Featured Guest:

Kyle Ruschman, CPP

Vice President, Prepaid Sales & Business Development

Prior to joining Usio in 2018, Kyle Ruschman was a Strategic Sales Executive at Vantiv/Worldpay, Now FIS.  Kyle’s professional credentials include over 20 years of business development and consultative sales experience, focusing mainly on the prepaid enterprise and card issuing lines of business.  Kyle’s passion for the prepaid sector began in 2009 when he joined UniRush LLC, co-founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist, Russell Simmons. UniRush’s mission was to provide instant access to a set of basic financial services for the millions of Americans who don’t have access to traditional banking relationships through the Prepaid Visa Rushcard®, one of the first general purpose reloadable prepaid cards in market. Vantiv/Worldpay, was acquired by FIS (NYSE:  FIS) for $43B in 2019 and UniRush was acquired by GreenDot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) in 2017 for $167M.

Kyle has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and an Associates in Biology from Thomas More University.  Kyle resides in Ft. Thomas, KY with his wife, Cory, and their four kids, 2 dogs and a bunny.

Episode Transcript

0:02 Social currency powered by Sunrise Banks is a podcast that introduces you to some of the most innovative change makers in finance, technology, and all things social impact.

0:10 We walk through how they’re opening doors, reimagining industries with a focus on community, conservation, and accessibility.

0:17 I’m your host, Tyler Seydel, and I’m Eric Schurr.

0:21 From social entrepreneurs to compliance innovators and payments pioneers, we share the stories behind a growing movement working toward a world where opportunity is within everyone’s reach.

0:33 I’m Tyler Seydel and I’m Eric Schurr, and today we’re going to talk about mission-driven organizations and how to generate financial wellness for those who are unbanked or underserved.

0:44 And our guest today is the one and only Kyle Ruschman.

0:47 He is the vice president of prepaid sales and business development at Usio.

0:51 Usio, in my mind, is a FinTech first responder.

0:53 They’re a vertically integrated processor program manager with one of the most sophisticated platforms in the industry today.

1:00 Kyle has more than 20 years of experience in sales and business development from places like Unirush all the way up.

1:05 To his present role here today.

1:07 Kyle, we’re absolutely thrilled that you could join us today.

1:10 I have a question for you.

1:12 Tell us how you started off in all of this.

1:14 Like, what brought you?

1:15 What was the role that brought you into financial services?

1:18 Yeah, well, Tyler Eric, so excited to be here.

1:20 So thanks again for the opportunity to, to come on with you guys.

1:23 So I started in this career path at Unirush Financial Services, as you mentioned, and so, as you guys might know, it’s a financial service company that was very focused on the underserved, the underbanked.

1:38 Russell Simmons was a co-founder along with a gentleman named David Rosenberg who had a business in Cincinnati, which is where I live.

1:46 so I started and really learned a lot about this industry and, and really the, the amount of folks who really struggle with just daily financial basic services and needs that You know, maybe, you and I kind of, you know, had at an early age.

2:01 And so, really started to dive into that industry.

2:05 I had, ran this development there trying to get our product into retail.

2:10 And so at the time, and this is going way, way back in the early, you know, prepaid and, and GPR days, it was a pay as you go plan only.

2:18 There was a 1995 activation fee once you got your card, if it was through a media ad or a radio ad that was out there.

2:26 And so we really wanted to try to go more into the community.

2:30 And learn from individuals what product sets were gonna be, you know, of value to them.

2:36 at the time, Walmart was coming out with their products, which, you know, allowed the industry to really move forward and change, but it was trying to get the product where our, our members were.

2:47 And at that point, if they received a card, you know, from one of our retail locations, it was going to be activated at, at 100%.

2:55 And then we can start teaching them kind of basics of, you know, financial services and financial empowerment.

3:02 so I learned a lot there and was very fortunate to, to be with a, a great team at an early stage in the career, which led me to a company called Vantive after, Rushcard and Green Dot had a joint venture and, and ended up selling to them that business.

3:17 did that for about 4.5 years and I’ve been at UCL for 8.

3:20 So, kind of got both sides of the Consumer market and then obviously leaning into kind of the corporate commercial applications of prepaid, which is a lot of what we focus on here today at UCL.

3:34 So you’ve been in the space for maybe 20 years, maybe a little bit more than that.

3:38 what’s one thing about money that people think they understand, but they’re completely wrong about?

3:45 I think a lot of it’s just the, the digital nature of it.

3:48 and you know, the, the numerous conversations over these times, you know, I think people want to call us and purchase some of these credit cards, you know, to use for the market, which is obviously a completely different product and kind of prepaid incentive disbursement, you know, solutions.

4:04 And so just maybe some of the terminology, You know, I think the other thing too is there’s so many broad use cases for prepaid and, and the industries we support and the different configurations and customization of that.

4:19 So I think a lot of innovation really kicked off with these prepaid type products and solutions that a lot of us are using today and it’s obviously a lot more common.

4:28 And so again, starting 20 years ago, roughly and, and, you know, early on in the space and just seeing a lot of the transition has, has been fun.

4:37 it’s been challenging as, as, you know, technology continues to change and a lot of new things are, are coming to market.

4:43 but I really think it’s just, kind of a knowledge of, of what all these products and solutions can do to really benefit and give value to not only organizations, but to individuals themselves.

4:54 I think that’s well stated.

4:55 You’re absolutely right.

4:56 In the digital revolution that kind of surrounds the same.

4:59 you know, people will say, you don’t accidentally end up in the place that you land.

5:04 And so we know you were spending time at Unirush.

5:07 What kind of pulled you into that world in the first place, saying it no differently, Kyle?

5:11 Was it just this affinity to want to get in there and help, or was it just right place, right time, or kind of color that in.

5:18 Yeah, I mean, I’m trying to go back to, to kind of that, you know, initial entryway into it, and it was a little bit of a difference of an industry shift for me.

5:28 you know, I graduated with a business marketing and, and actually a biology associates.

5:33 I was looking at, at pre-med, and so I was looking at being an eye doctor at, at, at one point.

5:38 and then I got into some business classes and, and really, you know, enjoy that aspect of it on the marketing side.

5:45 And so my first job out of college was actually Working for a small business that built and designed, exhibits for trade shows.

5:54 And so I was, you know, 22, 23 years old, traveling to Vegas and New York and Chicago and all over the place for these conferences and exhibits.

6:03 So I saw a lot of these different industries that were out there, and kind of technology and financial services was just one of them I, I leaned, you know, towards a little bit.

6:13 And then got a call from a recruiter and it was this position locally.

6:17 It was a financial service company with, you know, kind of a, you know, a celebrity, you know, type, you know, part owner of that and, kind of jumped in, never looked back, you know, just really dove into the industry and, you know, like I said, the, the, the, the innovation side of it, Try to immerse myself as much as I could, you know, I actually, and I’ll kind of pull this a little bit full circle where I, I landed here at, at, at, UCO, during my time at Rushcard, probably as you guys maybe did or some of the, the viewers out there, I signed up and, you know, collected, if you will, you know, every card out there from a market research standpoint.

6:57 And so the, the Magic Johnson cards, the Susie Orman cards, the The green dots, the net spins, the account nows, right?

7:04 I mean, all those, you know, probably still have a, a handful here somewhere, but really, you know, try to learn, you know, the whole aspect of, of what consumers, you know, need to have from an information standpoint of view to kind of sign up and, and, and have the product be successful.

7:21 And I remember Akimbo Financial come in, you know, into play in 2011.

7:25 And signed up for that card and got a chance to know Houston Frost, who was the co-founder there, and, you know, really had an appreciation for the product and the tech that they had built, you know, with this, you know, general purpose use product.

7:41 it was kind of this multi-card platform for, you know, modern households.

7:47 and so I have 4 kids and I was using it myself internally, you know, for kind of managing this little budgets, you know.

7:54 With the family.

7:55 And so, you know, got a chance to know that team and, and, you know, obviously, that was an acquisition that UCO made back in, 2014.

8:04 and so I was fortunate to be a part of that group and, and really, you know, part of a great product that in its infancy and we’ll continue to grow and expand on that and, that’s really what led me, you know, here today.

8:16 Wow, wow.

8:18 So, was there an kind of an inflection point or what was that big decision in your maybe career that felt risky at the time, but it ended up really defining your path?

8:31 it’s a great question.

8:32 I, you know, I, I’ve always wanted to kind of continue to be a student of, of the, of the product in the space in the market, whether that’s going to shows, conferences, whether that’s engaging, you know, with our, our partners, working closely with, you know, Master, Mastercard and the team.

8:50 And I don’t know if it was a risk per se, but it was kind of a decision that We really wanted to focus on these social impact programs.

8:59 You know, there’s so many different use cases within prepaid.

9:02 There’s, you know, refunds that are going away from checks on the card, there’s You know, promotions that organizations run, buy tires, get a, you know, a prepaid card for as a, as a promotion.

9:14 It’s, you know, small businesses that wanna do, you know, incentives for their staff.

9:19 and, you know, we were fortunate kind of early on within COVID to make a, a, a strong impact with some of these kind of emergency cash aid assistance, as you mentioned, this first responders in FinTech that, you know, I love when we, we kind of have that conversation there.

9:35 and it really, you know, allowed us to kind of position ourselves in the market to kind of be that first call, you know, be a call to go to when there’s, you know, folks in time of need and there’s, you know, a bunch of examples I could kind of dive into, but, you know, I’m really, you know, kind of glad and appreciate that that’s the path that, that it’s taken us as, as a company.

9:58 but also I think for me personally and, and really focusing on You know, again, these social impact programs and the value that it brings into the community, but also to the, the nonprofits, the cities, the municipalities, you know, the organizations that we work with.

10:12 You know, Kyle, I think that now is the time.

10:16 In the introduction, we kind of referred to you folks as a FinTech first responder.

10:20 And I know that intimately simply because of how involved I am.

10:23 Maybe we take a moment to unpack a couple of those use cases or maybe a couple of scenarios where you folks really felt yourself on the cutting edge of providing help at the time that it was needed.

10:34 Is there any examples maybe that come to mind that you could share with the audience?

10:37 Yeah, I, I could, I could kind of dive into quite a few.

10:40 I’ll try to keep it brief just from, from the timing, but so one of the first calls that we got, was around COVID and kind of the uncertainty and the lockdown and actually our office was on that early lockdown because our, our CEO found that he had COVID from a trip that he went to.

10:59 And so it was, office doors are closed, you know, kind of come in and kind of, you know, fumigate the place.

11:06 our VP of operations kind of took a box of cards that we had in the office, the stock, and, you know, thank goodness that, you know, that happened because, There was a call that we got from Mastercard and the first product project was called Project Safe Haven.

11:22 And it was an organization through the mayor’s office of Los Angeles.

11:28 They were working with domestic violence victims who were working with case managers and kind of in a secure, safe place, and they wanted to provide them with $100 that they could use for kind of food and basic needs.

11:42 And so, as you mentioned, we’re a processor program manager, so we kind of, you know, own a lot of technology and we can stand up these programs quickly.

11:52 We were able to ship those cards out overnight.

11:54 We were able to put those merchant category code restrictions in place, you know, for that organization, and they were gonna reload this for a period of time and that led us to Other programs when there was a, a condominium collapsed in, in Coral Gables, Florida, and they wanted cards to support the families that were displaced for buying food, buying clothes since they, you know, just had their home and taken away from them.

12:21 There was the same thing that happened in, in the Bronx in New York where there was a fire and a lot of these folks were, for, you know, were misplaced.

12:29 and then we got into the vaccine.

12:32 era where it was, you know, here’s these organizations that were, you know, providing an incentive for people to come and get vaccinated.

12:41 And so we could kind of get back to some normal normalcy.

12:44 And so we did that through the, New York City Economic Development Corporation.

12:50 And I think that’s when we really saw the power of scale with what our platform and our team could support.

12:57 I mean, it was almost $100 million a million cards roughly that we put out, you know, within a pretty short period of time.

13:04 and obviously all the, you know, things that go into that from a Distribution, fulfillment, support, scalability, testing our virtual, you know, products in market, at scale.

13:20 And so, you know, being able to send these cards out fast and, and securely and have the individuals being able to provision these in the mobile wallets and start to use those right away.

13:29 And so that led us into a lot of these, you know, larger programs.

13:32 We work with the state of California, the Department of Social Services.

13:36 On a large grant, you know, we’ve done a lot of these, you know, basic income guarantee programs.

13:41 We worked with the US Department of Agriculture for the Food and farm worker grants.

13:47 and most recently, we worked, with the New York State Nurse Association for, a hardship grant.

13:53 There was a lot of nurses that went on strike and they needed to get funds quickly.

13:56 So, you know, going back to kind of those early COVID days, there’s just so many of these programs that we’ve been called, you know, called on to help support and we’ve been able to You know, launches, I think a lot of it’s just through the fact that we’ve been able to deliver, and it, it, it’s a testament to our partnership, you know, at the bank side and, and what we do with MasterCard and our team, to be able to do those, you know, programs quickly and, and at scale and, you know, with, with the security in mind and, and kind of the speed of what innovation can allow us to support.

14:30 Sure.

14:31 Kyle, in the prepaid world, as you just illustrated, UCO is certainly known as a program manager, but the company really has four centers of excellence, the, the payment facilitation or PVC, it’s, it’s got the ACH capabilities, it’s got the card issuing, which you’ve described in, in detail, and it’s got something called output solutions.

14:50 Can you briefly describe these and, and maybe talk about the thought process that allowed UCO to evolve into these 4.

14:59 Somewhat distinct, but somewhat unified areas.

15:02 Yeah, so thanks for, for bringing that up, Eric, cause I think that’s something that really separates you so, apart from some of our competitors and just the diversity of what we can offer as a, as a company in the FinTech landscape.

15:16 So, we are a payment processing company.

15:19 We’re a payment facilitator, so we work with software vendors to integrate and embed our payment solution, into those companies.

15:28 And so, you know, some examples of that is.

15:31 And this is, you know, been a, a big trend, you know, I think in that acquiring space.

15:36 Instead of, you know, knocking on a, a door of a, of a veterinarian or a, a hospital or a dentist or a small business, you work with those software companies to embed those solutions within that.

15:48 and so that’s been a really growing business for us on the acquiring side.

15:52 Why I love that so much from what we’re doing here on the issuing is they complement each other so much.

15:57 And so if you’re a A software that’s, you know, building a platform to manage donations.

16:02 People are giving money to raise for, you know, various things.

16:05 We can help support them on the acceptance of those, you know, donations through our Pay flat platform, but also through ACH processing and other means, and I can kind of dive into that a little bit, but we can also help them, you know, disperse those funds out and kind of have, you know, overarching transparency for both those ends, of, of, you know, of the money flow coming in and coming out.

16:28 And then if we need it to provide.

16:31 Transparency, insight, merchant category controls, kind of data analytics on, on where those funds are being spent, since we’re the, the processor, we can, you know, we can provide that for our partners, very easily.

16:44 And so on the ACH side, we’ve got a direct connection to a Fed terminal.

16:49 We have multiple different ODFIs that we work with.

16:52 We’re obviously getting into RTP and FedNow and some of these other, you know, faster payment channels, but we also own our own, you know, check printing company.

17:01 You, you mentioned output, solutions, and so that was another acquisition.

17:06 it’s all of our own facility.

17:08 We’ve been partnering with you guys, you know, on that space and some others.

17:12 obviously with these, you know, executive orders and some of these, you know, changes in, in the industry, checks are becoming a little bit less and less as a means to, you know, send out funds, but we saw it as an opportunity to kind of work alongside a lot of our other, you know, municipal and nonprofit and city and state partners.

17:32 And an example I can give is, you know, if, if the County of Los Angeles, you know, says, hey, we need to send out.

17:38 You know, half a million people who owe a parking fine or a toll fine, we’ll process that, you know, communication, we’ll embed a QR code, you would scan it, it would pull up your information, it goes to a hosted payment page, and then we process that transaction so we can kind of help facilitate, you know, organizations on both sides of that from the product lens.

17:58 And then obviously, you know, we, we have this UCO one strategy and so it’s, you know, providing.

18:04 You know, kind of one entry point through our partners, but giving them multiple different products, you know, through ACH through check and output, through card issuing, to really work with, you know, kind of one entity.

18:17 And I think the other thing I’ll, I’ll, you know, follow up with that is you’re starting to see a lot of these disbursements, wanting to have more, you know, choices and availability to the end user.

18:28 And so, whether that’s, you know, spinning up and sending out funds, you know, virtually.

18:33 But then allowing that user to, you know, move it to their Venmo account or their PayPal account or their bank account, or send a check, you know, to themselves or to somebody else, you know, or order a physical card.

18:46 So you can kind of start with this digital first, but then give them choices to how they can use and manage those funds.

18:52 And so we’re starting to see a lot of interest with that product as, as some others are seeing it, to really kind of help streamline that disbursement, you know, product.

19:01 But still giving them all the choices and the fact that we do that all in-house really gives us that strategic advantage.

19:07 I mean, it’s our own print facility that’s printing those checks.

19:10 It’s our, it’s our own ACH processing platform that’s, you know, moving those funds out.

19:14 So, it’s been a really exciting time for us here on that front.

19:18 Yeah, and having, having visited the, the facility, gotta say it’s, it’s, it’s truly, it’s truly a sight to see, the the investment in, in equipment and Just the throughput that that can be accomplished, is just amazing.

19:34 It’s absolutely fantastic.

19:35 You know, you talked a little bit earlier about some of the use cases that, that, that appeared during COVID and how you took advantage of those.

19:43 And it really helped propel the business forward.

19:45 How is that, how’s the notion of value, changed for your clients and their customers since COVID?

19:50 I mean, we hear that, that, that event really changed expectations.

19:55 I’m wondering if you, if you’ve seen that, and then what factors do you think are driving any of those value shifts?

20:01 Yeah, I mean, great question.

20:03 Again, obviously, I think, it did really fast track a lot of the digital payments, out there and just, you know, kind of less and less cash.

20:12 I mean, you see businesses and organizations that are moving cashless, you know, whole industries.

20:17 I mean, I’m sure we’ve all seen it, you know, I, I went to a single A baseball game in Dayton, Ohio, and they didn’t take cash.

20:22 And so you take your kids up there and, you know, Dad, I can’t, you know, take a 20 I gotta, you know, come back and luckily, they all have one of our Kimbo card products, that we use.

20:32 And so, you know, movie theaters and amusement parks and water parks, and so, we’ve got, you know, partners and, and, you know, different types of use cases that have really pushed that digital payments or that card-based payment, you know, into that market.

20:48 you know, I think another thing it’s, it’s really even trying to be more, you know, eco-friendly, if you will, and, and moving things more towards a digital and not even have to disperse, you know, these plastic cards or send checks or, you know, other, other forms of payments there.

21:02 So, that’s been interesting to, to kind of see and propel that.

21:05 I think one thing that we also saw early on, where it was really driving down into kind of the The, the SMB space, the business space, is we had a, a, a partner we were working with that they would pay all of their pizza drivers, their delivery drivers, their, you know, tips and reimbursements, you know, and they would just every night cash them out, get the cash out of the drawer, and, and, you know, make their payments when nobody was eating in those restaurants.

21:34 And so, you know, they had to find another way to do that, which You know, ended up integrating with some of our, our car-based solutions.

21:41 So I think it really fast tracked kind of the, the amount of, of versatility and innovation that these car products can do.

21:51 And not only that, but just the added value that I think it, it brings when you really look at it from the full kind of end to end life cycle.

21:59 I, I’ll, I’ll give another example.

22:01 I was recently at the, bowl season conference in San Antonio, so it was for all the college bowl games.

22:09 And, you know, all these players get a, a certain per diem and allotment of funds, and some of these are personalized gifts, you know, that they, they do, or, you know, some bowls will just, you know, kind of give them, you know, like an Amazon card that they could use or kind of allow them to go pick a menu of items, an Xbox, a massage gun, you know, just various, you know, types of products and You know, through one of our partners started to do a branded custom card for the bowl game, and they would provide them that cash onto a card.

22:42 And, you know, obviously, that says a little bit of that personal touch, you know, could have their name on it with the bowl game, but I think the intangibles of, you’re starting to see those players and those families using those funds locally, and they’re in those, you know, those cities.

22:58 And so there’s an economic impact, you know, to that.

23:02 you know, there’s, hey, here’s a couple of stores that were, you know, benefits of that, you know, they were, you know, kind of going to these local, you know, mom and pop, you know, bars and restaurants, or they were going to a jewelry store into the mall, and so, you know, you really kind of start looking into some of the intangible values of The social impact programs and how these organizations can kind of zero in, not only that, hey, we put $10 million you know, on cards to be used for this specific purpose.

23:34 And all that $10 million we can show you that 50% was food, 20% was clothes, 10% was paying bills, kind of those high-level merchant categories, but drilling into and say 98% of those dollars stayed local.

23:49 You know, they were being spent, you know, within the, the local community, and I think there’s, there’s a ton of value with that, and there’s, you know, even other things you can maybe work with some of those local businesses to really, you know, and, and heightened, you know, it’s more participation, more private public funding that can go in there to support those and with AI and what that’s gonna do to a lot of job loss, that was a big thing that we Saul at the the big conference, which is another the basic income guarantee conference that we went to, because, you know, those robots and machines that are taking away some of the jobs, the Uber drivers, the manufacturer workers, the frontline workers, they’re not going to local coffee shops, they’re not, you know, staying in local housing there.

24:34 And so how do you continue to kind of pump money into the local economy and, and You know, we’ve been able to be on the forefront of, of looking at some of those applications from, you know, what our, our product capabilities and some of the data analytics can support.

24:47 Sure, you know, and it’s interesting that you bring up the data-driven insights because that’s been such a topic of conversation for almost, almost a generation now, and yet, we still know that the more, more time we spend in the data, The, the, the better the insights, the better we can either, either demonstrate the value or, or test into the next set of value, which is, which is so important at this, you know, during these junctures.

25:11 Yeah, and I would say just maybe one thing to kind of, you know, drill into that a little bit is, you know, obviously, probably we’re a little biased because we like the card issuing aspect of the business and what it can do and, You, you really don’t get that insight if you’re sending funds to somebody’s Venmo account or their PayPal account or sending them a check or even just right to their, their existing debit card or bank account.

25:35 So, You know, if that is something that organizations, you know, have a lot of interest in, and to your point, it’s been a conversation for a while, you know, being able to say we can, we can support all those initiatives, but, you know, it’s our own car platforms so we can help kind of drive that change and, and really get these different types of programs, you know, stood up pretty quickly and, and continue to scale that, you know.

25:57 Sure, sure, you know, banks, so as Tyler and I talk, pretty much on a weekly basis, we’re thinking about, and we’re always talking about.

26:06 Disruption all the time, particularly in ways that our potential business model as a bank may be disrupted 5, 10 years out.

26:15 Knowing that UCO has had a strategy over time of investing in proprietary technology that’s, that’s innovative, and also being deliberate around finding unique and attractive markets, how do you see payment companies like UCO potentially being disrupted over the next 5 to 10 years?

26:37 I would say you’re probably going to see more of the larger financial institutions, you know, maybe through acquisitions, You know, really continue to invest in that space, and so.

26:50 You know, what does that mean for us, you know, you know, the size company that we have, we are, you know, I think we gotta just continue to focus on, you know, the, the, the programs that we support and, you know, what we’re really good at doing is these, you know, disbursement type social impact programs.

27:05 But also, You know, providing those users, you know, more of a, a long-term use product, a general purpose, you know, type product.

27:15 and so I think if we kind of stay there, you know.

27:18 We’re gonna continue to grow in, in the space, but, I, I, you know, I, I think blockchain is obviously gonna do stuff, and I know Tyler, you spent a ton of time with this.

27:26 I mean, I just scratch on the surface.

27:28 Houston, our, our chief product officer, you know, dives in this a little bit more, but, you know, I think there’s just gonna be other payment channels that are gonna be a lot cheaper to move, you know, funds around.

27:39 you know, what does that do to the networks, you know, and just kind of how things, the businesses around the economics of just acceptance of payments.

27:47 And if you, you know, using these different channels and the speed of that, you know, what does that do to the economic impact of the business?

27:55 I know one thing that from a futuristic standpoint of view that Louis, our CEO, you know, talks about is the biometrics aspect of it.

28:04 And so, you know, payments that could literally be done by just walking into a store and walking out and, you know, you have a A token that’s assigned, you know, to you as, as the individual.

28:14 I mean, you see this obviously with airports, with, you know, with business travel, just to clear, and now TSA has the touch list where you just, you know, open your eyes and walk through.

28:25 so I think that’s gonna have a lot of disruption, you know, within the market, so you can be kind of on the cutting edge of that.

28:31 I think that’s, you know, gonna really, you know, stand you up for, for success.

28:35 and I think the other thing too that was interesting is at that conference I mentioned, the bowl season conference, you know, they were doing that for entry into the stadium.

28:44 And so if you think about, you know, University of Michigan has what, 110,000 people in the big house that are walking through and all doing it in a short period of time and a lot of the, you know, students are coming in in droves, you know, for maybe an early, you know, start to the day and, you know, fumbling through their phones to try to get their, their ticket application and They’re starting to put up these little, you know, biometric scanning where you can just kind of walk through and maybe that’s also your student ID.

29:12 Maybe that’s something that, you know, if you are a student athlete, what they talked about was, you walk to the cafeteria after a practice, you don’t have any of your, you know, wallet or phone on with you, and so it says, hey, Eric, you’re one of 3 meals, you know, is here and you’ve got 2 more left.

29:29 obviously from a security from being in the classroom, you know, and knowing, you know, where things are, if, if, you know, if there’s an event.

29:37 And so I think biometrics just as a, in general, but it will have some disruption in the payment side, and we, you know, we wanna, you know, try to be on the forefront of that as well.

29:46 I think when you started to unpack there, Kyle, it gets exciting for all the reasons.

29:50 You know, when we are talking blockchain, trustless systems by which we will process transactions, reduce potential costs, and it has elements of scale that today’s systems don’t.

30:00 And so you’re right, we’ve had, we’ve had a lot of Almost price setting, price floors, price ceilings, the mechanisms by which we move money today, they’ve been around so long that it’s not market collusion.

30:11 Nobody would want to put words to it in such a way.

30:14 But at the end of the day, what we have come up with are kind of the mean averages of what people are expecting to pay.

30:19 And then you enter with something like cryptocurrency or blockchain.

30:23 And that absolutely is going to revolutionize things because we know the regulators don’t like junk fees.

30:27 They generally look at any fee on a card product with suspicion.

30:31 And so how are you going to find ways to kind of improve your revenue?

30:34 Well, simply through maybe operational novelty, doing something different, things that other folks have not embraced yet, that’s going to be a first market mover advantage.

30:45 That maybe others aren’t seeing yet.

30:46 I think what you’re starting to point out though, and you guys live on the processing side is exactly right.

30:50 Whoever can come up with that model, that system, that approach, that process, you’re gonna create money where money doesn’t exist today, and that’s profound in so many ways.

30:58 The one, the one question I think that’s almost bubbling on the top of my mind, and it’s, and it’s not around where it’s going, you’ve mentioned this a few times.

31:06 People still use checks, Kyle.

31:08 Let’s unpack that.

31:09 What does that look like?

31:10 in terms of check, check velocity, volume?

31:12 What do you guys think is happening in that space?

31:15 I know if we rewind the clock, 10 years ago, I think people would say, checks, they won’t be here in 2020.

31:20 No, they’re still here.

31:23 Yeah, I mean, still here.

31:24 I mean, I think it’s a generational thing.

31:27 you know, you’re gonna have the younger, younger market, you know, individuals that, don’t even know what a checkbook is.

31:33 And so I think over time, that’ll really phase it out.

31:36 I mean, it’s, you know, I, I, I’ll give that example I mentioned earlier around the, the New York State Nurses Association when we had, you know, got a call from them and one of their partners.

31:48 It was, you know, we’ve got 15,000 nurse families that we need to send a check to like ASAP, you know, they’re gonna get 500 bucks.

31:55 And obviously, we own our own check printing company and we, you know, we were like, we can support it.

32:01 but that weekend, it was like a call on a Friday.

32:04 That was the, the most pieces of mail we’ve printed in a day.

32:08 We broke up, a record at Output Solutions.

32:11 And so Cy and his team, Eric, that you met, you know, we’re obviously busy, you know, doing that.

32:15 It was like 850,000 pieces of mail.

32:19 and we also had like a cold front coming into San Antonio, so there was some ice on the ground and people were struggling to get to work.

32:27 And so, you know, we had, Let the the nurse nurses association know that we could support it, but it might be a week or so until we can get these checks out.

32:38 but we, if you have an email address or a phone number, we could send these payments out, you know, virtually, and then if they wanted to cut themselves a check to use it, they could do that, you know, they could click a button in our kind of web application experience or they can move it to their Venmo account or PayPal account.

32:56 And what we saw was the amount of dollars that were spent within that first week, you know, it was almost 70%.

33:03 So people, you know, by Monday, we’re getting a notification, you know, basically one business day, that they had funds available that they could start accessing and using.

33:13 And then we could break it down and see what’s one of those folks, you know, moved to their Venmo account or, or purchased it and, you know, through, through the, the card or adding it to their mobile wallet.

33:23 But, so I think to answer your question, Tyler about checks, you’re gonna get some of those where maybe the mindset is, hey, I need to get money out to people, maybe they were used to doing it through checks, knowing that there’s other applications in the event of a strike, which was this was, is we can get money to feed people quickly.

33:40 So they can kind of, you know, feed their families, you know, within a day’s notice.

33:45 I mean, we saw the same thing with SNAP benefits delays.

33:48 You know, calls that we got about, can we, you know, Provide some cards to these families, and make sure they’re for, you know, food purposes and, you know, we could stand up those and put those MCC restrictions in place.

34:01 You know, right away, and so, I think you’re gonna still continue to see that shift where You know, checks are just gonna become less and less.

34:10 Yeah, I think when you said it’s a generational, I think you, you were, you were spot on.

34:15 I mean, you, it absolutely stands to reason.

34:18 And then when you look at generational patterning, you have checks, you have cards, and then you have wallet providers saying it no differently, where bank accounts aren’t the number one account opened, right?

34:29 It’s all of these ancillary kind of payment modalities, these cash apps, these other neobanks that are trying to participate in the space, saying it no differently.

34:36 And so I agree with you.

34:38 It, it’s profound and I think the answer is almost just that simple, Kyle.

34:41 So there you go, a lot of wisdom on this conversation or in this conversation.

34:45 Generational holds with me.

34:48 What do you think, I guess, in terms of, we have all these big ideas, there’s a lot of trends in the industry.

34:55 We know Omni-channel is one and we’ve kind of touched around the edges of Omni-channel, and we know that that has, that simply has a future because anything that is customer or consumer choice latitude based or driven always has a future because it’s all about the experience.

35:09 But what’s a trend that you think is hyped or overblown right now?

35:14 I don’t know if it’s hyped or blown.

35:16 I, I was kind of going on a direction as far as, you know, how do you use these products and services to really Build relationships and keep that longevity of it.

35:26 And so maybe the hyper trend is, you know, quick account openings and, you know, you know, and you know, this industry, I mean, Steph was acquired by Mr.

35:36 Beast and what’s he gonna do with the social media impact and all these influencers, and they’re receiving payments and can you use that as these, these individuals kind of banking with them as these neobanks that you mentioned.

35:47 You know, I think, maybe that’s a trend, but I think to Really dive into that is the relationship you can create with that individual during that hardship time.

35:59 But then providing them banking products, you know, a secure credit product, a credit product, they’re gonna need a loan at some point.

36:06 They’re gonna need potentially to get a mortgage and looking at those deposits, you know, so that’s something I’d, I’d love to continue to, to dive in with you on that.

36:15 I know we’ve had some high-level conversations, but just as an example, one of the other.

36:20 Categories, if you will, around these social impact type programs that we’re seeing is through a company called Point Source Youth, and they focus on youth homeless prevention, so providing a, a direct cash assistance transfer to these home, youth homelessness coming out of foster care.

36:38 And when they provide that, they’re seeing about 90% of remaining housed after a year, so they’re not going back into the system.

36:45 And, you know, for us, it’s giving them, you know, the money on a card, letting them spend it, letting them move to the Venmo account, kind of manage it as they want to.

36:54 But is there an opportunity to engage with that youth?

36:59 With that, you know, organization that’s supporting them and providing, you know, a case manager, workforce development, all these other types of solutions.

37:07 And then really build that relationship on the banking side and so.

37:11 A question is always around credit and how do I get access to this.

37:14 And I think OnePay, I just read something last week is doing that with the, the Walmart product and having a credit, you know, builder solution there.

37:22 And so I think to me, that’s where we’d like to continue to focus, you know, through, through partnerships like you guys to really, you know, continue to, to, to build that relationship with these users, give them a really good product, having a sense of community, providing offers as they continue to use the card.

37:41 You know, one thing that we’re, you know, having another actually another kind of podcast tomorrow with, with that organization is how do you provide community for those youth.

37:50 And so if every one of them signs up for a general purpose product, not just dispersing those funds as that kind of one-time engagement.

38:00 Now I’m in a pickle, hey, you got money too, I could, you know, you, I could borrow money from you, right?

38:06 For dinner, lunch, whatever, and I could transfer the money right back to you.

38:10 So if every one of them.

38:12 Signs up for that disbursement product through this.

38:16 General purpose use where they can create multiple cards, they can create budgets, they can.

38:21 Provide this direct deposit account to their employer, but build that sense of community which is kind of helping, you know, folks out in the time of need, you know, I think that’s also another.

38:32 You know, product that we really want to kind of dive into.

38:34 It’s just, it’s really packaging, it’s working, you know, to, to seamlessly, you know, on board and kind of get.

38:41 more of these organizations kind of stood up and using the product, and I think you’re gonna, you, you know, we would see some organic growth with that too.

38:49 I think that’s well captured and certainly in the sense of creating a community.

38:53 So you kind of take that first step.

38:55 What’s the next step now to keep engagement?

38:57 We’ve gone through the effort of acquiring them.

38:59 Now, how do we keep it something that they want to stay engaged with?

39:04 How do we make it be the top of wallet solution or choice?

39:06 How do we start to solve problems that they’re going to encounter every day in their life?

39:11 And how do you do it in a way that’s simple and elegant, you know, And problem statements might not actually be problem statements as much as opportunities statements saying it no differently, certainly when you get into business.

39:23 One thing that really stands out to me, Kyle, is you have a big career.

39:26 We talked around the edges of it.

39:28 You’re a visionary, you have a lot of great insight, but I feel like you also mentioned, you have a family of 4, which I think totals now up to 6.

39:37 So, in terms of, you know, what’s more difficult, what’s harder, closing deals in the fintech space or running a household?

39:46 I’ve got a great supportive wife, so, Running the household is, sometimes can be a little bit easier cause I’m on the road quite a bit.

39:54 so she’s, you know, she’s super supportive and obviously all the activities that her kids are gonna do.

40:00 it’s definitely a balance, so I You know, I really enjoy what we do, the, you know, the, the, you know, partnerships we have, the company, you know, the team that we work with, the partners like yourself that we have, It’s an interesting stage right now because, you know, my oldest is 17, he’s going away to college next year.

40:21 I’ve got a 1512, and, and soon to be 13-year-old daughter and then a 10-year-old.

40:26 And so they’re all active in sports, and so, you know, there’s never really a dull moment, you know, weekends are busy and it’s back to Monday.

40:33 It’s the grind, but, you know, I love it, and I’m involved in all the, you know, kids’ stuff and their activities, and I coach them.

40:41 you know, that’s what obviously keeps me going and and and, and, you know, driving forward.

40:46 I think the change of the pace of this, you know, is a challenge, and staying in front of it and having, you know, products and teams and technology resources to kind of stay ahead of that.

40:59 it’s something that, you know, a lot of companies are challenged with us included.

41:03 So I don’t know, man.

41:04 I’ll call it a tie.

41:06 All right, yeah, we’ll take ties.

41:08 It’s a photo finish.

41:09 I mean, they’re both difficult, and keeping along the lines of a personal question, in the run-up to closing here, how is being a dad changed how you feel about things like risk, money, or how you even define success?

41:23 Has that had an impact or input on really what you’re trying to get out of your career or the industry?

41:31 Man, that’s another great question.

41:32 I would say I’ve always been a saver kind of planner growing up.

41:37 I mean, I worked when I was young, you know, riding my bike to the swim club every day when I was, you know, 14 years old and cutting grass as a kid and neighbors and, I bought a house when I was 23, you know, right after school, so I’ve always been driven with that.

41:54 I would say my outlook changed a little bit.

41:58 maybe 6 years ago, we, we actually lost my, my wife’s father unexpectedly, and he was 69, he was gonna retire next year and, you know, saw him one day and didn’t the next.

42:08 And so I’ve kind of thought differently about saving and money and just enjoying it and having fun, and I think we all, you know, kind of see that in our, our career path.

42:18 I love what I do for now, but, you know, I, I wanna enjoy it, you know, as much as I can.

42:24 you know, set a good example for the kids, you know, have them work and, you know, know what a hard, you know, it’s how hard it is to make a dollar and spend it, and spend it wisely, and so, you know, I try to do that as a dad.

42:38 I mean, it’s, it’s the most rewarding job, I think, you know, you could have, you know, being a parent, and we’ve been fortunate with, with 4, you know, healthy kids, so.

42:47 I’m excited for the journey.

42:49 I got a lot more, you know, a lot, a lot of years left in, in the, the career path, but gonna try to enjoy it as much as I can.

42:56 Yeah, it sounds like your career path might have maybe more years than there is between you guys being empty nesters.

43:01 It sounds like that might be coming up in the next 5 or 6.

43:03 So we’ll stay tuned and see how you folks work through that, Kyle.

43:08 The last question I guess that we’d ask, and we appreciate you being so open with your personal life, we’d love to connect with folks, is what keeps you going outside of work?

43:15 Is it the family or is it a hobby?

43:17 Kind of what is it?

43:18 Could you unpack that?

43:20 Yeah, a family for sure, first and foremost.

43:24 You know, it, it’s, I was kind of thinking about this earlier, I was actually at a, at a work trip last week in New York and my kids are playing baseball now, and so, the fact that I could jump on my game changer app and watch, you know, live video of my son batting is cool and, you know, you still miss some of those, those moments, but obviously, families, you know, what drives.

43:45 I, I really enjoy doing outside yard work and You know, landscaping the house and, you know, helping neighbors if they need to and, and, you know, working with my kids through that and, you know, kind of keeping them busy.

43:57 so my older boys have been kind of helping me lately.

44:01 we’re trying to get the house ready for a graduation party in the summer and then also my son plays baseball, so we’re doing like a senior event, hosting them in a couple of weeks, so.

44:11 really enjoy outside work.

44:12 That, that’s kind of what keeps me going, Family and, and that.

44:15 Well, Kyle, we appreciate you joining us on the podcast here today.

44:19 Thank you.

44:20 Absolutely.

44:21 Thanks guys.

44:21 Appreciate it.

44:24 And that engaging dialogue was powered by Sunrise Banks, member FDIC equal housing lender.

44:31 Thanks for listening to the Social Currency podcast by Sunrise Banks.

44:35 If you’ve enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, click like and subscribe anywhere you get your podcast content.

44:41 We’ll see you soon.