Johny Fernandez: Welcome back, you guys. We are live here from
Bonita Springs at the 21st annual SEAA annual conference.
Sean, do you hear that?
Sean Murray: I do I hear music playing already.
Johny Fernandez: It's it's coming to life.
Sean Murray: Yeah.
Johny Fernandez: We're back in full swing. We got Sean, Toucan
Johny Fernandez: We're back
Sean Murray: Yeah.
Sean or Tou Sean. Yeah. And Johny Fernandez here, Sean. I
love the music. It's vibrant energy. Yeah. So Sean real
quick, let's really, really quick recap. So we've talked to
different people in the payment world, kind of what they've told
us about just being here. And also just overall, how they've
moved forward after a crazy year. So you spoke with Shawn.
Yeah. Go ahead and walk us through that not this Sean
there's another. Go ahead.
Sean Murray: The other Shawn, Shawn Smith from Dedicated.
Yeah, we were just talking earlier if you if you didn't
catch it before, what was interesting about his firm is
that he works in the collections field, and you might think
intuitively, that collections probably did pretty good,
because of COVID. Because a lot of people probably had to stop
their payments, pause their payments, and that would be a
good opportunity for a collections firm. He actually
said his company grew by three times. And he went from 30
employees to 90 employees. Now that's like a massive increase.
Yeah. And part of it, it wasn't just people needing to go on
collection plans or whatever. It was also, lending companies,
funding companies, who realized that their own internal customer
support could not manage collections. So he saw a huge
inflow for when he was telling me from companies managing their
internal collections. And then finally, finally, using the
resources of a third party collections companies, he said,
that was like a really big part of it. Because if you work in
the financial field, people like to bring things in house, not
bring things, you know, to a third party where you might lose
some of the control over your data, it might cost you more,
but when COVID hit I think people said, okay, we can't do
this on our own. And so his company actually grew by triple,
which I thought was unbelievable.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. And same thing, with Sam Shapiro from
Fundomate, similar situation, you know, he was actually, you
know, COVID, hit, you know, they kind of had to kind of figure
out what they were gonna do, they panicked, but as COVID
started to go on, and that year and a half, he also, you know,
pretty much ended up recovering and growing. And now they're
kind of moving on to different projects. And it's really
interesting to see that many people that we've talked to here
in the world in the cash payment world, in the sorry, credit
payment world, that they are really looking forward to what's
Sean Murray: This is the cash conference, right. Cash
coming up.
conference. Only can only cash, here. Yeah, that's it. Yeah no,
no payments.
Johny Fernandez: No payments. But it's interesting to see how
like, this whole world is changing the way we live our
life, because of what's happened to us. Now. Everything's credit
payment, you know, everything is, you know, kind of like what
we talked about just, you know, through a credit card, or the
different forms of payment, whether it's similar to a Square
or a Venmo, or anything of that nature, and seeing how quickly
things have accelerated from, you know, people like a taxi
driver, not wanting to take credit to now like, that's
pretty much the only thing they see, that's the only thing they
use nowadays, especially in places like New York, where
we're from. So it's really interesting to see that. And
also, I think, something that we've heard from different
people that we've talked to whether it was here on set or
out, like, you know, just talking to people in the
reception area, that people are excited to be here. They want to
be here, you know, and we did speak with the event organizers,
one of the guys from the board of directors, Derek, and he also
chatted with us about that there's more than 900 plus
people here alone.
Sean Murray: I think he said over 1000, when you count
walkins. Yeah. When he when he count the walkins.
Johny Fernandez: So yeah, it's interesting. And you can really
start, people can really start seeing just a difference, and
where the world is going now that, you know, there's things
like the vaccine and the restrictions are being lifted.
He himself said that, you know, last minute, people were still
wanting to sign up, there were walkins. And then also there was
just a change in how they were doing things on a daily basis.
So something we mentioned is that the event space is back,
you know, these type of events, people want to be here. And I
think that's something we've talked about before in the
different shows that we've done that people are tired of Zoom,
even the owner of Zoom is Zoomed out, and people want to do this
we, we've seen this area right behind us packed with people,
you know, people are enjoying themselves. And I think that
what's what we've miss out on the most is that people actually
want to be with other people and networking and being in the
flesh. I've heard people tell you, oh my gosh, you're Sean
Murray in the flesh in person. So that's definitely exciting.
And it's definitely the vibe we've been picking up since
we've been here. And it's going to be exciting for tomorrow too
you know, different exhibits that are going to be happening
exhibit halls that are going to be happening, the educational
aspects of it, and also the networking. They have over 90
booths here alone. So that's something you know that to take
into consideration if you are coming and then also the
different protocols that they put in place you know, despite
this feeling normal, they're also taking into consideration
that not everyone may feel like that, which is why we have our
stickers. Yeah. We there's a yellow one, there's a red one,
there's a purple one, there's a green one, each of them
signifying something different. So this one have pretty much
says.
Sean Murray: This means you are.
Johny Fernandez: Ready to party.
Sean Murray: Ready to party. Yeah, I got all my shots. So you
know, this isn't this isn't me just being bold you know this is
me doing what I was supposed to do. And, and being you know
completely safe and secure and embracing, you know, embracing
the normal that I, you know, took the time to consider.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah and same thing I've taken the proper
precautions that I'd probably wear the green, the green
sticker, you know, ready to talk to people. And something that
I've seen very interesting here is that, you know, something as
simple as a simple handshake. I see people's faces light up so
much, because now we're back in person. And that's something
that they haven't been able to do. And many people probably
thought, will we still be able to ever do something like this?
Sean Murray: Some people are holding on extra tight.
Sean Murray: It used to be a format used to be a format. Hey,
Johny Fernandez: Extra tight.
how's it going? But now it's like, oh, it's so good to see
you. It's like, oh, wow, oh your real, you know what I mean? It's
the two handed. You know, it's the two handed.
Johny Fernandez: But that's literally the phrase of the
evening is wow, you're real. Yeah. Because people have come
up to you and told you that. Yeah. So you went Toucan Sam, or
Tou Sean? Yeah. Two Sean's, you know, you guys are a hit
tonight. It's, that shirts a hit tonight. This shirts okay. That
shirt is definitely your wife is probably so proud of you right
Sean Murray: I don't well, I don't know what she thinks about
now.
me right now. I guess I guess we'll find out afterwards,
especially given some events that happened earlier. But, you
know, when we're not on camera, we are having some sidebar
conversations here. And I keep using the word anecdotal, but I
think it's appropriate to use, because these type of events,
you get the best best anecdotal evidence before the statistical
evidence come in to tell you that tells you what's happening.
You find out what's happening in person at a show. Yeah. Right.
So people would ask me all the time, Sean, how do you have your
posts, so tight, you know, on the industry, right? How are you
so dialed in? Yeah. Well, because I go to the shows,
before you've gotten your quarterly report, or whatever it
is, whoever you paid to get your data from. I already know
because I already I already went to these shows. And I talked to
him. I'm not patting myself on the back, right. Yeah. But I'm
saying going to these type of events, makes all the difference
in the world to find out what people are saying, right. And
some of the anecdotal conversations I've had, are
alluding to the fact that it's not just a, oh, we're
recovering. I'm starting to hear some people say that it's
already starting to look bigger than what it was before.
Johny Fernandez: And I think something that we've heard
people say here is that there's a comeback, that the comeback is
here, we've talked about it before. But people are saying
like you know, like, this is bigger. It's bigger. Bigger than
the comeback. And this is something that they are ready to
go full force, people here are ready to start working to
recover from what they lost, and then even build off of that. So
I think that within itself is very exciting to see. And to see
people here down in South Florida, we've seen people that
are from Florida, that are from New York, that are from
Minneapolis, you know, from all over the country here
specifically. And I think it's also interesting just to see how
people have their mindset and where their minds are at not
only when it comes to networking, but also with their
business. And pretty much the pattern, like we've been saying
is that they want to come back and they want to make sure that
people are here, and they're ready to work, and they're ready
to grow this, this, this space into something bigger than what
it originally was.
Sean Murray: You know, what could be challenging, though,
about all that everyone wants to grow and get bigger. And this
is, again, anecdotal evidence, but it's something I heard when
I was in Miami last week, is that it's actually everyone's
hiring, it seems like, but it's actually hard to get people to
come work for you.
Johny Fernandez: Well, and I think that goes back to what
we've talked about before, just a simple fact that, you know,
maybe, you know, moving, wanting to work remote, there's
different factors that play into that. Maybe they're getting paid
more on unemployment. So there's different factors. But I think
what we can see and what we can say confidently is that people
are hiring, the business is growing. Yeah. And now it's up
to the individual employees that or people that are looking for a
job, it's up to them what they want to do with, you know,
what's out there, because the fact is that there is a
comeback, people are ready to hit the ground running.
Sean Murray: Yeah. You know, part of that might be
unemployment benefits, you know, finally running the course,
perhaps not doing any more stimulus. I'm not against any of
those things in general. But I heard that it has impeded hiring
in this particular field and the alternative finance field, I
heard that that has been a barrier to getting people to
come on board. And so you have firms, small companies, well
large and small, that are facing that challenge of what do you do
when you have a lot of availability? Yeah. And nobody
wants to come work for you. And I've heard that the restaurant
industry has also been quite, hit quite hard on that note as
well and that They're they're opening back up, everyone
everyone wants to go to restaurants again. But in terms
of getting people to do that work, it's they're having a much
tougher time. And that kind of feeds back into the funding
world. Because people need capital to grow, they have all
the other tools to grow, right. So if your job is to expand, and
you get this money and you want to hire, and you can't hire, you
know what I mean, like, you need every everything, in the chain
everything in the chain needs to, to work. But on that note,
though, I am still hearing despite the hiring challenges
that are going on out there, that people already reporting
numbers that far surpass their expectations, and in some cases
already exceeding where some people were in 2019. You know,
we we were just talking earlier that companies like, Dedicated,
they tripled during COVID.
Yeah, no thank you, no part of that. Yeah.
Johny Fernandez: And it's interesting, because like you
said, like, they did not expect that. And even the turnout for
something as simple as this event. In the beginning, the
event organizers specifically said, oh, we're gonna probably
reach 700. And then they started seeing the patterns that were
coming on. And they're like, no, wait a minute, this might go
from 900 plus, because of how fast just everything is moving
all of a sudden and just the growth. And just the simple fact
that people, I believe, from what we've seen throughout the
last couple of months that people want to get out of that
normal, you know, that COVID world, people want to forget
about that and move on with their life. And never remember
any of this. And that's something we talked about, that
So it's interesting. And businesses are growing at the
once all this changes and restrictions are lifted, and
things are back normal. We don't want to remember any of this
ever again. Yeah. Cause I stress. Yeah. Like I don't and I
end of the day. Yeah. And it's exciting to see that, but also
don't know if you feel that way. But I'm ready to move on with my
life.
employment and that aspect, you know, that also kind of got has
to go hand in hand. So definitely something for people
to look into if they want a job. And if they're looking for a
job. This space. They're hiring, they're growing, and they're
gonna keep on growing and they've already grown.
Sean Murray: Yeah. And it's true.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah, I'm excited.
Sean Murray: Yeah. You know, I guess we'll, I guess we'll find
out what happens. You know, New York is coming roaring back.
Miami felt like it was back.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah.
Sean Murray: Like.
Johny Fernandez: Like, two years ago.
Sean Murray: Yeah. Yeah, Miami has been back, been back, you
know, for a while. So I guess we'll just continue to see.
Yeah. As time goes on.
Johny Fernandez: And I think as we continue to go throughout the
next couple of hours, and we're here at the event, we'll
definitely be hearing from different people. So tomorrow,
we'll be hearing from different people in this space and kind of
see what they have to say about, you know, the future, their
future, their growth. And I think we're we're gonna see
similar patterns throughout the next couple of guests that we
speak that we speak with, and also to hear the speakers of the
different exhibits that are going to be happening, and kind
of see what they say and how, check out the industry has
changed and what it will be moving forwards. You know, how
it will be moving forward.
Sean Murray: Yeah, it will be interesting to see what happens
later tonight. Yeah. Because happy hours, cocktail hours, big
part of these events, you know, their an essential part of
networking. And I know how it goes normally. Yeah. This is not
baby steps to in person events. This isn't like, you know, like
a meeting. Yeah. This isn't like 50 people got together, and
we're trying out we went right from nothing to 1000 people. And
I'm really curious to see how it all how it all plays out. And I
hope people kind of kind of eased themselves into it. Yeah.
And don't get too out of control. I'm not saying that
they are here. But in terms of just generally, around the
world, because I'm imagining this is Bonita, Bonita Springs,
Florida. Yeah. I'm trying to think of what Vegas is going to
be like.
Johny Fernandez: What Miami is.
Sean Murray: Miami's going to be like.
Johny Fernandez: We already kind of know how that. Yeah. That's
gone.
Sean Murray: Yeah, New York.
Johny Fernandez: New York.
Sean Murray: It's already starting to get.
Johny Fernandez: I feel like New York is like baby steps. We hit
the ground running. So it is going to be interesting to see
what happens. Yeah. And how, you know, everything progresses
throughout the next couple of months. And, you know, in the
next couple of hours, we'll definitely see how things turn
out here. So it's definitely going to be interesting to see.
Sean Murray: We are seeing a lot of capital raising. Yeah. We're
seeing lines of credit. We're seeing acquisitions. I mean, so
much that it's like it reminds me of the .com era in a way
where it's just just so much so much. There's so much going on.
And it's happening side by side with what's happening in the
crypto market. Yeah. Right. So it's like, if you go on Twitter,
it looks like 1000 deals are happening a day. Yeah. And it
gets you like pumped up and excited. And there's a lot of
reason for optimism. And I think that there was a period of time
when in the alternative finance space where the capital raising
kind of died down. We had this big, it was kinda like a bubble.
Right? It was the hot sexy thing. Everyone wanted to get a
piece of it. They didn't understand it. They didn't know
if it made money or not. But everyone was about scale. You
know, how much can you fund whatever, and it just shot right
up. Everyone got their fill, it came right down and we had that
what we call really like the maturity phase. Yeah. And that's
okay. It's okay. It's okay to go into the maturity phase because
you can't be in an industry where you have hundreds of new
players coming in every single day, forever. At some point, you
got to have this weeding out process and it's just got to be
your standard players. But all of a sudden, it's starting to
feel like we're on that upswing again, because we're seeing new
companies come in too. Yeah. I mean, we can see that just
because I, you know, I see registrations on DailyFunder,
registrations on deBanked, companies I've never heard of
before. So when we say coming back, and you know, bigger than
before and all this stuff.
Johny Fernandez: That's literally what it means, because
we're seeing it.
Sean Murray: And it's yeah, it's not just the same old companies
that are oh, we're doing, we're doing good. Now. We're literally
seeing new players come into the space, we just reported on a
company based out of California, they just raised a massive line
of credit, I think it was around $20 million, extendable up to
$30 million. This is their first line. This is this is a brand
new company. Now the owners of the company have a lot of
experience in the industry. Yeah. But they can start a brand
new company. Now, post COVID and raise $20 million. I think that
says a lot. Because the the wisdom was it's too late to
start a company. You kind of missed the boat. But we're
already seeing that's not the case.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. Well, now, I feel like now from what
we've seen and what we've reported on, now's the time, if
you want to start a business or get into whether it's this
business, alternative finance, fintech, now's the time to do
it. Because the boat is still there. Yeah. If people don't
jump on it now. And they wait a year or two, the boat will have
sailed already. And you know, they'll miss it.
Sean Murray: Yeah, I think we said during one of these, one of
these streams, is that people's mindset changed. Yeah. Because
they realized that the world could kind of stopped at any
time. Yeah. And you don't want to have regret. Yeah. Like, all
of a sudden, all the things you want to do, you couldn't even do
even if you wanted to do them. Yeah. So the opportunity was off
the table. Now that the opportunity is here, again, I
think that people should take it as a wake up call, like, it's
now or never. Yeah. You're either going to do this, or
you're not going to do this. And there are people doing it
starting brand new companies, and raising money in industries
that are quite mature that have been around for a while. So if
you're out there wondering like, you know, maybe it's not a good
time, this would probably be the last good time you'll ever have,
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. And we literally got to a point in the
to be honest.
world where it sucked. And it's still kind of there, like, we're
going back full swing into things. But we're not there yet.
So this is the opportunity. And like I said, we've talked to a
lot of these guys today. And they've said they're expanding
and they're growing. And now's the time to hop on. Because if
you don't, you're gonna lose the chance. Yeah. And like you said,
it's the last time to do something like this. It's the
last good chance. Yeah. So it's exciting. So we'll definitely
keep everyone updated in regards to what to what tomorrow will
bring tomorrow, we'll have a number of interviews with
different people with different businesses and different, you
know, people in this space.
Sean Murray: You hear that?
Johny Fernandez: I do. Do you hear that?
Sean Murray: Yeah.
Johny Fernandez: It's exciting. It's that's reception right now
that's going on. And then throughout the day, we'll we'll
give you guys some footage of what's going on inside there to
show you guys just like the atmosphere that's going on. And
then that will pretty much be what we will that will be what
we will be bringing to you guys tomorrow. Yeah. And then Sean,
hopefully, you wear another one of these exciting shirts. I'm
excited to see what.
Sean Murray: Oh, I got a whole wardrobe full.
Johny Fernandez: And if you guys liked the show, you can comment
on Twitter, on Facebook, you know, whatever, on deBanked.
Send us an email about what you guys think about this shirt
about Tou Sean. And that will be exciting. That will be it. I'm
excited for the rest of this event. And you know, we'll see
what happens tomorrow.
Sean Murray: Yeah. No, I want to say thank you to the Southeast
Acquirers for even having us here and allowing us to do this
been a great benefit to us. We hope that the attendees like it,
we hope that if you're watching it that you get some value out
of it. You know we we just want to show you what's happening out
there in the industry, that people are back together, we
want to tell you what's happening in payments. It's all
related. And so Southeast Acquirers, you know, thank you
so much for having us here. It's a great show. The fact that they
they've been able to put on a show with 1000 people, already.
I mean, I gotta tell you, I don't think I don't think that
we would have been capable to do to do something like that so
soon. So I mean, you know, my hat is off to them. That's
pretty amazing. So you know, great job. And they're doing
awesome things, for the payments industry,
Johny Fernandez: And we're excited to see you guys right
here tomorrow morning. We'll be live streaming throughout the
day. For more of that information. You can go ahead
and check that out online. So for now, I'm Johny Franny's,
here live from Bonita Springs, Florida.
Sean Murray: I'll see you tomorrow.
Johny Fernandez: And who is this guy? Tou Sean?
Sean Murray: Tou Sean, Sean.
Johny Fernandez: Alright, we'll see you guys next time.