August 27, 2025 • 16 mins
Jared Ronski, Co-founder and President of Payarc, takes us behind the scenes of how modern payment technology is empowering independent sales agents and merchants alike.
The conversation reveals Payarc's unique approach to partner relationships, where "growth through alignment" isn't just a catchy phrase but a business philosophy that has kept agents loyal since the company's earliest days. At a time when margins are under pressure and regulations constantly shift, Payarc has doubled down on relationship equity, transparency, and technological innovation.
The spotlight shines on Payarc's groundbreaking PIE AI pricing advisor, a tool that transforms the traditionally time-consuming process of statement analysis into a streamlined, self-service experience. "It's like having a seasoned sales coach whispering in your ear during merchant conversations," Ronski explains. This AI-powered assistant helps agents confidently navigate complex pricing structures, even in challenging verticals like microtransactions where interchange economics can quickly erode profits if mishandled.
What truly sets Payarc apart is their approach to agent relationships – treating them "like enterprise customers" with dedicated support teams, shared dashboards showing real-time data, and proactive risk monitoring that spots potential issues before they affect merchant processing. While some industry voices have long predicted the decline of the agent model, Ronski sees the opposite trend, with Payarc signing new agents daily and creating pathways for them to thrive in evolving markets.
Listen now to discover how Payarc is turning payment complexity into opportunity and building lasting partnerships one transaction at a time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Thank you.
Scale their businesses onepayment at a time.
At Payark, ai is more than abuzzword.
It is integrated intoeverything they do, from
predicting merchant churn torisk assessments, to
self-service tools.
Join us for this special serieson AI in Payments.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, Greg Myers, andon today's show we have a very
special guest, Jared Ronski, whois the co-founder and president
at PayArk.
But before we dive into theepisode, I just wanted to
mention a few things.
We've had several people on theshow from PayArk as we've been
talking about AI and some othertopics in the industry.
We've had on recently ZachSchneiderman, who is the VP of
(01:07):
ISV, We've had John Minitaglio,the CTO, Dustin Siner, the Chief
Revenue Officer, and a littleover a year ago we had Zach
Martinez, the CEO of the company, on the show.
So I suggest you go back andlisten to those episodes.
But today we have, like I said,Jared on.
He was on before.
So welcome back to the show,Jared.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you so much, Greg,Excited to be here.
Well in here.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Thank you so much, Greg Excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, if you don't mind, just give us a brief
overview of the company, so theaudience kind of gets a reminder
of what Payark does.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, absolutely so, I would say at the highest level
.
Payark is a modern paymentscompany, but what we really do
is help businesses grow byremoving the friction from the
payment side and, moreimportantly, or most importantly
I think, it's to empower ouragents and our ISPs to serve
those businesses in a betterfashion.
We are really focused onpartnerships.
We have a very good trackrecord of retaining agents.
I think I may have mentionedthis on the last podcast, but
(01:57):
one of the things I'm most proudof is that some of the partners
that started off with us in2017, 2018, when we started that
business, are still workingwith us today.
So we are very much apartner-focused payments company
that enables payment solutionson behalf of both our agents as
well as our ISPs.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So obviously and you mentioned the independent sales
agents channel is very importantto your business.
It's a major priority for youWith all the regulations,
shifting revenue models and youmentioned this kind of
partner-first mentality.
So what does that partner-firstthing really look like on a
day-to-day basis with the agents?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, I think a good way to describe it is growth
through alignment.
We're not looking just toprocess transactions, but our
goal is to build tools, providetraining and revenue models that
make our partners moresuccessful.
At the end of the day, ourpartners aren't just resellers,
they're collaborators.
What's important for us is tobe transparent, to provide clear
(02:52):
revenue splits, portfoliovisibility, support whether it's
a dedicated relationshipmanager, a support team, a
dedicated support person,real-time support for them when
they're with a merchant tryingto help them and flexibility.
And I think for flexibility, itreally means to adapt to our
partner's vertical focus andnever really forcing a
one-size-fits-all type ofsolution on our partners.
(03:15):
There is an environment here ofregulation and there's
definitely pressure on margins.
So what's important to us isreally to invest in the
relationship equity with ouragents, and that's really our
goal.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, building on that partner first kind of
approach or mentality.
Can you walk us through the PiAI pricing advisor that you have
A couple of components to that,if you don't mind touching on?
So, like, what inputs does itconsider?
How can agents use it to buildproposals and do discovery, and
then how does it surface newrevenue streams for them?
(03:48):
So maybe define it and touch onthose things.
That'd be great.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, a great way to describe it is having a seasoned
sales coach whispering in yourear every time you're on a call
with a merchant, that at a highlevel.
This is something that I havechampioned within Pear.
I came from an agent background, so I spent many late nights,
days, working on proposals,analyzing statements, and
there's a lot of complexity toit.
There isn't a standard templatewhen it comes to statements.
(04:14):
Sometimes they're very hard toread, it's hard to get the
pricing.
So what we wanted to do isreally simplify this for our
partners and allow them to beable to turn around proposals
and analyze statements in realtime.
So let's talk about the inputs.
Basically, it's as simple asuploading a merchant statement.
So we look at the merchant type,what the volume is, the risk
profile, the ticket size, andthen the output is going to be
(04:38):
potentially one or more pricingstructures that our partners can
propose to the merchant.
So it really depends on how thatagent wants to work with the
tool, but it will give theminsight on to how the margins
shake out, how they potentiallycompare to industry benchmarks
and some of the real benefits Isee here is speed right being
able to get back to theirmerchants with an answer in real
(05:01):
time or extremely quick, theconfidence that this will give
our agents to provide thoseproposals but also not worry
that they're leaving money onthe table as well.
The tool can actually suggestrevenue streams that an agent
may not have thought about.
That's kind of the tool at ahigh level.
Like I mentioned, I've had many, many times reviewing
statements and they can get veryconfusing and I think whether
(05:23):
that's intended or not intended.
But the real benefits to thistool is speeding up the
discovery calls, opening up newverticals and drive smarter,
higher margin deals, and I thinkin those scenarios the agents
win and the merchants win.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well before this.
What did they have to do?
Were they analyzing thisthemselves?
Were they having you guys helpthem.
What was it like before?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Combination of both.
Some agents would take it uponthemselves.
Maybe they've been in theindustry for a long time or they
worked at a processor or an ISOin the past, so they have some
background on that.
Or they would send us thestatements.
We would analyze it.
We provide them with what themerchant is currently paying
today.
They would tell us hey, createa proposal based on a 20%
savings, whatever they want toreduce, if they want to reduce,
(06:07):
and we would create thatproposal.
That takes time, it's not goingto be done in real time and in
that interim a merchant may beapproached by somebody else.
Our goal is to really speed upthat process and have the agents
have the tools at theirdisposal to do it themselves.
It's not that we don't want todo it, but I think, training and
teaching people to do itthemselves.
It's not that we don't want todo it, but I think, training and
(06:28):
teaching people to do itthemselves.
There's that old saying, youknow give a man a fish eat for a
day.
Teach a man to fish eat for alifetime.
We want our agents to befishing for their lifetime and
we want to provide them with thetools to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
So is it truly a self-service kind of log in and
do it yourself type tool?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Absolutely yeah, it will be available through our
agent portal.
They'll be able to log in,upload statements, very much
like a chat GPT type ofinterface where you can say, hey
, analyze a statement.
That would be what thatmerchant is currently paying
today, recommend some pricingstructures based on a percentage
savings or any other ideas thatthe agent has in mind, and then
ask it, hey, are thereadditional revenue opportunities
(07:03):
here?
And it will be able to do allthat in real time and take a
process that could potentiallytake a day or more, in minutes
or less.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Okay, well, we'll dive into one kind of vertical
here, kind of themicrotransactions and the small
ticket e-commerce on the rise inour industry across the board.
What should agents understandabout kind of the unit economics
and how can this pricingadvisor point to different
pricing models that are going tomake them both more money and
(07:31):
make sure they're compliant?
Of course, that's alwaysimportant, but more profitable.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
The challenge, when it comes to microtransactions
specifically, isn't necessarilyvolume, it's really interchange
economics.
The per transactions costscrush margins if mispriced.
So our pricing tool caninstantly show blended models
whether it's a subscription plusa percentage fee or a flat rate
, and it will show them how thiswill make sense based on the
(07:56):
volume.
What our goal here is toposition PayArk as helping
agents unlock these verticals,as opposed to avoiding them
entirely.
There's a lot of opportunity,whether it's app-based commerce,
digital content, small tickete-commerce.
These verticals are exploding,but a lot of agents tend to
avoid them because the pricingseems impossible.
Our goal with this tool is toreally make it approachable and
(08:19):
profitable.
That is really our goal withthis.
So, even using the Pi tool, a$2 average ticket sounds great
until you realize that theinterchange minimums eat half of
that, and we really want toeducate our agents on the unit
economics and support them ingoing after these types of
verticals.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Okay, great.
So with all the changes andregulations, from interchange
changes to the Genius Act, toVisa's VAMP program there are
all these things going on in theindustry.
It feels like there always hasbeen and always probably will be
.
But how do you work with theagents to anticipate and adjust
to these new regulations?
(08:57):
And, if you want, we can diveinto the VAMP program
specifically.
But let's start broader.
How do you work with the agentsto make sure they're staying on
top of things and they reallyknow what's going on.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Let's touch on VAMP.
I think that's top of people'sminds right now.
He's a new rule Countspre-dispute chargeback
resolutions towards the VAMPratio.
So this is a big change.
That means, even if you resolvesomething quickly, it still is
potentially or looks like astrike against the merchant.
So why does this matter?
Agents who aren't payingattention risk seeing their
(09:28):
entire portfolio splagged.
So how we approach this?
First of all, it's proactivemonitoring.
We use real-time dashboard tospot risk before the merchant
does and before Visa does.
Secondly, education We'll workwith merchants to prevent
disputes, using tools likebetter billing descriptors,
refund policies andcommunication to really help
(09:48):
these merchants avoid theproblems that BAMP could
potentially bring them.
Now, on the agent side, it'sreally about coaching.
It's important to educate andhave open minds and
communication with our partnersto know which verticals are
trending more on the risky sideand how to talk to that with
their potential merchants.
I think that there's a lot ofcompliance checklists out there.
(10:11):
What we feel that our partnersreally need is a partner who
helps them protect their revenueand not just check a box.
That is very important to usand that applies both to the
updates and interchange andreally any type of new change
that happens in payments.
It's through education.
We conduct webinars.
Our relationship managers reachout to speak to our partners on
a one-on-one basis.
(10:31):
If our partners have questions,we encourage them to contact us
.
We're always available to havethese discussions.
We hopefully know the answer.
If we don't know the answer, wewill make sure it's a priority
to get back to them.
It's a very fast changingindustry and it's important for
us to be on top of it andcommunicating with our partners
any type of change that mayaffect their business.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So is there the ability to kind of real time you
see something going on in amerchant to reach out to that
agent and say, hey, there'ssomething going on here, Can you
talk to them?
Is that kind of the process?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Exactly, and we do that on a daily basis.
Our goal is to spot trendsbefore they become issues, so we
will see whether it's anincrease in chargeback ratio, an
increase in fraud disputes.
We will actually use tools todig into the chargebacks and
understand why are thesehappening.
What is the issue here?
Is it a fulfillment timeline?
Is it a customer support issue?
(11:21):
What is the actual issue?
We'll get on the phone with ourpartners, explain all the data
that we've collected and what wefeel a good resolution would be
to the situation, and then theycan go communicate that to
their merchants.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Okay, so for the agents out there that might be
listening to the show, what doesa typical engagement look like
In terms of working with?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Pear, the ideal engagement looks like onboarding
, a training, so we want ourpartners to be closing fast and
not stuck in paperwork.
So we will use technologywhether it's our partner hub,
whether it's our onlineapplication to move deals
quicker and get merchants livefaster.
Another important point isshared dashboards, so we believe
that our agents and ourpartners should see the data in
(12:02):
real time.
That gives them access tounderstand the portfolio, ask
any questions about us, but alsocommunicate more effectively
with their merchants.
We basically treat our agentslike enterprise customers and
we'll always review theirportfolios, spot opportunities
that they may be missing andcommunicate with them ways to
adjust their strategy.
In terms of resources,especially growth resources,
(12:23):
they'll have a dedicatedrelationship manager.
That person will also help themon the education side, growth
coaching, as well as anyinsights into their data manager
.
We don't want our partners tojust know one person in care.
It's important for us or forour partners to know multiple
people, whether it's somebody onthe risk team, whether it's
somebody on the support team,somebody on the operations team,
(12:44):
somebody on the deployment team.
We want them to feel likethey're part of the family and
that they can reach out toanybody and have a conversation
or ask questions anytime theywant.
Some of the things that we'reworking on internally is more AI
tools whether it's morefeatures on the pricing advisor,
things like predicting churnbefore that actually happens,
(13:05):
using AI to spot risk orpotential risk before it becomes
a bigger issue, as well asexpanding and improving our ISV
integrations.
That's something that's veryimportant to us, as well as
looking at different verticals.
Telehealth is a vertical.
We've had a lot of success inthe micro transactions that
we've discussed already and aswell as more transparency in
reporting.
The more information that wecan provide to our partners, the
(13:27):
better this relationship willbe going forward.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
You said something in there.
You may not even notice it.
It resonated very strongly withme is that you treat the agents
like you do an enterprisecustomer.
So I thought that was a reallykey point.
Something that should resonatewith the agents that they're not
just a number, they're part ofPayark and you want them to be a
big part of the Payark family100%, and that goes all the way
(13:52):
from the initial onboarding callto any support tickets.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
We don't want them to think of themselves as just
another ticket in the queue.
Their business, no matter howbig they are, is extremely
important to us.
If they're successful, we'resuccessful.
So we really focus on that andwe provide as much tools but as
much support as we can to stopany issues before they happen.
But in this business there'sstuff that's beyond anybody's
control.
It's how you deal with it, andI think we've done a very good
(14:16):
job of working with our partnersto ensure that they know they
can trust us and we can trustthem and we can collaborate and
work on any type of solutionthat needs to be imposed.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Well, one final question, and I'm going a little
off script here, but it's inthe back of my mind.
We've heard about death of theISO.
I mean, that's been a phrasefor years, right, but what about
agents?
How are you seeing our agent?
Is that kind of getting larger,smaller, staying the same?
Where do you think we're headedwith, kind of that whole agent?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
business model?
Great question.
I don't see it dying anytimesoon.
I think that the agent modelfor us has been extremely
successful.
We've built our business aroundthat.
We are signing new agents on adaily basis and there's still
tons more opportunity out there.
You're signing new agents on adaily basis and there's still
tons more opportunity out there.
I think the value that an agentbrings to a merchant, it's that
really close relationship and Ithink that when you're dealing
(15:07):
with somebody's income or amerchant's ability to process
transactions, it's importantthat they have that personal
contact.
Like I mentioned before, I camefrom the agent space.
I don't see agents goinganywhere.
I think there's only room togrow for agent partners, but
they may have to adapt right,Whether it is looking at new
verticals, changing the way todo business and I think that
applies to any industry but theones, the agents, that are able
to adapt and look for newpotential opportunities will be
(15:30):
extremely successful.
But I definitely don't see thatgoing anywhere.
I think the opposite.
I think there's a lot ofopportunity for growth.
Okay, the opposite.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I think there's a lot of opportunity for growth.
Okay, well, great.
Well, jared, before we wrap upthe show, just want to kind of
open the floor, see if there'sanything else you wanted to add,
maybe anything we missed duringthe conversation.
Just kind of open the floor forfinal comments.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, I appreciate that.
I just want to reiterate thatPayArk is an agent-first payment
processor and in anever-shifting industry, it's a
big differentiator.
You know, we're not here justto process payments.
We're here to make sure thatour agent and partners grow
confidently.
So any agents that arelistening, now is the time to
deepen the relationship, whetherit's training, a portfolio
review or even trying out ourprior tools.
(16:08):
We're building this for youguys, so we'd love to show you
what we have and see how we cando business together.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Well, jared, great seeing you again.
We can do business together.
Well, Jared, great seeing youagain, and thank you so much for
being on the show.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so thank you for being
here today.
My absolute pleasure, Greg.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Have a fantastic rest of the summer and look forward
to speaking to you again soon.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And to all you listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Thank you for joining us today as we discussed how
Payark is leveraging AI totransform payments.
To learn more about Payark,visit wwwpayarkcom.
Thank you.
Scale their businesses onepayment at a time.
At Payark, ai is more than abuzzword.
It is integrated intoeverything they do, from
predicting merchant churn torisk assessments, to
self-service tools.
Join us for this special serieson AI in Payments.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, Greg Myers, andon today's show we have a very
special guest, Jared Ronski, whois the co-founder and president
at PayArk.
But before we dive into theepisode, I just wanted to
mention a few things.
We've had several people on theshow from PayArk as we've been
talking about AI and some othertopics in the industry.
We've had on recently ZachSchneiderman, who is the VP of
(01:07):
ISV, We've had John Minitaglio,the CTO, Dustin Siner, the Chief
Revenue Officer, and a littleover a year ago we had Zach
Martinez, the CEO of the company, on the show.
So I suggest you go back andlisten to those episodes.
But today we have, like I said,Jared on.
He was on before.
So welcome back to the show,Jared.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you so much, Greg,Excited to be here.
Well in here.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Thank you so much, Greg Excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, if you don't mind, just give us a brief
overview of the company, so theaudience kind of gets a reminder
of what Payark does.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, absolutely so, I would say at the highest level
.
Payark is a modern paymentscompany, but what we really do
is help businesses grow byremoving the friction from the
payment side and, moreimportantly, or most importantly
I think, it's to empower ouragents and our ISPs to serve
those businesses in a betterfashion.
We are really focused onpartnerships.
We have a very good trackrecord of retaining agents.
I think I may have mentionedthis on the last podcast, but
(01:57):
one of the things I'm most proudof is that some of the partners
that started off with us in2017, 2018, when we started that
business, are still workingwith us today.
So we are very much apartner-focused payments company
that enables payment solutionson behalf of both our agents as
well as our ISPs.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So obviously and you mentioned the independent sales
agents channel is very importantto your business.
It's a major priority for youWith all the regulations,
shifting revenue models and youmentioned this kind of
partner-first mentality.
So what does that partner-firstthing really look like on a
day-to-day basis with the agents?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, I think a good way to describe it is growth
through alignment.
We're not looking just toprocess transactions, but our
goal is to build tools, providetraining and revenue models that
make our partners moresuccessful.
At the end of the day, ourpartners aren't just resellers,
they're collaborators.
What's important for us is tobe transparent, to provide clear
(02:52):
revenue splits, portfoliovisibility, support whether it's
a dedicated relationshipmanager, a support team, a
dedicated support person,real-time support for them when
they're with a merchant tryingto help them and flexibility.
And I think for flexibility, itreally means to adapt to our
partner's vertical focus andnever really forcing a
one-size-fits-all type ofsolution on our partners.
(03:15):
There is an environment here ofregulation and there's
definitely pressure on margins.
So what's important to us isreally to invest in the
relationship equity with ouragents, and that's really our
goal.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, building on that partner first kind of
approach or mentality.
Can you walk us through the PiAI pricing advisor that you have
A couple of components to that,if you don't mind touching on?
So, like, what inputs does itconsider?
How can agents use it to buildproposals and do discovery, and
then how does it surface newrevenue streams for them?
(03:48):
So maybe define it and touch onthose things.
That'd be great.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, a great way to describe it is having a seasoned
sales coach whispering in yourear every time you're on a call
with a merchant, that at a highlevel.
This is something that I havechampioned within Pear.
I came from an agent background, so I spent many late nights,
days, working on proposals,analyzing statements, and
there's a lot of complexity toit.
There isn't a standard templatewhen it comes to statements.
(04:14):
Sometimes they're very hard toread, it's hard to get the
pricing.
So what we wanted to do isreally simplify this for our
partners and allow them to beable to turn around proposals
and analyze statements in realtime.
So let's talk about the inputs.
Basically, it's as simple asuploading a merchant statement.
So we look at the merchant type,what the volume is, the risk
profile, the ticket size, andthen the output is going to be
(04:38):
potentially one or more pricingstructures that our partners can
propose to the merchant.
So it really depends on how thatagent wants to work with the
tool, but it will give theminsight on to how the margins
shake out, how they potentiallycompare to industry benchmarks
and some of the real benefits Isee here is speed right being
able to get back to theirmerchants with an answer in real
(05:01):
time or extremely quick, theconfidence that this will give
our agents to provide thoseproposals but also not worry
that they're leaving money onthe table as well.
The tool can actually suggestrevenue streams that an agent
may not have thought about.
That's kind of the tool at ahigh level.
Like I mentioned, I've had many, many times reviewing
statements and they can get veryconfusing and I think whether
(05:23):
that's intended or not intended.
But the real benefits to thistool is speeding up the
discovery calls, opening up newverticals and drive smarter,
higher margin deals, and I thinkin those scenarios the agents
win and the merchants win.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well before this.
What did they have to do?
Were they analyzing thisthemselves?
Were they having you guys helpthem.
What was it like before?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Combination of both.
Some agents would take it uponthemselves.
Maybe they've been in theindustry for a long time or they
worked at a processor or an ISOin the past, so they have some
background on that.
Or they would send us thestatements.
We would analyze it.
We provide them with what themerchant is currently paying
today.
They would tell us hey, createa proposal based on a 20%
savings, whatever they want toreduce, if they want to reduce,
(06:07):
and we would create thatproposal.
That takes time, it's not goingto be done in real time and in
that interim a merchant may beapproached by somebody else.
Our goal is to really speed upthat process and have the agents
have the tools at theirdisposal to do it themselves.
It's not that we don't want todo it, but I think, training and
teaching people to do itthemselves.
It's not that we don't want todo it, but I think, training and
(06:28):
teaching people to do itthemselves.
There's that old saying, youknow give a man a fish eat for a
day.
Teach a man to fish eat for alifetime.
We want our agents to befishing for their lifetime and
we want to provide them with thetools to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
So is it truly a self-service kind of log in and
do it yourself type tool?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Absolutely yeah, it will be available through our
agent portal.
They'll be able to log in,upload statements, very much
like a chat GPT type ofinterface where you can say, hey
, analyze a statement.
That would be what thatmerchant is currently paying
today, recommend some pricingstructures based on a percentage
savings or any other ideas thatthe agent has in mind, and then
ask it, hey, are thereadditional revenue opportunities
(07:03):
here?
And it will be able to do allthat in real time and take a
process that could potentiallytake a day or more, in minutes
or less.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Okay, well, we'll dive into one kind of vertical
here, kind of themicrotransactions and the small
ticket e-commerce on the rise inour industry across the board.
What should agents understandabout kind of the unit economics
and how can this pricingadvisor point to different
pricing models that are going tomake them both more money and
(07:31):
make sure they're compliant?
Of course, that's alwaysimportant, but more profitable.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
The challenge, when it comes to microtransactions
specifically, isn't necessarilyvolume, it's really interchange
economics.
The per transactions costscrush margins if mispriced.
So our pricing tool caninstantly show blended models
whether it's a subscription plusa percentage fee or a flat rate
, and it will show them how thiswill make sense based on the
(07:56):
volume.
What our goal here is toposition PayArk as helping
agents unlock these verticals,as opposed to avoiding them
entirely.
There's a lot of opportunity,whether it's app-based commerce,
digital content, small tickete-commerce.
These verticals are exploding,but a lot of agents tend to
avoid them because the pricingseems impossible.
Our goal with this tool is toreally make it approachable and
(08:19):
profitable.
That is really our goal withthis.
So, even using the Pi tool, a$2 average ticket sounds great
until you realize that theinterchange minimums eat half of
that, and we really want toeducate our agents on the unit
economics and support them ingoing after these types of
verticals.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Okay, great.
So with all the changes andregulations, from interchange
changes to the Genius Act, toVisa's VAMP program there are
all these things going on in theindustry.
It feels like there always hasbeen and always probably will be
.
But how do you work with theagents to anticipate and adjust
to these new regulations?
(08:57):
And, if you want, we can diveinto the VAMP program
specifically.
But let's start broader.
How do you work with the agentsto make sure they're staying on
top of things and they reallyknow what's going on.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Let's touch on VAMP.
I think that's top of people'sminds right now.
He's a new rule Countspre-dispute chargeback
resolutions towards the VAMPratio.
So this is a big change.
That means, even if you resolvesomething quickly, it still is
potentially or looks like astrike against the merchant.
So why does this matter?
Agents who aren't payingattention risk seeing their
(09:28):
entire portfolio splagged.
So how we approach this?
First of all, it's proactivemonitoring.
We use real-time dashboard tospot risk before the merchant
does and before Visa does.
Secondly, education We'll workwith merchants to prevent
disputes, using tools likebetter billing descriptors,
refund policies andcommunication to really help
(09:48):
these merchants avoid theproblems that BAMP could
potentially bring them.
Now, on the agent side, it'sreally about coaching.
It's important to educate andhave open minds and
communication with our partnersto know which verticals are
trending more on the risky sideand how to talk to that with
their potential merchants.
I think that there's a lot ofcompliance checklists out there.
(10:11):
What we feel that our partnersreally need is a partner who
helps them protect their revenueand not just check a box.
That is very important to usand that applies both to the
updates and interchange andreally any type of new change
that happens in payments.
It's through education.
We conduct webinars.
Our relationship managers reachout to speak to our partners on
a one-on-one basis.
(10:31):
If our partners have questions,we encourage them to contact us
.
We're always available to havethese discussions.
We hopefully know the answer.
If we don't know the answer, wewill make sure it's a priority
to get back to them.
It's a very fast changingindustry and it's important for
us to be on top of it andcommunicating with our partners
any type of change that mayaffect their business.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So is there the ability to kind of real time you
see something going on in amerchant to reach out to that
agent and say, hey, there'ssomething going on here, Can you
talk to them?
Is that kind of the process?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Exactly, and we do that on a daily basis.
Our goal is to spot trendsbefore they become issues, so we
will see whether it's anincrease in chargeback ratio, an
increase in fraud disputes.
We will actually use tools todig into the chargebacks and
understand why are thesehappening.
What is the issue here?
Is it a fulfillment timeline?
Is it a customer support issue?
(11:21):
What is the actual issue?
We'll get on the phone with ourpartners, explain all the data
that we've collected and what wefeel a good resolution would be
to the situation, and then theycan go communicate that to
their merchants.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Okay, so for the agents out there that might be
listening to the show, what doesa typical engagement look like
In terms of working with?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Pear, the ideal engagement looks like onboarding
, a training, so we want ourpartners to be closing fast and
not stuck in paperwork.
So we will use technologywhether it's our partner hub,
whether it's our onlineapplication to move deals
quicker and get merchants livefaster.
Another important point isshared dashboards, so we believe
that our agents and ourpartners should see the data in
(12:02):
real time.
That gives them access tounderstand the portfolio, ask
any questions about us, but alsocommunicate more effectively
with their merchants.
We basically treat our agentslike enterprise customers and
we'll always review theirportfolios, spot opportunities
that they may be missing andcommunicate with them ways to
adjust their strategy.
In terms of resources,especially growth resources,
(12:23):
they'll have a dedicatedrelationship manager.
That person will also help themon the education side, growth
coaching, as well as anyinsights into their data manager
.
We don't want our partners tojust know one person in care.
It's important for us or forour partners to know multiple
people, whether it's somebody onthe risk team, whether it's
somebody on the support team,somebody on the operations team,
(12:44):
somebody on the deployment team.
We want them to feel likethey're part of the family and
that they can reach out toanybody and have a conversation
or ask questions anytime theywant.
Some of the things that we'reworking on internally is more AI
tools whether it's morefeatures on the pricing advisor,
things like predicting churnbefore that actually happens,
(13:05):
using AI to spot risk orpotential risk before it becomes
a bigger issue, as well asexpanding and improving our ISV
integrations.
That's something that's veryimportant to us, as well as
looking at different verticals.
Telehealth is a vertical.
We've had a lot of success inthe micro transactions that
we've discussed already and aswell as more transparency in
reporting.
The more information that wecan provide to our partners, the
(13:27):
better this relationship willbe going forward.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
You said something in there.
You may not even notice it.
It resonated very strongly withme is that you treat the agents
like you do an enterprisecustomer.
So I thought that was a reallykey point.
Something that should resonatewith the agents that they're not
just a number, they're part ofPayark and you want them to be a
big part of the Payark family100%, and that goes all the way
(13:52):
from the initial onboarding callto any support tickets.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
We don't want them to think of themselves as just
another ticket in the queue.
Their business, no matter howbig they are, is extremely
important to us.
If they're successful, we'resuccessful.
So we really focus on that andwe provide as much tools but as
much support as we can to stopany issues before they happen.
But in this business there'sstuff that's beyond anybody's
control.
It's how you deal with it, andI think we've done a very good
(14:16):
job of working with our partnersto ensure that they know they
can trust us and we can trustthem and we can collaborate and
work on any type of solutionthat needs to be imposed.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Well, one final question, and I'm going a little
off script here, but it's inthe back of my mind.
We've heard about death of theISO.
I mean, that's been a phrasefor years, right, but what about
agents?
How are you seeing our agent?
Is that kind of getting larger,smaller, staying the same?
Where do you think we're headedwith, kind of that whole agent?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
business model?
Great question.
I don't see it dying anytimesoon.
I think that the agent modelfor us has been extremely
successful.
We've built our business aroundthat.
We are signing new agents on adaily basis and there's still
tons more opportunity out there.
You're signing new agents on adaily basis and there's still
tons more opportunity out there.
I think the value that an agentbrings to a merchant, it's that
really close relationship and Ithink that when you're dealing
(15:07):
with somebody's income or amerchant's ability to process
transactions, it's importantthat they have that personal
contact.
Like I mentioned before, I camefrom the agent space.
I don't see agents goinganywhere.
I think there's only room togrow for agent partners, but
they may have to adapt right,Whether it is looking at new
verticals, changing the way todo business and I think that
applies to any industry but theones, the agents, that are able
to adapt and look for newpotential opportunities will be
(15:30):
extremely successful.
But I definitely don't see thatgoing anywhere.
I think the opposite.
I think there's a lot ofopportunity for growth.
Okay, the opposite.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I think there's a lot of opportunity for growth.
Okay, well, great.
Well, jared, before we wrap upthe show, just want to kind of
open the floor, see if there'sanything else you wanted to add,
maybe anything we missed duringthe conversation.
Just kind of open the floor forfinal comments.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, I appreciate that.
I just want to reiterate thatPayArk is an agent-first payment
processor and in anever-shifting industry, it's a
big differentiator.
You know, we're not here justto process payments.
We're here to make sure thatour agent and partners grow
confidently.
So any agents that arelistening, now is the time to
deepen the relationship, whetherit's training, a portfolio
review or even trying out ourprior tools.
(16:08):
We're building this for youguys, so we'd love to show you
what we have and see how we cando business together.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Well, jared, great seeing you again.
We can do business together.
Well, Jared, great seeing youagain, and thank you so much for
being on the show.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so thank you for being
here today.
My absolute pleasure, Greg.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Have a fantastic rest of the summer and look forward
to speaking to you again soon.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And to all you listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Thank you for joining us today as we discussed how
Payark is leveraging AI totransform payments.
To learn more about Payark,visit wwwpayarkcom.
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