Latest / Leaders In Payments / Ron Atzmon, Founder & Chairman at AU10TIX | Episode 289

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Ron Atzmon, Founder & Chairman at AU10TIX | Episode 289 · Leaders In Payments

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast, where we talk to C-level leaders from across the payments landscape.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: We'll be discussing the products and services that impact the payment space today, as well as trends and predictions for the future of payments.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: We own our stack, which gives us the ability to be profitable, but also our scalability.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, there is a reason why most now it's a bit under fashion, but why we are the go-to vendor for the crypto industry and the mobility one Because you need instant verification in 4 to 8 seconds.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: You cannot wait for a person to verify in a couple of minutes.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: That was Ron Otsman, the chairman of Authentics, and he is my special guest on this episode, episode 289 of the Leaders in Payments podcast and I'm your host, greg Myers.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Authentics is a global identity intelligence leader that is on a mission to obliterate fraud and further a more secure and inclusive world.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: The company provides critical modular solutions to verify and link physical and digital identity so businesses and their customers can confidently connect.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Ron and I talk about the company and what makes it unique in the marketplace.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Ron also shares the fascinating story of Authentics founding and the multiple pivots they've made along the way.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: We've got a great episode ahead, so let's get started.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Hi Ron, thank you for being here and welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Greg.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: It's a pleasure being here.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Great, so let's dive right in.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: If you don't mind, tell our audience a little bit about yourself, maybe where you grew up, where you went to school, where you currently live, a few things like that, and then we'll circle around to your professional career in a few minutes.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I'm 49.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I was born in Tel Aviv, lived a few years as a kid in London, then came back and then spent most of my childhood until then in the service in the Navy for three years Then went straight to university, started an accounting, to be honest, but eventually after three years decided that I'm not going to be an accountant.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: So I changed my manner from business accounting to marketing and human sources.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: During university I've done some work a bit.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Then went into a big project management and then done investment banking.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Then moved again to London to do my MBA in London, came back and then since 2003 for the last 20 years I've been in the hot core.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I was also before the tech world, but really a hot core tech startup.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: So that's me now still in Tel Aviv for kids, happily married, trying to enjoy life.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about the company Authentics.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: So can you tell our audience what the company does?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So Authentics is an identity company.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: We specialize in identity verification and management.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: So just give a bit of perspective.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: We deal with customer onboarding and re-verification of customers.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: So you probably met us in different processes, either in Airbnb or PayPal or Google, or in the crypto exchanges, or when you get on a scooter like a bird.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: So that's us.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: So we deal when either you need to do onboarding or they figure out that you might be a bit of like a dodgy purse or a dangerous person, so then we do re-verification.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: So this is basically what we do in a nutshell.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Are there certain industries or verticals that you focus on?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I'd like to say that we are, but we are more across the board.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: It wasn't really.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: We went where customers needed us.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: So our first customer is actually in the car finance industry, right on Asian finance for car loans, and then, I would say, coincidence led us between our customers.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: So it wasn't really customer.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: It was a bit like we try to look where customers use us because of our unique sales proposition.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: So, coming from historically, we spun off the tech from an airport security company, so we're global by definition.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: So if you're a global player and or you have an ambition to be a global player, we have to go to market.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: So I'm inland, so that's how we started with the pioneer more than 10 years ago.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: So they needed to do identification on a global level, even like in more not your standard customers like Indonesia or Africa.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: So so that's a.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: So I mean we're across the board.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: We do payments, we do social, we do crypto, we do banking, we do mobility, we do sharing economy, we do HR.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I mean we are not.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I mean the product identity is a cross, is a cross, vertical, cross, border.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: It's a global price, a global issue.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: So everybody needs identity.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: So, and whoever wants to work with them.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: We are happy to work with them.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: And how big is the company?
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: So we are a bit more than 200 people.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: We've been profitable.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: So for the last six years most of I mean beside the sales and free sale, most of the team is based in israel means engineering, customer success, operation management.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Why do we do that?
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Because we think that everybody sitting together in the same office yes, we are, I will say In 90% in the office company.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: There is one day during the week that it's a work from home, but the rest of it we are in the office.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Because we think that this Face to face interaction is very crucial to do good brain, so make, to do quick resolution and buy and also think that having the customers, the people around the csm sitting next to the product, sitting next to the engineering, makes the relation much more tighter and much more, I will say, committed.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I mean it's easy to get that step up from your table, go to another room, you know, kick the guy in the chair, said dude, listen, you need to fix the spoke to my customer and just drive things much faster.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: So how has a I affected your business or how do you think it will?
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, I just I see these things of People on social media who are making money and they're not even real people, they're just made up images and people and I mean, do you see I is being a potential challenge ahead.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, let's be some and let's break what's the meaning.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: What's a I is machine learning.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: We have actually been playing with a I since as early as 2014 2015, so for us, it's been a tool to work with to enhance our capabilities, to enhance our networks and give a better customer experience, talk to our customers and also enhance security.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: There was a big leap in the name was called machine and they went to deep learning in 2017, 2018 and now they call it a I.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: So actually I call it.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: It's the evolution.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I call it basically it's the same person with a different dressing.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: So actually we've been embracing it for the last.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: We've been working with us for the last Ninety years and for us, it's a great tool to help us improve our capabilities and our models and also make our teams much more efficient.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: For that's internally, from the external side, definitely a I.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I call it machine learning, which is basically what that's what it means.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: What is it's machine learning?
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: It definitely raises the bar when it comes to face New challenges, specifically when the code like the proliferation of a I, which happened in 2023, which became much more accessible to the general public, and so there's great upsides and also some great Big downsides and then it's just keeping us a bit more on our toes.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's a saying in our company that authentic was build by paranoid for paranoid.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: So it's.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: So I say it's like feeding the beast with more challenges, trying to stay a step ahead of the bad guys in a certain way always, always, always.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: What would you say, differentiates you guys from your competitors out there?
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: So couple of things.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: What differentiates us is the fact that we are 100% automated.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: We don't use people basically in the process to authenticate people.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: I mean most of our computers.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: We call it what we use, we call it hybrid, and that's of our shtick, because another very big difference is that are we on our stack, so we've built all of our capabilities internally.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: It gives us a few advantages.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: One we control our destiny, so therefore we're not dependent on third party, which means that one we can control our cost.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: We always thrive to become much more efficient and more capable in that respect, which is very important specifically in these times.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: We were actually, I'll tell you when I told them, when I was chatting with my buddies in the industry that compete with us and they were talking about us like with me, all the time.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: But growth, grows, grows and, guys, the music will end and then you'll need to go into profitability and it will be very difficult.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: If you think how you not just grow okay, but also make it an efficient way, it gives you much more.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: I'll say it can give you control of your destiny in a much better way.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Don't forget that we've bootstrapped the business, so we never took external VC money.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: We only have done a second there about four years ago.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: So that's another USB that we own our stack, which gives us a ability to be profitable, but also our scalability.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, there is a reason why most now it's a bit under fashion, but why we are the go-to vendor for the crypto industry and the mobility one because you need instant verification in four to eight seconds.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: You cannot wait for a person to verify in a couple of minutes that what happens with our customers and because of that, basically, when Sunday there is the crypto, there's a bull run in the crypto for about an hour and you need to onboard a million users.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Or suddenly, let's say, there's a Super Bowl game and everybody wants to get UberEat and wants to do alcohol delivery and need to verify a huge amount of people for age verification to make sure they're at the age.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: There's nobody that can stand like pigs and loaves because we're automated and they're on scale.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: So that's another big thing, another very big and another stuff that I mean, as I said, bill by paranoid for paranoid.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: So we were the first one that went out to the market with our consortium capabilities that basically, what they does is that our customers it will happen in 2019, that our customers can talk with each other anonymously and send fraud signals.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: For example, if you are a fraudster and sometimes you use your face with different names or different addresses or different mobile devices, we can see that you're trying to be a bit of a bad customer and due to that, I mean the fact that we can detect it.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Let's say, you've done this.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: You use your face with one name at Uber and your face with another name at Airbnb and basically, because these things are shared, suddenly the you know someone say hold on, can say either to, let's say, uber or Airbnb or anything.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Listen, we've seen the Greg's face, not always with the same name, and that's relatively very powerful.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: But what we track is about 15 different signals, data, unique signals, that we collect them and we're growing this and, of course, we don't keep the PII.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: What we do is we just keep the signals of it and that's how, basically, we allow our customers to the power of the network to protect each other.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So that's another very big USB that we launch.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: This year's became a bit more fashionable.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Some of our buddies in this field just launched this capability, but the fact that we've been doing this for like 19, 20, 21, 22, for five years, the amount of data that we've collected and signals is far beyond anybody else.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Well, where do you see this space headed in the next three to five years?
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Listen, we need to see technically, I would split it into two pieces business and tech.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: On the business side, listen, the market is dried up and everybody needs to make sure.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: They need needs now to show to the market that they can make the numbers work, meaning they can show profitability, and that's the big push for, I think, 2020.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: It started in 2023, but definitely 2024, 2025,.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Whoever was not being able to show a working business model will not survive and therefore you will not get any funding.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Now everybody's saying, yeah, I can show profitability, but you know, between saying and delivering, it's a big thing.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: So I think there's definitely going to be consolidation from couple of one because of lack of funding.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Therefore, people will start getting merged.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: I'm actually looking to consolidate and looking at a few acquisitions in the market because we can.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: What we think we can do is any partner that we can acquire.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: We can.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: We can.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Definitely it will bring us significant upside in our bottom line.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: So that's from a technical point of view and definitely but also I'm talking about something just this there won't be just consolidation in our specific market, but in the general identity market.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: I can see that some of the big data players are looking to get into our space, so I probably they might make a few acquisitions and the single sign on companies as well, trying to move from doing like business verification I mean, like you know, managing identities for businesses but managing identity for consumers.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: So that's from a consolidation point of view.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: From a technical point of view listen, I wish I would have the crystal ball, but I don't.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: I think definitely AI is.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: We're just now starting.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: I mean machine learning, the next generation is starting to bring us much more interesting stuff and I think will help us develop new capabilities that some of them are already cooking in our head, which I'm not going to disclose because I don't want my my competitors to learn, but also I mean probably we didn't even think of yet and they will pop up probably along the next three years.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And it also can help us.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Again, I listen, I'm always looking.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Okay, how can technology listen?
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, how can technology makes us, help us do better and also make it more efficient?
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: So that's another thing that definitely the tech industry will help different companies in that respect.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: Well, let's switch gears a little bit and talk about you.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: So tell us a little more about your journey to the company there and to your role there, maybe fill in the gaps between your leaving university and starting the company.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: It's a long story.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I'll try to make it as short as possible.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: So when you talk about it's an individual, you need to ask yourself what are you?
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: What do you like doing?
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Are you a sales guy?
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Are you a product guy?
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Do you like to get your hands dirty?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Are you an engineering guy?
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: And I think I.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: When I left university I think even before university, even you know when I was a teenager I knew I wanted to go into business.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: What kind of business?
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: I wasn't sure.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: And during my first part, you know, when I left the service.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: So when I was in my undergrad, I also worked.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: I was a bit bored in university.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: So I but I said, listen, I need to get the university degree.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: So I was.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: So the first year I've done, I worked in accounting.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: So I was an assistant accountant at Toys R Us, interesting to understand how the numbers are working.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Then, a year later, then a year and a half later, when I was doing some side sales on the side, I became I went to do.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I went.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: I sold PCs.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: I sold computers for Packer Bell, nec.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: So I was in charge of the pre and post sales for the big chain stores like Office Depot and Staples and that was kind of fun because getting to interact with people and you know, to understand how big networks are working, and then again I look for opportunities and then I started to get exploded.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: You know, in the year 1997, 1998, I was always on the internet but you know I got really explored to media and streaming and localization of channels.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: So I had a small company that did localization for TV channels in Israel.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, a year later, you know their biggest investment bank in Israel was looking to do IPOs in the US and Israel internet companies that were looking for some of the knows the internet sector quite well and they were looking for an analyst to write papers.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: And I was hired.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: So I had a financial background but they taught me how to write sales at reports.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: So I was.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: It was during the bubble days, I mean like the 99,000, 1,000.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: So for two plus years I worked there.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: It was great fun.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: I learned how to do underwriting, how you raise money, how you sell to the public markets, and then the I'll say the market crashed and I decided to go do my MBA.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: I never took a year from life, so my MBA was a bit of a break from life, so went to London and then I got a taste for finance and I wanted to do some funding.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I'm into working in a fund, but the market was very dried up in 2000 when I finished my MBA at the end of 2002.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: So we went back to Israel and then I bumped a friend of mine who's looking for a good business guy to join a startup in the social media analytics space.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Talked to you about 2003.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Facebook was just starting a year later, so we were selling data analysis on forms and blogs.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: So that's a really deep dive into that space.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Then I left that company.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: I started my own and for about four years I've built a company that does sentiment analysis on social media.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: And then 2008 happened, and I don't need to tell you 2008.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Now the whole market crashed.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Good can funding for my previous company and I had a few customers left, mostly to be healthcare.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: But you know, I didn't want to make it a boutique company, so I decided to shut it down.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And then I was looking to do another company and then my dad what, why did the chance of my dad?
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: My dad says, what are you going to do now?
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: I said I think I'm going to do another startup.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: And then he told me listen, why don't you come work with you know, work for me?
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I said, yeah, that was the source.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: I said, listen, I own an airport.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: So we got to own an airport security company.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: It's a long story.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: We got into this and inside the airport security company there was a small engineering team that does passport authentication for airports, for immigration, and he says, listen, I read an article about banks getting fine from not doing proper KYC.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: And while the KYC is checking documents and says let's go sell to banks, I said, okay, what do you mean about banks?
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Nothing.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I said I'm up to the challenge.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: So I took the leadership role 15 guys.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: So okay, how do we do product market fit?
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: So I took the basic product that we used to sell to governments and I went to sell it to one of the banks in Israel and it's a very fascinating story.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: I sold it.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: I didn't sell a lot, I sold about 20 pieces of it.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Like at the time I sold the license Guys.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know everybody doesn't know what's like, everybody knows SAS, but 15 years ago you used to sell licenses.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: So you sold the license Like you paid out on like arguments like $1,000.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: And then you paid another 20% maintenance every year on the license.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: And that's sorry.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: And when I sold to, the guy at the bank was actually one of the veterans guy.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: We really clicked well and he totally lessened on.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: You know, you're not really selling compliance, you're selling operation efficiency.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: And I said, okay, tell me then, explain how the banks work.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: That digitizing and archiving and everything is a big problem is very costly.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: And I start to understand, okay, what are the key?
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: So it's not just and this was 2003 fintech, it's not just compliance, there's a whole ray that comes with the compliance, the efficiencies, the archive, the data cleanliness, everything, and of because Israel is a very small market, the next market I went to was UK, because I didn't have a lot of money, I was very limited on my budget and also I knew experience from my previous startup.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: It's another interesting story.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: So I went to experience.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: We've done a partnership with them.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: They did just meet to some of the banks, done some pitches.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: They really liked the product, but the problem was I'm talking about 2009,.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: It was a non print solution.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: The integration to the point of sale was like challenging.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: I'll say this we're not talking about the API's and I did sell to a bit less of a low touch customers like Renault, nissan, where the integration was much simpler, and by that was the first time when I moved from a license to a pursuit model.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: So every, every installation, they paid me an annual seat license, which is getting closer to SAS, and but you know.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I wasn't really taking off and I was.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: You know I was scratching my head, okay, what I'm going to do.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: And you know, like in life and like everything in life, while I was, one day I was with my kids at the beach I bumped into a friend of mine and he was working for a small fintech company and he told me about his challenges, about onboarding customers remote, getting like IDs via fax, and again, people doesn't know, people simply remember what our faxes is and emails and uploads.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: And he said, listen, can you automate for me the process?
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: I said, you know what's kind of kind of a interesting twist.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: So I started into this and I and you know I saw it was early, early days of the fintechs.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: So I went back to the drawing board and I need to read basically reconfigure the whole system because the previous, in the early days, it was in plan server configuration dependent on the house.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: So we disconnect from the hardware piece, we disconnect from the front end piece and we built it basically as a back end service, independent on anything that I can install and get some and get the images and build them.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: So it took me about a year to rewrite the code.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't write the record, I'm not a coder, I'm I'm more of a sales guy.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: But I knew what we needed, okay, and I worked with the project and the R&D team, okay to basically to build the product market fit.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: And then, in 2012, we went out with a new product and again, like everything in life, be a friend I got a meeting with PayPal and I got a meeting with Payoneer and they both liked it, but Payoneer was a bit faster to move it the paper that it took a bit longer, but pay one year, a year later some pay one years, nine months later, actually not even quicker sign the contract and we actually that was the first time I sold SaaS, I sold per transaction, not for a built a license fee, and it was a non print solution, by the way and then a year later listen, it's all coincidental, don't ask me even how I mean.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Of course I tried.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Listen, I always had a wish list where I want to work with, so I always attacked them.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: But you know, by coincidence, we bumped into the right guy inside the Google team and they were at the time.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: They wanted to launch Google wallet, they wanted the time to go ahead to it with PayPal and they needed a global solution and they really dig their product because it was fully automated, unlike the other two vendors that exist in the market.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: There's a master, like I don't know, like 15 players and but they don't listen.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: There's no way you can install on Google production and said you want to work with us, you need to need to go to the cloud.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: So actually they pushed us to the cloud.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: There was no G cloud, there was only AWS and Azure.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: We're done Azure because we had a bit of not not anymore now, but historically we're a dotnet platform and the rest is history.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: And then later PayPal signed with us.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: It took them a while I mean it's okay, I mean they're great customers been a very good and loyal partner for the last almost even like I'm talking about eight, nine years and you know, I think that we've delivered and I think that, from a business point of view, I always wanted to give a wide glass service and to be very hands on, even when we're not always perfect nobody can be, I mean, we're never perfect, okay, but you can't be always like a top of your game.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: You always, there are always bugs and fixes and you always need to adjust, but we are always very open and for criticism and to learn from our mistakes, and in our vision we want to give a wide glass service.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: So we tried it all the time and so that's how we grew the business and then basically, we grew word of mouth.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: You know, at the end of the day, if you deliver a good service, customers will come to you.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: I can tell you, the last one that is coming to us now again came from one of I just had a very interesting meeting with another very big tech, big internet tech company and I asked okay, so how?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: did you get to a set?
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Well, a specific company, another very big tech company from Silicon Valley, said that they work with you and they were tested at everything and we should work with you as well.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: So that's always a very good way to get customers, because they already heard from someone else and word of mouth, I think, is the best selling tool that exists in the market.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: So that's a bit of a of a nutshell of you know, the story of Authentics and how we got to where we are today.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: That's fascinating and just pivoting at every you know, to use a more modern term pivoting at all these different places and angles throughout the company and your career.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: It's a fascinating story for sure.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Listen the cycles are getting shorter and you need, first of all, to embrace them, and you need to understand how you're going to deal with it, and I think.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: I think you know you need listen, it's a problem, fix it.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: So, and you know I like fixing problems, fixing my customers problem, our customer problem.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: I think that's one of the key things that drives Authentics.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: And in that process, we have our own problems and we need to fix it.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: And I think that one of the greatest things, that, if someone asked me, what do you say?
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: So you have a challenge, so what?
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Go fix it.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: There is always a solution to a problem.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: The fact is, the saying of an old friend of my dad said if you haven't solved the problem, it means that you haven't thought hard enough.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: So think hard, you're actually going to find a solution.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: So one final question, ron.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: So what are you passionate about?
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: So, maybe one work related passion and one personal passion.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I love people so I love the interaction.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: I love the interaction with the customers.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I love the interactions with my colleagues.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: My mother I'll tell you a funny joke.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: You know my mother sent me to study coding at the age of 10 after I said Damn mom, listen, it's not for me.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not the kind of guy to see behind the scenes and code all day.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: It's not my type and I need the social interaction.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: That's my passion about work.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: My personal family, of course, is very passionate about my family.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I have four kids.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Actually, I need to fix it.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: They don't like to say I have four daughters, okay.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: So when I said I have four kids, my, so my dad, you know I have four kids, we have four daughters.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: So I'm a father of four daughters and I think that you know, I try to have a relaxed life but I love, but think that I'm very, it's music, I love music.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I think music is, you know, people like I love, just me.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: You know I'd like to.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: I love, love, live music.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: I used to DJ my dark ages and just not dark, I'm just fun, being a bit like sarcastic about it, but I love live concerts.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Any music you know could be jazz, classic rock, new wave metal, r&b, reggae, techno.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: So music is a.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: It does go to the spirit, I think you know, in other to, I think you know you need try to think positive, trying to be optimistic.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: I think music helps me give a bit of good vibe to life I would agree with you there and sounds like you might be good at some music trivia games.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you watch any of those on TV, but there's quite a few of them out there now.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: I think you'd be very good at that.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: I hope I'm very bad with names, but you know I can tell you where I mean.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: But if you let me Google it I'll find a very.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: I mean listen, I'm very bad with names but the music I recognize super fast, so I have a very good music memory.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: But names is like, I'm horrible at names.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Well, great, well, ron, we've covered a lot of ground so far about, obviously, you and the company and the industry.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up the show?
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: I think we've done a nice coverage.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for being on the show today and it was great to learn more about the company and how you guys are leading the market, and obviously your background and story is fascinating in and of itself.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: So thank you so much for being on the show.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: I know your time is valuable, so I really appreciate you being here.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Greg, thank you for the time and thank you for the opportunity and looking forward to speaking to you sometime in the future.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Okay, and to all your listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in Payments podcast.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Make sure you visit our website at leadersinpaymentscom, where you can subscribe to the show and where you'll find our show notes.
• 29:51
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