The Exchanges

Q Got it. Got it. Got it. So you're, you're in the process of doing this. You haven't filed anything yet, which is why you can't talk about it. Makes, makes sense. Okay. Very good. Um, okay. Talk to me in terms of any product debate since last time, anything new released, any new acquisitions?

A Yeah, there's some awesome product things that we've done. Um, we've, we've launched for us the, the merchants that want to sell globally are really excited about offering things like Apple pay and Google pay, which we've done. Um, they're really excited about being able to sell into countries. We've done a lot more work in Latin America countries and Australia. And probably one of the coolest things we've done is merchants now can come into our platform and self-service and get up and start processing payments in multiple places in the world without any human intervention. So it's really what we call self-service setup for payments. So, um, people are excited about that. I mean, literally, if you're sharp, you can be up and running in 20 minutes, which is something that we don't think anyone else has done globally. So very cool new tech that we've done.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, there's some awesome product things that we've done.”

Q job. He's a CEO of a publicly traded company. I'd love to be CEO of a publicly traded company. And he just Dropped it all at a whim because some investor said we have this new idea from tech coming out of Israel, and he drops everything and does it. What, what's the story there? Like, you like the space, they gave you a great incentive plan, what is it?

A Yeah. So yeah, good question. So I wasn't the CEO. I was the president of a public traded company, number one. Um, and number two, what the public traded company did primarily was help merchants with swiping of cards. And even though it was a great business and the company is still doing extremely well, I figured the strategy going forward was all going to be around people buying on the phone and buying without a seven year old plastic card. And with the invention of the internet and with the invention of e-commerce and the invention of People really trying to accept the smartphone. Those three ingredients look like a real chance to have super success in launching cool products that are going to help merchants compete really with Amazon. I thought those, those were the ingredients for leaving.

AI assessment note: “I thought those, those were the ingredients for leaving.”

Q dollars going through your system, you take the, that's the merchant. Someone buys a hundred dollars through a merchant that, that uses you guys. Let's do the worst case scenario. You take 2.9%. We'll do three percent to make it easy, but even though it's the worst case for you. So three dollars out. What, what, how's that three dollars breakdown in terms of all the parties you just mentioned?

A Yeah. So, so think of it. There's about 10 parties that may get paid in that transaction. So I'm going to simplify this. Yeah. It's The biggest piece of it, anywhere from one and a half to two percent of that transaction is going to go to the person that issued the card, the Chase, the Capital One. That's why you see Capital One credit card commercials going all the time. That's why you see people flagging you down at the airport saying, hey, sign up for my card. That's why you're at the football game. They're trying to get you to sign up for cards, ok? Because they get one to two percent of every piece of that transaction. Because why? They're issuing the card, they're taking the risk. You default on that merchant, that card hold, that, that card is going to step in And pay the bills. And that's why they take the liability. And, and so that's why they get the lion's share of the money. Okay. Then the next big, biggest piece of that is going to be someone like Visa MasterCard, right? Cause they have the brand. It's their logo. Okay. They're the guys that take another piece of it.

AI assessment note: “The biggest piece of it, anywhere from one and a half to two percent”

Q Um, I want to back up for a second. A guy like you running a public traded company, how does a private equity firm incentivize a guy like you to come in and run this?

A Well, two ways. Um, one, the opportunity to develop something unique into a market that was just, just starting. I mean, five or six years ago, this concept of one click checkout, Starbucks apps, Amazon prime, Uber hadn't really developed, um, into the forefront of all of the different merchants. So merchants now are straving their technology. So getting ahead of that and the thought leadership was a lot of fun. Um, and being able to build it with your own team is just a great, um, Uh, entrepreneurial opportunity. So that was the first thing. And then the second piece of it is obviously you get rewarded with equity in the company. And so those are, so the two main drivers, uh, maybe three, I guess, work with a great team, be able to really drive and build something that's kind of unique in the market. And you get rewarded by owning a piece of the company like they do.

AI assessment note: “the opportunity to develop something unique... the second piece of it is obviously you get rewarded with equity”

Q Your website says, finally, you can get everything you need to process payments, a payment gateway solution, a merchant account, and advanced features to help boost your bottom line all in one place. Does that do a good job of getting everything in one bucket?

A It really does, because what happens is if you're a merchant and you want to all of a sudden accept credit cards, in the old days you would have to go to a bank and you have to get approved at a bank, and that might take you three or four weeks, and then you would have to actually go code to a certified provider, and that might take a couple of weeks, and then you hope that those all things work together, um, and you hope that the functionality is what you need, and so when you come to us, uh, we do everything in one spot. We'll, we give you the bank account immediately, We give you the ability to code immediately, and we give you the tools you need to be successful in your marketplace against people like Amazon.

AI assessment note: “It really does, because what happens is if you're a merchant”

Q Ralph, why do more get through on you? You have different processing around fraud or what?

A Yeah, we have different processing partners around the world that So what happens is there, yes, there's better fraud filters on those tools. And secondly, is if you can keep the card transactions as local as you can, and this is a little loan seeker that people don't know about payments acquiring, you're going to have a higher chance of getting your, your card accepted. So for example, if I'm a shopper in Germany and I send my transaction into California to get approved, there's a lower chance that that transaction is going to go through than if I process that transaction in Germany. It makes sense. So if you can keep German on German and US on US, you're going to have a higher chance of getting your card through. You're going to have more knowledge of fraud. So you'll have higher card sales and less fraud. So that's a stronger model than what they offer. Also, uh, we feel pretty good that we're on the phone helping merchants. We provide them with advice, especially on the checkout, what features and tools that they should do in setting things up. Uh, it's not really a set and Don't forget you got to constantly monitor and, and, and watch your checkout site to make sure that you're up to date with any new products that are coming out or with any new, um, any new, uh, uh, tools that might be out there that you can use, especially around fraud. So we offer a lot of advice to peo…

AI assessment note: “yes, there's better fraud filters on those tools. And secondly, is if you can keep”

Q Okay. A couple million a month. And give me more of your backstory here. So you've had success in this industry, both public and private. Why did you launch the company and what year was that?

A So yes, you're right. I've been in five fintech companies and they've all done real well and about Five or six years ago, we looked around and we said, you know, it seems like there's just not enough competition or enough players helping merchants sell globally, uh, particularly the ones that are in the SMB market. There was no one really helping someone on main street. They didn't have that trusted advisor. It was a couple of players. And so I was running a, a decent sized public company in the FinTech space and a few investors came and said, It's called ACI, ACI worldwide. And a couple of investors in the area said, geez, if we can help finance the starting of a company by buying some technology in Israel, would you guys be willing to do that and jump in and help as a CEO? And I said, sure. And that's what launched the whole idea. And it's been taken off ever since.

AI assessment note: “about Five or six years ago, we looked around and we said”

Q Are there any additional product lines that you'll be launching that, that where the revenue model is not just pump more volume through the system and take pennies on the dollar?

A Um, yeah. So one of the other big product launches we're going to do next year is around what we call omni channel, which is the ability for a merchant to be able to process, uh, through one channel, the ability for having an online website and an in-store payment. So you can be recognized as you can basically buy online, pick up in the store. You can be in the store and they'll recognize you as an online shopper. So you may not have to check out in the store, kind of cool stuff that's coming out. So, um, you don't have this fragmented online, offline experience, right? So when you're going into, you know, you're going into a store, they, they're able to connect you as an online shopper and an in-store shopper with the same, we call it token in our business, but really through the same card.

AI assessment note: “one of the other big product launches we're going to do next year is around what we call omni channel”