August 3, 2023 • 18 mins
We're thrilled to unfold the story of Atif Siddiqi, the innovative mind behind Branch, a workforce payments platform that promises to revolutionize industries. Atif and his team at Branch are altering the way payments are processed in healthcare, restaurant, and gig economies like Uber, with their groundbreaking digital wallet feature. Now, workers can cash out their payments swiftly and at no extra cost. What's more, the unbanked sector is not left behind; Branch's digital wallet and card service offer them financial inclusivity.
In this enlightening conversation, we're also pulling back the curtain on how Branch is orchestrating a shift in employer-led financial services, aiming to provide a seamless consumer banking experience for employees. Branch is not just about payments; they're about financial wellness, and we'll delve into their success stories providing liquidity and cash flow to workers. You'll learn how Branch is making inroads in healthcare, logistics, and hospitality industries, and their future plans for enriching their payment options, providing choices for every worker. Join us, and explore how Branch's forward-thinking platform is not only serving industries but also creating lucrative opportunities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Recruiting Daly's Use Case Podcast, a show
dedicated to the storytellingthat happens or should happen
when practitioners purchasetechnology.
Each episode is designed toinspire new ways and ideas to
make your business better as wespeak with the brightest minds
in recruitment and HR tech.
That's what we do.
Here's your host, WilliamTincup.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is William Tincup and
you're listening to the Use CasePodcast.
Today we have a teff on fromBranch.
We learned about the businesscase, the ROI, the cost-benefit
analysis, the use case for whyhis customers and prospects
choose Branch.
So, while we do someintroductions, a teff, would you
do us a favor and introduceboth yourself and Branch?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Thanks, william.
I'm a Topsadiki founder, ceo ofBranch Branch.
We're a workforce paymentsplatform that really helps
businesses compete for workersby enabling instant payments
with easy to launch solutions.
Really, our goal is to helpbusinesses pay any worker
anytime, anywhere.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Oh I like that, I like all of that.
One of the things that recentlyI was going through at Taco
Bell and I saw this bit on oneof the windows and it was like
apply today, work today, getpaid today.
It was fascinating.
I don't know how all that works, but I was just fascinated like
works change Now in the hourlymarket.
I'm sure that this has probablybeen going on for more than it,
(01:29):
but also recently learned thatin the professional sourd world
that it's also starting to movethere.
So give us an overview of theindustries where this is working
and where you think that thewhere it's going.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Yeah, really, where we focus on are industries where
there's a high competition fortalent and there's a technical
market.
In addition to places likerestaurants, where you see the
Taco Bell poster, it's alsoindustries like healthcare, with
nurses right and their staffingcompanies that are looking to
attract and retain nurses totheir platform.
(02:05):
It's gig companies like Uber.
They're out there competing forrideshare ride services, where
workers have choices andessentially they look at a
company like branch to provideincentives around this, like
faster payments, to keep currentworkers happy, to keep
prospective hires, as anincentive for them to come to
(02:25):
the work for these companies,and so it's really a big benefit
that makes a meaningful impactto workers lives.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So do you do you see it like an Uber and Lyft, right?
They can tab out after a ride,like they do one ride and they
can tab out, or they can tab outat the end of the day, or
whatever the bid is.
Do you see it being thatflexible, where the employee
chooses when they want to getthere?
Whatever has occurred, right?
So we're dealing with whateverhas occurred to that point.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
That's right, and I think the difference between a
company like branch and justbeing able to cash out, say,
after every ride, is that thosecashouts become really cost
prohibitive, right, either tothe couple having to pay or to
the worker, meaning that there'ssome transaction costs occurred
.
With branch, what we've done isthe core of our product is a
digital wallet, and what thatwallet allows us to do is to
(03:16):
send payments to workers at anytime, free of cost.
So you might be wondering, like, how do we make money off of
this?
Because we make money.
Anytime that Uber driver goesout and swipes their card, right
, that's associated with thatdigital wallet.
We make a buy interchange forthe merchant.
So I think it's a nice way toalign the incentives for
(03:37):
branches and company as well asthe incentives for the worker,
where they're not incurringextra fees, extra costs, just to
access their cash.
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I love that so much and, again, I like that you
position it both.
This is a great way to retaintalent.
It's also a great way toattract talent.
So the mechanisms inside, likeI know I'm going to ask you a
couple of biceits stuff.
But who are you selling into?
Are you selling into finance?
Are you selling into HR?
Who's the who's your kind of,your point of contact on the
(04:08):
sales side?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, so when it comes to attracting or retaining
talent right, that's usually aHR people issue, right, they're
always looking to see how theycan retain talent.
On the cost side yeah, it'susually a CFO right, they
definitely need the need where,again, if they want to do high
frequency payments, we enablethat because it's a very cost
effective way to do it with justour digital wallet and just fee
(04:33):
free options to the business.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So do you see yourself in that category of
earned wage access or?
Do you see yourself tangentialto that.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It's look tangential right.
So what we've done is reallywiden the aperture, if you will,
from just the way.
Jackson, that's where westarted.
That's why I thought, yeah, thetwo payments.
But we realized the opportunityhere of accelerating worker
payments is far greater thanjust $50 to $100 sort of safety
net for workers, and so whatyou've done is look at other
(05:05):
worker payment issues.
Let's say tips.
Right, you're a pizza deliverydriver and you work at this job
because you depend on these tipsat the end of the shift.
Right, you have income rightaway and ultimately, there's no
cash at the end of the day totip you out though.
Right, everybody's payingcredit cards, mobile ordering,
and really what we've done isdigitize that whole process.
(05:29):
So now, instead of waiting fortwo weeks to get your tips on
the paycheck, you can pick up acard when start working for
Domino's, and if you wanna getyour tips every day, we'll
literally just push those tipsat the end of every shift to
your card.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And this might be a dumb question, so dumb question
alert does that help with theunbanked, with the folks that
are unbanked?
We have a whole population inthe United States that are just
unbanked, right, does that, bythem having a card, does that
help them?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That's right.
The digital wallet is FDICinsured.
I have a fee checking accountright, we use our partner bank,
evolve bank and trust andultimately, yeah, it's a fee
free checking account where youcan get a bank account up and
running through the company workfor and it's a great way too.
And what we see too is a lot ofpeople start using branch let's
(06:17):
just say to get their tips andthey realize, oh, this is
actually like a great bankingalternative to large bank I'm
using.
There's no fees, there's freeATMs, and one out of four users
actually switched to branch astheir primary account.
So we own that relationshipwith that worker over time.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Oh, that's cool, so they can move from company to
company.
It doesn't really matter.
One of the things that I loveis it gets us away from
predatory lending places, and Ilike that a lot.
But I want to ask another dumbquestion.
But it's like why?
Because everything sounds great, but why would people say no?
What's when people either asyou're going through proposals
(06:55):
and pitching people it justseems like a no brainer to me
but also no HR and finance?
So what are the no's that theygive you?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, I think any objection we have is more around
the education of how easy it isto launch a solution like
branch.
So it's a lot of it's.
What is this going to take?
Obviously, all the fee freeoptions to educating, like how
we make money.
And, yeah, I think one of thestrengths of the company is that
we really figured out how tocreate these solutions where
(07:25):
there's not a lot of overhead,there's not a lot of tech
resources required to launch.
A good example of this is Uberright, where Uber came to us
looking for a white labelsolution, something that feels
like the Uber brand, and we wereable to launch that and get
that to market in a really shortamount of time.
(07:47):
And for a company like Uber,they realized their core
competency is logistic, it'smoving people, it's moving
things, and they look to apartner like us where we can be
able to get a product to marketreally quickly.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
A couple things now.
I want to do with the softwareside of things.
So when your folks demo on theoccasion that you get to
actually show folks software,what do they fall in love with?
What do you fall in love with?
What do you think that theyfall in love with?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I think one of the most powerful things we do when
we demo is we'll actually signup the prospect to a branch
account on the call and we'llpush money to that branch
account in a matter of seconds.
That's cool, that dollar orwhatever we push, it's like we
do a cup of coffee, five dollars, to their account.
It's really powerful, right?
(08:38):
You can see that money hit youraccount that you can go use,
and I think that's when themoment the light will click.
So, oh, this could be reallyimpactful for their workers who,
as you mentioned, oftentimes ifthey're struggling with cash
flow, they're resorting to morepredatory measures to cash and
so so what are questions?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
One of the reasons this podcast exists is trying to
teach practitioners what'savailable to them, and so that's
why focusing on the vendor sideof things, but also want to
educate them as to questionsthat they should ask in the buy
side.
So, if you could script it,what are the questions that
you'd love to hear from financeor HR?
What are the questions thatthey should be asking you?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, I think under the hood, one of the things that
makes us special too is wedon't require any pre-funding.
If you think of in the case ofa W2 worker, for example, with
payroll, you're having to lockup a lot of the company's cash
into an escrow account forpayroll.
Similarly with a 1099 worker,where you need to maybe park
(09:39):
some money aside.
So then pre-funding piece isreally big because what we'll do
is we'll do some basicunderwriting on the company
itself and we will push thecapital to the worker that same
day and then draw it down fromthe company.
And so ultimately let's improvelike the cash conversion cycle
for companies right.
They're able to use that cashand generate for the company or
(10:00):
generate interest incomethemselves.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, it's interesting.
I could see first of all, thequestions around stand-up, like
okay, how fast can we stand thisup with our workforce?
I could see that question Isthere any other integrations?
Where does this need to beconnected to payroll or benefits
or compensation?
Is there any kind of plumbingthat needs to be done?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
There is right.
There's a couple of data pointswe need to make the system work
.
One is how much does somebodymake, how often do they work?
And so all that we take care ofand integrate either to a
system of record if it's a W2worker, the payroll if it's a
company like Uber, they usuallyhave that data, and so we'll
connect to that in real time.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So do you consider a branch of FinTech or an HR Tech
company?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I would say we're in the middle of both.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
That's what I was struggling with.
I'm like.
First of all, I guess I couldmake a case for both, but you do
have your foot in both of thoseOne.
I think there used to be aphrase one foot in the canoe,
the other in a speedboat, soyou've got your feet in both.
I've not done a lot of work inthe FinTech space, so I couldn't
tell you anything about it.
What's different about so youhave?
(11:18):
So what's different aboutFinTech than HRTech?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, I would say the reason I mention HRTech is that
Branch.
The only way we acquire userson our platformers is through a
company that they work for rightso consumer can't go on to sign
up for a branch account.
With that said, we do providereally great consumer banking
like experiences.
Right, I mentioned the one offour people uses as a primary
(11:42):
account.
Once they leave their company,they can still continue to use
branches like a fee freechecking account, and so that's
why it's and what we really seeis this idea of employer led
financial services.
Right.
If you think about in the past,it's employer led financial
services are more focused aroundlike longer term objectives.
(12:02):
Right, it's 401ks, it's justagencies, fsas, whereas we're
solving for this new generationof workers right, that maybe
need some more short term needslike liquidity and cash flow.
Help with cash flow.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So we did talk about earned wage access, and I know
y'all started there and you'vemorphed into something else.
What do you call that category?
And again, I hate softwarecategories, so just bear with me
.
But like you're not, you dosome of that.
But what do you do much more?
What do you call that?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah, I know I mentioned the employer led
financial services.
I think another category that'semerging, that's on the radar
of a lot of HR professionals, islike financial wellness.
Right, and I realize thatfinancial wellness is just as
important as like healthwellness and making sure the
financial wellbeing of theiremployees is taken care of as
another category we see.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I like that a lot because, again, can you like
said health, health, wellness,mental health, financial health,
like all those things arewonderful and it gives you
another entry point.
So, if not through HR directly,the benefits folks that deal
with all of the things, that areall the wellness programs and
things like a compensationthat's another category to go
(13:17):
after as well.
That's it, that's cool.
Tell us all the success stories, and no brands or anything like
that.
It's more the story of maybeeven someone who's a bit
skeptical and then all of asudden they're like yeah, I
can't do without this.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, I mean I really go back to where we I mentioned
, like opening the aperture onlike other work or payment use
cases.
Like during the pandemic, wewere working with a lot of
Domino's pizza franchisees andthey really saw the value of the
ability for us to push money atany time, and so they actually
came to us saying, hey, listento your wall.
It's great.
Is there a way you can help ussupport paying tips to drivers
(13:54):
because we just don't have anycash at the end of the day, like
our managers are running toATMs or right, or a lot of cash
on site?
We're like, yeah, absolutely,that sounds like a great case,
as long as you get us the datalike we're able to make that
happen.
And it was a big win for bothsides.
Win for the worker, where theydidn't have to wait now till
they're paycheck to get theirtips and we can push that
immediately.
(14:14):
And one of the otherinnovations we did was we
launched a product that allowsus to push pre-printed cards
right, so they didn't have towait in the mail for a card to
come in.
We just put a stack of cards attheir employee break room and
they can pick one up, scan itand their tips would be on that
same day I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So what's the and again?
Any more of those stories thatthose are great because
practitioners love hearing those.
But I did have a questionaround go to market and getting
your brand out there.
So how do you, how are y'alllooking at this?
We're what two quarters intothis year.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah, what is.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
What is it?
What's the idea for the rest ofthe year of getting people to
to know what branch is and whatthey do?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, I think for us it's really looking at other
industries that have thiscompetition for talent and I
would say, this year, one of thelarger industries we've been
targeting is around healthcare.
We're staffing companies where,you know, as there's like a
shortage of nurses, a lot ofthese platforms, a lot of nurses
are also open to doing morecontract work sort of 1099 work
(15:19):
and a lot of platforms haveemerged.
We're getting a lot of growingreally rapidly and Ultimately,
working with those platforms topay nurses faster has been a big
driver for the company.
Other areas around logistics,like last-mom delivery not just
the Ubers of the world, we'realso companies that are doing
essentially shipping packages tocustomers' doorsteps, Right.
(15:41):
So there's a lot of theseplayers, too, that have been
growing.
And then, finally, in thehospitality space, we started
off in quick service restaurantsare now expanding into full
service restaurants, whereas,you would imagine, tips are a
big part of those workers' livesas well and, yeah, I'm making
sure that they can get paidimmediately.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So, on the technical roadmap, what's about just
divulging anything secret oranything like that?
But what's next?
What do you think that?
The what do you see this?
If we were to have this podcastin a year from now, what do you
think we would be talking about?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, I think for us.
We realize that workers wantoptions right, and so, although
we started at the core of theproduct with Wallet, which I
mentioned, we've now alsolaunched solutions that allow
workers to also get paid totheir bank accounts if they want
right.
And so, just while workers aresweet of options that allow them
to again access their moneyhowever they want has been
(16:33):
really important.
I think that's important forthe company because now we own
really all worker paymentscoming through a branch.
Whether you want to get pushedto your existing bank account,
whether you want to get for freeto our wallet, that's all
enabled.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
So last question and I think you covered it before,
but I want to make sure thepractitioners understand it it's
how you make money.
Where in this process do youmake money, or where do?
Where are they going to feel it?
I guess it's probably some ofthe things that they would care
about too.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, for the companies themselves it's.
You know, we have fee-freeoptions, right.
There's no cost to the company.
Where we make money is one viainterchange, right?
So anytime a worker goes out,swipes their physical debit card
, makes a purchase onlinethrough the wallet, we make it
from an emerging.
The other thing we do, too, isagain mentioning the optionality
(17:22):
.
We allow workers to push moneyout to existing accounts.
We do that for free via ACHright now, but we also charge a
small fee, like most digitalwallets, and then no cash shop
if they do a debit card to debitcard transfer.
So that's the other way.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
That's excellent.
This has been fantastic.
I love what you're doingbecause it's as you said.
It meets employees where theyare.
It meets talent.
So, again, as we recruit andretain talent, the talent wants
to be paid a certain way, whichis we can keep trying to force
them into some false model or wecan just meet them where they
(17:56):
are.
I love that.
I love what you build and thankyou so much for coming on the
podcast.
Thank you, william, absolutely,and thanks for everyone
listening Until next time.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
You've been listening to Recruiting Daly's Use Case
Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on yourfavorite platform and hit us up
at RecruitingDalycom.
Welcome to Recruiting Daly's Use Case Podcast, a show
dedicated to the storytellingthat happens or should happen
when practitioners purchasetechnology.
Each episode is designed toinspire new ways and ideas to
make your business better as wespeak with the brightest minds
in recruitment and HR tech.
That's what we do.
Here's your host, WilliamTincup.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is William Tincup and
you're listening to the Use CasePodcast.
Today we have a teff on fromBranch.
We learned about the businesscase, the ROI, the cost-benefit
analysis, the use case for whyhis customers and prospects
choose Branch.
So, while we do someintroductions, a teff, would you
do us a favor and introduceboth yourself and Branch?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Thanks, william.
I'm a Topsadiki founder, ceo ofBranch Branch.
We're a workforce paymentsplatform that really helps
businesses compete for workersby enabling instant payments
with easy to launch solutions.
Really, our goal is to helpbusinesses pay any worker
anytime, anywhere.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Oh I like that, I like all of that.
One of the things that recentlyI was going through at Taco
Bell and I saw this bit on oneof the windows and it was like
apply today, work today, getpaid today.
It was fascinating.
I don't know how all that works, but I was just fascinated like
works change Now in the hourlymarket.
I'm sure that this has probablybeen going on for more than it,
(01:29):
but also recently learned thatin the professional sourd world
that it's also starting to movethere.
So give us an overview of theindustries where this is working
and where you think that thewhere it's going.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Yeah, really, where we focus on are industries where
there's a high competition fortalent and there's a technical
market.
In addition to places likerestaurants, where you see the
Taco Bell poster, it's alsoindustries like healthcare, with
nurses right and their staffingcompanies that are looking to
attract and retain nurses totheir platform.
(02:05):
It's gig companies like Uber.
They're out there competing forrideshare ride services, where
workers have choices andessentially they look at a
company like branch to provideincentives around this, like
faster payments, to keep currentworkers happy, to keep
prospective hires, as anincentive for them to come to
(02:25):
the work for these companies,and so it's really a big benefit
that makes a meaningful impactto workers lives.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So do you do you see it like an Uber and Lyft, right?
They can tab out after a ride,like they do one ride and they
can tab out, or they can tab outat the end of the day, or
whatever the bid is.
Do you see it being thatflexible, where the employee
chooses when they want to getthere?
Whatever has occurred, right?
So we're dealing with whateverhas occurred to that point.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
That's right, and I think the difference between a
company like branch and justbeing able to cash out, say,
after every ride, is that thosecashouts become really cost
prohibitive, right, either tothe couple having to pay or to
the worker, meaning that there'ssome transaction costs occurred
.
With branch, what we've done isthe core of our product is a
digital wallet, and what thatwallet allows us to do is to
(03:16):
send payments to workers at anytime, free of cost.
So you might be wondering, like, how do we make money off of
this?
Because we make money.
Anytime that Uber driver goesout and swipes their card, right
, that's associated with thatdigital wallet.
We make a buy interchange forthe merchant.
So I think it's a nice way toalign the incentives for
(03:37):
branches and company as well asthe incentives for the worker,
where they're not incurringextra fees, extra costs, just to
access their cash.
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I love that so much and, again, I like that you
position it both.
This is a great way to retaintalent.
It's also a great way toattract talent.
So the mechanisms inside, likeI know I'm going to ask you a
couple of biceits stuff.
But who are you selling into?
Are you selling into finance?
Are you selling into HR?
Who's the who's your kind of,your point of contact on the
(04:08):
sales side?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, so when it comes to attracting or retaining
talent right, that's usually aHR people issue, right, they're
always looking to see how theycan retain talent.
On the cost side yeah, it'susually a CFO right, they
definitely need the need where,again, if they want to do high
frequency payments, we enablethat because it's a very cost
effective way to do it with justour digital wallet and just fee
(04:33):
free options to the business.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So do you see yourself in that category of
earned wage access or?
Do you see yourself tangentialto that.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It's look tangential right.
So what we've done is reallywiden the aperture, if you will,
from just the way.
Jackson, that's where westarted.
That's why I thought, yeah, thetwo payments.
But we realized the opportunityhere of accelerating worker
payments is far greater thanjust $50 to $100 sort of safety
net for workers, and so whatyou've done is look at other
(05:05):
worker payment issues.
Let's say tips.
Right, you're a pizza deliverydriver and you work at this job
because you depend on these tipsat the end of the shift.
Right, you have income rightaway and ultimately, there's no
cash at the end of the day totip you out though.
Right, everybody's payingcredit cards, mobile ordering,
and really what we've done isdigitize that whole process.
(05:29):
So now, instead of waiting fortwo weeks to get your tips on
the paycheck, you can pick up acard when start working for
Domino's, and if you wanna getyour tips every day, we'll
literally just push those tipsat the end of every shift to
your card.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And this might be a dumb question, so dumb question
alert does that help with theunbanked, with the folks that
are unbanked?
We have a whole population inthe United States that are just
unbanked, right, does that, bythem having a card, does that
help them?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That's right.
The digital wallet is FDICinsured.
I have a fee checking accountright, we use our partner bank,
evolve bank and trust andultimately, yeah, it's a fee
free checking account where youcan get a bank account up and
running through the company workfor and it's a great way too.
And what we see too is a lot ofpeople start using branch let's
(06:17):
just say to get their tips andthey realize, oh, this is
actually like a great bankingalternative to large bank I'm
using.
There's no fees, there's freeATMs, and one out of four users
actually switched to branch astheir primary account.
So we own that relationshipwith that worker over time.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Oh, that's cool, so they can move from company to
company.
It doesn't really matter.
One of the things that I loveis it gets us away from
predatory lending places, and Ilike that a lot.
But I want to ask another dumbquestion.
But it's like why?
Because everything sounds great, but why would people say no?
What's when people either asyou're going through proposals
(06:55):
and pitching people it justseems like a no brainer to me
but also no HR and finance?
So what are the no's that theygive you?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, I think any objection we have is more around
the education of how easy it isto launch a solution like
branch.
So it's a lot of it's.
What is this going to take?
Obviously, all the fee freeoptions to educating, like how
we make money.
And, yeah, I think one of thestrengths of the company is that
we really figured out how tocreate these solutions where
(07:25):
there's not a lot of overhead,there's not a lot of tech
resources required to launch.
A good example of this is Uberright, where Uber came to us
looking for a white labelsolution, something that feels
like the Uber brand, and we wereable to launch that and get
that to market in a really shortamount of time.
(07:47):
And for a company like Uber,they realized their core
competency is logistic, it'smoving people, it's moving
things, and they look to apartner like us where we can be
able to get a product to marketreally quickly.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
A couple things now.
I want to do with the softwareside of things.
So when your folks demo on theoccasion that you get to
actually show folks software,what do they fall in love with?
What do you fall in love with?
What do you think that theyfall in love with?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I think one of the most powerful things we do when
we demo is we'll actually signup the prospect to a branch
account on the call and we'llpush money to that branch
account in a matter of seconds.
That's cool, that dollar orwhatever we push, it's like we
do a cup of coffee, five dollars, to their account.
It's really powerful, right?
(08:38):
You can see that money hit youraccount that you can go use,
and I think that's when themoment the light will click.
So, oh, this could be reallyimpactful for their workers who,
as you mentioned, oftentimes ifthey're struggling with cash
flow, they're resorting to morepredatory measures to cash and
so so what are questions?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
One of the reasons this podcast exists is trying to
teach practitioners what'savailable to them, and so that's
why focusing on the vendor sideof things, but also want to
educate them as to questionsthat they should ask in the buy
side.
So, if you could script it,what are the questions that
you'd love to hear from financeor HR?
What are the questions thatthey should be asking you?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, I think under the hood, one of the things that
makes us special too is wedon't require any pre-funding.
If you think of in the case ofa W2 worker, for example, with
payroll, you're having to lockup a lot of the company's cash
into an escrow account forpayroll.
Similarly with a 1099 worker,where you need to maybe park
(09:39):
some money aside.
So then pre-funding piece isreally big because what we'll do
is we'll do some basicunderwriting on the company
itself and we will push thecapital to the worker that same
day and then draw it down fromthe company.
And so ultimately let's improvelike the cash conversion cycle
for companies right.
They're able to use that cashand generate for the company or
(10:00):
generate interest incomethemselves.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, it's interesting.
I could see first of all, thequestions around stand-up, like
okay, how fast can we stand thisup with our workforce?
I could see that question Isthere any other integrations?
Where does this need to beconnected to payroll or benefits
or compensation?
Is there any kind of plumbingthat needs to be done?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
There is right.
There's a couple of data pointswe need to make the system work
.
One is how much does somebodymake, how often do they work?
And so all that we take care ofand integrate either to a
system of record if it's a W2worker, the payroll if it's a
company like Uber, they usuallyhave that data, and so we'll
connect to that in real time.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So do you consider a branch of FinTech or an HR Tech
company?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I would say we're in the middle of both.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
That's what I was struggling with.
I'm like.
First of all, I guess I couldmake a case for both, but you do
have your foot in both of thoseOne.
I think there used to be aphrase one foot in the canoe,
the other in a speedboat, soyou've got your feet in both.
I've not done a lot of work inthe FinTech space, so I couldn't
tell you anything about it.
What's different about so youhave?
(11:18):
So what's different aboutFinTech than HRTech?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, I would say the reason I mention HRTech is that
Branch.
The only way we acquire userson our platformers is through a
company that they work for rightso consumer can't go on to sign
up for a branch account.
With that said, we do providereally great consumer banking
like experiences.
Right, I mentioned the one offour people uses as a primary
(11:42):
account.
Once they leave their company,they can still continue to use
branches like a fee freechecking account, and so that's
why it's and what we really seeis this idea of employer led
financial services.
Right.
If you think about in the past,it's employer led financial
services are more focused aroundlike longer term objectives.
(12:02):
Right, it's 401ks, it's justagencies, fsas, whereas we're
solving for this new generationof workers right, that maybe
need some more short term needslike liquidity and cash flow.
Help with cash flow.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So we did talk about earned wage access, and I know
y'all started there and you'vemorphed into something else.
What do you call that category?
And again, I hate softwarecategories, so just bear with me
.
But like you're not, you dosome of that.
But what do you do much more?
What do you call that?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah, I know I mentioned the employer led
financial services.
I think another category that'semerging, that's on the radar
of a lot of HR professionals, islike financial wellness.
Right, and I realize thatfinancial wellness is just as
important as like healthwellness and making sure the
financial wellbeing of theiremployees is taken care of as
another category we see.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I like that a lot because, again, can you like
said health, health, wellness,mental health, financial health,
like all those things arewonderful and it gives you
another entry point.
So, if not through HR directly,the benefits folks that deal
with all of the things, that areall the wellness programs and
things like a compensationthat's another category to go
(13:17):
after as well.
That's it, that's cool.
Tell us all the success stories, and no brands or anything like
that.
It's more the story of maybeeven someone who's a bit
skeptical and then all of asudden they're like yeah, I
can't do without this.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, I mean I really go back to where we I mentioned
, like opening the aperture onlike other work or payment use
cases.
Like during the pandemic, wewere working with a lot of
Domino's pizza franchisees andthey really saw the value of the
ability for us to push money atany time, and so they actually
came to us saying, hey, listento your wall.
It's great.
Is there a way you can help ussupport paying tips to drivers
(13:54):
because we just don't have anycash at the end of the day, like
our managers are running toATMs or right, or a lot of cash
on site?
We're like, yeah, absolutely,that sounds like a great case,
as long as you get us the datalike we're able to make that
happen.
And it was a big win for bothsides.
Win for the worker, where theydidn't have to wait now till
they're paycheck to get theirtips and we can push that
immediately.
(14:14):
And one of the otherinnovations we did was we
launched a product that allowsus to push pre-printed cards
right, so they didn't have towait in the mail for a card to
come in.
We just put a stack of cards attheir employee break room and
they can pick one up, scan itand their tips would be on that
same day I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So what's the and again?
Any more of those stories thatthose are great because
practitioners love hearing those.
But I did have a questionaround go to market and getting
your brand out there.
So how do you, how are y'alllooking at this?
We're what two quarters intothis year.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah, what is.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
What is it?
What's the idea for the rest ofthe year of getting people to
to know what branch is and whatthey do?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, I think for us it's really looking at other
industries that have thiscompetition for talent and I
would say, this year, one of thelarger industries we've been
targeting is around healthcare.
We're staffing companies where,you know, as there's like a
shortage of nurses, a lot ofthese platforms, a lot of nurses
are also open to doing morecontract work sort of 1099 work
(15:19):
and a lot of platforms haveemerged.
We're getting a lot of growingreally rapidly and Ultimately,
working with those platforms topay nurses faster has been a big
driver for the company.
Other areas around logistics,like last-mom delivery not just
the Ubers of the world, we'realso companies that are doing
essentially shipping packages tocustomers' doorsteps, Right.
(15:41):
So there's a lot of theseplayers, too, that have been
growing.
And then, finally, in thehospitality space, we started
off in quick service restaurantsare now expanding into full
service restaurants, whereas,you would imagine, tips are a
big part of those workers' livesas well and, yeah, I'm making
sure that they can get paidimmediately.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So, on the technical roadmap, what's about just
divulging anything secret oranything like that?
But what's next?
What do you think that?
The what do you see this?
If we were to have this podcastin a year from now, what do you
think we would be talking about?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, I think for us.
We realize that workers wantoptions right, and so, although
we started at the core of theproduct with Wallet, which I
mentioned, we've now alsolaunched solutions that allow
workers to also get paid totheir bank accounts if they want
right.
And so, just while workers aresweet of options that allow them
to again access their moneyhowever they want has been
(16:33):
really important.
I think that's important forthe company because now we own
really all worker paymentscoming through a branch.
Whether you want to get pushedto your existing bank account,
whether you want to get for freeto our wallet, that's all
enabled.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
So last question and I think you covered it before,
but I want to make sure thepractitioners understand it it's
how you make money.
Where in this process do youmake money, or where do?
Where are they going to feel it?
I guess it's probably some ofthe things that they would care
about too.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, for the companies themselves it's.
You know, we have fee-freeoptions, right.
There's no cost to the company.
Where we make money is one viainterchange, right?
So anytime a worker goes out,swipes their physical debit card
, makes a purchase onlinethrough the wallet, we make it
from an emerging.
The other thing we do, too, isagain mentioning the optionality
(17:22):
.
We allow workers to push moneyout to existing accounts.
We do that for free via ACHright now, but we also charge a
small fee, like most digitalwallets, and then no cash shop
if they do a debit card to debitcard transfer.
So that's the other way.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
That's excellent.
This has been fantastic.
I love what you're doingbecause it's as you said.
It meets employees where theyare.
It meets talent.
So, again, as we recruit andretain talent, the talent wants
to be paid a certain way, whichis we can keep trying to force
them into some false model or wecan just meet them where they
(17:56):
are.
I love that.
I love what you build and thankyou so much for coming on the
podcast.
Thank you, william, absolutely,and thanks for everyone
listening Until next time.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
You've been listening to Recruiting Daly's Use Case
Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on yourfavorite platform and hit us up
at RecruitingDalycom.
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