Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I grew up in a city just outside of Boston
called Everett and went to college at the University of
Massachusetts Lowell. So a proud Riverhawk.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Outstanding and when it came to school, what did you
want to do and what did you do when you
went out there in the real world.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, that's interesting. So my godfather, my uncle, was a
big influence in my life, and I wanted to be
just like him as probably many kids growing up do,
and wanted to be an engineer. I started out in
engineering and college and then somehow made the transition into accounting,
(00:43):
and at my uncle's influence, he was really very instrumental
and kind of the decisions I was making at the
time back then, and he was very bullish on accounting
for some reason and got me to switch in to that,
and I went into a career of public accounting, which
(01:04):
really set me up in a lot of ways for
success in my career and was really foundational for me
of understanding how financial statements work.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, the pieces of the puzzle are coming together for
me because as I took a look at your resume
and why you're explaining your engineering and your accounting, that
leads right into Paysafe, and we're going to ask about
mission and vision and all the great things and capabilities
and programs that you offer your clients. But I'm curious
about joining the company as CEO. And obviously I can
see why the company paysafe was interested in you, But
(01:37):
why were you interested in joining them after all the
things that you had done.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, I was very fortunate in my career. Started as
I mentioned, as CPA and worked at Deloitte and Ernst
and Young. I really loved it, went into so many
people do, into the startup world where I had a
client that had some technology that led me to four startups,
(02:02):
the last one being acquired by a company called FIS,
which really at the time was a mid size company.
We were about three billion in revenue, and over the
next fifteen years I had the opportunity to do a
lot of different things at that company and then ultimately
(02:23):
became president of the company, running the company at a
fifteen a little over fifteen billion dollar revenue company. So
I had the opportunity to do things really small from
you know, right off, as the story goes, right off
the kitchen table to a fifteen billion dollar, seventy thousand
(02:44):
employee company, and it was really at that time that
I had the opportunity to say, well, Okay, this probably
doesn't sound great, but I was getting older, and so
I had the opportunity to say, well, how do I
want to end up my career my corporate and I
decided that after a lot of discussion, talking with my
(03:05):
wife and just thinking it through, that I really wanted
to get back to building something. And that really led
me to the opportunity at pay Safe. They had gone public.
They had had some troubles posts going public from a
series of macroeconomic issues that really put the company in dress,
(03:30):
and it seemed like it would be a great challenge
to see if I could come in and help turn
the company around and set the company up for successes
and then you know, be able to go on to
whatever's next for me at that point, but I had
never done kind of a turnaround before, and I was
(03:51):
intrigued whether our team would be able to do.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That outstanding well. One of the common themes we have
in this series is that challenge is ahead of entrepreneurs
out there, and if you could do me a favor
and indulging me just for a second before we talk
specifically about pay Sape Bruce, because we do have a
lot of current CEOs and leaders, but we also have
a lot of future entrepreneurs that are listening to this
series and seeing how everybody has done it. Now I
realize that your journey is very specific to you. But
(04:17):
in general terms, when it comes to startups, what are
the exciting things about that? But what are also the pitfalls?
Because I know there's both.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, there's a lot of exciting things about it. I
think for me, what I realized later on, you know,
I wasn't dialed into kind of how I was thinking
about it as I was doing it, But it really
started with trying to help people. I think as I've
gone back and reflected on it, and I think about
the products that we created, it was really about going
(04:46):
to friends and saying, Hey, what are the challenges that
you're having, And then we built things to solve for
that problem. And then we sold that company, we went
to the next one. And I always joke and smart
enough to just come up with a cool new product.
I just went back out and asked people, Hey, what
do you need? What are you struggling with, and then
(05:08):
tried to solve that and so that really has kind
of been the key to success for us. As we
came into these things, we did have thought process around
being in particular verticals things that were things we felt
good about. Fintech for me, was always one that I
loved because of just a pace of change. It was
(05:30):
really dynamic space and you were really only limited by
your own imagination, and so that was really something that
was very attractive to me. Is to have the opportunity
to go in work with people help them make their
lives better and just a little bit on an every
single day basis. And that's what we've really tried to
do and still trying to do it all these years later.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, I appreciate you sharing that, And as you tell
that story, it always reminds me, whether it's my career
in sports with television, radio or what you do, there's
a couple things that come to mind. Crowdsourcing people to
find out what they want and then to making their
lives a little bit better, a little easier, and that
really can go for any business model, can.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
It Yeah, sure, Ken, And it can take you a
long way, right. I think it's one of the great
things about what people do is really taking the opportunity
to help a person, a business, a community, and I
think if you keep that at the heart of things,
things generally work out pretty well.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
All right, Well, let's talk about pay safe and all
the incredible things that are going on before we get
into programs, capabilities and all the cool products you have.
I do want to talk about mission and vision because
I know they're always important to leaders out there and
your team members too. So when I ask you about
mission and vision when it comes to pay safe, what
are those yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
For us? As I came in, we really tried to
hone in on what was going to be important for us,
and a lot of when you're doing starting these companies
or taking over a company, it's about galanizing people around
a particular mission. For us, we really look at the
experiential economy. When you look at what pay safe does,
(07:07):
eighty percent of our business was in verticals that would
be defined as experiential economy. So this is gaming, restaurants, travel,
those kind kind of verticals. So it was a natural
place to say, Okay, these are the verticals We're really
going to focus in on this experiential economy and we
want to be a leader, global leader in that in
(07:29):
that space, and so that really became something that we've
centered on. We talk about it every day in what
we're doing and how do we get better? And again
you'll see the theme there of how do I make
people's lives a little better? And every day, So whether
it's buying that next skin for your video game, or
(07:53):
you know, having the enjoyment of buying a ticket for
a game that you're going to take your family to
creating those wonderful memories, that's where we're trying to focus.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Very good, well, Bruce, let's do this. There's a lot
of people that know what pay safe does and is,
but there's a lot of our listeners are being introduced
to the company for the first time. So if you
were to give kind of a thirty thousand foot view
and a short version to tell them this is what
we do, what would you tell them?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I would tell you that we are a global payments provider.
We do business in over one hundred different countries. The
business is actually quite simple. We have a merchant acquiring business,
which that's where we process payments. If you go into
any store and you use your debit card or credit card,
where the people that process those payments for that retailler,
(08:40):
whether that's online or physically in a storefront. The second
part of our business is really a digital wallet business,
and so this is really a consumer centric wallet, much
like PayPal or any of your Probably every consumers get
at least five different wallets on their phone. We would
(09:02):
be one of those, and that is predominantly in Europe
and most recently we just launched a national wallet in
Peru called Pago Effectivo and so very very excited about
that recent launch. That's really what we do, payment processing
for merchants and moving money for consumers, allowing people to
(09:24):
buy what they want to buy, to create great memories.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
And without any assumptions that there are other companies that
do exactly what you, your team and pay safe do. How
do you differentiate yourself from said competition.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I think a couple of places. One, we're twenty nine
years old and we really have created a tremendous risk framework.
So in our business, there's a tremendous amount of regulatory
changes that happen. There's a lot of licensing that's required
to actual process payments and move money around the globe,
(09:58):
and we've kind of led in in that area. So
that really creates a mode around the business of what
we do and how we do it. I think also
our distribution channels really set us apart. When you look
in Europe, for example, we have over a million storefronts
that you can go in with our pay safe card
(10:19):
and use that, and there's not a lot of people
out there that have a million storefronts where you can
go buy something or use a product. So that distribution
channel and scale that we have in the US on
our merchant acquiring side is really what sets us apart.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I know what technology and the world we're living in
right now. Things are moving very quickly and the company
is doing well. But are there any current challenges for you, your
team members, and your clients right now that you're working through.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I think in our business is kind of I alluded
to you earlier. With fintech, there's a lot of changes
that they're always going on, right so there's always the
regulatory change is happening. I think now as I think
about it versus earlier in my career, you're just seeing
the pace of play be much faster. So the regulatory changes,
(11:10):
technology changes, really consumer behavior is changing at a lightning
pace compared to what it was ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
I think those are really the three common things that
I see. It doesn't really matter whether you're in Europe
or the US or Latin America. Those things are the
(11:32):
things that really create a lot of challenges for anybody.
And probably the fourth I would add is just the
more recently is probably just the geopolitical pressures that every
CEO faces on a daily basis now. And I think
in all of the CEO meetings that I have, geopolitics
(11:57):
always seems to come up. Of late, there was always
those three of regulatory, tech and consumer behavior, and now
I would say the geopolitics is coming up more and
more so.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Bruce, one of my favorite questions in this series is
talking about the cool things that happen out there with
your clients and making a difference. And my question to
you as well, I'm sure you've got handfuls of different stories,
whether it's a small, medium, large business, or a client,
it's about you know, this is why we get up
every day kind of thing, because we're making a difference.
Is there a story that you can share with us
and you don't have to mention the client or the
(12:29):
person to something that, you know, we really we made it.
We made a difference a day, the team and I
did and it turned out really well for them and
it was really cool. And this is why we get up.
Do you have a short story you can share with us?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I think we have those stories every day, right. So
there's always a consumer that has run into problems one
way or another and either the money didn't get to
where they thought it was going to get to or
and our team has really done a great job. I'm
really proud of the evolution of the team over the
last few years years bringing the customers to the center
(13:03):
of what we're trying to do right and help them.
So you see that quite a bit. What our team
has really been focused on has been on that engagement improvement,
so building out systems so that we can respond faster,
move to being proactive versus reactive to events that happen
in the movement of money. You know, fraud is a
(13:25):
big issue that we're all combating. We've made some choices
to speed things up, but also do it in a
way that the payments remain safe and people can have
trust that the money's getting to where they think it's
going and executing a transaction at a high level. So
I feel very good about the energy that the team
(13:47):
has poured into improving experiences for consumers and merchants, and
I think we've really come a long way in that regard.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Well, just a moment, I'm going to talk to you
about leadership and ask you a few things about that,
because I think it's important in this series. But I
also want to talk about communication. And I talk to
a lot of CEOs. Whether it's a medium, large, small company,
it doesn't matter what the size is about making sure
that the mission, the vision, and all the communication that
you need to do for your team members is funnel
(14:16):
down and you have a pretty big wide net that
you cast with all your clients out there. So when
it comes to communication with you and your team members,
the execution, and also making sure that the company's always
getting better, how do you do that?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, it's a great question, Dennis. I think one of
the things that you learn over the years is just
that you can't communicate enough and it can't be just
in one format. So you have to be aware that
people absorb information differently, and so it's really important to
kind of layer out your communication and do it in
(14:52):
a variety of different ways. So internally we do a
lot to make sure people understand why we made decisions
and how we made those decisions. I've always believed in
just being transparent about those things, and it's really kind
of helped. You may not agree with like how I
got or what I ultimate decision was, but you always
(15:14):
understand how I got there, and because I'm always been
very transparent about just saying here's the fact pattern that
I had, this is what led me to that decision,
and I found that to be very helpful. We do
a tremendous amount, whether it be town halls or roundtables
and off site meetings with our teams to make sure
(15:34):
that we all are bought in on what the vision is,
how we're executing against that vision, where we stand what
needs to be worked on. And I think that's really
been successful because of the team is willing to do
that and willing to take the time to invest in
the others within the organization and really take time explaining
(15:59):
what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
You know, Bruce, there is one thing that really caught
my attention that I have subscribed to a long time ago.
After I learned a hard lesson as a young manager,
and you were talking specifically about this, and I think
this is a good lesson for anybody, whether you're going
to be a future leader or you're a current leader.
And I think the people appreciate in the end being
appropriately candid and just giving them the truth, because if
(16:20):
you start dancing around things, it muddles things up and
it puts everybody in trouble. So that's something that I
want to make sure that you kind of expounded on
a little bit, because in the end, I think people
just want the truth, whether they like it or not,
so they can move on with things and know exactly
and how their leader stands.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, I think it's just important. And again for me,
that's always worked, and I don't know if that's because
of the being counter I me that just wanted to
share the numbers and say, look, this is what I'm
looking at. So obviously I'm a very data centric person,
but I have just found that it's massively helpful if
(16:57):
you just are open about it. Everybody understands here's where
we sit, these are the decisions we're facing, and this
is you know, how I got to where we got through.
And so I think that's really just something I was
just speaking yesterday at the University of North Florida as
something I mentioned there as well as just this is
(17:19):
really important as you're coming out. These are all young
kids coming out and starting their career. Transparency is so
important to build trust with your team, and you can
get through a lot if you have trust with your team.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, I couldn't have said it better. I really appreciate that,
And I think this is a good segue to talk
a little bit about leadership. And once again, we have
so many leaders that listen to this series, Bruce, but
also a lot of future leaders, and I know that
everybody's going to roll a little different when it comes
to what they think leadership is and then how to
execute it. But as I mentioned, the word leadership to
you in your team and in your life, how do
you execute it and what does the leadership mean to you?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, I think it's one of those questions that comes
up quite a bit. And I always go back early
on and I'll share a brief story that my grandfather was,
you know, older guy. I was in high school and
at the time, and that the story always just stuck
(18:15):
with me and that we went over to see him.
He was he was kind of restricted to bed at
the time, and I was just a young kid, thought
I was going to be captain of the football team.
I didn't get it. I was like every eighteen year
old kid, kind of down in the dumps about, you know,
the plate that I was now facing the horrors of
(18:36):
not getting what you wanted, and I never forget. He
asked me why I was upset. Now, this is a
guy that was literally dying, and he was more worried
about me and why I was upset. And I shared
with him that, you know, I didn't get what I
thought I was going to get and he said oh.
(18:57):
He said, well, you know, when you run out onto
the field next week and you go to practice, do
you have to be captain to be first? And I
looked at him like he was, you know, crazy old guy.
And I said, well, no, of course, you don't have
to do that. And he said, oh. He said, well,
(19:20):
when you start doing all your drills, I guess you
have to be captain to go first there. And I said, well, no, grandfather, don't.
I don't have to be captain, like whoever's first is first?
And he just said, well, you know, why not just
be first and you can still lead like it didn't matter.
(19:42):
And I kept that my whole life, and it's really
served me well throughout my career because you didn't need
to be CEO to set the vision of what you
were trying to do or set the pace or cadence
of what the team was trying to accomplish. You just
had to be willing to step out there and give
(20:04):
direction and be willing to be accountable for what was happening.
And I really it's probably a silly story, but I've.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Not at all. I love that.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I love that spy life and really grateful for that
little lesson.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, it's a great one too. And I think the
other thing, I'm sure you subscribe to this too, Bruce.
We're all going to make mistakes. You are, I am,
your team members are. But I'm always that person to
see if you make a mistake or you trip up,
how do they respond? Because that really, in the end,
is what it's all about. Is it to see if
somebody can be a future leader or not?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Absolutely? And you know, especially you know, I think back
to the startup days. It was all about a series
of mistakes, right you were you know, we always used
to talk about we were just bumping into the wall
looking for the crack to run through. So it was
just a series of mistakes till you found something that worked.
And it was all about just being fast and make
(21:01):
the mistake didn't matter, learn something and move on and
really have kept that and that transferred whether I was
in a startup or in a super large company or
in a company like here at pay safe.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
All right, well let's do this. I really enjoyed the conversation.
I want to get some final thoughts from you, Bruce,
and then we're also caneint of the website. Anything else
you'd like to talk about as we wrap up, but
just maybe recap what we've chatted about the floors, your sir,
go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Look, I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I think
you know when we talk about pay safe, I would
just invite anybody who's interested to come check out paysafe
dot com. We're always hiring, so please feel free to
reach out. We love creative people that are curious, want
(21:52):
to learn and try to be something part of something
that's special, and I think that's really what we're focused
on here, is creating a world class payments organizations. So
we want to be part of our communities. We want
to be good corporate citizens, and we're looking for all
kinds of great people. So please feel free to reach
out and we'd love to chat with you.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
O't standy, Bruce. I can't tell you how much I
appreciate your time. I'm glad we could feature you on CEOs.
You should know continued success and thanks again
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Well, thank you, I really appreciate it.
I grew up in a city just outside of Boston
called Everett and went to college at the University of
Massachusetts Lowell. So a proud Riverhawk.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Outstanding and when it came to school, what did you
want to do and what did you do when you
went out there in the real world.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, that's interesting. So my godfather, my uncle, was a
big influence in my life, and I wanted to be
just like him as probably many kids growing up do,
and wanted to be an engineer. I started out in
engineering and college and then somehow made the transition into accounting,
(00:43):
and at my uncle's influence, he was really very instrumental
and kind of the decisions I was making at the
time back then, and he was very bullish on accounting
for some reason and got me to switch in to that,
and I went into a career of public accounting, which
(01:04):
really set me up in a lot of ways for
success in my career and was really foundational for me
of understanding how financial statements work.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, the pieces of the puzzle are coming together for
me because as I took a look at your resume
and why you're explaining your engineering and your accounting, that
leads right into Paysafe, and we're going to ask about
mission and vision and all the great things and capabilities
and programs that you offer your clients. But I'm curious
about joining the company as CEO. And obviously I can
see why the company paysafe was interested in you, But
(01:37):
why were you interested in joining them after all the
things that you had done.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, I was very fortunate in my career. Started as
I mentioned, as CPA and worked at Deloitte and Ernst
and Young. I really loved it, went into so many
people do, into the startup world where I had a
client that had some technology that led me to four startups,
(02:02):
the last one being acquired by a company called FIS,
which really at the time was a mid size company.
We were about three billion in revenue, and over the
next fifteen years I had the opportunity to do a
lot of different things at that company and then ultimately
(02:23):
became president of the company, running the company at a
fifteen a little over fifteen billion dollar revenue company. So
I had the opportunity to do things really small from
you know, right off, as the story goes, right off
the kitchen table to a fifteen billion dollar, seventy thousand
(02:44):
employee company, and it was really at that time that
I had the opportunity to say, well, Okay, this probably
doesn't sound great, but I was getting older, and so
I had the opportunity to say, well, how do I
want to end up my career my corporate and I
decided that after a lot of discussion, talking with my
(03:05):
wife and just thinking it through, that I really wanted
to get back to building something. And that really led
me to the opportunity at pay Safe. They had gone public.
They had had some troubles posts going public from a
series of macroeconomic issues that really put the company in dress,
(03:30):
and it seemed like it would be a great challenge
to see if I could come in and help turn
the company around and set the company up for successes
and then you know, be able to go on to
whatever's next for me at that point, but I had
never done kind of a turnaround before, and I was
(03:51):
intrigued whether our team would be able to do.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That outstanding well. One of the common themes we have
in this series is that challenge is ahead of entrepreneurs
out there, and if you could do me a favor
and indulging me just for a second before we talk
specifically about pay Sape Bruce, because we do have a
lot of current CEOs and leaders, but we also have
a lot of future entrepreneurs that are listening to this
series and seeing how everybody has done it. Now I
realize that your journey is very specific to you. But
(04:17):
in general terms, when it comes to startups, what are
the exciting things about that? But what are also the pitfalls?
Because I know there's both.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, there's a lot of exciting things about it. I
think for me, what I realized later on, you know,
I wasn't dialed into kind of how I was thinking
about it as I was doing it, But it really
started with trying to help people. I think as I've
gone back and reflected on it, and I think about
the products that we created, it was really about going
(04:46):
to friends and saying, Hey, what are the challenges that
you're having, And then we built things to solve for
that problem. And then we sold that company, we went
to the next one. And I always joke and smart
enough to just come up with a cool new product.
I just went back out and asked people, Hey, what
do you need? What are you struggling with, and then
(05:08):
tried to solve that and so that really has kind
of been the key to success for us. As we
came into these things, we did have thought process around
being in particular verticals things that were things we felt
good about. Fintech for me, was always one that I
loved because of just a pace of change. It was
(05:30):
really dynamic space and you were really only limited by
your own imagination, and so that was really something that
was very attractive to me. Is to have the opportunity
to go in work with people help them make their
lives better and just a little bit on an every
single day basis. And that's what we've really tried to
do and still trying to do it all these years later.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, I appreciate you sharing that, And as you tell
that story, it always reminds me, whether it's my career
in sports with television, radio or what you do, there's
a couple things that come to mind. Crowdsourcing people to
find out what they want and then to making their
lives a little bit better, a little easier, and that
really can go for any business model, can.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
It Yeah, sure, Ken, And it can take you a
long way, right. I think it's one of the great
things about what people do is really taking the opportunity
to help a person, a business, a community, and I
think if you keep that at the heart of things,
things generally work out pretty well.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
All right, Well, let's talk about pay safe and all
the incredible things that are going on before we get
into programs, capabilities and all the cool products you have.
I do want to talk about mission and vision because
I know they're always important to leaders out there and
your team members too. So when I ask you about
mission and vision when it comes to pay safe, what
are those yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
For us? As I came in, we really tried to
hone in on what was going to be important for us,
and a lot of when you're doing starting these companies
or taking over a company, it's about galanizing people around
a particular mission. For us, we really look at the
experiential economy. When you look at what pay safe does,
(07:07):
eighty percent of our business was in verticals that would
be defined as experiential economy. So this is gaming, restaurants, travel,
those kind kind of verticals. So it was a natural
place to say, Okay, these are the verticals We're really
going to focus in on this experiential economy and we
want to be a leader, global leader in that in
(07:29):
that space, and so that really became something that we've
centered on. We talk about it every day in what
we're doing and how do we get better? And again
you'll see the theme there of how do I make
people's lives a little better? And every day, So whether
it's buying that next skin for your video game, or
(07:53):
you know, having the enjoyment of buying a ticket for
a game that you're going to take your family to
creating those wonderful memories, that's where we're trying to focus.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Very good, well, Bruce, let's do this. There's a lot
of people that know what pay safe does and is,
but there's a lot of our listeners are being introduced
to the company for the first time. So if you
were to give kind of a thirty thousand foot view
and a short version to tell them this is what
we do, what would you tell them?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I would tell you that we are a global payments provider.
We do business in over one hundred different countries. The
business is actually quite simple. We have a merchant acquiring business,
which that's where we process payments. If you go into
any store and you use your debit card or credit card,
where the people that process those payments for that retailler,
(08:40):
whether that's online or physically in a storefront. The second
part of our business is really a digital wallet business,
and so this is really a consumer centric wallet, much
like PayPal or any of your Probably every consumers get
at least five different wallets on their phone. We would
(09:02):
be one of those, and that is predominantly in Europe
and most recently we just launched a national wallet in
Peru called Pago Effectivo and so very very excited about
that recent launch. That's really what we do, payment processing
for merchants and moving money for consumers, allowing people to
(09:24):
buy what they want to buy, to create great memories.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
And without any assumptions that there are other companies that
do exactly what you, your team and pay safe do. How
do you differentiate yourself from said competition.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I think a couple of places. One, we're twenty nine
years old and we really have created a tremendous risk framework.
So in our business, there's a tremendous amount of regulatory
changes that happen. There's a lot of licensing that's required
to actual process payments and move money around the globe,
(09:58):
and we've kind of led in in that area. So
that really creates a mode around the business of what
we do and how we do it. I think also
our distribution channels really set us apart. When you look
in Europe, for example, we have over a million storefronts
that you can go in with our pay safe card
(10:19):
and use that, and there's not a lot of people
out there that have a million storefronts where you can
go buy something or use a product. So that distribution
channel and scale that we have in the US on
our merchant acquiring side is really what sets us apart.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I know what technology and the world we're living in
right now. Things are moving very quickly and the company
is doing well. But are there any current challenges for you, your
team members, and your clients right now that you're working through.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I think in our business is kind of I alluded
to you earlier. With fintech, there's a lot of changes
that they're always going on, right so there's always the
regulatory change is happening. I think now as I think
about it versus earlier in my career, you're just seeing
the pace of play be much faster. So the regulatory changes,
(11:10):
technology changes, really consumer behavior is changing at a lightning
pace compared to what it was ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
I think those are really the three common things that
I see. It doesn't really matter whether you're in Europe
or the US or Latin America. Those things are the
(11:32):
things that really create a lot of challenges for anybody.
And probably the fourth I would add is just the
more recently is probably just the geopolitical pressures that every
CEO faces on a daily basis now. And I think
in all of the CEO meetings that I have, geopolitics
(11:57):
always seems to come up. Of late, there was always
those three of regulatory, tech and consumer behavior, and now
I would say the geopolitics is coming up more and
more so.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Bruce, one of my favorite questions in this series is
talking about the cool things that happen out there with
your clients and making a difference. And my question to
you as well, I'm sure you've got handfuls of different stories,
whether it's a small, medium, large business, or a client,
it's about you know, this is why we get up
every day kind of thing, because we're making a difference.
Is there a story that you can share with us
and you don't have to mention the client or the
(12:29):
person to something that, you know, we really we made it.
We made a difference a day, the team and I
did and it turned out really well for them and
it was really cool. And this is why we get up.
Do you have a short story you can share with us?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I think we have those stories every day, right. So
there's always a consumer that has run into problems one
way or another and either the money didn't get to
where they thought it was going to get to or
and our team has really done a great job. I'm
really proud of the evolution of the team over the
last few years years bringing the customers to the center
(13:03):
of what we're trying to do right and help them.
So you see that quite a bit. What our team
has really been focused on has been on that engagement improvement,
so building out systems so that we can respond faster,
move to being proactive versus reactive to events that happen
in the movement of money. You know, fraud is a
(13:25):
big issue that we're all combating. We've made some choices
to speed things up, but also do it in a
way that the payments remain safe and people can have
trust that the money's getting to where they think it's
going and executing a transaction at a high level. So
I feel very good about the energy that the team
(13:47):
has poured into improving experiences for consumers and merchants, and
I think we've really come a long way in that regard.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Well, just a moment, I'm going to talk to you
about leadership and ask you a few things about that,
because I think it's important in this series. But I
also want to talk about communication. And I talk to
a lot of CEOs. Whether it's a medium, large, small company,
it doesn't matter what the size is about making sure
that the mission, the vision, and all the communication that
you need to do for your team members is funnel
(14:16):
down and you have a pretty big wide net that
you cast with all your clients out there. So when
it comes to communication with you and your team members,
the execution, and also making sure that the company's always
getting better, how do you do that?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, it's a great question, Dennis. I think one of
the things that you learn over the years is just
that you can't communicate enough and it can't be just
in one format. So you have to be aware that
people absorb information differently, and so it's really important to
kind of layer out your communication and do it in
(14:52):
a variety of different ways. So internally we do a
lot to make sure people understand why we made decisions
and how we made those decisions. I've always believed in
just being transparent about those things, and it's really kind
of helped. You may not agree with like how I
got or what I ultimate decision was, but you always
(15:14):
understand how I got there, and because I'm always been
very transparent about just saying here's the fact pattern that
I had, this is what led me to that decision,
and I found that to be very helpful. We do
a tremendous amount, whether it be town halls or roundtables
and off site meetings with our teams to make sure
(15:34):
that we all are bought in on what the vision is,
how we're executing against that vision, where we stand what
needs to be worked on. And I think that's really
been successful because of the team is willing to do
that and willing to take the time to invest in
the others within the organization and really take time explaining
(15:59):
what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
You know, Bruce, there is one thing that really caught
my attention that I have subscribed to a long time ago.
After I learned a hard lesson as a young manager,
and you were talking specifically about this, and I think
this is a good lesson for anybody, whether you're going
to be a future leader or you're a current leader.
And I think the people appreciate in the end being
appropriately candid and just giving them the truth, because if
(16:20):
you start dancing around things, it muddles things up and
it puts everybody in trouble. So that's something that I
want to make sure that you kind of expounded on
a little bit, because in the end, I think people
just want the truth, whether they like it or not,
so they can move on with things and know exactly
and how their leader stands.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, I think it's just important. And again for me,
that's always worked, and I don't know if that's because
of the being counter I me that just wanted to
share the numbers and say, look, this is what I'm
looking at. So obviously I'm a very data centric person,
but I have just found that it's massively helpful if
(16:57):
you just are open about it. Everybody understands here's where
we sit, these are the decisions we're facing, and this
is you know, how I got to where we got through.
And so I think that's really just something I was
just speaking yesterday at the University of North Florida as
something I mentioned there as well as just this is
(17:19):
really important as you're coming out. These are all young
kids coming out and starting their career. Transparency is so
important to build trust with your team, and you can
get through a lot if you have trust with your team.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, I couldn't have said it better. I really appreciate that,
And I think this is a good segue to talk
a little bit about leadership. And once again, we have
so many leaders that listen to this series, Bruce, but
also a lot of future leaders, and I know that
everybody's going to roll a little different when it comes
to what they think leadership is and then how to
execute it. But as I mentioned, the word leadership to
you in your team and in your life, how do
you execute it and what does the leadership mean to you?
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, I think it's one of those questions that comes
up quite a bit. And I always go back early
on and I'll share a brief story that my grandfather was,
you know, older guy. I was in high school and
at the time, and that the story always just stuck
(18:15):
with me and that we went over to see him.
He was he was kind of restricted to bed at
the time, and I was just a young kid, thought
I was going to be captain of the football team.
I didn't get it. I was like every eighteen year
old kid, kind of down in the dumps about, you know,
the plate that I was now facing the horrors of
(18:36):
not getting what you wanted, and I never forget. He
asked me why I was upset. Now, this is a
guy that was literally dying, and he was more worried
about me and why I was upset. And I shared
with him that, you know, I didn't get what I
thought I was going to get and he said oh.
(18:57):
He said, well, you know, when you run out onto
the field next week and you go to practice, do
you have to be captain to be first? And I
looked at him like he was, you know, crazy old guy.
And I said, well, no, of course, you don't have
to do that. And he said, oh. He said, well,
(19:20):
when you start doing all your drills, I guess you
have to be captain to go first there. And I said, well, no, grandfather, don't.
I don't have to be captain, like whoever's first is first?
And he just said, well, you know, why not just
be first and you can still lead like it didn't matter.
(19:42):
And I kept that my whole life, and it's really
served me well throughout my career because you didn't need
to be CEO to set the vision of what you
were trying to do or set the pace or cadence
of what the team was trying to accomplish. You just
had to be willing to step out there and give
(20:04):
direction and be willing to be accountable for what was happening.
And I really it's probably a silly story, but I've.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Not at all. I love that.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I love that spy life and really grateful for that
little lesson.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, it's a great one too. And I think the
other thing, I'm sure you subscribe to this too, Bruce.
We're all going to make mistakes. You are, I am,
your team members are. But I'm always that person to
see if you make a mistake or you trip up,
how do they respond? Because that really, in the end,
is what it's all about. Is it to see if
somebody can be a future leader or not?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Absolutely? And you know, especially you know, I think back
to the startup days. It was all about a series
of mistakes, right you were you know, we always used
to talk about we were just bumping into the wall
looking for the crack to run through. So it was
just a series of mistakes till you found something that worked.
And it was all about just being fast and make
(21:01):
the mistake didn't matter, learn something and move on and
really have kept that and that transferred whether I was
in a startup or in a super large company or
in a company like here at pay safe.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
All right, well let's do this. I really enjoyed the conversation.
I want to get some final thoughts from you, Bruce,
and then we're also caneint of the website. Anything else
you'd like to talk about as we wrap up, but
just maybe recap what we've chatted about the floors, your sir,
go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Look, I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I think
you know when we talk about pay safe, I would
just invite anybody who's interested to come check out paysafe
dot com. We're always hiring, so please feel free to
reach out. We love creative people that are curious, want
(21:52):
to learn and try to be something part of something
that's special, and I think that's really what we're focused
on here, is creating a world class payments organizations. So
we want to be part of our communities. We want
to be good corporate citizens, and we're looking for all
kinds of great people. So please feel free to reach
out and we'd love to chat with you.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
O't standy, Bruce. I can't tell you how much I
appreciate your time. I'm glad we could feature you on CEOs.
You should know continued success and thanks again
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Well, thank you, I really appreciate it.
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