Humans of Helix: Kristi Hale

Meet Kristi Hale

Strategic Business Developer

Kristi Hale manages Helix’s Visa and Visa DPS strategic partnership. Visa DPS is the transaction processor that Helix uses for all its clients. Credit Karma, Gusto, Betterment, and more use Visa DPS every day to provide instant debit card spend capabilities to their users. It’s a pretty important part of Helix’s technology stack, “the brand behind our brand!” As a Strategic Business Developer, Kristi leads discussions regarding operations, strategy, and business development, with Visa brand and DPS. She drives efficiencies and determines how we’re going to go to market together to deliver more value, increase revenue, and further strengthen our mutually beneficial partnership.

But while Kristi has only been with Helix for less than a year, she’s spent her entire career in payments and about 10 years working for CPI Card Group, where she also managed strategic partnerships with Visa and even Q2. After leaving CPI Card Group, Kristi knew she wanted to work with either Visa or Q2, and her goals came to life when she joined Helix.

It's her passion to help change the landscape of the payments industry, and with Helix, that passion is becoming a reality. Making payments accessible to everyone will go a long way toward bringing the underbanked into the financial system. In fact, part of Helix’s mission is to democratize financial services, and it’s that along with the talented team and culture that attracted Kristi to the company.

“It’s software development with a purpose,” she says.

Every day, Kristi strives to have a positive impact on people’s lives, and the Helix team truly inspires her to put in the hard work necessary, to personalize the financial system for individual users, not just offer broad categories of services. The depth of her experience has been beneficial to both her personal mission to help others, and the Helix mission, as she’s been able to join a relatively young business unit and identify opportunities for quick-yet-substantial wins.

One of her greatest challenges while working for Helix has been to get up to speed on the technology capabilities and solutions the company offers. But thankfully, Helix’s diversified team offers a wealth of knowledge she has been able to leverage and become even more effective very quickly. As a passionate team member, she thrives on knowing her work is going to be worthwhile and have a positive impact on people’s lives. Her close work with the many subject matter experts within Helix has fostered her passion.

But while she sometimes functions as a hard-charging strategist and salesperson, relationship management is also a key function of her role, and she leans on her natural drive to nurture and make sure everyone’s taken care of to find success.

“I’m kind of like the mother goose wanting to make sure that everybody’s okay.”

Many of her values, tendencies, and strengths came from her father, who Kristi regards as one of her greatest mentors. He taught her that nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy, and you must work hard for what you want. Accountability played a substantial role in her upbringing. Her father worked in the industry, so Kristi was able to talk shop with him, which was especially helpful when she was just starting her career in payments.

Kristi has high praise for Q2 and Helix’s culture. She urges anybody new to the company to get involved, engaged, and familiar with other employees. But while diving into the culture is a fast track to success at Q2, Kristi also recommends taking time when you’re first hired to really embrace the onboarding program and give yourself a good six months to learn your role. Don’t try to rush that aspect.

Outside of work, Kristi is passionate about music and spending time with her family. She volunteers at the food bank in Western North Carolina (she lives in Asheville) and enjoys the diverse culture of her locale. Every year, she goes to see her favorite band, Widespread Panic, at a destination show south of the border, and she plans to see more live music while traveling internationally next year.