We’ve officially reached 400 episodes of the Leaders in Payments Podcast - and what a journey it’s been. I’m incredibly proud of this milestone and truly grateful to our listeners, guests, and community. With over 375 guests featured, we’ve uncovered countless insights from the best minds in the business.

To celebrate episode 400, I sat down with Barry McCarthy, President and CEO of Deluxe. Barry takes us on a fascinating journey through the transformation of a century-old company once known primarily for check printing into a modern payments and data powerhouse.

What does a company do when its core business faces digital disruption? For Deluxe, the answer was bold reinvention. McCarthy reveals how the company now processes approximately $3 trillion annually across four integrated business lines: merchant services targeting mid-market businesses, B2B payments focused on accounts receivable/payable management, data-driven marketing leveraging one of the industry's largest consumer databases, and their legacy print operations.

The conversation explores how Deluxe has strategically repositioned itself at the intersection of payments, data, and artificial intelligence. McCarthy shares specific examples of how they're applying AI to solve real business problems, from matching payments to invoices to identifying high-converting marketing leads. His vision for the future of payments is particularly compelling – a world where payment processing becomes as invisible and omnipresent as electricity, simply working in the background without conscious thought.

Whether you're a payments industry veteran or just beginning your fintech career, this milestone 400th episode delivers rich insights on corporate transformation, the future of embedded payments, and the strategic application of artificial intelligence in financial services.

As CEO & Co-Founder of Sling Money, Mike is transforming how we think about sending funds across borders by making international transfers as effortless as sending a text message.

During our conversation, Mike reveals how a personal experience moving USDC between the UK and San Francisco sparked his vision. The transfer itself was instant and free, but everything around it felt clunky – "like using a Unix command line from the 80s." This insight led him to create what he calls "the macOS or iPhone of stablecoins," abstracting away all of the complexity.

Sling's elegant approach allows users to add money through local payment methods in 75 countries, convert to stablecoins behind the scenes, and send funds globally in just seconds. Recipients can withdraw to their local currency almost instantly, never needing to understand the underlying technology. The use cases range from practical (managing finances across multiple countries) to spontaneous (buying someone a beer across continents) – transactions that were previously impossible or prohibitively expensive.

Mike places this innovation in a fascinating historical context, comparing the evolution of international payments to what happened with telecommunications and streaming video. Just as we no longer think twice about "long-distance calls," he envisions a future where the concept of "international payments" disappears entirely.

Ready to experience the future of global money transfer? Download Sling Money today and join the community making international payments instant, free, and frictionless.

Frank Arellano, founder and CEO of Revolv3, peels back the curtain on a staggering $600 billion problem plaguing the payments industry that few executives fully understand. False declines - legitimate transactions incorrectly rejected by payment processors - account for a shocking two-thirds of all credit card declines. For subscription-based businesses, this translates into devastating levels of involuntary customer churn.

Drawing from his 25 years of experience at companies like Ingram Micro and Experian, Frank explains how Revolv3's intelligent payment optimization platform tackles this challenge head-on. Unlike traditional payment gateways, Revolv3 analyzes over 100 different data elements in every transaction to build trust with issuers and dramatically improve approval rates. The results speak volumes: merchants using Revolv3's platform achieve an average 14% increase in approval rates and nearly 30% growth in total revenue from decline management alone.

What sets this conversation apart is Frank's holistic view of the payments ecosystem and its future trajectory. He predicts embedded finance and predictive capabilities will dominate the next few years, with increased focus on tokenization and regulatory compliance over the next decade. 

For professionals entering the fintech space, Frank offers invaluable advice: understand how money moves throughout the entire ecosystem, rather than focusing on just one aspect. 

The world of payments is undergoing a radical transformation, and at the heart of this revolution stands Wix Payments. In this compelling conversation with co-heads Vova Tsukur and Amit Sagiv, we uncover how this powerhouse is reshaping financial services for small businesses across 190 countries.

What makes Wix Payments truly special? It's not just another payment processor. By leveraging deep user knowledge gathered through their platform, they've crafted a frictionless onboarding experience that allows merchants to start accepting payments almost immediately. This approach has become a lifeline for small businesses often rejected by traditional providers despite being legitimate operations.

"We see the customer in a holistic way," explains Amit. "We understand their identity really well and can assess risk more accurately than standalone payment providers." This insight enables their unique multi-processor strategy, intelligently routing transactions across various payment partners to optimize approval rates and performance.

The future vision they share is equally fascinating. From AI-powered risk management that's already transforming their operations to a world of "real-time everything" where payments, settlements, and payouts happen instantaneously. Vova even predicts a future where "payments become naked, free from UX," with AI agents autonomously conducting transactions based on predefined parameters.

Both leaders emphasize that embracing AI isn't optional in today's payment landscape. "The fraudsters don't wait to adapt—they adapt fast," Amit warns. "By the time you catch up to one threat, they've already moved on to something more sophisticated."

Darryl Hicks, founder and CEO of FlexPay, takes us behind the scenes of a problem costing subscription businesses millions each month – failed payments and the resulting involuntary customer churn.

From his early days cleaning toilets in his parents' commercial cleaning business to consulting for major telecom companies in the Twin Towers, Darryl shares his unique journey to founding a company that's now processing billions of transactions using sophisticated AI. What began as a solution he built for his own subscription businesses has evolved into a mission to fundamentally transform how payments work.

FlexPay stands apart through deep partnerships with financial institutions, sharing crucial data that has traditionally been siloed between merchants and issuers. This approach allows their machine learning models to continuously improve. For subscription businesses experiencing millions in monthly failed payments, even small improvements in recovery rates translate to substantial revenue.

The conversation reveals how payment system opacity creates unnecessary friction for legitimate commerce. When issuing banks make decisions without transparency – whether declining transactions due to suspected fraud or based on undisclosed policies against certain merchant categories – both businesses and consumers suffer. 

While excited about innovations like stable coins, Darryl remains pragmatic about the future of payments: "I would not bet against Visa and Mastercard." Rather than trying to replace traditional rails, he's focused on reducing friction within existing systems through better data sharing and transparency. For entrepreneurs, he emphasizes the importance of building strong advisory boards and following your natural passions.

Dan Battista, CEO and Partner at Factor4, takes us on an journey through the rapidly evolving gift card landscape. With genuine passion and deep industry knowledge, Dan reveals how Factor4 has grown from just 3 employees to 22 staff serving over 21,000 merchants in just a decade.

The conversation illuminates Factor4's remarkable approach to customer service – answering emails within 10 minutes and phones within two rings – which has become their true competitive advantage. Unlike competitors owned by large payment processors, Factor4 focuses exclusively on gift and loyalty solutions, allowing them to devote 100% of their investment and attention to perfecting these offerings.

Dan walks us through the transformation of gift cards during the pandemic era – from traditional plastic cards to essential digital solutions delivered via email and SMS. What was once a "nice-to-have" became a critical business necessity, pushing Factor4 to develop comprehensive omnichannel capabilities that seamlessly connect online and in-store experiences.

Particularly compelling is Dan's insight into loyalty programs as customer relationship management tools. When pandemic restrictions hit, merchants suddenly realized they had no way to communicate with their regular customers about changing hours, outdoor dining, or reopening plans. Factor4's customized loyalty solutions filled this gap, helping businesses build valuable customer databases while driving repeat business.

The conversation also explores Factor4's innovative approach to technology, including their development of iOS and Android apps that enable gift card transactions without additional hardware – simply using a smartphone camera to read barcodes. This adaptability has allowed them to integrate with over 50 different POS systems and expand internationally across ten countries.

What happens when you combine identity verification with payment precision? That's the question Ben Turner set out to answer when he founded Verituity, a company transforming enterprise disbursements by focusing on verification at every step of the payment process.

Drawing from his experiences at Network Solutions in the early days of e-commerce, Turner recognized that payment fraud and errors stem from an identity problem. When businesses can't confidently verify who they're paying, millions of dollars are lost to mistakes and fraudsters.

Turner challenges conventional thinking about payment speed and modernization. While most conversations focus on real-time capabilities, he argues that what enterprises truly need is payment precision and cash optimization. "Real-time is more valuable often on the debit side than it is on the credit side," Turner explains, highlighting how businesses want to optimize when funds leave their accounts rather than simply accelerating all payments. This insight transforms digital disbursements from potential risk into strategic cash management tools.

Ready to transform your approach to enterprise disbursements? Discover how Verituity's verification-first model can eliminate payment errors, reduce fraud risk, and optimize your cash management. Connect with Verituity to learn more. 

Ever wondered how pest control, landscaping, and janitorial companies are being transformed through innovative financial technology? Jacob Olins, SVP & GM of Fintech at WorkWave, takes us deep into the world where field service management software meets cutting-edge financial services.

WorkWave has positioned itself as the operating system for field service businesses, providing everything from customer acquisition tools to mobile apps for technicians. But what truly sets their platform apart is how they've revolutionized payments and financial services within these traditional industries. Olins walks us through their journey from payment reseller to full Payment Facilitator, giving them complete control over the customer experience and unlocking new revenue opportunities.

The most fascinating aspect of our conversation reveals how embedded financial services are solving real business problems. For companies struggling with customer retention, WorkWave's card-on-file and subscription capabilities have helped transform one-off service calls into recurring revenue streams. Their consumer financing partnerships make large emergency services affordable for homeowners. Perhaps most impressive, their earned wage access feature has increased employee retention by over 30% by allowing hourly workers to access earned wages before payday.

Ready to understand how the $13 trillion banking industry is being reshaped by innovative software platforms? Listen now and discover insights that might forever change how you view the intersection of software and financial services.

Meet Jeff Shea, the co-founder and CEO of Under who's revolutionizing how payments companies onboard merchants. Drawing from over two decades in payments and fintech, Jeff has created a digital account opening platform that's solving one of the industry's most persistent challenges.

Under helps payments companies streamline merchant onboarding through integrated identity verification, automated risk assessments, and simplified application collection. Serving over 100 payments organizations across the United States, the company primarily works with wholesale ISOs, payment facilitators, payment processors, and software companies that monetize payments. Jeff explains that their platform bridges the gap between disjointed point solutions that many companies currently cobble together, creating a seamless experience from lead generation through merchant approval.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Jeff discusses the future of payments and underwriting. He predicts continued growth in embedded and verticalized payments as more software platforms own their payment stacks. Looking further ahead, he believes payments will become increasingly commoditized, with differentiation coming from how platforms manage identity, trust, decisioning, and merchant experience. Most compellingly, Jeff references a McKinsey report predicting that traditional underwriting will disappear within a decade, replaced by artificial intelligence, deep learning, and machine learning. These technologies promise faster approvals for legitimate merchants while more effectively identifying problematic applicants.

Ready to transform your merchant onboarding process? Discover how Under can help you approve the right merchants faster while reducing risk at under.io.

What happens when you combine decades of payment industry expertise with a mission to solve one of the most overlooked problems in business banking? Brian Bailey, President of Clip Money, joins us to reveal how his company is transforming the way businesses handle cash deposits.

Despite the rapid growth of digital payments, cash still accounts for nearly 30% of all in-store transactions. Yet for decades, businesses have been forced to operate within an antiquated system - physically carrying cash to bank branches during limited hours, using paper deposit slips, and lacking visibility into their deposit lifecycle. With a network of 7,000 deposit locations across North America, Clip Money offers a revolutionary alternative that saves businesses 40-60% on deposit costs while providing next-business-day credit.

Bailey walks us through Clip's innovative shared network model that includes smart safes in shopping malls, deposit-enabled ATMs in partnership with NCR Atleos, and over-the-counter services through Green Dot's retail network. This infrastructure allows businesses to make deposits on their schedule, closer to their locations, while gaining full digital transparency through Clip's software platform. The result is a win-win proposition - businesses improve cash flow and reduce costs, while financial institutions can move cash handling outside their branches.

Drawing from his extensive background at NCR and Cardtronics, Bailey shares valuable insights about payment infrastructure evolution, regulatory challenges for fintech innovators, and the future of shared payment networks.