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Welcome to the 2026 de Banked Connect Miami.

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I'm now with Paul Boxer

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of Merchant Marketplace. How are you doing?

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Amazing. Now that I'm in Miami with de Banked over here,

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We're always happy to have you.

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So how do you feel so far about this year's event? So

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The venture started and the vibes is insane in the room.

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Everyone is here. It's packed. I figure you know what?

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It actually officially starts at

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11:00 AM The doors will open.

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Everyone had a great night last night.

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It'll be trickling in. Let me tell you something,

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the doors opened here and if you look around the room,

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the place is packed lines inside the door

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and there's more people than I ever would've thought

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that showed up to de banked in Miami at De Bank Connect.

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Insane. And then networking has already begun.

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It's crazy how that can happen, right?

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I guess people did get enough sleep last

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night, but let's talk about you.

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How is the year starting off,

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what do you expect for this year?

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So on our side merchant marketplace,

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we actually rolled out our syndication universe

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where we give a lot of brokers

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and syndicates their own universe

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to have their own marketplace

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to syndicate in on their deals As a direct funder,

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we have funded and hit and reached all of our goals.

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This year we're on pace to do a hundred million dollars this

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year, which is insane for us.

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We started five years ago

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and never thought we would've been here.

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We're offering all of our, um, iso partner brokers, a lot

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of bonuses, a lot of different options of funding.

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We're going out 12 months. Great.

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Um, opportunities to syndicate in the deals as well

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and really forging the relationships here in Miami at the

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show is just making us keep reaching for higher goals

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and hopefully exceeding them as well.

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Hitting your goals two months into the year is

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quite an accomplishment.

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Well, you know what, thank God we were off

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to the races very, very well.

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December ended off 2025 with a great month

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and January just opened up

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and it's trickling right into February.

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And as I said, we're on pace to literally beat our,

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what we started as a goal

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of a hundred million dollars in the year.

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We're on pace to beat that

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and we really have to thank it to, of course our

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partners over here at de banked

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and all of the amazing app producers they give us

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to actually meet everyone in the industry and network here.

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And you know what, these is what the shows are all about.

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Meeting old connections, meeting new connections,

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forging those relationships

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and being here really, really proves

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that it's worth everything.

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And those relationships mean everything to us

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because we are a relationship, a relationship based funder

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and build on those relationships to have those brokers fund

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with us instead of going elsewhere.

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So, you know what, that's why we're here.

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Paul, are you sure you don't do PR too?

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I wish I did or I should, but no, I don't do pr.

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You're great. So let's talk more about the relationships

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in person because that's what

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really makes this special, right? It does.

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There's a lot of people out there who hide behind,

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you know, WhatsApp names

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or WhatsApp groups, um, all kinds of emails

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and you have no idea who you're speaking to.

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Since I started in this almost 10 years ago, I made it, um,

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really a mission to always be on the forefront,

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putting my face and name out there on social media, uh,

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person to person meetings, going to different offices all

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around the country, meeting our ISO broker partners

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and putting the face of name and showing who we are.

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And I believe that's the key to my success, the key

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to merchant marketplace's success.

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And I keep it going with our ISO team.

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We have a great team here. We're here with Alana Kirschner

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and Aaron Schwartz are two iso, um,

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relationship development partners

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and they're doing a great job here.

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And this is really what I believe is one

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of the key factors is putting the face of the name

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and building on that relationship.

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So I think it's safe to say then

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that you've walked away from a de banked con connect

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or a de banked event with a new lead,

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a new business, a new partner. Is that correct?

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That is correct. I always say we, for us to make any

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of these type of networking events and shows valuable

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and worth it and getting our ROI, we have

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to at least get one real relationship

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where we got the relationship on

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and we started finding them and doing well.

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But already out of the gate, we have about three

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or four people who just signed up with us.

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We met a few, um,

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ISOs we haven't really spoken to in a long time.

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They sort of fell off, we got them

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back on, started talking to them.

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So yes, that's what it's all about.

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And if you go in with a minimum,

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and of course you want to meet

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and exceed your goal, you really walk away

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with a great ROI from these shows.

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And of course you always get what you put in.

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So we're networking, we're schmoozing,

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we're walking the room, we're doing what we gotta do.

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We're at our booth meeting and talking to people.

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As long as you put your effort in God willing,

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you'll succeed and do very, very well.

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I think you're on the right path. Paul,

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Thank you very much. I hope so.

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Always a pleasure. And there's still more

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to come from deep banked connect.

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Wonderful.