Ep. 221: Joe Keeley - Unleashing the Fintech Potential: How Companies Can Thrive in a Financial Technology-Driven World

Dive into the world of fintech with our latest episode of the
Count Me In podcast, where we discuss the transformative power of
financial technology for businesses of all sizes. Join us as we
chat with Joe Keeley, the CEO of Justify, a company dedicated to
accelerating the fintech potential of software platforms.
Discover how companies can leverage fintech tools to reduce
costs, enhance revenue, and offer new services to their
customers. From the giants like Amazon and Starbucks to small
businesses, the opportunities are endless. Don't miss this
insightful conversation that will change the way you think about
the financial landscape.


Connect with Joe:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joekeeley/


Full Episode Transcript:
Adam:           
Welcome to Count Me In. Today we have a special guest, Joe
Keeley, CEO of JustiFi. Joining us to discuss the world of
fintech and its impact on business. We'll explore what fintech
really means?


 


How companies can harness its potential, and why it's important
for businesses to understand the various tools available in the
fintech toolbox. Joe will also share are some fascinating success
stories and insights on how companies can thrive in this
financial, technology-driven world. So let's get started and
delve into this exciting world of fintech.


 





So, Joe, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast,
today. We're really excited to have you on and we're going to be
covering the topic of fintech, and that is a big buzzword in the
industry right now. And I was hoping that we can maybe start with
defining where you fit in the fintech world, and we'll continue
on from there.


 


Joe:             
   That's great, thanks for having me, Adam.
And it is, I think, fintech is one of the biggest buzzwords
that's out there. It's been said by leading venture capital firms
that every company should be or will be a fintech company. So
it's like, "Okay, well, that's a lot of pressure."


 


So first of all, I think, we need to step back and say, "What is
that mean?" I mean, it's just an abbreviation, just flat-footed,
first, it's financial technology, which can mean so many
different things. But, for us, the company that I lead is called
JustiFi and we exist to do just that. To accelerate the potential
or the fintech potential of other software platforms. 


 


So in that context, it turns out that a lot of companies that are
out there, one of their major, or their biggest, or only economic
engine is not actually selling the product, or the service, or
the access, then, that is there in plain sight. 


 


So, for example, software platforms, there are many software
platforms that sell a SaaS fee, and they charge you to use it.
But that is simply the Trojan horse to get funds flow. So they're
making money on payments. They're making money by offering
additional fintech products like embedded insurance, embedded
lending, card issuing. 


 


So when you think about interchange that, deliberately, opaque
monster that no one really seems to understand. You can make
money and participate on interchange, by lowering your costs and
keeping your price. And you can make money on interchange by
participating at being high, too, by issuing cards. So there's
just a lot in there. But, ultimately, what we do as a company is
help platforms with their economic engine being fintech, and we
provide infrastructure and a team to help them do that. 


 


But it's interesting for all companies, not just software
companies, to think about and try to understand what are the
different tools in the fintech toolbox, 


and how could they be applicable to your business, big or small?
Whether that be through cost reduction, or an area that's
typically not talked about by finance and accounting
professionals is enhancing the revenue.


 


Adam:           
Totally, and I think the other part of the problem that we run
into, with every company being a fintech company is that, you and
I were touching on this a little bit before we started recording,
where does it live? Your IT team has to manage it and finance has
to touch it, but nobody really owns it. And how can you really
fully manage it if no one really owns the software, when it's
within your company?


 


Joe:             
   Yes, and that is a really big issue. And
part of our JustiFi, we have what we call our tech
infrastructure, but we also have an engaged fintech team. Where
we have a dedicated chief payments officer. A chief fintech
officer that's available to our clients because they sit in
between finance and accounting, and product and engineering or IT
at a particular company. But I would think one of the things that
I would really encourage and if multiple people own something, to
your point, Adam, then nobody owns it. 


 


But to finance and accounting professionals, to really take the
ownership of how can we and challenging the status quo. Does this
3% need to be 3% when we collect or how could we think about
differently on lowering cost? 


 


How could we think differently on what adjacent revenue streams
could be available to us. Where you're enhancing the offerings to
your customers? It may not be the core product but, ultimately,
it's been said that on every dollar in commerce, there's up to
10% of that. So a thousand basis points that is available and
leaks out, whether that's in fees-in fees-out, early pay
discounts, all of these different things. 


 


So I would encourage from a strategic perspective, it's one that
finance and accounting can own this. Implementation of how it's
working is more product and engineering.


 


Adam:           
Of course, an example that comes to mind is I just saw an
article, a couple of days ago. Where Amazon is going to start
accepting Venmo as a payment option. And if the big behemoth,
Amazon, can start accepting Venmo as a payment. What
possibilities are there for every company to accept different
types of payments, and be more creative using technology?


 


 


Joe:             
   That's right and, sometimes, you're
accepting a type of payment like Venmo or a buy now, pay later,
and it's actually a more expensive payment method. Those are more
expensive payment methods, then credit card and debit card, and
then bank transfers, and ACH, going all the way down. And you do
that because you're trying to get more customers or you're trying
to ease the customer journey, the customer experience. 


 


But in terms of every company being a fintech company, you want
to make those choices with your eyes wide open. Because what if
you could monetize or make money on that payment flow? And it
takes certain kinds of architecture to do that. But just
understanding the space, it's the first step. Why are we doing
something? 


What is it actually going to cost?


 


And there's just an immense amount of opportunity that exists
there. But basis points can matter at scale, they very much
matter at scale.


 


Adam:           
Yes, especially, when it's affecting your bottom line in the long
run. Es...