Winning at Sport & Recreation Payments with Alysson Smith the Co-Founder & CEO of Flexibl
Alysson Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO of the sports and recreation payments software provider Flexible. She shares how focusing on a niche market has been such a big part of her Fintech journey.
Three things in this episode that we dive into.
- Challenges that Sports and Recreation providers are facing
- Simplifying the complexity of collecting fees and paying out to the right parties
- How focusing on a specific niche market is the formula for success.
Learn More about Flexibl at http://www.goflexibl.com/
Sponsors:
Railz: Gain access to a foundational data network to build the future for your financial technology company or financial institution. Free access at https://bit.ly/railz6free
Transcript
They understand what's being reconciled when it's
Allyson Smith:being reconciled, what it's attached to, and where the correct APIs
Allyson Smith:and helping them embed that within the reporting and reconciliation
Allyson Smith:that they're offering within or that they have within the software
. Tedd Huff:Alison welcome to the show.
. Tedd Huff:It is fabulous to have you on.
. Tedd Huff:I'm really excited to understand what Flexibl is doing in the marketplace and
. Tedd Huff:how focusing down on a very specific niche has helped you accelerate growth.
Allyson Smith:Thanks Tedd, for having me here on your podcast.
Tedd Huff:You and I have had chance to talk a little bit
Tedd Huff:and get to know each other.
Tedd Huff:I'd really like for you to take some time, to just help us understand.
Tedd Huff:What was, the striking point that got you into financial technology?
Allyson Smith:my background is in a software technology space working
Allyson Smith:for a couple of different quick growing startups here in Montreal.
Allyson Smith:Most recently I was head of partnerships for a sport and recreation
Allyson Smith:e-commerce business here, and we served everything from your local
Allyson Smith:gymnastics to cheerleading club.
Allyson Smith:All the way most recently to working with park and rec departments and
Allyson Smith:municipal departments that offer a wide array of different sports and a lot of
Allyson Smith:what I did and partnerships, and some of my even prior speaking engagements
Allyson Smith:that I've done was how to leverage technology for the world of sport and
Allyson Smith:rec and how to better business manage.
Allyson Smith:Tools and how to make their whole buying process more frictionless with
Allyson Smith:the use of technology and a reoccurring theme in that is, is payments.
Allyson Smith:And that relationship between payments software, the end user
Allyson Smith:experience, as well as the The business experience behind it really?
Allyson Smith:On my downtime with my horse my dog going out, I'm a huge outdoor fan.
Allyson Smith:It led me to mull it over quite some quite a little bit and really think
Allyson Smith:that there had to be a better solution in terms of, again, leveraging payments
Allyson Smith:for a specific vertical that really.
Allyson Smith:Needed a different approach to payment.
Tedd Huff:how did that time being out in the outdoors?
Tedd Huff:I was going to say wilderness, but that's probably not fair, but out in
Tedd Huff:the woods, out in the outdoors that, that time spent out there with that,
Tedd Huff:having that ability for it to get that clarity of thought, when you're doing
Tedd Huff:those things, how did that impact you?
Tedd Huff:Thinking this can be done better and.
Tedd Huff:What was that aha moment that made you go, oh my gosh, if I just did this,
Tedd Huff:this and this, it would solve these issues that I'm seeing in this market.
Allyson Smith:I don't know if I really had a aha moment.
Allyson Smith:Exactly.
Allyson Smith:It was multiple steps that led to it.
Allyson Smith:Talking about it with multiple people that kind of led to okay,
Allyson Smith:there, there's something here and there's a different way.
Allyson Smith:There's a different approach that's necessary.
Allyson Smith:And I'll start by talking if by talking about the.
Allyson Smith:Big challenges that I saw one as looking at the space and, from my
Allyson Smith:perspective as head of partnerships and one of the big challenges I saw was
Allyson Smith:As a software provider in the world of sports and recreation, so that providing
Allyson Smith:those e-commerce capabilities, the purchasing behavior and the purchasing
Allyson Smith:journey is different from that of buying a regular merchandise online.
Allyson Smith:It's not the same as buying your t-shirt online.
Allyson Smith:There's a lot more complexity behind that purchasing journey.
Allyson Smith:And that as a software provider in the space, you have to adapt
Allyson Smith:to, and some of those frictions and some of those differences are
Allyson Smith:being able to Do age restriction.
Allyson Smith:So you can't, register your kid for a certain activity if they're not
Allyson Smith:of a certain age or they require a certain membership in order to
Allyson Smith:register for a certain activity.
Allyson Smith:And then the more complex you get with that, the more complex
Allyson Smith:payments is intertwined with it.
Allyson Smith:You have to be sure you're providing.
Allyson Smith:Refunds within the platform you're providing subscriptions, you're providing
Allyson Smith:installment plans and that list goes on.
Allyson Smith:That was one challenge that where a payment provider who knows the
Allyson Smith:space and who can cater the use cases to the space has one advantage
Allyson Smith:over somebody who's very generic.
Allyson Smith:Two is the reality.
Allyson Smith:Merchants.
Allyson Smith:The reality of organizations in this space that the sports and recreation, a lot of
Allyson Smith:the times you're talking to merchants who are nonprofits, who are run by volunteers.
Allyson Smith:Not necessarily focused on business management, they're focused on providing
Allyson Smith:an activity to their community and it needs to be as seamless as possible.
Allyson Smith:It needs to be.
Allyson Smith:Easy software functionality because the staff is not always the same.
Allyson Smith:And as a second layer to that, even the ones that are running for
Allyson Smith:profit businesses are often running it out of a passion for the sport
Allyson Smith:out of, I love the sport that I do.
Allyson Smith:I'm passionate about it, and I want to provide.
Allyson Smith:That sport to my community and the best way possible.
Allyson Smith:In that same way, a lot of the times business becomes a second focus to them.
Allyson Smith:Because again, they're just so passionate and it's all about the
Allyson Smith:community that they're serving.
Tedd Huff:I look at, everything that you're talking about, and
Tedd Huff:that is the general dichotomy of a, professional in that specific
Tedd Huff:functionality versus an operator, someone who operates the business.
Tedd Huff:I can only imagine how difficult.
Tedd Huff:COVID and all the different things that came around that how much
Tedd Huff:more difficult that made it for those passionate professionals.
Tedd Huff:It forced them further and further into the operational side of the house.
Tedd Huff:Help us understand like what that looked like for you guys and how
Tedd Huff:did, you see that as an opportunity?
Allyson Smith:It's still a very much evolving world in terms of
Allyson Smith:technology for sports and recreation.
Allyson Smith:Back at three years ago, when I was, again in head of partnerships,
Allyson Smith:there were still organizations that we were talking to that were using
Allyson Smith:pen and paper to take registrations online, where they would have, yeah.
Allyson Smith:For people were lining up outside to sign their kid up for camp
Allyson Smith:and taking cash and check.
Allyson Smith:Now push that forward to COVID where that one wasn't a possibility and their
Allyson Smith:entire businesses had to shift to.
Allyson Smith:Okay how do I do this online?
Allyson Smith:How do Y one make sure that I can register people online and
Allyson Smith:even provide sports online?
Allyson Smith:Like we've seen a huge shift in that since the start of COVID is being
Allyson Smith:able to take your gym class at home.
Allyson Smith:it's really propelled that space to understanding the need for technology
Allyson Smith:and the need for online capabilities, payments, and other tenfold.
Allyson Smith:So it's just pushed, it increased that need since COVID, and that's where I saw
Allyson Smith:a there's even more of an opportunity here and it's, and this is the time to really.
Allyson Smith:To really go after it and help provide the space with better
Allyson Smith:tech for what they're doing.
Tedd Huff:They get forced into that business operational and
Tedd Huff:having to figure out how to run the business more efficiently.
Tedd Huff:And then I can only imagine that getting the technology that
Tedd Huff:they need in a timely manner.
Tedd Huff:It's somewhat difficult, how is Flexibl, helping them be more
Tedd Huff:Flexibl in managing their business?
Allyson Smith:Yeah, so we want to, again, I touched on this a little bit earlier.
Allyson Smith:Some of the challenges I was talking about, one of the reoccurring challenges
Allyson Smith:as a software provider in this space, that's both recurring for the software
Allyson Smith:provider in the space and helping serve the merchants in this space.
Allyson Smith:Simple use cases, reporting and reconciliation.
Allyson Smith:We've spoken in ton of different software companies who have sometimes space having
Allyson Smith:to do reconciliation for their merchants, their themselves every month, and helping
Allyson Smith:them understand how their payments as rec are reconciling how the batches work.
Allyson Smith:And that's a very specific use case that as only being.
Allyson Smith:Sports and recreation specific.
Allyson Smith:We can help the software providers make sure that they're leveraging
Allyson Smith:that properly and providing something seamless to their merchants so that
Allyson Smith:it's not a constant headache for them.
Allyson Smith:That's one simple Use case or one simple scenario we're Flexibl
Allyson Smith:is doing things differently.
Allyson Smith:Another use case that we see often in the states of sports
Allyson Smith:and recreation is split payouts.
Allyson Smith:So oftentimes you go register your child for their hockey for hockey team.
Allyson Smith:There's oftentimes I'm using hockey Canadian here.
Tedd Huff:I wasn't gonna say anything.
Tedd Huff:Oftentimes you're going to be registering your kid for hockey club.
Allyson Smith:Oftentimes that hockey club has, or as a user, you're also
Allyson Smith:paying dues to the association.
Allyson Smith:So either the club has to send association dues up to, or the club
Allyson Smith:up to the association, or the parent has to do two types of registry.
Allyson Smith:So we're helping software providers in this space be able to do that
Allyson Smith:seamless split payout between the club, the Federation, and an easy
Allyson Smith:experience for the parent where they don't have to see any of that.
Allyson Smith:So those are just two easy use cases in, in the space that we see.
Allyson Smith:We can help software providers leverage would be again, where we see there's a
Allyson Smith:specific need for sports and recreation.
Tedd Huff:One of the things that I noticed about Flexibl and, you've
Tedd Huff:touched on it multiple times.
Tedd Huff:Is how focused and narrow you got.
Tedd Huff:you're very narrowly focused in, on the sports and rec side of the house.
Tedd Huff:How do you see that?
Tedd Huff:Benefiting your direction, your ability to deliver compared to another
Tedd Huff:solution provider that may me more broad that's Hey, anybody that has
Tedd Huff:a payments or a financial technology need, we'll be able to solve for that.
Tedd Huff:how do you see that, narrowness of focus, benefiting what you
Tedd Huff:can deliver directly to them.
Allyson Smith:that's interesting in terms, of the way you've positioned it,
Allyson Smith:I'll get out, I'll go back to my experience as partnerships
Allyson Smith:in this space is payments is core to any vertical specific.
Allyson Smith:And payments is core to a lot of e-commerce in general.
Allyson Smith:I truly believe that when you're looking for, Partnerships solutions.
Allyson Smith:you're looking for people who are best in breed in what they do.
Allyson Smith:If I was looking for somebody who wanted to do email marketing.
Allyson Smith:I would look for somebody who does email marketing specifically.
Allyson Smith:Well, in that, in that space, , again, if you're looking at a certain market
Allyson Smith:and you want to look for people who are solving the specific pain points in the
Allyson Smith:market that you're looking at, you don't want something that's, super generic.
Allyson Smith:as software providers in the space the journey of integrating payments
Allyson Smith:is in my view, quite complex.
Allyson Smith:And you can go from offering just a hosted payment page to really fully
Allyson Smith:embedding payments within your offer.
Allyson Smith:Software in sports and recreation need to be, helped along that journey as
Allyson Smith:to how to get from point a to point B.
Allyson Smith:And I don't think there's any generic payment processor out there.
Allyson Smith:That's going to do that and understand the nuances at each of
Allyson Smith:those space for a world that, that specific as sports and recreation.
Allyson Smith:So I believe that within those spaces, you're looking , for somebody
Allyson Smith:that's going to help you with one specific use cases help you along
Allyson Smith:that journey help you leverage.
Allyson Smith:What can that transaction do?
Allyson Smith:How can I get increased?
Allyson Smith:My revenue with was better leveraging that transaction across
Allyson Smith:that journey of embedded payments.
Allyson Smith:you mentioned embedded payments.
Allyson Smith:What does embedded payments mean to you and how do you see it differentiating the.
Allyson Smith:Other providers out in the marketplace.
Allyson Smith:from my perspective, I see Flexibl as being that an enablement platform for
Allyson Smith:the sports and recreation softwares , to connect to, these very complex payment
Allyson Smith:rails that are in the background, but in a way that, that helps them manage, the
Allyson Smith:functionality that you mentioned before.
Tedd Huff:How do you see that being embedded and what is the
Tedd Huff:difference from your perspective of embedded versus invisible?
Allyson Smith:I like where you're going with that one.
Allyson Smith:In embedded versus invisible . There are a couple of different ways to look at this.
Allyson Smith:if I go back to thinking about everything that the software provider
Allyson Smith:in this space is offering to their customers, it's in is probably somewhat
Allyson Smith:common in many different industries.
Allyson Smith:focusing on who that consumer is, the merchants themselves, They
Allyson Smith:don't want to have to go to multiple different places to get their reports.
Allyson Smith:Let's say they don't want to have to go to multiple different places
Allyson Smith:if they have to issue a refund.
Allyson Smith:So that merchant portal that you say is something that as you go along your
Allyson Smith:payment journey is often extracted in the world of sports and recreation.
Allyson Smith:They're trying to centralize everything into that software.
Allyson Smith:So that the merchant only goes within that software to do whatever they need to do.
Allyson Smith:To me, that's embedded.
Allyson Smith:If you're making it completely invisible, then you're talking about really a
Allyson Smith:step beyond that, where the merchant, when they're doing, let's say their
Allyson Smith:application, do they're only seeing.
Allyson Smith:The software provider themselves.
Allyson Smith:They're not seeing who they're opening a merchant account with and that's a
Allyson Smith:different level in itself, if we're going that far into embedded payments.
Allyson Smith:But most of the software providers in the world of sports and
Allyson Smith:recreation are at least looking at.
Allyson Smith:Take all those functionalities that would exist in a merchant portal
Allyson Smith:and really put it all in one place and make sure that experience is as
Allyson Smith:seamless as possible for the merchant.
Allyson Smith:And that's priority number one.
Allyson Smith:But that does in itself require a lot of development time on the software side.
Allyson Smith:And it requires a lot of understanding of steam it's on the software side.
Allyson Smith:Truthfully, not always very common there.
Allyson Smith:They're there to offer functionalities for business management.
Allyson Smith:They're not there to offer functionalities for payments.
Allyson Smith:And that's where Flexibl can come in and provide those payment functionalities
Allyson Smith:for the world of sports and recreation and how best to integrate that into
Allyson Smith:their software and not having to say.
Allyson Smith:A ton of money and a ton of hours on trying to understand those payment
Allyson Smith:functionalities and how to bring it into their software to make that
Allyson Smith:seamless experience for the merchant.
Allyson Smith:So that's a huge differentiator when you're targeting sports and recreation.
Allyson Smith:And while we're talking about that payment journey in itself,
, Tedd Huff:how are you making the.
, Tedd Huff:That process, that experience, which if you were to go, traditional
, Tedd Huff:provider can be cumbersome, can be, can take a long time to get through.
, Tedd Huff:You may be handed off to three or four people.
, Tedd Huff:You may have to go to three or four different systems to get the data.
, Tedd Huff:How has.
, Tedd Huff:Flexibl streamlining that for the software providers to speed up the process for
, Tedd Huff:them , to get to revenue a lot faster.
Allyson Smith:I'm going to say we understand the space.
Allyson Smith:So obviously we can relate to what they're going to, which in
Allyson Smith:and of itself is different from where, the rest of the market is.
Allyson Smith:We partnered with a company, who's really built all the infrastructure behind us.
Allyson Smith:They have built us the prefabricated house that we needed for sports and
Allyson Smith:recreation, and we are going in and, adding on the bits and pieces to
Allyson Smith:make it more specific to the industry we're serving like reporting and
Allyson Smith:reconciliation, split payments, dashboards with data, for information
Allyson Smith:that the ISVs really needs to see.
Allyson Smith:We're looking at leveraging the payment data, as well as industry data.
Allyson Smith:so that the ISV could have the potential go provide, very specific
Allyson Smith:information and data to their merchants that would help them grow.
Allyson Smith:So we see that as a value add that definitely no other payment
Allyson Smith:provider is doing, within the space.
Allyson Smith:That's our vision for where we want.
Allyson Smith:And again, adding on value adds that are specific to the industry and specific
Allyson Smith:to helping the software providers in the merchants in the space grow.
Tedd Huff:it's interesting, with my time, in this space, ISV has transformed
Tedd Huff:from all of its different meanings, and it's always fun to listen to the
Tedd Huff:perspective of newer software providers in the space on how that is positioned.
Tedd Huff:It used to be somebody that.
Tedd Huff:That you didn't want to work with because you lost control of what
Tedd Huff:was going out into the market.
Tedd Huff:Then it became with it's somebody who you want to partner with,
Tedd Huff:but hold really, really close.
Tedd Huff:And what's really been interesting over the past three, maybe five years, it
Tedd Huff:has become that extension where it's almost what I would describe as like
Tedd Huff:the Intel inside model, where you're like, Hey, you are serving, you're
Tedd Huff:serving the direct end user, but we want to make it easier for you.
Tedd Huff:So you ISV independent software vendor, you are going to
Tedd Huff:independently provide the software as a vendor to our mutual customers.
Tedd Huff:And I'm going to help you power the payment side of it.
Tedd Huff:And it's been really interesting that it's moved to that piece of it.
Tedd Huff:And then as we were talking about the invisible payments side of the house.
Tedd Huff:Now it's moved to the next step where that software provider, that ISV software
Tedd Huff:providers you mentioned now is how do I make it look, feel, taste, smell as if
Tedd Huff:I am that financial service provider.
Tedd Huff:So it's been really interesting to see that journey , and see how
Tedd Huff:folks , like yourself, that are.
Tedd Huff:Adding on additional value propositions to the very robust
Tedd Huff:payment data that is there today.
Tedd Huff:plus the knowledge and the specificity of the industry and merging those two
Tedd Huff:together so that when there is a software company and partnering with them to that
Tedd Huff:knows the financial piece of it and being able to put those two pieces together.
Tedd Huff:I find that very interesting and I see that being a different approach.
Tedd Huff:I really like the, narrowed niche market, because what I see a lot of companies do
Tedd Huff:is, they say, I can do this for anybody.
Tedd Huff:anybody that has recurring experiences or anybody who needs
Tedd Huff:to have a registration process.
Tedd Huff:And then what that does from my perspective is it leaves the,
Tedd Huff:end user to go well, do, do I fit into that box or do I do.
Tedd Huff:and so it just, it adds question to whether or not that solutions for them.
Tedd Huff:And what I like about what you've done is you've said I'm going to remove all
Tedd Huff:of these questions of whether or not this is right for me, or if it's for me.
Tedd Huff:And you said, this is for sports and rec.
Tedd Huff:And so now everybody's in sports and rec.
Tedd Huff:They're like, oh yeah, yeah, that's me, that's me.
Tedd Huff:A llows them to raise their hand a lot easier.
Allyson Smith:You, you mentioned something that's super interesting
Allyson Smith:right now and going back to that invisible portion of it, and this may
Allyson Smith:be slightly controversial, , but coming from the world of software in the space
Allyson Smith:and e-commerce , Kind of always saw payments as being slightly invisible and
Allyson Smith:the merchants purchasing the software for the capabilities that it brings.
Allyson Smith:Not purchasing the software for the payment revenue that's there,
Allyson Smith:it's a layer behind, behind the software that the merchant itself
Allyson Smith:doesn't see and doesn't care about.
Allyson Smith:as a payment in the space, you have to be, you have to acknowledge
Allyson Smith:that and you have to be okay.
Allyson Smith:How do I help the software provider?
Allyson Smith:One make things easy for them.
Allyson Smith:Provide functionality to the merchants that are different from
Allyson Smith:what's else out there on the market.
Allyson Smith:And how do I then.
Allyson Smith:Also helps them grow.
Allyson Smith:How can I be not only different in the right now, but how will I continue to be a
Allyson Smith:good partner and add value in the future?
Allyson Smith:walk us through the journey of how Flexibl will touch the lives of the customer
Allyson Smith:making the payment, the merchant that is accepting the payment, the software
Allyson Smith:provider that is enabling all of that, how Flexibl is managing that piece of it
Allyson Smith:to the time that the merchant gets their money and the software reconciles, it.
Allyson Smith:Walk us through that full journey so we can understand , What that feels like.
Allyson Smith:Yeah.
Allyson Smith:For sure.
Allyson Smith:So speaking again, I guess in the, from the consumer side, we want to
Allyson Smith:make it as seamless as possible.
Allyson Smith:So they, when they're registering for an activity to have all of the
Allyson Smith:payment functionalities, as they see it and it be the software,
Allyson Smith:making it as seamless as possible.
Allyson Smith:So whether they're registering, whether it be subscriptions or installments
Allyson Smith:or just a regular checkout that be as seamless as possible, whether they're
Allyson Smith:looking to do card present or card, not present, all those offers should be on
Allyson Smith:the table for the software to be able to provide when you're talking about
Allyson Smith:the software itself, but we want to make sure that their journey is easy.
Allyson Smith:So whether they're looking and they're new to the space , how do we get them
Allyson Smith:to a point where it's more embedded and more invisible in terms of what they're
Allyson Smith:doing, and cater that approach with them and work with them on that journey.
Allyson Smith:. Reporting and reconciliation it for sure, depends on where they are within that
Allyson Smith:payment journey and how embedded they are.
Allyson Smith:But we want to be able to say, okay, you are on this journey.
Allyson Smith:We're either going to provide you the reports that you need for your
Allyson Smith:merchants, that they understand.
Allyson Smith:What's being reconciled when it's being reconciled, what it's attached
Allyson Smith:to and where the correct APIs and helping them embed that within the
Allyson Smith:reporting and reconciliation, excuse me, that they're offering within or
Allyson Smith:that they have within the software.
Allyson Smith:So . It's really about like that handholding process, depending on where
Allyson Smith:they are within their own journey of payments making it seamless for them.
Allyson Smith:And then adding on value adds in the future in making it
Allyson Smith:as easy as possible for them.
Tedd Huff:Fantastic.
Tedd Huff:I love it.
Tedd Huff:And I know I've mentioned this a couple of times, but I love how specific
Tedd Huff:you've gotten how you're leveraging technology that exists in the marketplace
Tedd Huff:to accelerate the delivery of this.
Tedd Huff:It's super important that you've done these things because a lot of times
Tedd Huff:software companies will promise a lot of things to deliver, but then fall
Tedd Huff:down when it comes time to execute and actually bring it to market.
Tedd Huff:The way that you've approached it.
Tedd Huff:Allows you to provide that value a lot faster and a lot easier.
Tedd Huff:I want to commend you on that and then, and thank you for joining today.
Tedd Huff:Is there anything that you want to share with the audience?
Allyson Smith:If I were to share one last thing is that, in terms of my
Allyson Smith:journey within the payments world.
Allyson Smith:I see it as just trying to make things more approachable, seeing payments
Allyson Smith:in a different perspective, seeing it through the eyes of the software.
Allyson Smith:It's the future of, vertical, specific software is where payments needs to
Allyson Smith:be able to help them grow and be the behind the scenes partner offer specific
Allyson Smith:things to help accelerate that growth.
Tedd Huff:Alison, thank you so much for taking time out
Tedd Huff:to go through this with us.
Tedd Huff:We really appreciate it.
Tedd Huff:Look forward to all the things that Flexibl is working on, and can't wait to
Tedd Huff:have you on again when we start to dive into the analytics side of the house.
Allyson Smith:Thanks a lot, Tedd.
Allyson Smith:Thanks a lot for having me on.
