February 25, 2020 • 21 mins
In this episode of the Leaders In Payment podcast, your host Greg Myers speaks with Garima Shah, President of Biller Genie. Garima talks about her journey to becoming the President of Biller Genie and her passion for helping people and motivating people in the payments space as well as her passion for dance.
Garima also talks about Biller Genie and how they have automated the sending of invoices, reminders, provide invoices tracking and ultimately help their clients get paid faster. She also gives some great advice to those just starting their career in the payments industry
Episode #6 produced by Podcast609 - www.podcast609.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the leaders in payments podcast
where we talk to C level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing the productsand services that impact the
payments space today as well astrends and predictions for the
future of payments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
I am your host, Greg Myers,
Speaker 2 (00:20):
and this is episode six of the leaders and payments
podcast featuring Garima Shaw,the president of biller genie.
In this episode, Garima and Italk about her journey to
becoming the president of biller, Janie and her passion for
helping and motivating people inthe payment space as well as her
passion for dance.
Garima and I also talk aboutbiller Jeannie and how they have
(00:41):
automated the sending ofinvoices and reminders,
providing invoice tracking andultimately help their clients
get paid faster.
Karima also provides some greatadvice to those just starting
their careers in the paymentsindustry.
So let's get started.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
[inaudible]
Speaker 2 (00:59):
hi Garima, thank you for being here and welcome to
the leaders and paymentspodcast.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Thanks so much for having me, Greg.
I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Great.
Tell our audience a little bitabout yourself, where you grew
up, where you went to school,where you currently live, a few
things like that.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Sure.
Well, I currently live inOrlando and I've lived and
resided in Florida most of mylife.
I'm not so fond of cold weather,although I was born in England
and I went to school up inBoston.
I went to Boston university thathave been in Florida for most of
my life, most of my career.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Okay.
Let's talk about the company alittle bit.
What exactly does biller Jeanniedo?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Sure, so bill or genie, we say it's an automated
accounts receivable and Einvoicing platform, but that's
kind of a lot of words and a lotof times that doesn't mean a
whole lot to people, but at theend of the day it helps
merchants get paid faster on anyoutstanding invoices or it helps
them stay current on theiraccounts receivable process.
(01:56):
It makes them more efficient andit helps their relationship
between themselves and theirconsumers who are paying them
for their services.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay.
What type of merchants do youtarget?
Mostly,
Speaker 4 (02:08):
so it's almost easier to answer that question with who
we don't work with.
We're not a great solution forretail, restaurant, hospitality,
e-commerce.
I mean, think about any serviceprovider that you may have or
anybody that you get an invoiceor a bill from.
So doctors, lawyers,accountants, B2B service spaced,
um, you know, even fieldtechnicians, HVAC, that kind of
(02:31):
thing.
That's really where our sweetspot is.
And it was interesting to mebefore joining biller genie, I
didn't really know what a bigproblem this was for merchants,
but I found out that 90% ofbusinesses today still process
invoices completely manually.
They create the manually andthey stuff envelopes or they
send an email and then theyfollow up with them and handle
(02:53):
the reminders themselves.
And it's kind of a bigundertaking.
And that's why we such largeaccounts receivable departments
or billers or controllers orsometimes the owner of the
company themselves that may be awholesaler for tee shirts while
he's stopping and makingt-shirts.
He's also going out and sendingout some invoices because he has
some unpaid collectibles.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Would you say most of them are smaller or mid sized
companies?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
I think it depends on definition of smells and fit
size.
Our average client is about ahundred thousand dollars a month
in not really processing becauseit's overall, it's not just
credit card.
It could be ACH or overall, butit's about a$100,000 a month in
invoicing is what we see.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Tell us at least what you can around the size of the
company, maybe any numbers thatyou can divulge, number of
employees or or things likethat?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Sure, sure.
No, we're a small company.
We're about 1718 employees rightnow.
We have our own development teamin house, which is about half of
those employees village and hestarted as an acquisition tool
for an ISO and that's reallywhere it came from because that
ISO, which is my partners, Isaid Tom, when he had sky bank,
he was utilizing biller genie toget clients more in the B2B
(04:06):
space and really helping themsolve their issue around this
accounts receivable and beingmore than just a payments
plugin.
It's not just the Rossa or someof these other payments plugins
that you see that just allowsthe payments be connected to the
accounting software.
It actually helps with theentire accounts receivable, the
Dunning process, and thereminders along with that to
make sure that those receivablesget collected.
But last year was really beta,and this year is when we're
(04:28):
going to market because as oflast year we were utilizing
biller.
Jeannie is almost a freemiumsoftware in order to get the
payments, the merchant services.
We've since decoupled merchantservices completely from what we
do.
We are a true SAS solution andwe work with all payments
providers as well as allaccounting softwares on the
backend.
So we're agnostic on both sidesand we look to turbocharge both
(04:50):
systems.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Okay.
And how do you sell as adirector?
Through channels or both?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Sure, so we have a few channels.
We do have a direct channel andwe also sell a lot through
banks.
We work with banks becausethey're looking to find a new
way to compete with thechallenger banks, the digital
banks that we see coming on,they're looking for additional
things to offer their commercialbank account holders.
We also work a lot with ISOs,especially the ISOs that are
(05:15):
looking for additional softwareservices and additional things
to sell so that they can move upmarket and so that they're not
selling just to commoditizeservice payments but that truly
integrated value solution fortheir merchants.
And then we also work a lot withreferral partners and ISP fees.
So on the ISV side we have thisidea of a tech stack.
So there's companies out therethat do accounts payable and or
(05:38):
free cashflow management orsomething else on it in that
accounting suite.
And we work with a lot of thoseis coming up with a, Hey this is
a comprehensive solution for ourmerchants and now we're doing
your AR, your AP, maybe yourexpenses and other things.
And then on our referral side wefound that, and bookkeepers, you
(05:59):
know, sometimes they may thinkover looking to take their job,
but that's not the case at all.
Most accounts and bookkeepersreally don't want to be trying
to collect on unpaid invoices,so we take care of that
administrative work for them.
So we've found that accountantsand bookkeepers are actually a
fantastic referral partner forus because we make their job
more efficient.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Great.
What would you say, you know,obviously this whole space, if
you call it payments or AR,whatever, is obviously
incredibly competitive.
So what would you saydifferentiates you?
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Yeah, so I think payments is absolutely very
competitive and I've been inpayments for 15 years as
everything from an ISO owner tobuying a various portfolios and
FinTech companies.
So yes, absolutely.
The space is very, verycompetitive.
Interestingly enough, though,there are not a lot of players
that are focused, are laserfocused on the accounts
(06:51):
receivable piece.
There are companies who areoffering e-invoicing, which is a
standalone solution to providean invoice.
There's companies who do aplugin where you can have a
payments company work with anyaccounting software.
I think what differentiatesbiller genie is that we take
over the entire process from notjust being able to have payments
and accounting work together andhave those systems merged or
(07:13):
work together and reconcile witheach other, but we go further
than that to handle all of thesystems that may be done in a
[inaudible] or a company'sbusiness.
So if you think about today, ifsomeone's using, for example,
QuickBooks, they can easily sendan invoice via email through
QuickBooks.
That's something that they cando.
It's no problem.
(07:34):
But then 10 days later, if thatinvoice isn't paid, someone is
now going back into the system.
They're seeing that it's notpaid, they're reprinting it,
stuffing an envelope and sendingthat out, or they're clicking
other buttons so that an emailgoes out and then they want to
add a late fee.
It comes in as separate invoice.
It's just a very manual process.
Even though they could send thatemail for that payment, but it's
(07:56):
still very manual.
And then from a consumerstandpoint, they're looking at
an invoice that says into it.
They may or may not know what itis.
They click on it, they have togo through and provide all their
information.
We're trying to take all thefriction out of that payment so
that they're able to pay via,you know, Apple pay or we're
adding text to pay where theycan click a button and go ahead
and make that payment.
(08:16):
Recurring payment options andpayment plans for larger
invoicing features.
So that's really differentiatesus is that we are so laser
focused on this piece of trulymanaging the accounts receivable
and collections process for ourmerchants.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, I love the fact that it's not just sort of an E
invoicing.
I mean it's the whole thing.
It's the whole solution and Ihave to believe that's what, you
know, small and midsizecompanies really need as a
solution.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Yeah, I mean absolutely.
And like I said before I startedit before I joined biller genie,
I have been in payments for solong and I've never had to send
an invoice.
I mean when we want to chargesomeone for merchant services,
they a statement that comes outof their account and that's just
how it works.
So I didn't really know thatthere was this major gap for
businesses sending invoices.
It kind of seems like somethingthat should already exist and
(09:05):
something that should be prettyeasy for people to do.
And unfortunately that's justnot the case.
And I think it's because there'sall these fantastic accounting
softwares out there, but theyhandle so many different aspects
of the merchants business fromtheir ledgers and their P and L
statements and their chart ofaccount.
I'm just, they do so many thingsfor that business that they
can't be hyperfocused on makingone specific part of the
(09:30):
accounting process as efficientas possible.
And on the other side you havethese standalone solutions that
might be for invoicing or thatmight be for sending out
reminders, but it takes amerchant now having to log into
two different systems, creatingthings twice, learning new
technology or new software.
So the idea of utilizing all oftheir current systems where the
(09:53):
merchant doesn't have to changeany part of their current
workflow or learn anything new,but just be able to set
something and basically set itand forget it and have those
reminders go out and have thecollections, the reconciliation,
all of that done for them on adaily basis has been what we
found as the game changer.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, thanks for that.
That's a really greatdescription of what biller
Jeannie does.
So I really appreciate youtaking the time to walk us
through that.
Let's talk about payments, thebigger industry and maybe kind
of get your crystal ball out andyou know, where do you think
things are headed and say maybethe next two to three years and
then it may be second part ofthe question out 10 years.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Well, I wish I had a kid crystal ball.
I'll give you my best shot.
You know, I think that paymentsand we've all seen it has become
so just as a standalone hasbecome so commoditized.
If you talk about merchantservices only, and that's why I
think that we talk about thingsas on a bigger, I feel like we
talk about payments or FinTechbecause I think the idea about
that is truly adding value tothat end user and not being
(10:54):
another commoditize industrylike phone, telecommunications
or energy.
And I think that that's justgoing to continue.
And I think we're going to seemore and more software companies
come into the payment space.
Maybe even companies that wedidn't think had anything to do
with payments start bringingpayments into their
(11:16):
infrastructure ecosystem becauseit's a great way for them to
have a revenue model.
And it's also something that themerchants are looking for
because they're looking for truevalue and not just a place to
process their transactions.
And so I think we're going tocontinue to see that evolution
of technology.
And I think what's differentabout the payment space than
(11:36):
most other industries is thespeed of that technology and the
speed at that innovation is sofast.
I mean when I started inmerchant services 15 years ago,
it was still tiered pricing.
And you know, standaloneterminals and friction paper and
the fact that so much haschanged in such a short period
(11:57):
of time and continues to do so.
I think in the next two to threeyears we're just going to see
the continued proliferation ofsoftware in the payment space
and that's really what this isgoing to become.
It's going to be truly FinTechsolutions and it's really going
to be technology that enhances amerchant's business as well as
takes friction out of any pointof any kind of payment or money
(12:21):
transfer.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Sure.
Any, any thoughts on way out inthe 10 year horizon?
Speaker 4 (12:26):
You know, 10 years is hard.
I'm not sure where we're goingto be.
I think that it's just going tocontinue.
I think also a lot with thesemajor mega mergers and
acquisitions that we've seen, Ithink that we see that in a lot
of industries where it startsand there's hundreds and
hundreds of companiescompetition and then all of a
sudden you have, you end up withthree, four, five, 10 incumbents
and then all of a sudden kind ofspreads out again.
(12:47):
And I think we might be seeingsome of that in the next 10
years as well, where we're goingto see all these mega mergers,
huge acquisitions happening andcontinued to build tech and
create technology and createsolutions.
And then I think we're going tosee new challengers come into
the marketplace that we can'teven imagine yet that are going
to change the payments ecosystemyet again.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, I agree.
Who thought Uber would be whatthey are today, right?
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Yeah.
I mean, I mean even if you lookat things like cryptocurrency
and blockchain and all of thosekinds of things, I think there's
gonna be a lot of adoption ofsome of those various, who knows
who's going to be the winner.
Like I said, if I had a crystalball that'd be great.
I think we are going to see animmense influx of technology and
various players that we justdidn't expect.
(13:32):
I mean, your point on Uber is sogreat.
I mean I always say that eventrying to explain to him
facilitation, if, if Uber wasn'ta pay FAC, would you ever get
into some random car at theairport?
And ask them to take you home.
Like that just wouldn't happen.
But now it's the norm.
You click a button on your phoneand just because Uber tells you
that there's a driver there andit's quote unquote Uber, and you
(13:53):
seem to know that you get in thecar and you go home and it, and
it's fine and everything'sgreat, but it's so different
because at the end of the day,you don't think of a
transportation company is reallybeing in the payment space, but
that's what they are and they'rereally done it so well.
I mean, Etsy is another greatexample of that.
I wouldn't randomly go onlineand order cookies from someone's
basement in Seattle big becausethey sell it on Etsy.
(14:15):
All of a sudden it seems like itmust be legitimate and therefore
I can probably buy him and noproblem.
And again, it's just thesecompanies that are like that,
that are changing the waypayments works.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah.
It'll be interesting to see 10years from now where we are.
All right.
Let's change gears a little andlet's, let's talk about you tell
us about your journey to therole as president there, sort of
how you gotten to that position.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Sure.
So like I said, I've been inpayments for a long time and
have done all kinds of thingsfrom running an ISO[inaudible]
feet on the street runninginside, outside sales forces,
transitioning to pay FAC or toFSPs.
And I've been looking a lot atwhat I'm talking about in terms
of creating real value for theend user for that merchant and
(15:02):
how do we do that?
So I was looking at varioussoftware solutions and I've
known my partner Tom, who's thefounder of village genie for
several years, we actuallystarted as quote unquote
frenemies because, uh, westarted on the opposite end of
the same transaction more thanonce.
So we were the buyer of hisportfolio about seven or eight
years ago.
(15:22):
And through that became friends,had a good relationship and as
he was building our village andhe and talking about the
software, I became more and moreinterested because I have been
looking for ways that we canchange payments and really make
it a value and create somethingfor clients that they're happy
about and they're not saying, Ohmy God, can you save me money?
(15:43):
It's more, yes, you're saving mybusiness.
You're helping me actually dowhat I need to do.
That's how I came to biller.
Jeannie and Tom and I had beentalking about it for a long time
and he said, you know, it'd begreat to have you here and help
us do this from paymentsperspective and so it seems just
like a match made in heaven.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Sounds like it in 2019 your recipient of the 40
under 40 award from the ETA,that that's certainly had to be
exciting.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Yeah, it was super exciting.
I think that being nominated andbeing selected by your peers is
probably the best recognitionyou can ever get.
To me, it means so much morethan anybody else because these
are people actually know whatyou're talking about.
I mean, sometimes you can getinto payments and you can have
all kinds of conversations andas long as the other person
doesn't know, kind of doing allright, but to have recognition
(16:34):
from your peers and other peoplewho know what you do on a day to
day basis and are happy for youand supportive of you, it's
really, really exciting.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah.
So let's talk about somethingyou're passionate about.
It could be work-related, maybenot, but something you just have
a deep passion for.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
So I'm pretty passionate about just about
everything that I do.
Um, but in terms of work, Iwould say that thing I'm most
passionate about is trainingpeople and working and
motivating employees andpartners.
That is just been one of themost important things and most
exciting parts of my career.
Looking at people that startedin my first ISO 1516 years ago,
(17:16):
and seeing them run their owncompanies and just feeling like
maybe I had 1% hand in that orhalf a percent not to take too
much.
I'm away from them at all isjust such an exciting place.
And for me that's what I'mprobably most passionate about
in terms of work.
And then outside of work, I'msuper active.
I'm probably most passionateabout dance.
I'm on a dance team and I, I'vealways been a dancer and I
(17:38):
thought that that's what I wasgoing to do when I grew up, but
my parents didn't really thinkthat that was a good thing to go
to college for.
So I end up in payments.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
That's funny.
Uh, daughter's both dancedgrowing up and I have a 15 year
old who's really into it now.
So I know all about the danceworld more than I probably need
to or should.
So yeah.
So you kind of talked a littlebit about this, but you know the
payment spaces is obviously yourFinTech, however you want to
refer to it as growing so muchinvestment and just a lot of new
(18:11):
people coming to it.
It's becoming a career path forpeople.
Whereas maybe 10 years ago itwasn't.
What would your advice be tothose people who are just
starting their careers inpayments?
Speaker 4 (18:22):
I think my advice would be expect change and be
ready to embrace change becauseit will come and it will come
very rapidly and I think thepeople who can't embrace that or
change with the times, whetherit's changing their revenue
model or changing theirunderstanding of what they do,
what their value proposition is,those are the people who are
(18:44):
going to be left behind becauseit's not a static industry.
But I also think as much as it'simportant to embrace change, I
think understanding the basicsand fundamentals of what the
business is is really important.
And sometimes I feel like we'relosing that and I've met with
developers at various companiesor various entities and they
(19:05):
don't, no what they'redeveloping too, they don't have
enough of an understanding ofthe payments infrastructure or
how a sponsor bank might work orwhat's an auth and what's a pay
FAC and those kinds of things.
And even though those might bestaples or basics of who we are
and what we do, I think we'relosing some of that training.
And I think it's important thatwe really do educate the next
(19:27):
generation on how do all ofthose things work.
How does, how does moneyactually get moved from one
place to another and what arethe regs around that?
And because that really doesimpact their business on a day
to day basis and it's very easyto just build really, really
cool tools.
But if you don't get thefundamentals, I think we lose a
(19:48):
lot.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, I'd love to start seeing more colleges
teaching in the, you know, someFinTech classes.
I think that would be reallyinteresting to have, you know,
kids coming out of college thathad a interest in a knowledge
and a, you know, before they gotinto this space.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Well, we're about to wrap up, so any final thoughts
or anything else you wanted toshare with the audience today?
Speaker 4 (20:10):
I don't really have any final thoughts.
I really appreciate you.
I'm having these podcasts.
I think, you know, as we talkabout education in our industry,
I think it's so important tohave outlets like this where
people can learn about differentcompanies and how to be better
at what they do.
I've listened to all of yourpodcast.
I think they're just, they're sohelpful.
I really do appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah.
Well, thank you so much andthank you for your time today.
I know your time is incrediblyvaluable, so I really appreciate
you being here.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And to all your listeners out there, thank you
for your time as well.
And until,
Speaker 4 (20:44):
thank you for joining us this week on the leaders in
podcast.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Make sure you visit our
website@leadersinpayments.comwhere you can subscribe to the
show and where you'll find ourshow notes.
If you enjoyed listening, pleaseshare on your social channels as
well.
Welcome to the leaders in payments podcast
where we talk to C level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing the productsand services that impact the
payments space today as well astrends and predictions for the
future of payments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
I am your host, Greg Myers,
Speaker 2 (00:20):
and this is episode six of the leaders and payments
podcast featuring Garima Shaw,the president of biller genie.
In this episode, Garima and Italk about her journey to
becoming the president of biller, Janie and her passion for
helping and motivating people inthe payment space as well as her
passion for dance.
Garima and I also talk aboutbiller Jeannie and how they have
(00:41):
automated the sending ofinvoices and reminders,
providing invoice tracking andultimately help their clients
get paid faster.
Karima also provides some greatadvice to those just starting
their careers in the paymentsindustry.
So let's get started.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
[inaudible]
Speaker 2 (00:59):
hi Garima, thank you for being here and welcome to
the leaders and paymentspodcast.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Thanks so much for having me, Greg.
I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Great.
Tell our audience a little bitabout yourself, where you grew
up, where you went to school,where you currently live, a few
things like that.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Sure.
Well, I currently live inOrlando and I've lived and
resided in Florida most of mylife.
I'm not so fond of cold weather,although I was born in England
and I went to school up inBoston.
I went to Boston university thathave been in Florida for most of
my life, most of my career.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Okay.
Let's talk about the company alittle bit.
What exactly does biller Jeanniedo?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Sure, so bill or genie, we say it's an automated
accounts receivable and Einvoicing platform, but that's
kind of a lot of words and a lotof times that doesn't mean a
whole lot to people, but at theend of the day it helps
merchants get paid faster on anyoutstanding invoices or it helps
them stay current on theiraccounts receivable process.
(01:56):
It makes them more efficient andit helps their relationship
between themselves and theirconsumers who are paying them
for their services.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay.
What type of merchants do youtarget?
Mostly,
Speaker 4 (02:08):
so it's almost easier to answer that question with who
we don't work with.
We're not a great solution forretail, restaurant, hospitality,
e-commerce.
I mean, think about any serviceprovider that you may have or
anybody that you get an invoiceor a bill from.
So doctors, lawyers,accountants, B2B service spaced,
um, you know, even fieldtechnicians, HVAC, that kind of
(02:31):
thing.
That's really where our sweetspot is.
And it was interesting to mebefore joining biller genie, I
didn't really know what a bigproblem this was for merchants,
but I found out that 90% ofbusinesses today still process
invoices completely manually.
They create the manually andthey stuff envelopes or they
send an email and then theyfollow up with them and handle
(02:53):
the reminders themselves.
And it's kind of a bigundertaking.
And that's why we such largeaccounts receivable departments
or billers or controllers orsometimes the owner of the
company themselves that may be awholesaler for tee shirts while
he's stopping and makingt-shirts.
He's also going out and sendingout some invoices because he has
some unpaid collectibles.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Would you say most of them are smaller or mid sized
companies?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
I think it depends on definition of smells and fit
size.
Our average client is about ahundred thousand dollars a month
in not really processing becauseit's overall, it's not just
credit card.
It could be ACH or overall, butit's about a$100,000 a month in
invoicing is what we see.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Tell us at least what you can around the size of the
company, maybe any numbers thatyou can divulge, number of
employees or or things likethat?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Sure, sure.
No, we're a small company.
We're about 1718 employees rightnow.
We have our own development teamin house, which is about half of
those employees village and hestarted as an acquisition tool
for an ISO and that's reallywhere it came from because that
ISO, which is my partners, Isaid Tom, when he had sky bank,
he was utilizing biller genie toget clients more in the B2B
(04:06):
space and really helping themsolve their issue around this
accounts receivable and beingmore than just a payments
plugin.
It's not just the Rossa or someof these other payments plugins
that you see that just allowsthe payments be connected to the
accounting software.
It actually helps with theentire accounts receivable, the
Dunning process, and thereminders along with that to
make sure that those receivablesget collected.
But last year was really beta,and this year is when we're
(04:28):
going to market because as oflast year we were utilizing
biller.
Jeannie is almost a freemiumsoftware in order to get the
payments, the merchant services.
We've since decoupled merchantservices completely from what we
do.
We are a true SAS solution andwe work with all payments
providers as well as allaccounting softwares on the
backend.
So we're agnostic on both sidesand we look to turbocharge both
(04:50):
systems.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Okay.
And how do you sell as adirector?
Through channels or both?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Sure, so we have a few channels.
We do have a direct channel andwe also sell a lot through
banks.
We work with banks becausethey're looking to find a new
way to compete with thechallenger banks, the digital
banks that we see coming on,they're looking for additional
things to offer their commercialbank account holders.
We also work a lot with ISOs,especially the ISOs that are
(05:15):
looking for additional softwareservices and additional things
to sell so that they can move upmarket and so that they're not
selling just to commoditizeservice payments but that truly
integrated value solution fortheir merchants.
And then we also work a lot withreferral partners and ISP fees.
So on the ISV side we have thisidea of a tech stack.
So there's companies out therethat do accounts payable and or
(05:38):
free cashflow management orsomething else on it in that
accounting suite.
And we work with a lot of thoseis coming up with a, Hey this is
a comprehensive solution for ourmerchants and now we're doing
your AR, your AP, maybe yourexpenses and other things.
And then on our referral side wefound that, and bookkeepers, you
(05:59):
know, sometimes they may thinkover looking to take their job,
but that's not the case at all.
Most accounts and bookkeepersreally don't want to be trying
to collect on unpaid invoices,so we take care of that
administrative work for them.
So we've found that accountantsand bookkeepers are actually a
fantastic referral partner forus because we make their job
more efficient.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Great.
What would you say, you know,obviously this whole space, if
you call it payments or AR,whatever, is obviously
incredibly competitive.
So what would you saydifferentiates you?
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Yeah, so I think payments is absolutely very
competitive and I've been inpayments for 15 years as
everything from an ISO owner tobuying a various portfolios and
FinTech companies.
So yes, absolutely.
The space is very, verycompetitive.
Interestingly enough, though,there are not a lot of players
that are focused, are laserfocused on the accounts
(06:51):
receivable piece.
There are companies who areoffering e-invoicing, which is a
standalone solution to providean invoice.
There's companies who do aplugin where you can have a
payments company work with anyaccounting software.
I think what differentiatesbiller genie is that we take
over the entire process from notjust being able to have payments
and accounting work together andhave those systems merged or
(07:13):
work together and reconcile witheach other, but we go further
than that to handle all of thesystems that may be done in a
[inaudible] or a company'sbusiness.
So if you think about today, ifsomeone's using, for example,
QuickBooks, they can easily sendan invoice via email through
QuickBooks.
That's something that they cando.
It's no problem.
(07:34):
But then 10 days later, if thatinvoice isn't paid, someone is
now going back into the system.
They're seeing that it's notpaid, they're reprinting it,
stuffing an envelope and sendingthat out, or they're clicking
other buttons so that an emailgoes out and then they want to
add a late fee.
It comes in as separate invoice.
It's just a very manual process.
Even though they could send thatemail for that payment, but it's
(07:56):
still very manual.
And then from a consumerstandpoint, they're looking at
an invoice that says into it.
They may or may not know what itis.
They click on it, they have togo through and provide all their
information.
We're trying to take all thefriction out of that payment so
that they're able to pay via,you know, Apple pay or we're
adding text to pay where theycan click a button and go ahead
and make that payment.
(08:16):
Recurring payment options andpayment plans for larger
invoicing features.
So that's really differentiatesus is that we are so laser
focused on this piece of trulymanaging the accounts receivable
and collections process for ourmerchants.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, I love the fact that it's not just sort of an E
invoicing.
I mean it's the whole thing.
It's the whole solution and Ihave to believe that's what, you
know, small and midsizecompanies really need as a
solution.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Yeah, I mean absolutely.
And like I said before I startedit before I joined biller genie,
I have been in payments for solong and I've never had to send
an invoice.
I mean when we want to chargesomeone for merchant services,
they a statement that comes outof their account and that's just
how it works.
So I didn't really know thatthere was this major gap for
businesses sending invoices.
It kind of seems like somethingthat should already exist and
(09:05):
something that should be prettyeasy for people to do.
And unfortunately that's justnot the case.
And I think it's because there'sall these fantastic accounting
softwares out there, but theyhandle so many different aspects
of the merchants business fromtheir ledgers and their P and L
statements and their chart ofaccount.
I'm just, they do so many thingsfor that business that they
can't be hyperfocused on makingone specific part of the
(09:30):
accounting process as efficientas possible.
And on the other side you havethese standalone solutions that
might be for invoicing or thatmight be for sending out
reminders, but it takes amerchant now having to log into
two different systems, creatingthings twice, learning new
technology or new software.
So the idea of utilizing all oftheir current systems where the
(09:53):
merchant doesn't have to changeany part of their current
workflow or learn anything new,but just be able to set
something and basically set itand forget it and have those
reminders go out and have thecollections, the reconciliation,
all of that done for them on adaily basis has been what we
found as the game changer.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, thanks for that.
That's a really greatdescription of what biller
Jeannie does.
So I really appreciate youtaking the time to walk us
through that.
Let's talk about payments, thebigger industry and maybe kind
of get your crystal ball out andyou know, where do you think
things are headed and say maybethe next two to three years and
then it may be second part ofthe question out 10 years.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Well, I wish I had a kid crystal ball.
I'll give you my best shot.
You know, I think that paymentsand we've all seen it has become
so just as a standalone hasbecome so commoditized.
If you talk about merchantservices only, and that's why I
think that we talk about thingsas on a bigger, I feel like we
talk about payments or FinTechbecause I think the idea about
that is truly adding value tothat end user and not being
(10:54):
another commoditize industrylike phone, telecommunications
or energy.
And I think that that's justgoing to continue.
And I think we're going to seemore and more software companies
come into the payment space.
Maybe even companies that wedidn't think had anything to do
with payments start bringingpayments into their
(11:16):
infrastructure ecosystem becauseit's a great way for them to
have a revenue model.
And it's also something that themerchants are looking for
because they're looking for truevalue and not just a place to
process their transactions.
And so I think we're going tocontinue to see that evolution
of technology.
And I think what's differentabout the payment space than
(11:36):
most other industries is thespeed of that technology and the
speed at that innovation is sofast.
I mean when I started inmerchant services 15 years ago,
it was still tiered pricing.
And you know, standaloneterminals and friction paper and
the fact that so much haschanged in such a short period
(11:57):
of time and continues to do so.
I think in the next two to threeyears we're just going to see
the continued proliferation ofsoftware in the payment space
and that's really what this isgoing to become.
It's going to be truly FinTechsolutions and it's really going
to be technology that enhances amerchant's business as well as
takes friction out of any pointof any kind of payment or money
(12:21):
transfer.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Sure.
Any, any thoughts on way out inthe 10 year horizon?
Speaker 4 (12:26):
You know, 10 years is hard.
I'm not sure where we're goingto be.
I think that it's just going tocontinue.
I think also a lot with thesemajor mega mergers and
acquisitions that we've seen, Ithink that we see that in a lot
of industries where it startsand there's hundreds and
hundreds of companiescompetition and then all of a
sudden you have, you end up withthree, four, five, 10 incumbents
and then all of a sudden kind ofspreads out again.
(12:47):
And I think we might be seeingsome of that in the next 10
years as well, where we're goingto see all these mega mergers,
huge acquisitions happening andcontinued to build tech and
create technology and createsolutions.
And then I think we're going tosee new challengers come into
the marketplace that we can'teven imagine yet that are going
to change the payments ecosystemyet again.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, I agree.
Who thought Uber would be whatthey are today, right?
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Yeah.
I mean, I mean even if you lookat things like cryptocurrency
and blockchain and all of thosekinds of things, I think there's
gonna be a lot of adoption ofsome of those various, who knows
who's going to be the winner.
Like I said, if I had a crystalball that'd be great.
I think we are going to see animmense influx of technology and
various players that we justdidn't expect.
(13:32):
I mean, your point on Uber is sogreat.
I mean I always say that eventrying to explain to him
facilitation, if, if Uber wasn'ta pay FAC, would you ever get
into some random car at theairport?
And ask them to take you home.
Like that just wouldn't happen.
But now it's the norm.
You click a button on your phoneand just because Uber tells you
that there's a driver there andit's quote unquote Uber, and you
(13:53):
seem to know that you get in thecar and you go home and it, and
it's fine and everything'sgreat, but it's so different
because at the end of the day,you don't think of a
transportation company is reallybeing in the payment space, but
that's what they are and they'rereally done it so well.
I mean, Etsy is another greatexample of that.
I wouldn't randomly go onlineand order cookies from someone's
basement in Seattle big becausethey sell it on Etsy.
(14:15):
All of a sudden it seems like itmust be legitimate and therefore
I can probably buy him and noproblem.
And again, it's just thesecompanies that are like that,
that are changing the waypayments works.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah.
It'll be interesting to see 10years from now where we are.
All right.
Let's change gears a little andlet's, let's talk about you tell
us about your journey to therole as president there, sort of
how you gotten to that position.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Sure.
So like I said, I've been inpayments for a long time and
have done all kinds of thingsfrom running an ISO[inaudible]
feet on the street runninginside, outside sales forces,
transitioning to pay FAC or toFSPs.
And I've been looking a lot atwhat I'm talking about in terms
of creating real value for theend user for that merchant and
(15:02):
how do we do that?
So I was looking at varioussoftware solutions and I've
known my partner Tom, who's thefounder of village genie for
several years, we actuallystarted as quote unquote
frenemies because, uh, westarted on the opposite end of
the same transaction more thanonce.
So we were the buyer of hisportfolio about seven or eight
years ago.
(15:22):
And through that became friends,had a good relationship and as
he was building our village andhe and talking about the
software, I became more and moreinterested because I have been
looking for ways that we canchange payments and really make
it a value and create somethingfor clients that they're happy
about and they're not saying, Ohmy God, can you save me money?
(15:43):
It's more, yes, you're saving mybusiness.
You're helping me actually dowhat I need to do.
That's how I came to biller.
Jeannie and Tom and I had beentalking about it for a long time
and he said, you know, it'd begreat to have you here and help
us do this from paymentsperspective and so it seems just
like a match made in heaven.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Sounds like it in 2019 your recipient of the 40
under 40 award from the ETA,that that's certainly had to be
exciting.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Yeah, it was super exciting.
I think that being nominated andbeing selected by your peers is
probably the best recognitionyou can ever get.
To me, it means so much morethan anybody else because these
are people actually know whatyou're talking about.
I mean, sometimes you can getinto payments and you can have
all kinds of conversations andas long as the other person
doesn't know, kind of doing allright, but to have recognition
(16:34):
from your peers and other peoplewho know what you do on a day to
day basis and are happy for youand supportive of you, it's
really, really exciting.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah.
So let's talk about somethingyou're passionate about.
It could be work-related, maybenot, but something you just have
a deep passion for.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
So I'm pretty passionate about just about
everything that I do.
Um, but in terms of work, Iwould say that thing I'm most
passionate about is trainingpeople and working and
motivating employees andpartners.
That is just been one of themost important things and most
exciting parts of my career.
Looking at people that startedin my first ISO 1516 years ago,
(17:16):
and seeing them run their owncompanies and just feeling like
maybe I had 1% hand in that orhalf a percent not to take too
much.
I'm away from them at all isjust such an exciting place.
And for me that's what I'mprobably most passionate about
in terms of work.
And then outside of work, I'msuper active.
I'm probably most passionateabout dance.
I'm on a dance team and I, I'vealways been a dancer and I
(17:38):
thought that that's what I wasgoing to do when I grew up, but
my parents didn't really thinkthat that was a good thing to go
to college for.
So I end up in payments.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
That's funny.
Uh, daughter's both dancedgrowing up and I have a 15 year
old who's really into it now.
So I know all about the danceworld more than I probably need
to or should.
So yeah.
So you kind of talked a littlebit about this, but you know the
payment spaces is obviously yourFinTech, however you want to
refer to it as growing so muchinvestment and just a lot of new
(18:11):
people coming to it.
It's becoming a career path forpeople.
Whereas maybe 10 years ago itwasn't.
What would your advice be tothose people who are just
starting their careers inpayments?
Speaker 4 (18:22):
I think my advice would be expect change and be
ready to embrace change becauseit will come and it will come
very rapidly and I think thepeople who can't embrace that or
change with the times, whetherit's changing their revenue
model or changing theirunderstanding of what they do,
what their value proposition is,those are the people who are
(18:44):
going to be left behind becauseit's not a static industry.
But I also think as much as it'simportant to embrace change, I
think understanding the basicsand fundamentals of what the
business is is really important.
And sometimes I feel like we'relosing that and I've met with
developers at various companiesor various entities and they
(19:05):
don't, no what they'redeveloping too, they don't have
enough of an understanding ofthe payments infrastructure or
how a sponsor bank might work orwhat's an auth and what's a pay
FAC and those kinds of things.
And even though those might bestaples or basics of who we are
and what we do, I think we'relosing some of that training.
And I think it's important thatwe really do educate the next
(19:27):
generation on how do all ofthose things work.
How does, how does moneyactually get moved from one
place to another and what arethe regs around that?
And because that really doesimpact their business on a day
to day basis and it's very easyto just build really, really
cool tools.
But if you don't get thefundamentals, I think we lose a
(19:48):
lot.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, I'd love to start seeing more colleges
teaching in the, you know, someFinTech classes.
I think that would be reallyinteresting to have, you know,
kids coming out of college thathad a interest in a knowledge
and a, you know, before they gotinto this space.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Well, we're about to wrap up, so any final thoughts
or anything else you wanted toshare with the audience today?
Speaker 4 (20:10):
I don't really have any final thoughts.
I really appreciate you.
I'm having these podcasts.
I think, you know, as we talkabout education in our industry,
I think it's so important tohave outlets like this where
people can learn about differentcompanies and how to be better
at what they do.
I've listened to all of yourpodcast.
I think they're just, they're sohelpful.
I really do appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah.
Well, thank you so much andthank you for your time today.
I know your time is incrediblyvaluable, so I really appreciate
you being here.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And to all your listeners out there, thank you
for your time as well.
And until,
Speaker 4 (20:44):
thank you for joining us this week on the leaders in
podcast.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Make sure you visit our
website@leadersinpayments.comwhere you can subscribe to the
show and where you'll find ourshow notes.
If you enjoyed listening, pleaseshare on your social channels as
well.
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