1 00:00:01,950 --> 00:00:03,712 Johny Fernandez: Hey you guys, welcome back. I'm Johny 2 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:06,571 Fernandez and I'm here with Garima Shah from Biller, Biller 3 00:00:06,619 --> 00:00:09,621 Genie. She is the president. So Garima thanks so much for being 4 00:00:09,668 --> 00:00:10,050 with us. 5 00:00:10,050 --> 00:00:10,740 Garima Shah: Thanks for having us. 6 00:00:10,770 --> 00:00:12,750 Johny Fernandez: No problem. So a couple of quick questions. I 7 00:00:12,750 --> 00:00:15,510 mean, you guys are here. You know, we're in person kind of 8 00:00:15,510 --> 00:00:18,930 walk me through what you're thinking as a president to see 9 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:20,760 the business back in to full swing. 10 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,610 Garima Shah: Oh my God, it is so exciting to have people back 11 00:00:23,790 --> 00:00:26,490 face to face not covering half their mouths, you don't actually 12 00:00:26,490 --> 00:00:28,410 know if they're like hating everything you say, because you 13 00:00:28,410 --> 00:00:31,110 can't see the rest of their facial expressions. It's been so 14 00:00:31,110 --> 00:00:34,140 nice to just have the face to face interaction and have such a 15 00:00:34,140 --> 00:00:36,630 big show. And we normally normally South East Acquierers 16 00:00:36,630 --> 00:00:39,150 is not a very large show. To have this kind of turnout, I 17 00:00:39,150 --> 00:00:41,400 think it just shows that people were waiting for it and really 18 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:41,910 wanting it. 19 00:00:42,030 --> 00:00:45,120 Johny Fernandez: So when we spoke with the CEO, Tom, you 20 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:48,270 know, we spoke to him earlier last year, he kind of walked us 21 00:00:48,270 --> 00:00:51,240 through kind of some of the changes. So now can we get an 22 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,510 updated version of what's going on? Now that we're pretty much 23 00:00:54,510 --> 00:00:56,280 six, seven months into 2021. 24 00:00:56,700 --> 00:01:00,930 Garima Shah: So 2021 has been a very much breakout year for us, 25 00:01:01,140 --> 00:01:04,770 we were able to close our seed round of funding. And our lead 26 00:01:04,770 --> 00:01:08,730 investor is Henry Hutchison, which a former Cayenne merchant 27 00:01:08,730 --> 00:01:13,890 warehouse Spain, he is a huge, huge, huge blessing that he 28 00:01:13,890 --> 00:01:16,290 where he was able to be our lead investor, we have quite a few 29 00:01:16,290 --> 00:01:19,920 other investors from various large processors as well as 30 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:22,260 investment bankers. So we're really, really excited about 31 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:25,560 that and we're using that seed round to really fund and fuel 32 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:28,680 our growth, we've seen a big influx in partnerships come 33 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,310 through with various banks, processors, channel partners, so 34 00:01:32,310 --> 00:01:33,960 we're really excited. It's been a great year so far. 35 00:01:33,990 --> 00:01:36,690 Johny Fernandez: That's awesome. And being here, in this actual 36 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:39,210 event, kind of walk us through why you guys came and what you 37 00:01:39,210 --> 00:01:40,770 guys expect out of something like this. 38 00:01:40,770 --> 00:01:44,700 Garima Shah: Sure. So myself and Tom, my partner both come from 39 00:01:44,700 --> 00:01:46,860 the payment space, it's in our blood, right? I've been in 40 00:01:46,860 --> 00:01:51,210 payments since 2004. These are my people. And half of reason 41 00:01:51,210 --> 00:01:54,420 why Biller Genie came into place is because we were looking for a 42 00:01:54,420 --> 00:01:58,050 solution that would handle QuickBooks integrations for the 43 00:01:58,050 --> 00:02:01,110 payments, business. And we couldn't find that. And that's 44 00:02:01,110 --> 00:02:04,920 really where Billers Genie came from. Now that we're a software 45 00:02:05,460 --> 00:02:08,910 only or SAS solution, we're fully payments agnostic. So to 46 00:02:08,910 --> 00:02:12,180 all the processors, ISIS, agents out there who are looking for 47 00:02:12,180 --> 00:02:14,340 solutions like ours, if you just ask someone, hey, did you ever 48 00:02:14,340 --> 00:02:15,900 have a merchant, the you had to walk away from those was using 49 00:02:15,900 --> 00:02:18,030 QuickBooks? I guarantee you there won't be a single person 50 00:02:18,030 --> 00:02:22,380 who says no, right. So that's really why we're really excited 51 00:02:22,380 --> 00:02:22,740 to be here. 52 00:02:22,830 --> 00:02:25,500 Johny Fernandez: So you've been in this role since 2018, you had 53 00:02:25,500 --> 00:02:29,130 a quite an impressive resume from 2016, you were in different 54 00:02:29,130 --> 00:02:31,950 roles, leadership roles, business leadership roles. So as 55 00:02:31,950 --> 00:02:34,890 a female in this space, where it's primarily a lot of men, 56 00:02:34,980 --> 00:02:37,830 kind of walk me through seeing a lot of different other females 57 00:02:37,830 --> 00:02:39,690 also here what's going through your mind. 58 00:02:40,470 --> 00:02:43,890 Garima Shah: It's great. So I will say that in 2009, was the 59 00:02:43,890 --> 00:02:47,460 first Money 2020. And I remember going to a female, a women's 60 00:02:47,460 --> 00:02:49,920 only networking event at that show. And they giving out 61 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:52,560 statistics that out of the 20,000 people that were there 62 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:57,180 less than 5% were women. So to see that changing, and it's 63 00:02:57,180 --> 00:02:59,580 happening little by little, but to definitely see not just 64 00:02:59,580 --> 00:03:02,280 women, but to see various minorities, different age 65 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:04,770 groups, different people coming into our industry is super 66 00:03:04,770 --> 00:03:08,550 exciting. And you know, it's nice to see, I always used to 67 00:03:08,550 --> 00:03:11,580 say, oh, people, it's not fair, people remember me, because I'm 68 00:03:11,580 --> 00:03:14,280 a woman in this industry. And now it's not the case, we're 69 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:16,830 seeing a lot more women coming into our industry. And that's 70 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:17,820 been really exciting. 71 00:03:18,060 --> 00:03:19,410 Johny Fernandez: Let's talk a little a little bit about the 72 00:03:19,410 --> 00:03:22,620 future. What would you say in regards to females in the 73 00:03:22,620 --> 00:03:25,410 industry, and also seeing the industry, where is it going 74 00:03:25,410 --> 00:03:26,790 after a year, like 2020. 75 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:29,640 Garima Shah: So in terms of females in the industry, I think 76 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:32,100 that's only gonna continue to grow, I think that's gonna flip 77 00:03:32,100 --> 00:03:35,520 for oil, right? In every sector, and I think, especially as women 78 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:38,520 get into more software and those types of roles, we're just going 79 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:41,520 to see more women in leadership positions, at least, I'm going 80 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:44,580 to make sure that that's the case. But in terms of the 81 00:03:44,610 --> 00:03:47,880 industry, and where we're gonna see after 2020, I think 2020 was 82 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,600 a hard year for a lot of us in payments because of what was 83 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:55,080 happening to the economy as a whole. Seeing that uptick now 84 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:58,590 has been great for us as a company, we were fortunate 85 00:03:58,590 --> 00:04:00,870 enough to be on the software side. And we were able to use 86 00:04:00,870 --> 00:04:04,320 2020 as a catalyst to really focus on development efforts. 87 00:04:04,350 --> 00:04:06,330 Johny Fernandez: Awesome. So what advice would you give to 88 00:04:06,330 --> 00:04:09,090 other people that are watching this that are either not here or 89 00:04:09,090 --> 00:04:11,820 thinking about getting into the space into a leadership role in 90 00:04:11,820 --> 00:04:13,290 this space? What would you say to them? 91 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:16,080 Garima Shah: They have to like the fact that things are ever 92 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,050 changing what the most exciting thing about FinTech as a whole 93 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:22,140 is it's the way that money is moved. I mean, who doesn't want 94 00:04:22,140 --> 00:04:24,750 to be right there, it's the way money is moved. It's how it has 95 00:04:24,750 --> 00:04:28,170 how we work, right? And whether that means in 2004, we were 96 00:04:28,170 --> 00:04:31,380 selling credit card machines with a card and people are 97 00:04:31,380 --> 00:04:34,800 signing on like double stack receipts where now we're talking 98 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:36,690 about things like crypto acceptance and foreign 99 00:04:36,690 --> 00:04:40,560 exchanges. I mean, it doesn't really matter. But the way that 100 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,290 financial technology is it's only going to continue, it's 101 00:04:43,290 --> 00:04:46,170 only gonna get bigger, better, stronger. So if you like things 102 00:04:46,170 --> 00:04:48,090 that are challenging you like things that are ever changing. 103 00:04:48,180 --> 00:04:51,600 You want to be at the forefront of the world. I definitely think 104 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:52,410 it's the industry for you. 105 00:04:52,530 --> 00:04:54,720 Johny Fernandez: Awesome. Thanks so much, Garima for being here, 106 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:55,620 for chatting with us. 107 00:04:55,650 --> 00:04:56,760 Garima Shah: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. 108 00:04:56,820 --> 00:04:58,230 Johny Fernandez: And for everyone that's watching. We 109 00:04:58,230 --> 00:05:00,360 will be back obviously in a couple of minutes. to kind of 110 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:03,690 recap the event and also for with more interviews so stay 111 00:05:03,690 --> 00:05:04,080 tuned.