Latest / Ben Taylor Podcast / Simplifying Superyacht Payments Globally | Fintech in Yachting | Lou Clark from Centtrip
Transcript
- Hi, everybody.Welcome back to another episode of the Ben Taylor Podcast.This episode is brought to you by the Super Yacht Services Guide, a worldwide trusted directory of yachting services.Uh, today we're gonna talk to, uh, SendTrip.I'm here with Lou Clark.Nice to see you, Lou.Nice to see you, Ben.Um, so give us, give us some context first.What is SendTrip all about?What do you guys do?Well, SendTrip runs the gamut of, of a whole lot of problem solving in the, in the yachting industry.So we do everything from escrow payments to charter management to expense management and crew payroll.Just making life easy- Yeah.for the yacht crew.And this is an area that can become pretty stressful pretty quickly, 'cause no surprise that you have, these have quite a lot of operational expenses.Yeah.There is a lot going on with it, absolutely.If you can't pay them, then it's a bit of an issue, yeah.From a captain's perspective and from crew's perspective, senior crew captains, charter managers, yeah, it's a pain.Yeah.And, and so our goal is just to simplify that for them, make their lives easier, keep them focused on being yachties- Yeah.and doing what they do best.And from, from a, I suppose a banking and finance perspective, it's quite a unique workflow, payment flow, the kind of oddball payments, different locations.Yes.Usually quite big.Yeah.Uh, uh, large amounts of money as well.Yeah, absolutely.I mean- So it takes a specialist like you guys to actually facilitate it all.Correct, yeah.I mean, things, you know, with our debit cards for example, they've got really high volume limits on them.Yeah.Um, so it can cater to things like yachts bunkering or provisioning before a charter, this sort of thing.Yeah.Um, you know, so that's one of the strengths of, of this sort of product as well.Yeah.And so what's your background?What's your history?Well, my background is pure yachting.I'm a simple sailor, Ben.Right.Okay, yeah.And I'm faking the whole fintech thing.Um, so yeah, I, it was literally 20 years ago, um, at this show that I first showed up in Antigua.Oh, no way.Um, I'd just done my first Atlantic crossing on a 76-foot sailing yacht.Cool.Um, and I was working onboard yachts for 15 years.And did you do the whole, like, crew house thing, bit of day work, and then get onboard and what happened?Well, luckily I showed up here on the yacht, so I didn't do the crew house here.Oh, you came perfect.Yeah, that was okay.You were right, right.Yeah.Yeah, yeah.Um, and did a lot of time in the Caribbean.It was a sailing boat, so we did- Yeah.Caribbean seasons up and down from- Yeah.sort of Grenada to the BVI.Did Med seasons.I've done a bit of time in New England.Yeah.You know, so been around the traps a, a bit like that, but- Okay, cool.good times.And w- w- why is that so helpful?So, so now you've been on boats, you've seen those stresses, the difficulties.Is it quite interesting now being kind of shoreside and being like, "Okay, well here's some fintech to help you out and-" Yeah, absolutely.to kind of get you, or you understand what goes on?Really, really it is.I mean, I, and I guess I can speak to the crew on a different level maybe.Yeah.Um, connect with them in a different way.Yeah.Um, you know, the industry is just entirely relationship driven, uh, you know, and that's, that's where I sort of come in, I guess.I, I've walked the walk.Yeah.Um, so yeah.It's, it's great to be able to come back and connect with crew.I've also, after being off the boats, I went into sales, brokerage, and also charter sales, retail charter.Yeah, yeah.So I've seen the industry from that side as well, and I get to bring all of that to the party now with, with SendTrip.Yeah.Right, okay.And you, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but you kind of like head the US side?Yeah.Yeah, there's- And so you say there's, there's Amsterdam headquarters, there's London, and then, um- Yeah.and then you have Florida?Fort Lauderdale?Yeah, I'm based in Fort Lauderdale.Right, okay, yeah, yeah.Correct, yeah.So I mean, that's a pretty good place to be based for the yachting industry.Yeah.Um, and we also have a relationship manager based in the States, so any problems that come up, any onboarding issues, this sort of thing, we've got Cindy here as well, and she's here at the show too.Yeah.Um, and so it, it's a great team.I mean, that was what sort of drew me into the company initially, was the people.Yeah.Um, and I think that's what makes it work in the industry.And nobody ever leaves yachting.You're not allowed to leave.Yeah, you're in for life.There's no Hotel California here.Yeah.Yeah.And so with, with the US side of things, does it, does it work differently to the Mediterranean?H- yeah, what are the differences?There are some different functions, but we now have a global platform, so things- Okay.are being aligned more and more.There's always compliance issues to work around, depending on which, um, which state the company is in or which country the company is in.Yeah.Um, but you know, that's something that we have the, the people there to work out.So luckily, I get to stay a simple yachty in that sense.Okay.You know, just ask the questions, get the answers.Okay, super.And from, just from the reality of, of a vessel- Yeah.it means they can partner with SendTrip, and if they're spending a couple months in the Med- Oh, absolutely.rest of the month in the Caribbean, things like, it's just one continuous use of just always use SendTrip.Correct.No need to change or flip over.No, absolutely.Currents and compilations, all, all kind of sorted.I mean, that's part of just making it easy and streamlined for them.It, it's that goal.Yeah.Yeah.So wherever the vessel happens to be, we're there.Yeah.Yeah.Okay.And what are you guys kind of working towards?What, what's the progression that we can look out for over the next couple years?I mean, I think there's always growth.I mean, in the short time I've been with the company, and it's literally a few months at this stage that- Yeah, yeah, yeah.I've been here, so total newbie.Yeah, yeah.But I've already seen so much change and progression in the company, so I think you'll see things, you know, with us becoming our own card issuers and streamlining things.Yeah.In the time that I've been there, we've gone to a really good range of virtual cards, swapped over to Visa, which allows crew to have Google Pay, Apple Pay.Yeah, I've heard good words on that.Hopefully they won't lose their cards quite so often, maybe.Good, good to hear 'cause there's still got the phone.Things like that makes their life easy.And also a bit more security- Yeah.as well.Um, so you know, even in the short time I've been here, the change with the company isThere's always- Yeah.change in this area.Yeah.I actually saw last night the, um, the s- speaker to crew, and, uh, I think it was a central agent that was, that was speaking to you guys, and they were like, "Oh right, you're, you're the guys who can put it on the phones now."Yeah.They were like, "Yes."Yeah, yeah.That's us.They were like, "Crew are going to love this."Yeah.Like they were like- And it's a really simple app to use.If you've used anything- Yeah.like Wise or Revolut, which most crew have something like that- Yeah.no more complicated than that.It's just, it's just the company version for, for the- If I can do it, they can do it.Yes.Right, okay.Yeah, and then it's basically just like a, like aves- a vessel version.So this isn't- Yeah.for their personal expenses, it's just- Exactly.for vessel expenditure, the operations- Yeah.all that good stuff.And they could have a number of cards, whether it be for general monthly expenses on the yacht or charter A, B, or C.Yeah.So we can load up different cards with different amounts depending on what they're shopping for at the time.They manage that.Okay, superb.Thank you for coming on the podcast, Lou.Cheers.Thanks for having us.Yeah, you.Everybody, if you enjoy content like this, make sure you're following here to see plenty more of it.All being well, we'll see you again next time.Bye for now.