In this CXO interview, Chief Content Officer Aaron Back hosts Craig O’Neill, CEO, Versapay, and David Gersten, National Partner Manager, Versapay, to discuss the company’s milestone: Versapay recently hit a major milestone and signed its millionth customer. Highlights of the conversation can be found below.
Highlights
00:41 — Craig O’Neill is the CEO of financial technology company Versapay and has been with the company for nine years. O’Neill describes how the company changed directions nine years ago and how its recent millionth-customer milestone is the culmination of work and effort by many teammates over that time. David Gersten is the National Partner Manager at Versapay. He has been with the company for 18 months.
01:40 — Aaron asks O’Neill to describe this milestone and define the contributing factors that led the company to achieve it.
02:41 — Nine years ago, Versapay did a “pivot” as a company that was inspired by a “need in the market.” Versapay’s mission is to “create a network that connects millions of companies and makes billing and payment easy for buyers and sellers.” O’Neill notes that Versapay is “all about the process of transacting between corporate suppliers and corporate buyers” — an area the company identified was overdue for a change. He notes how the company has seen the momentum around Versapay continue to build, as it now has over one million companies using its platform.
05:16 — Aaron adds that this momentum is being carried through in the way that Versapay engages within the community. Versapay’s solutions can be integrated into various platforms — all of which have their own unique communities and users — ranging from Microsoft to Oracle to NetSuite. He asks Gersten to provide a bit more detail about this.
05:54 — A main value of Versapay is customer obsession, notes Gersten. The company focuses specifically on how it can leverage its partners and partner programs to work with them more strategically. The team has been diligent about listening to its customers’ wants and needs in order to understand how to enhance the solutions for future users.
07:34 — Aaron asks O’Neill to speak to the “evolution” of the executive team at Versapay and to describe the company’s partner ecosystem.
08:49 — O’Neill explains that the company is looking at the ways it can evolve its executive leadership to maintain the trajectory around customer care. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Versapay had about 250,000 companies using its platform. Since the pandemic, Versapay has quadrupled the network — the payments flowing through the network are over $60 billion. In order to scale in this way and at this rate, O’Neill notes the important role that partners play — the partner strategy is “crucial” for Versapay because what the company is going after is much bigger than what they could do alone.
11:18 — Aaron emphasizes the important role that partners as well as customers play in co-creation efforts. He asks O’Neill what he is hearing from Versapay customers relating to their top concerns and challenges.
12:57 — Versapay’s primary goal is to help companies optimize how they bill clients and collect money. Once Covid-19 hit, the efficiency of managing money became “top of mind” for customers, who were suddenly working remotely and making more digital payments. Covid-19 led customers to think more about digitization and to be able to “do more with less.” For the last nine years, Versapay’s mantra has been to “get paid faster, be more efficient, and make customers happy.” Versapay’s approach to automating financial payments resonates with finance leaders in today’s evolving environment.
15:14 — Gersten reiterates that “the time is now” to automate payments, rather than continuing to wait. He adds that the acquisition of Dade Systems “takes the cash application” to another level by using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
16:27 — Aaron asks O’Neill and Gersten what is next for Versapay, on the back of signing its millionth customer. Gersten emphasizes the company’s “focus on listening” to customers and their needs, in addition to looking for ways to strengthen its partner programs. O’Neill adds that there is a lot more growth to come for Versapay. Many existing customers in Versapay’s network are looking to bring their customers on board, meaning that the network is expanding rapidly.
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