Payments to the people — it’s the motto and guiding principle behind Payscape, an Atlanta-based Fintech company that provides small to mid-size business owners with technologies that help them accept payments, streamline business, and increase cash flow. Payscape has grown exponentially since its inception in 2004 — their commitment to consistently developing and iterating new products that serve their customer base has allowed them to expand to 14 offices. They’ve processed 125 million transactions to the tune of $7 billion.
CEO Jeremy Wing and his team have had a busy 2017 thus far. The company invested $50 million to expand their operations, add 200+ jobs, and relocate to Midtown for access to talent and strategic partners. Most recently the team launched a new software product — Payscape Registration, an online registration management system with integrated payments. It’s already on the wish list of a few major universities, including Cornell University.
“It’s an exciting time for Payscape as we continue to make improvements to all our software with the intent to give organizations a simplified user-interface with robust features, all at affordable prices so businesses of all sizes can benefit,” says Wing.
Find out more about how this Fintech veteran encourages product innovation, how he keeps employees engaged (the company was an AJC Top Workplace 5 years in a row!), and who they are currently looking to hire. Plus, check out photos of their new Midtown office!
Payscape has been around since 2004 and is a big part of Atlanta’s Fintech industry. How do you keep developing new products and innovative avenues for the company?
Acquisitions — over the past 7 years, we’ve stayed competitive through acquiring some of our partners or clients that have found a particularly lucrative niche. We keep close tabs on what our clients are looking for through surveys and focus groups, so every product we’ve added to our portfolio was a problem we were solving for a merchant. It started with our Registration software (regpointsolutions.com), next was Invoicing (billingorchard.com) and most recently, eCommerce (vendevor.com). We even hired an in-house web design team started building websites at a cost-effective price point because we recognized the need with our customers.
Payscape has grown exponentially in the last few years. As a co-CEO, how do you keep your company on the success path and keep employees, old and new, motivated in the workplace?
By promoting a culture of “intrapreneurship.” I’ve found that by giving employees more ownership of their respective departments and allowing them to make larger, company-wide decisions — it keeps them motivated and hungry. If you have your own project in the company, you’re more likely to stick around and see it come to fruition. We encourage this type of proactive thinking daily, from our newbies and interns, up to our executive staff.
We also invested heavily in training through our Payscape University program. We employ a full-time “professor” to keep our team on top of industry trends and roll out educational materials on our internal database.
Q2 2017 was big for Payscape. Tell me more about your product launch and how it will add to Payscape’s current features.
The cool thing is that Payscape’s registration software is already sought after by many prestigious education institutions and organizations, including the likes of University of Alabama Football Camps and Cornell University Campus, just to list a couple. We’ve been hard at work completely revamping the current registration software in preparation for the Q2 release.
Our new product includes a mobile app for event registration and payments, enhanced communication features such as text and an integration marketplace that will make it easier to connect other SaaS technologies with our platform.
What are your thoughts on Atlanta’s current Fintech industry? Where do you see it going?
The Fintech industry has changed more in the last 5 years than it has since its inception. The constant pressures associated with security, margin compression, and technology innovation rear their head daily. You are forced to be more innovative and nimble than ever, while at the same time being more stable and secure, which is a difficult balancing act. When we first got into the business, SaaS didn’t even exist. Now payments are synonymous with SaaS. They allow you to get to market in a more efficient manner and add an additional revenue stream with stickier products.
A growing trend we’re working on is how payments fit into the IoT & blockchain space. We’re actively staying involved with innovators like the FinTech Atlanta Task Force to keep tabs on these new developments.
We would also like to thank municipalities for their commitment to grow this space. We’re all creating opportunities for a snowball effect of continued development in the community with various startup platforms. The biggest proof that this is working I believe is the steady stream of interest from West Coast investors.
You’re investing $50 million on an expansion and relocation to Midtown. What prompted your decision?
Midtown is the center of the Atlanta Fintech hub. It’s near Tech Square and Georgia Tech, and strategic partners like NCR, ParkMobile, Equifax, TTV, TechSquare Labs and Flashpoint. We not only look to partners to grow businesses, but as a major talent acquisition tool.
We also love the infrastructure for live/work/play. Most of our team will be using alternative transportation to get to our new headquarters.
What’s next for Payscape this year?
We’re calling it “the hub” for now. Utilizing API integration, Payscape will connect your business’ software or hardware, or to any of our payment technology.
We’re also growing out our partner offering with partners such as State Bank in becoming their innovation/technology package for their clients. When partners have a Fintech arm to their business offering stickier products, it only increases value for their customers. We’ve seen great success from this approach.
We’re hiring! I would say that our biggest need is for talented developers and software engineers.
