April 23, 2025 • 26 mins
Mary Kay Bowman takes us behind the scenes of BILL's mission to transform financial operations for small businesses through an expertly crafted blend of software and financial services. As EVP and GM of Payments and Financial Services, she brings decades of experience from pioneering roles at Amazon, Square, and Visa to tackle the challenges that interrupt the daily flow of small business finance.
The conversation reveals how BILL serves as both operational software provider and financial partner to thousands of small businesses across every industry vertical. Working alongside 8,000 accounting firm partners, the platform handles everything from accounts payable and receivable to employee expense management, while supporting transactions across 130 currencies. What truly sets BILL apart is their seamless integration of workflow management with money movement – creating a system that doesn't just process payments but optimizes cash flow at every step.
Looking toward the future of payments, Bowman offers a refreshing perspective on the balance between frictionless technology and necessary visibility. While consumer payments often aim to disappear into the background, B2B transactions require strategic visibility at critical moments. This nuanced understanding comes from Bowman's remarkable journey through the evolution of digital payments, beginning at the dawn of internet commerce when she volunteered to tackle the "bumpy intersection" between money movement and technology.
Ready to transform your business's financial operations? Discover how BILL's intelligent platform can help your small business thrive by automating the noise and complexity of everyday finance, letting you focus on what truly matters.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
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, mary Kay Bowman,the EVP and GM of Payments and
Financial Services at Bill.
So, mary Kay, thank you forbeing here and welcome to the
show.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hey, thanks, greg, I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Great, so why don't we start out by having you tell
us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
maybe where you grew up, where you went to school,
where you currently live, a fewthings like that.
Well, I grew up in the Midwest.
I'm a big champion for theMidwest.
I grew up in a small town inIowa called Marshalltown, near
the middle of the state, nearthe middle of the country.
So I kind of grew up in thatMidwestern ethic where Main
Street and small towns were themost important things, and came
from a family of teachers andfarmers and some entrepreneurs
(01:03):
as well.
So that's how I grew up.
I went to school in Minnesotaand I now live in Seattle.
So, a little different than thecenter of the country, I'm
enjoying the very upper leftcorner of the country.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Awesome.
Well, let's talk about Bill.
So I think most of our audiencewill know who Bill is, but
maybe tell our audience, forthose that may not know what
Bill does.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah.
So Bill is a financialoperations platform for small
and mid-sized businesses andwhat we try to do is take some
of the heavyweight financialpractices accounts, payable,
accounts, receivable, employeeexpense management so basically
how they're managing theircustomers, their vendors and
their employee expenses, whichcan get very noisy.
(01:48):
It has a lot of transactions, alot of ins and outs, affects
cash flow greatly.
And we do this not onlydirectly but through our
partnerships with more than8,000 accounting firms who are
the partners for those smallbusinesses all across the
country.
So in financial operations thatmeans we have both financial
(02:08):
operations software to manageaccounts, payable, accounts,
receivable, employee expensemanagement but we also have the
financial services for both themoney movement, payments and
also for working capital.
So we also provide loans andexpedited settlements to
optimize working capital and wealso do international payments
(02:29):
and foreign exchange management,so kind of all of the things
that ride along with all ofthose loud, noisy transactions
that interrupt the day of all ofour small businesses.
And then we also help themsettle it, which means we can
also bring it together and helpthem reconcile it, really get a
good picture of their financialposition.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, are there certain verticals that you focus
on more than others?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, so we are really focused on small business
and, as you know, smallbusiness SMBs reach every
vertical.
So we have everything fromlight manufacturing to heavy
manufacturing, restaurants toprofessional services like
accountants and legalprofessionals, creative services
we have just about everythingunder the sun.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And you're based in the US.
Do you do businessinternationally?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
We're based in the US and we, from a payments and
financial services perspective,we have eight different payment
products and we transact in 130currencies.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So primarily for US-based businesses and their
subsidiaries outside of the USfor now, and also some in Canada
, okay, so, on the payments sidespecifically, is it a lot of
B2B payments or is it also justyour typical card payments by
consumers?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So it is B2B typically, but we also have card
payments as well, but primarilycard payments from other
businesses.
So we help small businesses paywith their preferred payment
methods, which may be cards, maybe another payment method.
We also help those businessesand larger businesses accept
payments in their customers'preferred method.
(04:02):
So that means we're doingeverything from checks, ACH,
sometimes wire transfers and allof the cards.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay okay, and you mentioned that you have a lot of
partnerships, working throughaccounting firms.
Is that the main way to getbusiness, or do you have a sales
team?
Or maybe talk about thego-to-market a little bit?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, we do it.
We really respect ouraccounting partners because they
add so much value and in somecases they are the outsourced
accounting and finance team forour small businesses.
So it just really makes senseto work with them and we work
very deeply with them.
The software that we providethem is actually the software
they use to serve theircustomers and to operate on
(04:43):
their behalf.
But we also work directly withsmall businesses that may have
their own internal financeorganizations.
We have our own sales team.
We have, obviously, our owndirect channels through our
website as well, but we have ourown sales team.
And then we work with channelpartners, including some banks
and other financial servicescompanies who are looking to
enhance their services, andsoftware companies that are
(05:05):
looking to embed payment andfinancial services and some of
the financial operations intotheir software.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Okay, okay.
And what would you saydifferentiates Bill from your
competitors out there?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I think one of the things that differentiates us is
that we can do the softwareside of almost all of those
financial operations.
So, as I said earlier, wereally focus on the things that
take up the majority of a smallbusiness's day from a financial
operations perspective.
That is, accounts payablemanagement so getting the funds
(05:39):
from their customers, gettingall of the documents needed to
put out their work to theircustomers and being able to
receive payments back.
Also accounts receivable,accounts payable, and then
employee expense management aswell.
And then we have.
I think one of the things thatdifferentiates us on all levels
is that we have our financialservices matching to each of
(06:01):
those.
So we're not thinking aboutjust recording or automating or
managing the workflow of thesoftware, but we're also pairing
it with the right moneymovement and optimizing the cash
flow for our customers.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, let's talk about the future a little bit.
In your view of things, wheredo you see the payments industry
headed, say, maybe the nextthree to five years?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Oh, that's a question how much time do you have, greg
?
No, I think that there are somethings that are pretty typical
and will continue withinfinancial services and payments
for B2B or B2C.
I think some of those thingsare being very trusted.
You know, people are entrustingus with their lifeblood, which
(06:45):
is the cash flow of theirbusiness, and so trust, I think,
is always going to be there.
Convenience is always going tobe there.
People like to pay with the waythat they want to pay, not to
have to pick a vendor and thenkind of reform the way they do
things for the vendor's sake, Ithink.
So trust and security,convenience, and then cost
(07:07):
optimizing your cost and thenoptimizing the value of your
workflow I think those are goingto be, if I were going to say,
persistent.
I've never known anyone whowould like a transaction to be
slower or less predictable.
I've never known anyone whowants like a transaction to be
slower or less predictable.
I've never known anyone whowants it to be more expensive
than it needs to be, and I thinkthose are the kinds of things
that, at Bill, we really focuson, because we feel like the
(07:28):
trusted partner for all of thosesmall businesses who may not
have their own security team,may not have their own fraud
team.
But then we look ahead to thefuture Is pairing all of that
with more advanced technologieslike AI, more intelligent
systems, least cost, routing,the ability to maybe sure that
(07:50):
we're doing it responsibly andthat we have the right humans in
the middle of all of thistechnology?
It's hard to say that AI is notgoing to be a big part of the
future, for whether it'smanaging fraud, whether it's
(08:10):
optimizing cash flow, whetherit's optimizing workflow, which
is some of the things thatpeople think payments are slow,
but sometimes hard to pinpointwhat's slow about it?
It might be the connection, itmight be the fraud mitigation or
it might be the workflow of allof the approvals that have to
happen, and so I think AI willbe a great partner for us and
(08:31):
for our customers in that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Okay, are you hearing anything about crypto or
anything that typically comes upin a lot of these conversations
?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
It's a great question .
I come from more of atechnology background.
I came to payments andfinancial services from a tech
perspective before.
Fintech was the phrase thateveryone used.
I was probably doing fintech afew years before that, and I
always start to a certain degreewith the technology, just
understanding it, what it can dofor all of the functions.
(09:01):
And when I think about digitalcurrencies, I really start with
blockchain, and I think that'sanother persistent capability in
financial services because ithelps us solve so many problems.
So if you take blockchain andapply it to ledgers, if you
apply it to contracts, there canbe better distribution, better
(09:24):
coherence, more data travelingthrough a transaction, and so
those are all things that Ithink are great, and I think
blockchain will continue toinfluence how systems are
developed behind the scenes.
And then when you think aboutthe digital currency side, as
you said, I think we're open toall of the things that our
customers need.
So stable coins and digitalcurrencies digital fiat
(09:46):
currencies are something that wefocus on a lot.
I think not all of the digitalcurrencies are built the same.
Some still operate more as acommodity rather than
transaction currency, and so wekeep an eye on all of it, but we
try to include as much as wecan that is relevant to our
customers' needs today.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Is there any insights on, maybe, the future of the
RTP in the faster payments world?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yes, I think, straight through processing,
real-time processing,account-to-account processing
are all parts of those paymentchoices that our customers have
and our payments needs that ourcustomers have.
So of course we're there.
We absolutely use the bestroute for the transaction, for
the type of transaction, for theneed from the customer and from
(10:30):
the preference of the customeror from their preference of
their vendor or their customeron the other side of the
transaction.
So when you think about it likethat, including the real-time
payments and account-to-accountas they become more available,
we are definitely tied into themand as they become more
available or more commonly used,we'll use them more.
(10:53):
I do think that it'sinteresting.
Everybody was thinking aboutreal-time payments as kind of
the solves-all for a few years.
As it turns out, we still haveto do the work of trust as it
relates to any of the newtechnologies that we bring on
for our platform, for ourcustomers, because trust never
goes away.
What happened with fasterpayments is a lot of great
(11:15):
things happened faster, but thenalso a lot of the bad things
that happen in a payment systemalso happened faster, and so
when the fraudsters find a newwindow into a transaction or the
fraud vectors or the riskvectors change, you really have
to learn that system and thenapply not only the new
technologies that are availablebut the experience that you have
(11:36):
from seeing payment systemsevolve over time and being able
to kind of pick the right toolfor the right job at the right
time.
That's where I think aboutreal-time payments, and it'll be
exciting to see where some ofthese things go as payment
systems develop.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Okay, curious what you think about.
You know, on the consumer side,and a lot of payments companies
that are not B2B are thinkingabout how do you make it
frictionless, how do you makethe payment disappear?
That's a value prop that a lotof people are using and I'm just
curious what are your thoughtson the B2B side of that?
Do we get to the point whereit's so frictionless that the
(12:14):
payment actually disappears, soto speak?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, I think that when you zoom out and add the
software that we use to managethe financial operations, the
financial automation, thefinancial workflow, there's
parts of the transaction that Iabsolutely agree.
If you could make it completelyfrictionless and fade into the
background.
I've worked pretty much 25years in trying to make the
(12:39):
things that don't have to matterrecede into the background.
But in a B2B setting, sometimesyou need certain parts of the
payment experience or thepayment capability very visible.
It shouldn't necessarily come tothe background because a vendor
may be holding an order forshipment that the small business
needs based on thatnotification or that trigger,
(13:03):
and so until everything thatsurrounds a payment is also
frictionless and is receded intothe background, then I can
think that the payments could becompletely frictionless.
We can make all of the hardparts of the payments way more
frictionless.
So, application for payments,applications for credit, there's
many things we can do to makeit easier.
(13:24):
Authentication can be easierand fade more into the
background.
Certainly, fraud managementcapabilities should be receding
into the background wheneverpossible, but the important
thing is to know when thecustomer needs to know about the
money flow, and I think that'swhen they come back into the
fore and we kind of bringpayments back into the relevance
(13:44):
and then it can go back intothe background when it needs to
be, so it doesn't clog up therest of commerce.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Right, right, that makes sense.
So let's switch gears a littlebit and talk about you.
Maybe talk about yourprofessional journey, kind of
how you got started in paymentsand financial services and where
you've been and how you got toBill.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I'm sure this is going to be somewhat similar to
a few people that you've talkedto.
I know that a lot of peoplethat I work with and have worked
with over the years in paymentskind of will describe it as I
somehow accidentally got into it.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Fell in and can't get out.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
And now I'm here, no, so I would follow that pattern.
So I started in 99 and 2000 inwhat they called the internet
startups of the world inMinneapolis and was really
learning about how software.
I had worked in softwarecompanies on-prem large
implementation softwarecompanies prior and I was really
(14:41):
fascinated about how thesoftware could move to the cloud
and not only could that helpthe company but it could help
all of their different tradingpartners.
So I was already interested inhow there's a web of trading
partners and entities aroundeach business and the thought of
connecting that through thisradical technology.
At the time the internet wasreally interesting to me and one
(15:03):
of the things that I found atthat company and then mergers
and acquisitions I ended up at aplatform company called Digital
River and one of the thingsthat was common in my
experiences early was that wherethe intersection of where money
moved and where technologyplayed, it was a very where the
intersection of where moneymoved and where technology
played, it was a very, verybumpy intersection.
(15:26):
It had lots of potholes.
It kind of wasn't fit forpurpose at the time.
So at that time in my career,and probably still now, whenever
there's a traffic jam or acollision to or a knot to
unbundle.
I volunteer for that tour ofduty.
And so nobody really raisedtheir hand to say, yeah, I'll go
fix this chasm betweentraditional financial services
(15:50):
and banks and acquiringinstitutions at the time and the
marketplaces that were beingbuilt.
And I did, and what I found wasjust so much possibility.
It's so critical to making manyof these platforms work.
But there was like atranslation problem on both
sides.
You know, one side was talkinginternet and technology and
(16:10):
changing business functions andthe other side was, you know,
talking about risk management,fraud capabilities and credit
underwriting, and you know thosethings were not translating,
especially at that time.
I moved from Minneapolis.
I was recruited by Amazon towork on in 2004, working on
their financial that seam.
(16:31):
That is very important.
One of the places that I thinkpayments disappeared first are
on platforms like Amazon, whereone-click checkout and the speed
of fulfillment really becamepart of the customer promise of
buying online.
So I also laugh.
I went there, didn't really knowmuch about the West Coast,
(16:52):
didn't know if I was going tostay in Seattle, but I thought
it would be a fun adventure.
So I committed to going toAmazon for two years and I
stayed for almost 12.
And then I stayed in Seattlefor a lot longer than that.
So I'm almost 20 now.
So, yeah, that's a little bitabout my journey.
I can't even tell you how manythings we built, changed and
(17:13):
evolved during my time at Amazon, because Amazon built and
changed and evolved so much andthe moving of money had to match
the innovation on the rest ofthe business and technology side
.
So it was never a dull moment,I can say that.
And then from there I joinedSquare as the head of their
(17:34):
payments function for Square forsmall businesses, and small
businesses have always been.
I've always had a soft spot forsmall businesses, probably
because I came from a small townand small businesses really
were the lifeblood of thecommunity.
You know they sponsored thelittle league teams and the
t-ball teams and things likethat.
So, and then I spent a littlebit of time about four years at
(17:56):
Visa, working on the globalplatform and helping to do some
transformation there, but alsoreally focused on making the
payment system really expansiveand friendly for not just the
banks and the traditionalprocessors that had always been
a part of the payment system butfor fintechs as well.
(18:16):
Maybe I also had a belief thatI might be back at a fintech
someday, so I thought it was agood match and then I joined
Bill about six months ago tolead payments and financial
services to pair with oursoftware business, and I'm
really excited to be back in thesaddle serving small businesses
again.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Well, what was it about Bill that attracted you?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I've worked for several founder-led companies
and Rene is a multi I thinkfour-time entrepreneur and he
has a real passion for helpingsmall businesses thrive and do
what they are meant to do.
So I loved working with Rene.
I also, as I said, have a softspot for small businesses and I
(18:59):
think that just because you area small or mid-tier business and
you don't necessarily have thelargest IT department, you don't
have proprietary software thatyou necessarily can write.
I don't think that technologyshould be a blocker for that,
and I don't think financialservices should be.
And in both ways, smallbusinesses are somewhat still
it's shocking to me, butsomewhat still underserved in
(19:21):
financial services and intechnology services, and so
making both more accessible wasalso a big driver for me.
And then there are just greatpeople at Bill we just you know
who all share the vision andreally are focused on making a
difference in customers' lives.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Okay, okay.
Well, what are some thingsyou're passionate about?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Maybe one work-related passion and one
personal passion under the I'llput it under the umbrella of
agile or small A agile whereyou're bringing lots of the
(20:04):
people together from technology,maybe from legal, maybe from
compliance, if you work infinancial services and actually
getting people to work bettertogether on that mission to do
things.
So I tend to focus on that.
I love kind of the nerd bits oftechnology, like really
figuring out as we're exploringwe're on our second generation
(20:25):
of embedding intelligent systemsand AI into our applications.
I love to be at the coalface ofthat.
I like to, in my free time,also take a Python class or to
start thinking about how tolearn to program agents in the
AI space.
They're not good so I wouldn'trecommend any.
(20:47):
We're not launching any of thoseat Beryl.
Those are just on my spare timeon the side of my desk.
And then I just really love tosee how technology can be a
change agent for customers, butalso for customers beyond the
transactional aspects of it,which is funny because I work in
financial services side of thebusiness.
(21:08):
But when transactions connectat that intersection of
technology and financialservices, it can change the
nature of the relationshipbetween those two sides in the
commerce transaction Things thatmaybe the business didn't think
were possible are now possible.
I really love geeking out onall of those things, so I would
(21:29):
say those are kind of some of mybigger passions at work.
Okay, what about?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
personal passions.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Personal passions, it's going to sound a little bit
similar.
I'm a bit of a dabbler insports and scuba diving and
hiking and some of those things.
Personally, I like watchingsports as well.
Right now it is March, so itwould be unfair of me not to
mention March Madness.
I am a big NCAA women'sbasketball fan.
(21:55):
I come from Iowa.
There's a big focus on women'sbasketball in Iowa, so I'm
running into March Madness rightnow with a high passion for how
far the University of Iowawomen's basketball team is going
to take it.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Okay, okay, that's great.
Well, good luck.
Hopefully they do well.
So if someone comes to you,mary Kay, and they say, hey,
maybe they're right out ofschool, maybe they just
graduated from Iowa, and theysay, hey, I'm looking at
building a career in financialservices or payments, what kind
of advice would you give them tobe successful?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Well, one thing I will say about my journey in the
past is relatively few peoplewill come and ask you about a
career in payments because it'snot one of the things that is
necessarily seen before you getinto that.
But if they came for technologyor fintech, what I would say is
just be an explorer.
One of the reasons that I evengot into this industry and was
(22:47):
able to build my way into greatcompanies like Digital River and
Amazon and Square and Visa isbecause I had the experience
from sitting in the seats that Isaid yes to Some of them.
I questioned at the time why Isaid yes to them, because I have
(23:08):
done everything from building atransactional foreign exchange
engine.
As somebody who didn't come outof foreign exchange trading,
that was a bit of a learningcurve.
But you sit in the middle ofthings and if you learn a little
bit of everything that's onevery side of it by saying yes
to exploring, I think you findwhat you're really interested in
.
I love these connections, I lovethat intersection and I have
(23:28):
repeated that in multiple partsof my career.
I also have an affinity fortwo-sided markets.
I found that through exploringin some of these spaces and the
economics behind it, thebehavioral economics of money,
and so what I would encouragethem from themselves is to be an
explorer.
And then the other thing that Iwould say is to work for people
(23:49):
that you get energy from, thatyou admire.
Even if you're wrong, even ifthat particular job or
opportunity isn't right, you'regoing to make real connections
with people that might last yourwhole career.
So those would be the twothings one on the personal side
and then one on the never say noside and always be learning.
(24:09):
I guess my mom was a teacher,so I think that is just.
It's so deeply like buriedinside of me that, and I think
technology today almost requiresyou to always be learning.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, I think that's all great advice, so I
appreciate you sharing that.
So, as we sort of come to theend of the show, is there
anything you'd like to discuss,anything else that we haven't
hit on yet that you want to talkabout or mention to the
audience?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I think that I don't think I have any other big
pieces of insight or advice, butI really have enjoyed the
conversation.
I think it's super importantfor us to think about how you
apply technology, how it impactsreal customers, real business
and life, and not justtechnology for technology's sake
(24:56):
.
So I think Bill does a greatjob of thinking on behalf and
ahead of our customers on whattechnology could really serve
their needs and bringing outsomething that is easy for them
to discover, it's the right fitfor the right time, and that
they can immediately see impactsto their business, which is
(25:18):
part of the shift of technology.
It used to be you implementedsoftware and then you trained
people on that software for manymoons, and now people can
really experience the benefitsof capabilities from technology
immediately, and that's one ofthe things that we're really
excited about at Bill.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Okay, great.
I think that's a great way towrap up the show.
So, mary Kay, thank you so muchfor being on today.
I know your time is veryvaluable.
So thank you so much for beingon today.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I know your time is very valuable, so thank you so
much for being here today.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Thanks so much, greg, I appreciate it and to all your
listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
(26:11):
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 theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
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, mary Kay Bowman,the EVP and GM of Payments and
Financial Services at Bill.
So, mary Kay, thank you forbeing here and welcome to the
show.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hey, thanks, greg, I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Great, so why don't we start out by having you tell
us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
maybe where you grew up, where you went to school,
where you currently live, a fewthings like that.
Well, I grew up in the Midwest.
I'm a big champion for theMidwest.
I grew up in a small town inIowa called Marshalltown, near
the middle of the state, nearthe middle of the country.
So I kind of grew up in thatMidwestern ethic where Main
Street and small towns were themost important things, and came
from a family of teachers andfarmers and some entrepreneurs
(01:03):
as well.
So that's how I grew up.
I went to school in Minnesotaand I now live in Seattle.
So, a little different than thecenter of the country, I'm
enjoying the very upper leftcorner of the country.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Awesome.
Well, let's talk about Bill.
So I think most of our audiencewill know who Bill is, but
maybe tell our audience, forthose that may not know what
Bill does.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah.
So Bill is a financialoperations platform for small
and mid-sized businesses andwhat we try to do is take some
of the heavyweight financialpractices accounts, payable,
accounts, receivable, employeeexpense management so basically
how they're managing theircustomers, their vendors and
their employee expenses, whichcan get very noisy.
(01:48):
It has a lot of transactions, alot of ins and outs, affects
cash flow greatly.
And we do this not onlydirectly but through our
partnerships with more than8,000 accounting firms who are
the partners for those smallbusinesses all across the
country.
So in financial operations thatmeans we have both financial
(02:08):
operations software to manageaccounts, payable, accounts,
receivable, employee expensemanagement but we also have the
financial services for both themoney movement, payments and
also for working capital.
So we also provide loans andexpedited settlements to
optimize working capital and wealso do international payments
(02:29):
and foreign exchange management,so kind of all of the things
that ride along with all ofthose loud, noisy transactions
that interrupt the day of all ofour small businesses.
And then we also help themsettle it, which means we can
also bring it together and helpthem reconcile it, really get a
good picture of their financialposition.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, are there certain verticals that you focus
on more than others?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, so we are really focused on small business
and, as you know, smallbusiness SMBs reach every
vertical.
So we have everything fromlight manufacturing to heavy
manufacturing, restaurants toprofessional services like
accountants and legalprofessionals, creative services
we have just about everythingunder the sun.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And you're based in the US.
Do you do businessinternationally?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
We're based in the US and we, from a payments and
financial services perspective,we have eight different payment
products and we transact in 130currencies.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So primarily for US-based businesses and their
subsidiaries outside of the USfor now, and also some in Canada
, okay, so, on the payments sidespecifically, is it a lot of
B2B payments or is it also justyour typical card payments by
consumers?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So it is B2B typically, but we also have card
payments as well, but primarilycard payments from other
businesses.
So we help small businesses paywith their preferred payment
methods, which may be cards, maybe another payment method.
We also help those businessesand larger businesses accept
payments in their customers'preferred method.
(04:02):
So that means we're doingeverything from checks, ACH,
sometimes wire transfers and allof the cards.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay okay, and you mentioned that you have a lot of
partnerships, working throughaccounting firms.
Is that the main way to getbusiness, or do you have a sales
team?
Or maybe talk about thego-to-market a little bit?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, we do it.
We really respect ouraccounting partners because they
add so much value and in somecases they are the outsourced
accounting and finance team forour small businesses.
So it just really makes senseto work with them and we work
very deeply with them.
The software that we providethem is actually the software
they use to serve theircustomers and to operate on
(04:43):
their behalf.
But we also work directly withsmall businesses that may have
their own internal financeorganizations.
We have our own sales team.
We have, obviously, our owndirect channels through our
website as well, but we have ourown sales team.
And then we work with channelpartners, including some banks
and other financial servicescompanies who are looking to
enhance their services, andsoftware companies that are
(05:05):
looking to embed payment andfinancial services and some of
the financial operations intotheir software.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Okay, okay.
And what would you saydifferentiates Bill from your
competitors out there?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I think one of the things that differentiates us is
that we can do the softwareside of almost all of those
financial operations.
So, as I said earlier, wereally focus on the things that
take up the majority of a smallbusiness's day from a financial
operations perspective.
That is, accounts payablemanagement so getting the funds
(05:39):
from their customers, gettingall of the documents needed to
put out their work to theircustomers and being able to
receive payments back.
Also accounts receivable,accounts payable, and then
employee expense management aswell.
And then we have.
I think one of the things thatdifferentiates us on all levels
is that we have our financialservices matching to each of
(06:01):
those.
So we're not thinking aboutjust recording or automating or
managing the workflow of thesoftware, but we're also pairing
it with the right moneymovement and optimizing the cash
flow for our customers.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, let's talk about the future a little bit.
In your view of things, wheredo you see the payments industry
headed, say, maybe the nextthree to five years?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Oh, that's a question how much time do you have, greg
?
No, I think that there are somethings that are pretty typical
and will continue withinfinancial services and payments
for B2B or B2C.
I think some of those thingsare being very trusted.
You know, people are entrustingus with their lifeblood, which
(06:45):
is the cash flow of theirbusiness, and so trust, I think,
is always going to be there.
Convenience is always going tobe there.
People like to pay with the waythat they want to pay, not to
have to pick a vendor and thenkind of reform the way they do
things for the vendor's sake, Ithink.
So trust and security,convenience, and then cost
(07:07):
optimizing your cost and thenoptimizing the value of your
workflow I think those are goingto be, if I were going to say,
persistent.
I've never known anyone whowould like a transaction to be
slower or less predictable.
I've never known anyone whowants like a transaction to be
slower or less predictable.
I've never known anyone whowants it to be more expensive
than it needs to be, and I thinkthose are the kinds of things
that, at Bill, we really focuson, because we feel like the
(07:28):
trusted partner for all of thosesmall businesses who may not
have their own security team,may not have their own fraud
team.
But then we look ahead to thefuture Is pairing all of that
with more advanced technologieslike AI, more intelligent
systems, least cost, routing,the ability to maybe sure that
(07:50):
we're doing it responsibly andthat we have the right humans in
the middle of all of thistechnology?
It's hard to say that AI is notgoing to be a big part of the
future, for whether it'smanaging fraud, whether it's
(08:10):
optimizing cash flow, whetherit's optimizing workflow, which
is some of the things thatpeople think payments are slow,
but sometimes hard to pinpointwhat's slow about it?
It might be the connection, itmight be the fraud mitigation or
it might be the workflow of allof the approvals that have to
happen, and so I think AI willbe a great partner for us and
(08:31):
for our customers in that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Okay, are you hearing anything about crypto or
anything that typically comes upin a lot of these conversations
?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
It's a great question .
I come from more of atechnology background.
I came to payments andfinancial services from a tech
perspective before.
Fintech was the phrase thateveryone used.
I was probably doing fintech afew years before that, and I
always start to a certain degreewith the technology, just
understanding it, what it can dofor all of the functions.
(09:01):
And when I think about digitalcurrencies, I really start with
blockchain, and I think that'sanother persistent capability in
financial services because ithelps us solve so many problems.
So if you take blockchain andapply it to ledgers, if you
apply it to contracts, there canbe better distribution, better
(09:24):
coherence, more data travelingthrough a transaction, and so
those are all things that Ithink are great, and I think
blockchain will continue toinfluence how systems are
developed behind the scenes.
And then when you think aboutthe digital currency side, as
you said, I think we're open toall of the things that our
customers need.
So stable coins and digitalcurrencies digital fiat
(09:46):
currencies are something that wefocus on a lot.
I think not all of the digitalcurrencies are built the same.
Some still operate more as acommodity rather than
transaction currency, and so wekeep an eye on all of it, but we
try to include as much as wecan that is relevant to our
customers' needs today.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Is there any insights on, maybe, the future of the
RTP in the faster payments world?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yes, I think, straight through processing,
real-time processing,account-to-account processing
are all parts of those paymentchoices that our customers have
and our payments needs that ourcustomers have.
So of course we're there.
We absolutely use the bestroute for the transaction, for
the type of transaction, for theneed from the customer and from
(10:30):
the preference of the customeror from their preference of
their vendor or their customeron the other side of the
transaction.
So when you think about it likethat, including the real-time
payments and account-to-accountas they become more available,
we are definitely tied into themand as they become more
available or more commonly used,we'll use them more.
(10:53):
I do think that it'sinteresting.
Everybody was thinking aboutreal-time payments as kind of
the solves-all for a few years.
As it turns out, we still haveto do the work of trust as it
relates to any of the newtechnologies that we bring on
for our platform, for ourcustomers, because trust never
goes away.
What happened with fasterpayments is a lot of great
(11:15):
things happened faster, but thenalso a lot of the bad things
that happen in a payment systemalso happened faster, and so
when the fraudsters find a newwindow into a transaction or the
fraud vectors or the riskvectors change, you really have
to learn that system and thenapply not only the new
technologies that are availablebut the experience that you have
(11:36):
from seeing payment systemsevolve over time and being able
to kind of pick the right toolfor the right job at the right
time.
That's where I think aboutreal-time payments, and it'll be
exciting to see where some ofthese things go as payment
systems develop.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Okay, curious what you think about.
You know, on the consumer side,and a lot of payments companies
that are not B2B are thinkingabout how do you make it
frictionless, how do you makethe payment disappear?
That's a value prop that a lotof people are using and I'm just
curious what are your thoughtson the B2B side of that?
Do we get to the point whereit's so frictionless that the
(12:14):
payment actually disappears, soto speak?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, I think that when you zoom out and add the
software that we use to managethe financial operations, the
financial automation, thefinancial workflow, there's
parts of the transaction that Iabsolutely agree.
If you could make it completelyfrictionless and fade into the
background.
I've worked pretty much 25years in trying to make the
(12:39):
things that don't have to matterrecede into the background.
But in a B2B setting, sometimesyou need certain parts of the
payment experience or thepayment capability very visible.
It shouldn't necessarily come tothe background because a vendor
may be holding an order forshipment that the small business
needs based on thatnotification or that trigger,
(13:03):
and so until everything thatsurrounds a payment is also
frictionless and is receded intothe background, then I can
think that the payments could becompletely frictionless.
We can make all of the hardparts of the payments way more
frictionless.
So, application for payments,applications for credit, there's
many things we can do to makeit easier.
(13:24):
Authentication can be easierand fade more into the
background.
Certainly, fraud managementcapabilities should be receding
into the background wheneverpossible, but the important
thing is to know when thecustomer needs to know about the
money flow, and I think that'swhen they come back into the
fore and we kind of bringpayments back into the relevance
(13:44):
and then it can go back intothe background when it needs to
be, so it doesn't clog up therest of commerce.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Right, right, that makes sense.
So let's switch gears a littlebit and talk about you.
Maybe talk about yourprofessional journey, kind of
how you got started in paymentsand financial services and where
you've been and how you got toBill.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I'm sure this is going to be somewhat similar to
a few people that you've talkedto.
I know that a lot of peoplethat I work with and have worked
with over the years in paymentskind of will describe it as I
somehow accidentally got into it.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Fell in and can't get out.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
And now I'm here, no, so I would follow that pattern.
So I started in 99 and 2000 inwhat they called the internet
startups of the world inMinneapolis and was really
learning about how software.
I had worked in softwarecompanies on-prem large
implementation softwarecompanies prior and I was really
(14:41):
fascinated about how thesoftware could move to the cloud
and not only could that helpthe company but it could help
all of their different tradingpartners.
So I was already interested inhow there's a web of trading
partners and entities aroundeach business and the thought of
connecting that through thisradical technology.
At the time the internet wasreally interesting to me and one
(15:03):
of the things that I found atthat company and then mergers
and acquisitions I ended up at aplatform company called Digital
River and one of the thingsthat was common in my
experiences early was that wherethe intersection of where money
moved and where technologyplayed, it was a very where the
intersection of where moneymoved and where technology
played, it was a very, verybumpy intersection.
(15:26):
It had lots of potholes.
It kind of wasn't fit forpurpose at the time.
So at that time in my career,and probably still now, whenever
there's a traffic jam or acollision to or a knot to
unbundle.
I volunteer for that tour ofduty.
And so nobody really raisedtheir hand to say, yeah, I'll go
fix this chasm betweentraditional financial services
(15:50):
and banks and acquiringinstitutions at the time and the
marketplaces that were beingbuilt.
And I did, and what I found wasjust so much possibility.
It's so critical to making manyof these platforms work.
But there was like atranslation problem on both
sides.
You know, one side was talkinginternet and technology and
(16:10):
changing business functions andthe other side was, you know,
talking about risk management,fraud capabilities and credit
underwriting, and you know thosethings were not translating,
especially at that time.
I moved from Minneapolis.
I was recruited by Amazon towork on in 2004, working on
their financial that seam.
(16:31):
That is very important.
One of the places that I thinkpayments disappeared first are
on platforms like Amazon, whereone-click checkout and the speed
of fulfillment really becamepart of the customer promise of
buying online.
So I also laugh.
I went there, didn't really knowmuch about the West Coast,
(16:52):
didn't know if I was going tostay in Seattle, but I thought
it would be a fun adventure.
So I committed to going toAmazon for two years and I
stayed for almost 12.
And then I stayed in Seattlefor a lot longer than that.
So I'm almost 20 now.
So, yeah, that's a little bitabout my journey.
I can't even tell you how manythings we built, changed and
(17:13):
evolved during my time at Amazon, because Amazon built and
changed and evolved so much andthe moving of money had to match
the innovation on the rest ofthe business and technology side
.
So it was never a dull moment,I can say that.
And then from there I joinedSquare as the head of their
(17:34):
payments function for Square forsmall businesses, and small
businesses have always been.
I've always had a soft spot forsmall businesses, probably
because I came from a small townand small businesses really
were the lifeblood of thecommunity.
You know they sponsored thelittle league teams and the
t-ball teams and things likethat.
So, and then I spent a littlebit of time about four years at
(17:56):
Visa, working on the globalplatform and helping to do some
transformation there, but alsoreally focused on making the
payment system really expansiveand friendly for not just the
banks and the traditionalprocessors that had always been
a part of the payment system butfor fintechs as well.
(18:16):
Maybe I also had a belief thatI might be back at a fintech
someday, so I thought it was agood match and then I joined
Bill about six months ago tolead payments and financial
services to pair with oursoftware business, and I'm
really excited to be back in thesaddle serving small businesses
again.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Well, what was it about Bill that attracted you?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I've worked for several founder-led companies
and Rene is a multi I thinkfour-time entrepreneur and he
has a real passion for helpingsmall businesses thrive and do
what they are meant to do.
So I loved working with Rene.
I also, as I said, have a softspot for small businesses and I
(18:59):
think that just because you area small or mid-tier business and
you don't necessarily have thelargest IT department, you don't
have proprietary software thatyou necessarily can write.
I don't think that technologyshould be a blocker for that,
and I don't think financialservices should be.
And in both ways, smallbusinesses are somewhat still
it's shocking to me, butsomewhat still underserved in
(19:21):
financial services and intechnology services, and so
making both more accessible wasalso a big driver for me.
And then there are just greatpeople at Bill we just you know
who all share the vision andreally are focused on making a
difference in customers' lives.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Okay, okay.
Well, what are some thingsyou're passionate about?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Maybe one work-related passion and one
personal passion under the I'llput it under the umbrella of
agile or small A agile whereyou're bringing lots of the
(20:04):
people together from technology,maybe from legal, maybe from
compliance, if you work infinancial services and actually
getting people to work bettertogether on that mission to do
things.
So I tend to focus on that.
I love kind of the nerd bits oftechnology, like really
figuring out as we're exploringwe're on our second generation
(20:25):
of embedding intelligent systemsand AI into our applications.
I love to be at the coalface ofthat.
I like to, in my free time,also take a Python class or to
start thinking about how tolearn to program agents in the
AI space.
They're not good so I wouldn'trecommend any.
(20:47):
We're not launching any of thoseat Beryl.
Those are just on my spare timeon the side of my desk.
And then I just really love tosee how technology can be a
change agent for customers, butalso for customers beyond the
transactional aspects of it,which is funny because I work in
financial services side of thebusiness.
(21:08):
But when transactions connectat that intersection of
technology and financialservices, it can change the
nature of the relationshipbetween those two sides in the
commerce transaction Things thatmaybe the business didn't think
were possible are now possible.
I really love geeking out onall of those things, so I would
(21:29):
say those are kind of some of mybigger passions at work.
Okay, what about?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
personal passions.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Personal passions, it's going to sound a little bit
similar.
I'm a bit of a dabbler insports and scuba diving and
hiking and some of those things.
Personally, I like watchingsports as well.
Right now it is March, so itwould be unfair of me not to
mention March Madness.
I am a big NCAA women'sbasketball fan.
(21:55):
I come from Iowa.
There's a big focus on women'sbasketball in Iowa, so I'm
running into March Madness rightnow with a high passion for how
far the University of Iowawomen's basketball team is going
to take it.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Okay, okay, that's great.
Well, good luck.
Hopefully they do well.
So if someone comes to you,mary Kay, and they say, hey,
maybe they're right out ofschool, maybe they just
graduated from Iowa, and theysay, hey, I'm looking at
building a career in financialservices or payments, what kind
of advice would you give them tobe successful?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Well, one thing I will say about my journey in the
past is relatively few peoplewill come and ask you about a
career in payments because it'snot one of the things that is
necessarily seen before you getinto that.
But if they came for technologyor fintech, what I would say is
just be an explorer.
One of the reasons that I evengot into this industry and was
(22:47):
able to build my way into greatcompanies like Digital River and
Amazon and Square and Visa isbecause I had the experience
from sitting in the seats that Isaid yes to Some of them.
I questioned at the time why Isaid yes to them, because I have
(23:08):
done everything from building atransactional foreign exchange
engine.
As somebody who didn't come outof foreign exchange trading,
that was a bit of a learningcurve.
But you sit in the middle ofthings and if you learn a little
bit of everything that's onevery side of it by saying yes
to exploring, I think you findwhat you're really interested in
.
I love these connections, I lovethat intersection and I have
(23:28):
repeated that in multiple partsof my career.
I also have an affinity fortwo-sided markets.
I found that through exploringin some of these spaces and the
economics behind it, thebehavioral economics of money,
and so what I would encouragethem from themselves is to be an
explorer.
And then the other thing that Iwould say is to work for people
(23:49):
that you get energy from, thatyou admire.
Even if you're wrong, even ifthat particular job or
opportunity isn't right, you'regoing to make real connections
with people that might last yourwhole career.
So those would be the twothings one on the personal side
and then one on the never say noside and always be learning.
(24:09):
I guess my mom was a teacher,so I think that is just.
It's so deeply like buriedinside of me that, and I think
technology today almost requiresyou to always be learning.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, I think that's all great advice, so I
appreciate you sharing that.
So, as we sort of come to theend of the show, is there
anything you'd like to discuss,anything else that we haven't
hit on yet that you want to talkabout or mention to the
audience?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I think that I don't think I have any other big
pieces of insight or advice, butI really have enjoyed the
conversation.
I think it's super importantfor us to think about how you
apply technology, how it impactsreal customers, real business
and life, and not justtechnology for technology's sake
(24:56):
.
So I think Bill does a greatjob of thinking on behalf and
ahead of our customers on whattechnology could really serve
their needs and bringing outsomething that is easy for them
to discover, it's the right fitfor the right time, and that
they can immediately see impactsto their business, which is
(25:18):
part of the shift of technology.
It used to be you implementedsoftware and then you trained
people on that software for manymoons, and now people can
really experience the benefitsof capabilities from technology
immediately, and that's one ofthe things that we're really
excited about at Bill.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Okay, great.
I think that's a great way towrap up the show.
So, mary Kay, thank you so muchfor being on today.
I know your time is veryvaluable.
So thank you so much for beingon today.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I know your time is very valuable, so thank you so
much for being here today.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Thanks so much, greg, I appreciate it and to all your
listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
(26:11):
channels as well.
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