“No other program, offered by any other company, provides such a comprehensive and cost-effective solution that will increase your business’s profitability, positively impact productivity, and enhance the lives of your employees, and their families. With Exectras, you can have it all.” – Joe Cherry, Exectras Founder & President

Exectras was founded on a simple but ambitious mission: restore value to an industry that had lost its way. Joe Cherry, CEO and Founder, saw firsthand how the internet and ISO channel boom transformed the payments space into a race to the bottom. Profits were prioritized over expertise, inexperienced players flooded the market, and customer attrition climbed as high as 30 percent. Cherry wanted to take the opposite approach. While speaking at associations, he kept hearing the same frustration from small business owners. They couldn’t compete with larger firms when it came to affordable insurance, payment processing, or employee benefits. That disconnect sparked an idea. What if a company could use collective buying power to level the playing field?

Exectras turned that idea into reality. By leveraging the strength of more than 800,000 businesses, the company partnered with major institutions like Chase and Liberty Mutual to secure Fortune 500 level pricing. This model helps smaller businesses reduce costs, protect margins, and offer benefits that attract and retain talent. Exectras is a full-service payments provider, handling everything from online and in-person transactions to POS systems, ACH, and text-to-pay solutions. But the real differentiator is what comes alongside those services. Exectras is the only U.S. company delivering world-class healthcare and wellness benefits to small and mid-sized businesses at no additional cost. In industries like restaurants and hospitality, where insurance is often unaffordable, Exectras offers 24/7 Virtual Primary Care, prescriptions, and wellness solutions free of charge, simply for trusting the company with payments.

The results speak for themselves. While the industry average for client attrition sits at 20 to 30 percent, Exectras customers experience less than 2 percent. That difference reflects the company’s founding principle: put value back where it belongs.

In conversation with Joe Cherry, CEO and Founder of Exectras

Exectras brings Fortune 500 benefits and pricing to small and mid-sized businesses. Can you elaborate on how you’ve achieved this level of access and affordability?
We represent over 700 associations, each with its own buying power. We leveraged that buying power and went out and did all the negotiation to get the best pricing on those Fortune 500 benefits and services.

How are your partnerships with companies like Paychex, Gallagher, and First American by Deluxe structured to offer the scale benefit?
Think of Exectras as the Costco for businesses! We sign contracts with big partners, telling them, “You might get a few accounts from an association, but we bring 800,000 businesses to boost your bottom line.” In return, they guarantee top-tier services or the lowest prices. For example, insurance providers typically require five employees for group liability programs, but we’ve lowered it to one. Even tiny businesses with 1-5 employees, usually overlooked, now qualify through our 16-million-employee pool, giving them access to elite benefits.

Exectras 360 Health is a standout component of your membership offering. What makes this health and wellness platform different, and how does it impact employee retention and satisfaction?
Our Exectras 360 Health platform stands out with its Virtual Primary Care. Unlike standard telehealth, you choose your doctor, build a health history, and get annual visits or specialist referrals at our special pricing. Every employee or contractor and their family members get this, plus behavioral health, peer support, prescription discounts, financial wellness, identity theft protection, and more, for $17/month per employee. It’s a Fortune 500-level package that costs businesses a fraction of what it otherwise would, leveraging our buying power to make healthcare affordable and impactful for small to mid-sized businesses.

Is this a game-changer for SMBs looking to offer competitive benefits?

It is. There’s nothing else like it in America. It’s the reason we’re onboarding more and more partners every month. We’re signing new associations that want to bring this benefit to their members because nobody’s ever heard of a program like this. It is a game-changer because we give options to those businesses that can now, through our membership, attract and retain valuable employees.

Your payment solutions span across smart terminals, POS, and full integration. How do you ensure a frictionless and secure experience for clients across all channels?
We have a national footprint through our partnership with local brokers. It doesn’t matter what channel you are and how you’re accepting payments; we can get the right payment solution facilitated for you.

What are some of the technological or strategic innovations that set Exectras payments apart from legacy providers?
While legacy providers rely on outdated practices to grow margins, Exectras delivers greater value through transparent pricing, month-to-month contracts, integrated technology, Virtual Healthcare, employee benefits, and deeply discounted business services; resulting in lower costs, faster onboarding, and stronger benefits for merchants and their employees.

Your partnership model appears to be robust, working with ISOs, franchises, associations, and more. What’s the core value proposition that makes Exectras such a compelling partner for these entities?
Associations bring value to their members by partnering with us. Regardless of the association’s size, let’s say it has 30,000 members. But by partnering with us, they get access to all these benefits we’ve already discussed because our buying power is 800,000. Together, we have 830,000 in buying power. That is the reason why our model is so compelling.

How do these partnerships contribute to market expansion and long-term growth?
Exectras partners with associations to generate non-dues revenue, empowering them to better serve their members. As the association’s members use our platform’s services, the associations earn additional income, enhancing its ability to serve its members. We help that association achieve long-term growth by providing greater value, which in turn reduces attrition.

The Exectras brand is built on simplifying complex challenges for business owners. How do you ensure that the simplification never compromises on sophistication, security, or support?
We had sophistication in mind when we built the myExectras portal, which is our Membership Portal. Through this portal, which can be white-labeled for our partners, members get easy access to all of the benefits we bring them in one place. As far as the security piece, we don’t capture PII (personal identifiable information), and everything is stored in the cloud. We offer 24-7-365 support for Exectras Payments, and we have 8-5 support in all three time zones for the Exectras Membership Portal.

What operational philosophy or technology backbone ensures this balance?
Along with the Membership Portal, we’ve developed an app for iOS and Android that gives access to all the benefits at the touch of a button. Our philosophy is to serve our members and their employees in the best capacity we can by seeking to “always do the right thing.” You’re going to make mistakes, but if you live your life with the approach of always seeking to do the right thing, you’re able to sleep at night. You know that you did your best.

From a profitability standpoint, what measurable impacts have your clients seen, whether it’s cost savings, revenue lift, or operational efficiency from using Exectras?
The area that seems most measured is in savings. We have a member who saved over $90K in one year, and others who report savings of over $10K per month. At Exectras we help create a greater connection between employer and employee by providing meaningful and impactful benefits. This fosters a loyalty and efficiency that’s hard to measure but greatly impacts every business we provide services to! 

What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are there exciting things on the way?
We are about to give every single employee of every member of our program a free $10,000 life insurance policy. That’s our way of thanking them for being here. Another exciting thing we are about to roll out is our as-earned wage card. This gives employees immediate access to 70% of the wages they’ve already earned.

What does the future hold for your company and its customers?
We have a goal to forever change payments. We want businesses nationwide to understand they have a choice in who manages their payments. With Exectras, you can get a seamless payments experience at competitive rates while also taking care of your employees and their families.

“We have a national footprint through our partnership with local brokers. It doesn’t matter what channel you are and how you’re accepting payments; we can get the right payment solution facilitated for you.”