JustiFi

After being on the road and meeting in person with a lot of great leaders and operators over the past few weeks, one pattern became crystal clear: growth isn't symmetrical. (?? Brian Bell) These conversations with customers and operators revealed that many are rethinking their organizational structure and reporting lines to accommodate the unique opportunities and challenges of transformation. In my own experience, the “X-Team” ( ?? Paul Loeffler and Avram Doomchin) structure has proven incredibly effective for managing complex initiatives like payments migration. ?? I've seen firsthand how breaking down departmental boundaries creates the momentum needed to drive adoption. How? In short, it's led to fewer hand-off’s and higher customer satisfaction. If you're facing a similar challenge, a version of this team structure is definitely worth exploring. Team members report directly to the Executive Sponsor with dotted lines back to their functional departments—not the reverse. Executive Sponsor ? Drives overall project accountability and removes roadblocks ? Aligns strategy with company vision and objectives ? Refines value messaging and pricing based on market feedback Product & Engineering Core ? Product Manager owns roadmap, product marketing, and prioritizes features for maximum impact ? Engineers develop integration points and iterate on customer feedback quickly Revenue (Ops) ? Sales Specialist(s) who can articulate technical value proposition ? Customer Success Member to design structured onboarding and monitor adoption ? Support Team Member for troubleshooting and knowledge base development ? Finance Team Member to track ROI, operations, and ensure compliance Growth often requires different thinking that touches every part of your customer experience. When teams are aligned around a narrow objective rather than departmental goals, adoption accelerates and revenue follows. Have you experimented with a similar “X-Team” approach? Would love to hear what’s worked (or hasn’t) in your experience.

Just me or has the exec team overhyped the promise of a "frictionless onboarding" as the key narrative to your embedded finance strategy? Your customers and customer facing teams see right through that. Seamless and frictionless have been oversold to them at this point. I've found that your best customers (80/20 rule) aren't afraid of a little effort – as long as the payoff is real. Whether it's switching platforms, adding a new feature, or diving into embedded fintech, there's always a process. Here’s the 5 key trends that our partners and payment operations teams identified in a recent survey ?? ?? Proactively designing identity flows: Control the narrative from the start. ?? Setting crystal-clear expectations: No surprises & common goals = happy customers. ?? Embedding help and guidance: Tools like WalkMe reduce confusion, not just friction ?? Eliminating unnecessary handoffs: Fewer, better, faster. Solving problems before they blow up: Is this widespread enough in your ICP to justify the build, is it a one-off, or not your ICP? The promise of "frictionless" is tempting, no doubt. But for SMBs (and the teams supporting them), the how really matters. Huge thanks to our partners and team for the ongoing feedback – your insights are invaluable as we build solutions that increase trust, both internally and with your customers.

SaaS+ and usage-based companies serving SMBs discovery question: How are you transforming your Customer Success organization from being perceived as a cost center to a strategic driver of growth? In about 80% of my conversations, there's pain and internal friction around how Customer Success should be involved in expansion and revenue generation. It often stems from a belief that it's 'not their job' or that it encroaches on Sales' territory. I believe we’re undervaluing CS’s potential to drive growth… here’s why: ?? Deepening Customer Trust: CS maintains the highest touchpoint frequency, fostering stronger relationships. ?? Accelerating Insights and Innovation: High engagement frequency leads to rapid learning and iterative improvements. ?? Contextual Upselling: CS can recommend new tools organically and programmatically during interactions, eliminating delays and unnecessary handoffs to sales. It's time to move beyond just sales and marketing alignment. Truly integrating CS into the growth equation is critical, especially for SaaS+ companies serving SMBs. Usage growth isn't just about selling add-ons; it's about creating value through deep customer alignment, which is crucial for SMBs relying on all-in-one SaaS solutions. What strategies are your teams using to maximize customer value and drive growth?

When it comes to multi-fintech products, I’ve seen where things often go wrong in customer success. The challenge isn’t just in managing multiple products—it’s in the lack of alignment across teams. Without full buy-in and collaboration, customer success can quickly become siloed, with teams working in separate directions. This leads to inconsistent experiences, missed opportunities, and frustrated customers. Building a multi-product strategy means treating every product with the same level of commitment and attention, ensuring that all teams are aligned toward a seamless and integrated experience. True activation is about creating fintech experiences that feel seamless, valuable, and indispensable. It’s a process: → Designing financial products that solve real customer pain points → Guiding users toward their first interaction in a frictionless way → Driving repeat usage until it becomes a habit When fintech products are truly activated, they don’t just drive one-time transactions—they drive loyalty, repeat engagement, and long-term revenue growth. That’s the difference between platforms that dabble in fintech and those that win with it.

Loving the discussion happening on this post already—let’s keep it going! If you’re leading payments or fintech at your company, how has your fintech roadmap evolved over the past few years? What challenges have you hit, and where have you seen the most growth? Drop your insights in the comments! ??

While we're all stuck in competitor analysis meetings, the real customer insights are sitting in dentist offices, construction sites, and performance centers. Just ask Joe Tolzmann about his rocket ship from RocketPlan Technologies Inc. A platform leader told me recently that they were struggling to get customers to adopt their payment solution. They kept comparing themselves to competitors but couldn’t figure out what they were missing. The answer wasn’t in their industry. It was in looking at how platforms in adjacent markets handled activation, trust, and product integration. Turns out, many fintech challenges aren’t industry-specific—SMBs everywhere face the same cash flow, invoicing, and payment issues. The companies winning with fintech aren’t just watching their direct competitors. They’re learning from other industries, adapting proven strategies, and applying them in ways their market hasn’t seen yet.

Stop teaching your sales team about rates. Start teaching them about your customer's money story. While your sales team masters basis points and processing fees, your prospects are lying awake worrying about cash flow survival and expansion plans. The hard truth is customers don't buy payment solutions – they buy better business outcomes. Most platforms think adding fintech is about payments. It’s not. If you don’t understand how your customers operate day-to-day, you’re just bolting on features and hoping they stick. The real opportunity? Embedding financial products where they actually solve problems—where they make workflows smoother, increase cash flow, and create real efficiency for the people using them. That means knowing exactly what it’s like to sit at the front desk, manage invoicing, chase down payments, or juggle customer transactions. The platforms that take the time to train against real use cases don’t just sell fintech—they become an essential part of how their customers run their business. Want to build fintech that actually gets adopted? Stop thinking about transactions and start thinking about how work gets done.

Congratulations to our CEO, Joe Keeley, for being named to the Twin Cities BusinessTCB 100 list for 2025! Joe truly embodies our mission to accelerate potential—not just for our customers, but for every member of our team. By fostering a culture of collaboration and growth, Joe has made it clear: when we help each other thrive, we’re better equipped to help our customers unlock their fintech potential. Thank you, Joe, for leading by example and inspiring us every day! https://bit.ly/4f7hxQg #TCB100 #FintechLeadership

Honored to serve as a national judge for this amazing program. Thank you Andrew (AJ) Jordan, Dominic Iannazzo, Wendy Fox and all the EY Team!

Lots of solutions can get you integrated with payments fast. But if you want to be world-class -- integration is just the beginning. "Payments are the secret weapon of the best vertical software companies, like Shopify and Toast. It’s not uncommon to see 2-5x increases in revenue, retention, and other metrics once a platform successfully embeds payments. It’s now easier than ever to?start?with payments, thanks to companies like Stripe. But it’s more difficult than ever to?succeed?with payments. I call this the “embedded payments iceberg”. Many companies think that a few lines of code and hours of work will yield a whole new monetization model. However, integrating payments is just the tip of the iceberg, and real success. requires more than product and engineering work." -Matt Brown