A Business Payment Platform for the Digital Age PayStand Inc.

The Silicon Review

“Our mission is to use the Internet, Blockchain, and SaaS technologies to transform B2B payments.”

The disruptive digital world had taken over the global business, including B2C. Many companies have made transformations by moving to cloud-like financial systems. These B2C companies have achieved tremendous success by using technological advancements, but there is a huge gap in B2B finance and it is a broken system; large transactions are still done in paper checks. Companies in the enterprise are stuck with a terrible choice - take payments through paper check and operate at fixed cost, which is manual, error-prone and slow. B2B payments need digital transformation which is effective and efficient and B2B customers are looking for a cost structure that makes sense and is automated and secure.

California based PayStand Inc.’s payments-as-a-service cost model is transforming its customers ROI. Founded in 2013, by Jeremy Almond and Scott Campbell, PayStand is the modern B2B payment platform enabling 0% bank-to-bank transactions. PayStand makes it easy to add a secure, unique payment gateway to your invoicing system or website, customized with your branding. In addition, to ensure that organizations can get one comprehensive platform for all payment needs, PayStand provides organizations with the ability to use eCheck, ACH, debit cards, credit cards, and even digital currencies.

Pithy Parley with the CEO of PayStand, Jeremy Almond

Can you talk about your first product?

We started with AR; making it easier for businesses to receive money. Using our product, businesses reduce time to cash, their process is automated, and their cost is lowered. This is pivotal in the B2B ecosystem as the transaction amounts are very large. We started with AR and dove into perfecting and expanding that portion of our product/business then launched AP to make it so that our customers can easily send money in the same fashion to improve cash flow, security, efficiency, and control.

What are the greatest attributes of PayStand?

Team/ People: Our team that listens to our customers and is dedicated to solving their business’ need and hell-bent on delivering. Furthermore, our team is incredible and brilliant who are dedicated to making a dent in a broken industry
Product: I believe we are by far the leading platform with a cutting-edge product on the market for B2B payments
Industry Opportunity: We sit in a unique time. B2C digital transformation is sweeping the market - but in the B2B ecosystem, there is a huge need for advancements as many companies in the enterprise sit in a ‘pre-internet era’ mentality giving us huge opportunity to bring digital transformation to a broken system that has a need for the technology and software that we have developed and are continuing to develop

Discuss how customers influence your products and solutions.

Our customers are our compass, and PayStand prides itself on a product influenced as much by our customers as it is by our desire to change the landscape for the better. Listening to our customers is critical to growing the world-class product that we have today. Digital transactions in B2B payments are crucial to any business, especially in the enterprise. Our customers helped shape how we do that. We learned how important tying payments to their internal platforms and data truly is - which is why we made smart data our focal point; connecting payments back into internal systems turning contracts into cash much faster and more efficiently.

Discuss the key factors which have aided you in your journey.

There are few I would like to mention; I have a great co-founder and a great team, great investors such as Cervin Ventures and Serra ventures. Our current growth stage is exciting as this last financing round was led by BlueRun Ventures; they have lead series of funding for iconic companies like Kabbage, Pay Pal, and Coupa - they’ve seen the massive industry change on the consumer side and are looking to help growth spike on the B2B side.

What are the future prospects of your company?

We have few new products which will be launched soon namely, Accounts Payable, Virtual Cards, Blockchain powered AP/AR approvals. The last product is something we are really excited about. It will really help controllers and AR reps in efficiency, control, and peace of mind in securely paying out company money. The icing on the cake is that it’s free. Many companies are using spreadsheets or a terrible banking interface or spending money for applications - I’m really excited to help bring efficiency to business in a way where they can do so with no start-up cost.

We aim that giants like Akin, Amazon, Google, or Salesforce, will look at PayStand as the service they cannot envision succeeding without. I see an opportunity to have digital technology go beyond payments and move into AI; smarter systems that will be able vastly easier and more impactful.

Mover and Shaker of PayStand

Jeremy Almond, CEO, and Co-Founder: Almond has spent the last 17 years in the tech industry as a serial entrepreneur, startup adviser, and occasional investor. He has helped dozens of B2B companies drive adoption of digital commerce, and is still an active board member at a number of fintech companies. He started his career in technology as an engineer at nanotech startup Digital Instruments, which was acquired by Veeco. At Veeco, Almond led architecture, helping the company shrink massive computers down to devices that now fit in our pockets. He also led their global ERP implementation (15 years ago) where he got his first glimpse into the challenges of enterprise payments. He’s been thinking about how to use technology to innovate in B2B financial services ever since. Almond holds a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of California and a Masters in Business from the University of Massachusetts.