MENTOM PAYMENTS: THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK, BUILT BY INDUSTRY VETERANS

Originally hosted by the Southeast Acquirers Association (SEAA) Podcast.
Host: Bill Glass, COO of AltruPay LLC
Guests: Jordan Stewart, President of Mentom Payments; Alexis Lichterman, Senior Vice President of Sales at Mentom Payments

Editorial note: This AI-assisted transcript has been lightly edited for names and readability. The audio is authoritative.

[00:00:00] Welcome to the SEAA Podcast. I'm your host, Bill Glass, and this is your front row seat
[00:00:05] to the future of payments and Fintech. We're diving deep into the stories, strategies and
[00:00:10] innovations that are shaping our industry. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur,
[00:00:14] a forward-thinking ISO, or just hungry for real industry insights, this is the podcast
[00:00:19] you've been waiting for. Love what you're hearing? Make sure to hit that like button
[00:00:23] and subscribe. Let's get into this.
[00:00:25] Today, I'm joined by two industry veterans from Mentom Payments.
[00:00:30] We're speaking with Alexis Lichterman, Senior Vice President of Sales, and Jordan Stewart, President.
[00:00:37] How are you doing, guys?
[00:00:39] Thank you for having us.
[00:00:41] I love kicking every episode off with: how did you get into payments?
[00:00:47] There's no college degree in payments.
[00:00:53] We all fall backwards into this place. So how did you do it, man?
[00:00:57] 15 years or so ago, I was working in hospitality management. I had a schedule that was pretty
[00:01:06] brutal. I was working PM shifts and my wife and I had just had our first child and she
[00:01:11] basically told me I needed a Monday to Friday 9 to 5 gig. And so I joined South Bay local
[00:01:20] ISO out here as their office manager and was doing a little bit of everything. HR,
[00:01:26] accounting, I was involved in a lot of kind of the executive meetings and kind of got to
[00:01:30] see how payments works through the different departments and hearing all the feedback kind
[00:01:37] of being a fly on the wall. And then 15 years later, here I am still very much in payments
[00:01:43] and I know it's been a blast.
[00:01:49] Yeah, and I got into payments the way you know you get all good things in the 2000s on
[00:01:57] Craigslist. I answered a Craigslist ad.
[00:02:03] Appointment setter, I was like, yeah, I don't know what that means, but I can sure I can
[00:02:11] set appointments and that's exactly what I did. I worked for an ISO out in Carlsbad,
[00:02:17] California, and I set appointments for them in my early 20s. They grew exponentially,
[00:02:24] ended up selling to Vantiv at one point and yeah, I went from appointment setter into like
[00:02:32] their processing department and into management and then just kind of went from there. So yeah,
[00:02:38] Craigslist.
[00:02:40] It's all right though. I think, I mean, those are kind of the fun stories though, to be honest,
[00:02:44] because it is, there's some wild recruiting stories. We'll just leave it at that, but the 2010
[00:02:53] days of recruiting is can be pretty wild. So kind of just jumping into it, I was really
[00:03:01] super excited for this conversation. Obviously, all three of us make each other extremely well
[00:03:05] for years now. And, you know, we're going to be touching based on high risk, but like,
[00:03:11] I just kind of think you guys are doing something different over there. And it's kind of cool.
[00:03:15] You know, we've gotten to spend some time physically out there with your team and at the
[00:03:18] office and it's just really cool to see kind of this outside in approach of we're trying
[00:03:25] to be different. And we're not trying to be this mega colossal high risk shop that like
[00:03:31] there's, we still have some morals and some parameters. So I was really excited to kind
[00:03:36] of jump into this. So just building a payments company around people, I know that's a big
[00:03:40] emphasis for y'all kind of talk to me, why do you believe the qualities of, you know,
[00:03:46] just relationships, responsiveness, integrity, you know, why are those such strong differentiators
[00:03:52] from Mentom?
[00:03:53] I mean, I think for me, obviously, you know, like I said before, 15 years into the industry
[00:03:59] now, I've kind of worked at four or five years stints at a few different ISOs. And so for
[00:04:07] me kind of building Mentom out, it was it was more so about taking, you know, the things
[00:04:11] from those ISOs that I'd seen go really well and try and take advantage of that and repeat
[00:04:16] some of that stuff. But then also recognize some of the things that I think maybe didn't
[00:04:21] go so well and try and avoid that. And I think one of the one of the main things for me going
[00:04:26] into kind of our time at Mentom was making sure that we kind of built a company that was
[00:04:31] kind of people first with the people changing, right, meaning, meaning people in terms of
[00:04:38] our employees, people in terms of our in terms of our partners and our agents, and then people
[00:04:44] in terms of our merchants too. So I think, you know, for me, a big part of the success
[00:04:50] that I think I've had in payments has been tied to kind of my personality, my integrity,
[00:04:54] the way I work, the work ethic that I have. And I think that that has taken me, you know,
[00:05:00] pretty far.
[00:05:00] and serve me well in the payment space.
[00:05:03] And so I wanted to be able to kind of take what's worked for me,
[00:05:06] the individual, and try and make that work for us, the company.
[00:05:09] And honestly, I just feel like it's something that's missing at a lot of ISO's, right?
[00:05:15] I mean, we're kind of happy being in that kind of small to medium size kind of playground.
[00:05:20] I think that allows us to still have all the bells and whistles that a big ISO has.
[00:05:25] But it kind of keeps us grounded.
[00:05:28] It keeps us focused on the relationships.
[00:05:31] It keeps us focused on the service and the people.
[00:05:34] And we don't kind of lose sight of that.
[00:05:35] And I think that's been an important, it's been an important part of our growth.
[00:05:40] I would say Alexis, do you have anything to say to that?
[00:05:42] But I mean, like, damn.
[00:05:45] There's a reason he's the big boss.
[00:05:49] No, I think, I mean, just to echo everything and also just to add, you know,
[00:05:53] I think that that's, you know, it is something that's missing.
[00:05:56] I think that we've kind of gone away from that personal touch.
[00:06:00] I think that everyone's focused on tech, which is great.
[00:06:02] We need to focus on that as well, but we can't forget about the people.
[00:06:05] We can't forget about the relationships and the close friendships that we develop with our partners.
[00:06:11] Like that can't go away.
[00:06:13] It's frustrating, you know, when I was an agent to constantly be, you know,
[00:06:18] oh, you got a new RM and it's like every six months, I had a new relationship manager
[00:06:22] and I had to build that rapport and it was so frustrating.
[00:06:25] I always like to say like at Mentom, like we're small, but we're very scrappy, right?
[00:06:29] Like we, we care about our agents, we care about our partners and we're flexible
[00:06:34] because we are small and we still, we have that like family vibe.
[00:06:38] It's cliche, but it's true.
[00:06:40] So that's the only thing I'd add.
[00:06:43] Yeah, I think one of these, I think that's one of the things that everything moving
[00:06:48] to is such a SaaS-heavy model they lose.
[00:06:50] I mean, some of my largest deals I've ever closed were flying out there
[00:06:53] and just sitting at a, about a, around a boardroom table, right?
[00:06:57] And or a dinner table and shaking hands.
[00:06:59] It's like just showing the humanistic part of it.
[00:07:01] So kind of leading into that, you know, obviously people first mentality,
[00:07:08] but like now agent first business model, what is Mentom's approach to,
[00:07:15] I know support communication accountability, those are, those are all big things.
[00:07:19] But like, what is the whole goal of what differentiates Mentom versus the next shop?
[00:07:26] And especially the scrappiness between being an agent first model.
[00:07:31] Yeah, I think Alexis obviously just started to touch on it.
[00:07:33] I think, you know, that scrappy kind of description, I think fits as well.
[00:07:42] And I think because the, the people that we have, I've always been a big fan of kind
[00:07:47] of the saying of having the right people in the right seats.
[00:07:50] And so I feel like we've done a really good job of building a team that, you know,
[00:07:54] maybe we're, maybe it's a small team, but it's the right team.
[00:07:59] And then that scrappiness just kind of carries all the way through, right?
[00:08:01] So everybody here is working with the same goal in mind of trying to get the job done, right?
[00:08:07] Trying to make sure that the agents feel supported, make sure that they feel heard.
[00:08:10] I think for us, because what, because the differentiator that we're basically going to is us
[00:08:19] and is the people and is the relationships that we build, it's imperative that we then kind of follow
[00:08:24] that up and we, and we back that up in terms of how we provide our service, right?
[00:08:28] So we can't go out there saying we provide the best service and we're the best people to work with
[00:08:32] and then kind of leave you hanging.
[00:08:34] So I think there's an ownership part to it.
[00:08:39] Like I said, the hires are key.
[00:08:40] I think we go out of our way to try and make sure that we really are getting the right people
[00:08:44] and putting them in positions that they can be successful.
[00:08:48] And then making sure that everybody, you know, from a culture standpoint,
[00:08:52] a work ethic standpoint, everybody is kind of working from the same, you know,
[00:08:56] from the same sheet and trying to achieve the same goals.
[00:08:58] And I think that translates to our agents and to our merchants,
[00:09:02] because they feel like ultimately they're working with people who care and people who are invested
[00:09:06] and want to see them be successful.
[00:09:09] Yeah, and we're not, you know, we're not looking at big numbers here.
[00:09:14] Like, hey, we've, you know, we've got assigned 20 agents this month.
[00:09:17] Like we're not trying to be everything to everyone, right?
[00:09:21] I think that's a big differentiator for us and like leading with the agents.
[00:09:25] We make sure that we're a good fit for these agents, right?
[00:09:28] Because based on verticals, based on their size, like maybe it's not the best fit,
[00:09:34] but there are some that we're the perfect fit for, and that just feels right.
[00:09:38] And so like building the company around the people and the staff that we have
[00:09:43] is one thing of making sure that everybody, you know, we're playing on their strengths,
[00:09:47] but also as far as the agents go, like sometimes it's just, it's just not going to work.
[00:09:53] And that's okay, we're okay with that, you know, we're not trying to force ourselves
[00:09:58] to be the perfect match and in turn.
[00:10:00] We kind of we find ourselves with you know agents that that are really happy with the way that we work and and vice-versa, you know
[00:10:08] And I think we touched on before kind of the integrity aspect of it right like we know what we're good at
[00:10:14] And we're not kind of shy in sharing that letting the agents out there's no
[00:10:19] But we equally know maybe where we're not best suited and so having
[00:10:24] You know the transparency and the willingness to let people know that and say like we might not be the right partner for you
[00:10:29] That that's good. I think people want to hear that right?
[00:10:32] So many agents have signed agreements
[00:10:34] Because somebody on the other end of the phone or on the other end of the zoom has told them that we can do anything and everything
[00:10:40] Sign up with us and the reality is no, that's not true for anybody
[00:10:44] And so I think we've we've kind of found our swim lanes and we know what works for us
[00:10:48] And we just go out and really make sure that we lean heavy into that
[00:10:51] So
[00:10:54] Moving into more of the high risk type role of Mentom
[00:11:00] Talk to us about
[00:11:02] At a high level and obviously no secret sauce but at a high level, you know
[00:11:06] What is mentums approach to market when we when when you say I want my high risk shop, right?
[00:11:12] What what does that look like and and kind of walk us through how that's evolved from
[00:11:19] Opening the doors to now
[00:11:22] Well, I think I think the difficult thing with high risk is everybody has a different interpretation of of what it is, right?
[00:11:28] So
[00:11:30] We see high risk businesses every day that agent partners are telling us this is not high risk
[00:11:34] This is this is medium risk. This is lower and it's
[00:11:38] The reality is you have to go by the definition that's set by your sponsor bank, right?
[00:11:41] If our sponsor bank thinks it's high risk then it's high risk, correct?
[00:11:44] So and again that varies, right? Different different banks see them see these verticals differently
[00:11:50] But I think for us again, it comes back to
[00:11:54] Knowing what we're good at knowing the verticals that we that we can support
[00:11:59] And then leaning heavy into them. I think
[00:12:01] To kind of go back to the people and the idea of right people in the right seats
[00:12:06] A lot of that is also tied to experience and that experience as it relates to high risk business, right?
[00:12:11] So the underwriters that we have in place have worked at other ISOs as high risk underwriters
[00:12:16] They know the verticals that that we're submitting they understand them
[00:12:22] The risk folks that we have same thing right they're coming from ISOs
[00:12:27] In some cases ISOs that I've worked for and people that I trust and have brought in to be a part of momentum
[00:12:34] These are people that have that have seen these verticals and are experienced in these verticals and have worked in them for years
[00:12:40] And so the knowledge that they have
[00:12:43] Can be confidently shared with the agent
[00:12:45] So I feel like you know if we have to tend to deal or we're working with an agent on a deal to try and get it done
[00:12:51] And try and get it over the line. They understand that they're working with somebody that is
[00:12:54] Working towards a yes, but that gets it, you know
[00:12:57] And then if we support it and we feel good about it
[00:13:00] Then we're willing to go to our sponsor bank and say hey, this is a deal
[00:13:03] We want to get done and here's why and having that experience and having that knowledge allows us to kind of you know
[00:13:09] Fight for it through all the different kind of channels as needed
[00:13:14] Yeah, and I think too it's it's one thing to say you're a high risk shop, right and that that is that's
[00:13:20] it's subjective and
[00:13:22] Very get a lot of times is you know, then you
[00:13:25] Get people throwing things out of all and see what sticks like we don't
[00:13:29] Again, we're a smaller team, right? We don't have the bandwidth to just work every single quote-unquote high risk deal
[00:13:34] Like we know what we're not
[00:13:36] We know the verticals that fall into a high risk
[00:13:41] Category but that we're really good at and we really do stick to those verticals
[00:13:46] I would say, you know, there are times when we stray if it's you know, super solid opportunity and
[00:13:51] You know, the package looks great
[00:13:53] But let's you know call it for what it is like we have our verticals that we're good at they're considered high risk
[00:13:58] We're not going out to market being like we're a high risk shop
[00:14:01] We're an ISO that specializes in these verticals that are considered high risk. It's just reframing it
[00:14:08] Yeah, actually, I'm sticking with you for a second. So going from agent to like leading a agent channel
[00:14:14] You know led by you know a direct BIN
[00:14:19] What what drew you to just being so in love with that kind of hard to place type business role
[00:14:25] My challenge I guess is a good way to put it
[00:14:28] I'm a glutton for punishment. No
[00:14:32] To a certain level sometimes
[00:14:35] Um, you know what I mean, I think it really was like I my first
[00:14:39] Role in payments was out just a traditional ISO. We were leasing credit card terminals
[00:14:43] They were just mom and pop shops like main street USA, right?
[00:14:47] And
[00:14:47] That's fine and that you know, it's still payments and that was exciting
[00:14:50] But when I went into my my next position at a quote-unquote high risk shop
[00:14:55] Like I saw this whole new world of businesses that were legitimate businesses that were
[00:15:00] in categories that banks deemed high risk. And as a consumer, right, we don't even think about that.
[00:15:07] Like when you're going to a smoke shop, like you're not thinking about how they got their credit card
[00:15:11] processing, but all the work that has to go into getting that merchant approved was so fascinating
[00:15:17] to me because it really like you really did have to dig into the business and not only what they're
[00:15:23] selling, but how are they selling it? And I loved like putting the puzzle pieces together and
[00:15:28] and convincing the bank, but you know, because I truly believed that those deals were legitimate.
[00:15:34] And so I think the fact that, you know, going from working and running an agent channel to then
[00:15:40] being my own agent, my own agent office, and then back to running an agent channel, like now at
[00:15:45] Mentom, I have such a different perspective of like where agents are at, right? I mean,
[00:15:51] like it's easy to sit at an ISO and see these deals come through from agents and be like, you know,
[00:15:56] yeah, we don't want this one, you know, next, next, next. What goes into getting that deal is a lot.
[00:16:03] And you already as an agent have tried to wrap your head around what that, you know,
[00:16:09] how are you going to get this through underwriting? Like, what do you need to present to
[00:16:13] your ISO to submit this? You've already done that work. And so once it gets to us, like we need to
[00:16:19] take that seriously, you know, and I think that's the shift for me was going from agent to then back
[00:16:25] to running an agent channel was just like realizing that so much work goes into that lead before it
[00:16:31] even gets to us. So like, let's treat it with respect, you know, especially these high risk
[00:16:35] ones that that can be hairy and and let's try and work through them. Let's not just do, you know,
[00:16:40] automatic no. Let's let's give it the respect and the agent the respect that it deserves.
[00:16:48] Yeah, I think I think I think I think high risk, it's really hard for low risk agents to understand
[00:16:54] high risk, in my opinion. And it's just because we've they've been so trained to.
[00:16:58] It's that relationship cell. It's you may are providing, you know, benefits, but you're not really
[00:17:05] providing pain point solutions. We're in high risk, you are, right? It's putting this massive puzzle
[00:17:12] piece together. Oh, by the way, you have this cloud over the top of you called Visa and Mastercard. So
[00:17:18] when you put these puzzle pieces together, you have to make sure they're not going to be hit
[00:17:22] with fine after fine after fine or get shut down, et cetera. And I think Mentom's done a really
[00:17:26] good job of taking that all of those aspects into consideration. And this is what I was saying is
[00:17:31] one of the fun things about having this conversation is it's just really cool to see how you guys
[00:17:35] take kind of that non traditional approach to it kind of taking the black eye off a high risk,
[00:17:41] right? It's high risk is all of the eye of the beholder. Being say of that, Jordan,
[00:17:48] what was the biggest? I don't know if you want to call it a lesson or challenge. Would you say going
[00:17:54] from that cells scaling leadership role to now president establishing a BIN, managing the BIN,
[00:18:03] you know, and managing more of the full operations internal team kind of walk us through that.
[00:18:08] What was, were there any major challenges or lessons learned?
[00:18:11] I think I'd had exposure to a lot of those different kind of aspects of the business,
[00:18:18] you know, in the previous ISO that I'd worked for, but I'd never ultimately been responsible
[00:18:22] for it, right? So I mean, I'd sat in the meetings. I'd had the conversations. I'd heard the input
[00:18:27] from all different, you know, department leaders and that kind of thing. But ultimately, you know,
[00:18:32] until, until Mentom, my main responsibility was for making the numbers go up. And so
[00:18:37] I've always had an interest in, you know, kind of overseeing operations, being a part of the
[00:18:44] financial decisions, talking about the company growth and not not just in terms of adding
[00:18:49] MIDs and volume, but just different, you know, strategic approaches to growth, those kind of
[00:18:53] things. I just hadn't had the opportunity to really kind of spread my wings and do it ultimately.
[00:19:00] So, you know, kind of doing the Mentom thing a few years ago was a little bit, you know,
[00:19:04] jump in at the deep end and kind of figure it out along the way to a certain extent.
[00:19:10] It was definitely eye opening for sure going through, you know, kind of bank contracts,
[00:19:15] ISO negotiations with with multiple sponsor banks at the time, you know, working with
[00:19:21] attorneys to get those contracts done. That was all kind of new experience for me going through
[00:19:25] the integration with TSYS and, you know, understanding that there's, well, you know, there's the,
[00:19:30] kind of the dead period at TSYS where nothing gets done and trying to understand why is that,
[00:19:36] right? Like, why didn't make no sense? Yeah, why does this exist and why do we all have to adhere
[00:19:42] to it? And it just means that we can't go live for X number of months, right? Just having to wait
[00:19:46] for the sake of waiting. Like that was all new to me. You know, the management side of it
[00:19:54] is not that much different in my mind. Like the reality is I've built and managed sales teams,
[00:20:00] no different than building and managing,
[00:20:03] managing underwriting teams and risk teams
[00:20:06] and finance teams and whatever it may be,
[00:20:07] right in my mind, you know, again, it's all,
[00:20:10] it's people and it's understanding what the job is
[00:20:12] and making sure that you have the right people
[00:20:14] to get those jobs done.
[00:20:15] I think the getting the process started
[00:20:20] was definitely the kind of the big lift
[00:20:22] and trying to just kind of wrap my head around things
[00:20:25] that ultimately I hadn't really been kind of responsible
[00:20:28] for previously.
[00:20:31] I love that this was the direction that we went
[00:20:33] and ultimately I'd got the opportunity to do that
[00:20:35] because, you know, from a personal standpoint,
[00:20:38] I think it just makes me more well-rounded.
[00:20:39] It means I've seen more.
[00:20:40] It means I've been a part of more.
[00:20:43] So I appreciate the opportunity to have gone through it
[00:20:46] and to have learned from it and kind of now know
[00:20:49] what it takes and what to expect
[00:20:51] if we're going through a, you know,
[00:20:53] a new sponsor bank agreement or another platform agreement
[00:20:55] or whatever it may be, kind of knowing
[00:20:58] what that undertaking is going to look like
[00:21:01] is obviously going to be a big help.
[00:21:04] But yeah, I mean, ultimately, once we went live
[00:21:06] and we'd kind of gotten through that process,
[00:21:10] in my mind, it's not that much different
[00:21:12] than what I've done before.
[00:21:13] You know, I'm less responsible for the aspect
[00:21:17] of making the numbers go up.
[00:21:18] Obviously, that's Alexis's world.
[00:21:21] I'm still very much a part of it.
[00:21:22] I still like boarding agents.
[00:21:23] I still like seeing the number go up.
[00:21:26] I'm sure we'll get into it at some point on here,
[00:21:28] but I'm still very old school.
[00:21:29] I like to write everything on a white board.
[00:21:31] I have all my deals written down.
[00:21:32] I have our counts, all that kind of stuff.
[00:21:34] So I still like to be a part of that process.
[00:21:37] I still like to contribute when I can.
[00:21:40] But yeah, my role is kind of shifted
[00:21:42] to be more the manager of the day-to-day
[00:21:45] and overseeing all departments
[00:21:46] and not just solely responsible for the sales numbers,
[00:21:49] which is nice.
[00:21:51] Yeah, it's been a nice change.
[00:21:52] The different kind of stress I'd say.
[00:21:54] Yeah, nice to not have that stress fully,
[00:21:57] but a different kind of stress.
[00:21:58] Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:22:00] So going, talking about scaling, right?
[00:22:02] And what an awesome job the team has done.
[00:22:05] Talk to us and tell us a little bit about what it is,
[00:22:09] why it matters to Mentom,
[00:22:11] and ultimately how this is helping Mentom and its agents,
[00:22:15] the new legit script certification partnership
[00:22:18] that Mentom just did kind of talk to us about that, Alexis.
[00:22:21] You know, what does that,
[00:22:22] what does that partnership mean
[00:22:23] and talk to us about just in general, what it is?
[00:22:27] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:22:28] I'm super excited about this program
[00:22:30] we launched a few months ago.
[00:22:32] And, you know, to back it up a little bit,
[00:22:34] I've been following legit script for a while now.
[00:22:37] You know, they're not a new vendor by any means.
[00:22:40] There's a new buzz around them
[00:22:41] with kind of these programs
[00:22:43] and the verticals that they're supporting.
[00:22:45] But legit script has always been
[00:22:47] the gold standard of compliance
[00:22:49] when it comes to certain merchants,
[00:22:51] as far as an MMSP, you know,
[00:22:54] I've always, I've respected them, they're solid.
[00:22:57] You know, there are so many great MMSPs out there
[00:23:00] and legit script being one of them, right?
[00:23:01] So when, you know, these are released
[00:23:04] that they, in order to be a telemedicine merchant
[00:23:07] or an online pharmacy, any business
[00:23:10] that is giving a prescription to a consumer,
[00:23:16] you need to have either legit script certification
[00:23:18] or NABP certification.
[00:23:20] And that was always kind of just handled by the vendors, right?
[00:23:24] You have NABP handling their certifications
[00:23:26] and then you could go to legit script as a merchant.
[00:23:30] What was happening with the telemedicine boom, you know,
[00:23:33] post-COVID, legit script got so backed up
[00:23:38] in this queue with certifications
[00:23:40] and it became a huge roadblock for merchants.
[00:23:43] Merchants wanting to get into this space.
[00:23:46] They get all their ducks in a row, they're ready to go
[00:23:48] and then bam, they go to get their merchant account
[00:23:50] and it's like, you're not legit script certified or NABP,
[00:23:52] you need to go get that done
[00:23:53] and then it was taking months for them to get that done.
[00:23:56] So they're losing the traction,
[00:23:58] they're losing the momentum and building their businesses.
[00:24:01] So when legit script came out
[00:24:02] with their enterprise certification program,
[00:24:04] I was so interested because what it really means is that us
[00:24:08] as a Mentom have partnered with them as an enterprise partner
[00:24:11] and we have essentially reserved codes
[00:24:15] to expedite the certification.
[00:24:17] So the queue can be anywhere from two to six weeks
[00:24:23] that someone is sitting in the queue
[00:24:24] to get picked up by an underwriter at legit script
[00:24:26] to start the certification program.
[00:24:28] With us, it's guaranteed within two business days
[00:24:31] you're contacted by an underwriter at legit script.
[00:24:34] I mean, to me, that's huge, right?
[00:24:36] Like for these merchants, like I said,
[00:24:38] they've built their entire websites,
[00:24:40] they've got their operation ready to go.
[00:24:42] They have that momentum, let's just keep it going, right?
[00:24:45] And we're able to do that for them.
[00:24:47] So we're really excited, especially, you know,
[00:24:50] it's, we have to mention peptides.
[00:24:52] I mean, everybody knows about peptides.
[00:24:54] Now, like what peptides are we talking?
[00:24:57] You know, you have a lot of these merchants getting
[00:24:59] into peptides that then want to
[00:25:00] to move into telemedicine. And this is a way for them to get there quickly and to be compliant,
[00:25:09] do things the right way, but not slow down their business. So we're really excited about
[00:25:13] it. You know, they're going to be doing like a quick little spotlight on us coming soon.
[00:25:18] So yeah, we'll keep you guys posted on that.
[00:25:21] Awesome. Getting into our last little subject here, which is a fun one AI embedded payments
[00:25:29] and kind of the future of what the agent looks like. AI, have you guys done anything
[00:25:35] with AI outside of, you know, just using it for personal use or anything like that? Like,
[00:25:40] have you guys built any type of AI automation into the momentum system?
[00:25:47] We have more so on the operations side. Yeah. So there, there's some automation being utilized
[00:25:53] within our underwriting process. We've got some AI activity that we use kind of on the risk side
[00:26:01] to just in terms of helping us generate bank reporting, summarizing the reports, providing
[00:26:07] all that detail. So we're definitely using it. I think, you know, my take on it is it's
[00:26:14] a tool, it's not going away. And I think, you know, the ISOs that are ultimately using
[00:26:20] it, you know, they're using it best or using it to expedite and improve their processes.
[00:26:26] I don't know, in my mind, I don't know that it's replacing anything. I think it's just
[00:26:30] helping to expedite and improve. I think, and that's the kind of the approach that we've
[00:26:35] taken so far. Obviously, kind of we started this whole conversation with me leaning heavily
[00:26:40] into kind of the people and the relationships aspect of thing. To me, that's not going away.
[00:26:45] I think, you know, we can involve AI and all the tools in the world. But at the end of
[00:26:50] the day, you know, people still need to be able to get a hold of somebody, you know, people
[00:26:54] need to be able to call me, call Alexis, get something done and AI ultimately is just not
[00:26:58] going to not going to replace that. So I think I think it's important. I think it's here. I
[00:27:03] don't think it's going anywhere. And I think, you know, the ISOs that have the most success
[00:27:07] are going to be the ones that use it to to improve what they're already doing, not necessarily
[00:27:11] replace anything. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. No, I was going to say, I'm going to let you kind
[00:27:19] of go, but whatever you respond with, talk to us a little bit also about what the agent
[00:27:24] commerce piece. I know you that's a buzzword for you. And you've talked about it a few
[00:27:28] times, kind of talk to us about what that is looking at more in the sales environment
[00:27:33] as well. Yeah, and that's kind of what I was going to get into. You know, on the on the business
[00:27:38] operations side, I mean, AI automation is key. You have to be using it. It is what it is.
[00:27:45] And people who say like, we don't want to use AI, like you're already using it in some
[00:27:48] capacity. You probably just don't know it, right? I mean, it's everywhere. But with the
[00:27:52] agentic commerce, really, that's on the merchant side of things, right? So right now, people
[00:27:58] are using these AI tools to compare products. They're ultimately using it to sometimes buy
[00:28:05] products on their behalf. So how as a merchant specifically in e-commerce, like, how are you
[00:28:11] setting your site up to to communicate with AI, right? And I think that's something that
[00:28:20] smaller e-commerce businesses could get lost in this is that they're not collecting customer
[00:28:28] reviews, which are huge, right? I mean, you go on Amazon and there's already an AI overview
[00:28:33] for you, like on that product. And it's pulling information from, you know, the description,
[00:28:38] it's pulling information from reviews and it's putting it in a nice little package for you.
[00:28:41] So you can read, you know, if you want and to see if you want to buy that e-commerce merchants
[00:28:45] need to do that. You need to make sure that your product descriptions are accurate, that
[00:28:49] there's enough content there for AI to read. You need to make sure that there are plenty of
[00:28:53] reviews that AI can read. You need to make the checkout process very easy because it's
[00:28:58] still a machine. And if it's clunky, it's going to kick AI out AI is not going to understand
[00:29:04] it. So you, you have to think about that when you're built, when you're building your sites
[00:29:08] and you're, you're putting your, you know, you're putting your business together because
[00:29:12] people are using it. It's happening more and more every day. And then as far as the AI agents
[00:29:17] on the support side of things too, you know, just being at the different shows this year
[00:29:23] and at SCAA, like you see them, they're there, right? We have new companies that are popping
[00:29:28] up that are offering your AI agents for your support teams, for your agent support, for
[00:29:32] your underwriters. I think that ISOs, you know, would, would be naive to think that they, that
[00:29:40] they shouldn't use it at all. And to Jordan's point, like use it to improve your operations,
[00:29:45] not to replace. But you definitely need to do your research on, on what did it, on what's
[00:29:50] going on because it, it will hurt you if you just turn a blind eye to it and then say,
[00:29:56] no, we're not using it. Yeah, I think internally from
[00:30:00] us, we have kind of the philosophy that AI is built to create efficiencies, not replace
[00:30:05] employees.
[00:30:06] Right.
[00:30:07] Exactly.
[00:30:08] And so, you know, if I can make, if I can take a 45 minute task for an underhittering
[00:30:13] and create efficiencies using AI to now take that 40 minute 45 minute workload down to 15,
[00:30:20] that's a win.
[00:30:22] That's three files now.
[00:30:23] Yeah.
[00:30:24] So like, you know, that's, that's the way we look at it.
[00:30:26] And I think, I think we started this conversation off right.
[00:30:30] It's all about the people.
[00:30:31] And I think you're going to be a C, not just, Hey, it's not going anywhere.
[00:30:36] I think you're going to see a big surge for it coming back.
[00:30:40] For any doctor's office that is listening to this, if you put AI as your answering service,
[00:30:46] you will lose your customers.
[00:30:48] I just went through this and it is so frustrating just to be able to talk to someone and be like,
[00:30:53] Hey, I just had surgery.
[00:30:55] I have a question, blah, blah, it's, it's just so frustrating.
[00:30:59] So I think you're, I think both of y'all said this, right?
[00:31:01] Like AI, I don't see AI being able to replace support, not, not at least in the next 10
[00:31:06] years, maybe next five years, but, you know, I just don't see that.
[00:31:11] And to take, to use AI for sales, I just always chuckle, especially in the, in the payment
[00:31:18] spaces, we're kind of like insurance.
[00:31:20] Like, yes, people will go online and just sign up, look at square, look at Stripe.
[00:31:24] They did a good job of proving that market, but people still want to shake hands, you know,
[00:31:28] you have a $250,000 a month account, like they're going to want to shake your hand.
[00:31:33] They want something to scream at.
[00:31:36] Right.
[00:31:37] Let's talk about embedded payments, you know, as, as that just kind of pre AI craze, I feel
[00:31:45] like that was the big craze and still kind of is, you know, what does that look like not
[00:31:49] just for ISVs and softwares, but, you know, for the market in general, what are you guys
[00:31:55] seeing around the embedded payment space?
[00:31:58] Are you guys launching any embedded payments as maybe its own rail or are you guys looking
[00:32:03] at any of that stuff?
[00:32:04] Talk to us about that.
[00:32:08] We, we honestly kind of go as our agents go, you know, I think we, we kind of said before,
[00:32:14] we're kind of exclusively an agent partner based office.
[00:32:18] And so ultimately, you know, our responsibility is to make sure that we can support the needs
[00:32:22] of our agents.
[00:32:23] So we have a kind of a wide array of type of agents, right, low risk, high risk, we've
[00:32:29] got some that are involved in ISVs and embedded payments, some that are just still kind of
[00:32:34] traditional feet on the street, low risk guys, we kind of see it all.
[00:32:37] And so I think for us, the important thing is to kind of remain nimble and remain flexible
[00:32:42] and be able to support whatever it is ultimately that our partners need us to support.
[00:32:47] And so I think, you know, through trade shows, webinars, seminars, different things
[00:32:52] like that, we kind of stay abreast of all of the updates.
[00:32:55] And I think we, we stay ready to be able to kind of act as needed.
[00:33:00] I wouldn't say it's necessarily kind of a, you know, a sales path of ours is that we
[00:33:05] want to become kind of the go to, you know, the go to solution for all things embedded
[00:33:09] payments.
[00:33:10] But we need to be able to support it if and when the need comes.
[00:33:14] And that's kind of, you know, true, true for all aspects.
[00:33:17] Like I said, ISV relationships, POS vendors, whatever it may be.
[00:33:21] I think, you know, our goal is really just to kind of stay ready and stay prepared to
[00:33:24] be able to support as needed.
[00:33:27] Yeah.
[00:33:28] And I think for, you know, softwares entering the market, embedded payments is clearly a
[00:33:34] great revenue stream for them.
[00:33:37] Um, I think the biggest issue that ISV's come up against is their distribution channel,
[00:33:44] right?
[00:33:44] Um, sale, a sales team is expensive.
[00:33:47] If you want to hire an in-house sales team to push your product and your software,
[00:33:52] that's a, that's a big lift.
[00:33:54] And are you the people to do it, right?
[00:33:56] A lot of times people who are building software are not salespeople, right?
[00:34:00] So they can have the best software out there, but without a distribution channel and good
[00:34:04] salespeople, like nobody's going to see it.
[00:34:07] So I think that as ISV's and, you know, software companies start embedding payments
[00:34:14] into their products, they need to think about that first.
[00:34:16] Like, all right, and how are we going to get this to market?
[00:34:19] Um, how are we going to really capitalize on these embedded payments and, and that's
[00:34:23] either partnering with an ISO, right?
[00:34:25] Who already has a sales team?
[00:34:26] Are you going to have, or are you going to have 1099 agents just like an ISO does?
[00:34:30] Or are you going to go for it and have an in person, an in-house sales team?
[00:34:34] So I think it's just like strategizing, right?
[00:34:36] It's, it's not just doing it because it's the buzzword and it's the thing to do.
[00:34:40] So let's just check it off the list.
[00:34:41] It's like, no, you have to be strategic about it.
[00:34:43] And how are you going to take it to market?
[00:34:47] Yeah, moving to the agent, right?
[00:34:51] Like the current and future piece of the agent are, do you feel like you're seeing
[00:34:56] a lot of the buzz around the three to five
[00:35:00] your people in the industry now, quote unquote,
[00:35:03] wanting to become their own ISO?
[00:35:07] Yes.
[00:35:08] Yeah.
[00:35:09] You know, I just sat on a panel regarding this.
[00:35:14] It is very easy as an agent to think
[00:35:18] that you can do it on your own, right?
[00:35:21] And that you don't need an ISO.
[00:35:25] I've been there.
[00:35:26] I've been on both sides.
[00:35:27] And I can tell you that having our own BIN,
[00:35:32] being a wholesale ISO is a huge undertaking for an agent,
[00:35:38] not saying you can't do it, but is it worth it, right?
[00:35:42] Like, is it really something that you wanna do?
[00:35:44] I think that the future of agents really needs to be,
[00:35:49] instead of focusing on just going big,
[00:35:52] I'm just gonna become my own ISO.
[00:35:53] I'm gonna get my own BIN
[00:35:54] and I'm gonna be able to do whatever I want.
[00:35:56] Let's focus on something first, right?
[00:35:59] Like specialize in a vertical, let's say,
[00:36:02] start tackling that and use your ISO,
[00:36:05] use the support, use their underwriting,
[00:36:07] use everything that they've already built
[00:36:09] and spend a lot of money building
[00:36:11] to really become an expert in that vertical.
[00:36:14] And then once you've got that solid portfolio,
[00:36:16] like then think about if you wanna take that next step.
[00:36:19] But I think it's really easy to just think like big,
[00:36:22] let's go big or go home, like right away.
[00:36:24] And I just don't, I don't think that's the smart way to scale.
[00:36:27] I think that you lean on your ISO, you know,
[00:36:30] and that's where momentum comes in.
[00:36:31] Like we're here for those agents that really wanna scale
[00:36:37] and want to use our people, our platforms,
[00:36:40] our expertise to really grow their business
[00:36:43] before they take that next step.
[00:36:46] Yeah, I think the only thing I would add to that too,
[00:36:48] is I think a lot of times the desire to go from agent to,
[00:36:53] I'm just gonna become an ISO and do it myself,
[00:36:56] it is a lot of times probably predicated
[00:36:58] on sales performance, right?
[00:37:00] And so the idea being that, well, we write a lot of deals
[00:37:03] and so therefore we may as well just become an ISO,
[00:37:07] but the deal part of it really is almost kind of a small part
[00:37:12] of it and in reality, once you get to the other side
[00:37:14] and you're actually an ISO, you know,
[00:37:16] it's the financial lift in the beginning,
[00:37:19] it's the reserves, it's the losses in liability,
[00:37:22] it's the compliance aspect of it, right?
[00:37:25] And the security around everything,
[00:37:28] all the things that you're now responsible
[00:37:30] to your sponsor bank for, you know,
[00:37:33] I think a lot of agents say, well, we do the underwriting,
[00:37:35] well, no, you don't, right?
[00:37:37] You do the pre-underwriting, you scan it, you review it,
[00:37:40] but the real underwriting is happening at the ISO
[00:37:43] because it has to.
[00:37:44] So I think there's just a lot more to it
[00:37:48] than oftentimes agents think.
[00:37:51] And so yeah, as Alexa said, it's a massive lift
[00:37:54] and so I think utilizing an ISO
[00:37:56] that gives you the opportunity to kind of step through it
[00:37:59] so that you can start to kind of get a feel
[00:38:01] for what that looks like and what it consists of
[00:38:04] is probably the better place to start.
[00:38:05] And then look, if you hit it out the park
[00:38:07] and things are great, then yeah, go become an ISO,
[00:38:10] go do it yourself, that's, you know, it's obviously,
[00:38:13] it's something that we decided to do
[00:38:15] and I think it's worked out well for us
[00:38:17] so I would always recommend people go that route
[00:38:19] but I think understanding what all goes into it
[00:38:22] and making sure that you do it, right,
[00:38:24] is, you know, is important for sure.
[00:38:27] I also think that it's really hard.
[00:38:30] I think you nailed it when you said
[00:38:31] it's typically a very self-heavy environment, right?
[00:38:34] A shop that is good at putting 20, 30, 40 deals up a month
[00:38:38] and they can go that route.
[00:38:40] I think the biggest battle is also what both of y'all touched
[00:38:44] on and it's the operations.
[00:38:45] I feel like when you look at your day,
[00:38:47] once you have a been, when you look at your day,
[00:38:49] 90% of it is operational.
[00:38:52] Conversations, mentality, thinking, strategy,
[00:38:54] everything else, 10% of it is sales.
[00:38:56] Yeah. Why? Because it's the model.
[00:38:58] It's the age of a model.
[00:38:59] Like we're not out here having to go cold call
[00:39:02] and all that stuff.
[00:39:03] We're here to support the agent.
[00:39:05] So I think that that's probably the most misunderstood part
[00:39:09] is that it's actually easy in this business
[00:39:11] and you'll get deals.
[00:39:12] It's really hard to retain
[00:39:14] and operate those deals.
[00:39:17] Yeah.
[00:39:18] So where would you say,
[00:39:20] do you think technology continues the run
[00:39:22] that it does an agent should focus more on being more robust?
[00:39:28] Or do you think that that also falls back
[00:39:30] onto trust your ISO, believe in your ISO, leverage your ISO?
[00:39:37] I think both.
[00:39:39] I think it depends on the ability of the agent.
[00:39:42] I think it depends on the audience that the agent has, right?
[00:39:46] I mean, like I said before,
[00:39:47] we've got partners that are successful
[00:39:52] and do a decent job.
[00:39:53] They send us a good number of deals a month
[00:39:55] with very little kind of tech involvement, right?
[00:39:59] They're a pro.
[00:40:00] which is kind of, I would say, still very old school.
[00:40:03] They're going to merchants, they're talking to them,
[00:40:05] they're getting the application signed,
[00:40:07] and then they're providing the best service
[00:40:09] that they can possibly provide
[00:40:10] and making themselves available.
[00:40:11] And that works for them.
[00:40:14] Because the audience that they're serving,
[00:40:16] that's all they require.
[00:40:18] But I think that we've also got agents
[00:40:20] who are dealing with a, you know,
[00:40:22] let's call it a higher level merchant base
[00:40:25] who have higher level expectations
[00:40:27] and have quotes from different processors
[00:40:32] and ISOs out there that have basically told them,
[00:40:34] well, you're going to get this POS system
[00:40:36] and this technology and this feature.
[00:40:38] And so those agents are then required to provide
[00:40:40] that same solution and that same level of service too.
[00:40:44] So I think a lot of it depends on who you're selling to
[00:40:47] and what your market is.
[00:40:50] My belief is that there's still opportunity
[00:40:52] to be successful in all of them, right?
[00:40:54] It just depends on where you see yourself fitting.
[00:40:57] I think what is important for us,
[00:40:59] and they said the same thing with the embedded payments
[00:41:01] discussion, I think what's important for us
[00:41:03] is recognizing, you know, we've got a large agent base
[00:41:07] and they're all different and they all require
[00:41:09] something from us that is different than the next.
[00:41:14] And so the important thing for Mentom
[00:41:15] is to make sure that we're ready to be able to service
[00:41:18] those feet on the street, old school in-person sales guys
[00:41:21] who come in with handwritten applications
[00:41:24] and deliver them to us in person in the office,
[00:41:26] but all the way through to the most tech savvy,
[00:41:30] you know, embedded payment ISV solution-driven agents as well.
[00:41:35] And so for us, because that's our model
[00:41:37] and that's how we've chosen to go to market,
[00:41:40] we have to make sure that we can serve us in support
[00:41:42] kind of all of the above.
[00:41:46] Alexis kind of give us a little overview
[00:41:48] of the agent program at Mentom
[00:41:51] and then obviously how do they get a hold of you
[00:41:53] and if they want to continue the conversation?
[00:41:55] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:41:56] So obviously we're strictly an agent channel.
[00:42:00] We do not have a direct channel here at Mentom.
[00:42:03] So, you know, we're not competing with our agents.
[00:42:05] We rely heavily on our agents and their success.
[00:42:09] It's a very agent-friendly program.
[00:42:12] We are very flexible, kind of depending on
[00:42:14] what you're looking for and what you need
[00:42:16] and what your clients need.
[00:42:18] It's very straightforward.
[00:42:19] It kind of goes back to like old school agent days, you know,
[00:42:23] and we feel good about that.
[00:42:24] That's kind of who we are.
[00:42:25] So it's a very hands-on approach.
[00:42:27] You know, you know, every single person
[00:42:29] that you're working with, we welcome office visits,
[00:42:32] as you know, Bill.
[00:42:34] So yeah, if you're interested in chatting
[00:42:37] and kind of going over like the verticals
[00:42:38] that we specialize in, yeah,
[00:42:40] anybody can reach out to me.
[00:42:41] It's just alexusatmentimpayments.com.
[00:42:44] You can reach Jordan too,
[00:42:45] but he'll probably forward it to me anyway.
[00:42:49] My email is alexusatmentimpayments.com.
[00:42:52] There you go.
[00:42:55] All right, guys, we all heard it.
[00:42:58] Reach out, have a conversation.
[00:43:00] They're doing some pretty cool stuff over there.
[00:43:02] I think you're pretty crazy if you're the type of shop
[00:43:07] that really, whether it's a brand
[00:43:08] or you just like having that merchant control,
[00:43:11] that conversation, these are the group
[00:43:14] that can be the engine behind the scenes.
[00:43:17] They've got some really cool stuff over there.
[00:43:18] So reach out to Alexis and Jordan
[00:43:20] and they'll be happy to continue the conversation.
[00:43:22] And guys, I appreciate y'all joining me on the call today.
[00:43:26] Awesome.
[00:43:27] Thanks, Bill.