance, and customer finance space. Tune in to hear him talk about his journey to the role of President of Enterprise Solutions, including where he sees the industry going in the next 2 to 3 years as it relates to online bill pay adoption and the Amazon-like experience every customer is looking for. We also talk about what we can do as an industry to capture the non-digitally native population, as well as the variance in adoption rates from vertical to vertical. 

As we continue our deep dive into embedded finance, my guest this week is here to talk to us about some of the most important components when we begin to look at the embedded world beyond just payments. Nium Chief Product Officer Robin Gandhi is willing to guarantee one thing when it comes to the ever-evolving embedded finance trend: “you can’t stop this train!”And with a company like Nium, non-financial organizations looking to monetize financial services can embed Nium’s API into their tech stack to help them have access to a variety of financial products.When it comes to the future of the embedded journey, Robin will be the first to say that the momentum is not slowing down and, in fact, is only speeding up. We also spend time talking about who gets disintermediated in the embedded journey? And what does it mean to the industry as a whole? Spoiler alert: according to Robin, “you don’t get disintermediated unless you’re just not paying attention.”Tune in this week to hear Robin talk about all things embedded finance, including the main ingredient that is absolutely essential and integral to everything in the embedded journey, as well as the one thing that has the potential to slow down its momentum.

My guest this week has a passion for building products that help customers solve their pain points and considers himself a product founder at his core. Torpago CEO and Founder Brent Jackson has made it his mission to simplify spending for small businesses.For those of you who may not know, Topago is a corporate credit card and spend management platform with slightly north of 1400 small business customers and a very vertical agnostic platform. According to Brent, they have very intentionally and successfully rebuilt the credit card experience from the ground up for small businesses. Their core product revolves around a Visa commercial charge card and spend management software that allows businesses to “spend smarter,” while their most recent product offering enables businesses to launch their own proprietary card programs.Their software is easily configurable and customizable for anything from a two-person bakery to a 5,000-person brand. And while this makes them predominantly vertically agnostic, their core customer tends to be from non-venture-backed industries. As for their competitive offering, Brent touts the capacity for them to provide an all-encompassing solution – not just a card and not just an expense software, but the best of both worlds combined! Also worthy of mention is the functionality within the software that enables users to swipe, approve and sync in a matter of minutes!Tune in to hear Brent talk about his journey to CEO, including where he sees the industry going in the next 2- 3 years as it relates to consolidation, innovation, the embedded journey, and the trend of non-financial companies offering core financial products. 

As we continue our deep dive into embedded finance, I have on the show with me this week the woman who quite literally wrote the book on it! Fiat Republic Co-Founder and CC&GO Sophie Guibaud has a passion for embedded finance and has been advocating for it since before the term even existed. In 2022, she co-authored a book titled "Embedded Finance" which is available wherever you buy your books. She defines embedded finance as the capacity to provide financial, insurance and lending services to the end user exactly at the point they need it, with the least amount of friction possible. As for the key players that make the embedded ecosystem so prolific (and possible), the regulators are number one on Sophie’s list. They are, after all, the ones that make it conceivable for a non-regulated company to use the license of another already-regulated company to provide value and service for their end users. And this is exactly what Fiat Republic does for the cryptocurrency space.We also talk about the importance of the tech companies who own the data that makes the embedded value chain possible, as well as the multitude of benefits that result from both a consumer and a brand perspective.As for the next 5-7 years, Sophie paints the picture of a world where we will be banking everywhere except banks, while our smartphones proactively pay our bills, and our cloud wallet intuitively performs transactions designed to optimize our finances. Tune in this week to hear Sophie talk about the then, now, and when of embedded finance, including the future promise of worry-free finance, frictionless payments, and intuitive optimization.