PCM vol. 3 Issue 9

EXECUTIVE PROFILES
With the company now steady on a path of upward growth, its
board has asked OB and his team to add 100,000 new customers
in the next 12 months. They have six employees in Atlanta
today, all working from home, and OB says that he will open
an office in Atlanta when they reach a dozen. “We’re also open
to making larger investments in Atlanta,” he says.
The transformation of iPayment is a great story for the payments
industry but also reflects an economic truth discovered by
private equity funds some time ago – the payments business is
highly responsive to better management. “Private equity loves
this industry because they know that good management can
get them many multiples of what they invest. It’s been proven
many times in recent years,” says OB.
“We will provide all services to our business customers,”
says OB of iPayment, “becoming the place where small and
medium-sized businesses come to get their business solutions
– credit, debit, gift, loyalty, hardware and now, merchant cash
advances,” OB says. ”We recently announced the formation
of iPayment Capital, offering merchant cash advances to its
customers. Only half of processors have an extension like this
one.”
understanding of what merchants need today. “We believe
that selling a merchant a solution based on three or more of
our products will increase the lifetime value of that merchant
relationship to us by over 8 months,” says OB. “Today, a small
business can look and act like Amazon if they want to. This
provides the stronger returns that attract PE firms.”
SMEs, or small to medium sized businesses, are the entire
focus of iPayment. “Small business today is growing in this
country,” says OB, “re-energizing everywhere. More people
are empowered to invest in themselves and this bodes well
for our company.”
For all the changes that he has inspired at iPayment, OB
attributes all positive changes to common sense and teamwork.
“I’m a big believer in never being afraid to ‘inspect and correct.’
It’s a simple thing, made more difficult by the fact that people
naturally want to avoid problems. I try to coach my people to
look for problems and not be afraid to face them.”
“Other than that,” he says “all I can say is that I’m fortunate to
be the leader of iPayment. It’s really all about the team. They
have a winning attitude.”
Increased complexity in their business offerings means
longer sales cycles and more complex sales. iPayment is
equipping their sales teams with more training and a better
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