Author: Marielle Mekkaoui

Introducing Payabli’s Elevated Website & Brand Refresh: Empowering the Entrepreneurial Economy

Posted on January 8, 2025 by - Blog, Company News, Industry Insights

At Payabli, we’ve always been about more than payments. From day one, our mission has been clear: empowering the entrepreneurial economy by enabling software platforms to embed and monetize payments seamlessly. This vision has guided our every move, and today, it takes center stage as we unveil Payabli’s elevated website and brand refresh.

Our new look and feel aren’t just aesthetic updates; they’re a reflection of our growth, our commitment to innovation, and our unwavering dedication to helping software platforms succeed. Here’s why this moment matters—and how it ties into our “why” statement.

A Brand Built for the Future

As the embedded payments landscape continues to evolve, we recognized the need for a brand that mirrors the bold, forward-thinking spirit of the software platforms we serve. Our refreshed brand features:

  • Modern, Streamlined Design: A clean and contemporary aesthetic that speaks to simplicity and sophistication—qualities we aim to bring to every payment experience.
  • Vibrant Colors and Dynamic Imagery: A palette and visual identity that reflect energy, growth, and possibility—the essence of entrepreneurship.
  • Clear and Confident Messaging: Language that resonates with our audience, emphasizing our role as a trusted partner in their journey to monetize payments.

This refresh is more than a visual change; it’s a declaration of who we are and where we’re headed.

Connecting to Our Why

Empowering the entrepreneurial economy isn’t just a tagline; it’s the driving force behind everything we do. Our brand refresh reinforces this mission in several key ways:

  • Clarity in Communication: Our new visual and verbal identity ensures that our message—helping software platforms embed and monetize payments—is unmistakable. We’re here to simplify the complexities in embedded payments and empower our partners to thrive.
  • Focus on Innovation: The updated look reflects the cutting-edge solutions we bring to the table, from our unified API stack to no-code payment tools that make integrating payments effortless.
  • Celebrating Entrepreneurship: Our vibrant brand embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of our customers, who are revolutionizing their industries through software innovation. It also reflects the makeup of our own team—entrepreneurs at heart who understand the challenges and opportunities of building something transformative. This shared entrepreneurial mindset fuels our commitment to innovation and partnership.

Designed for Our Partners

This refresh is not about us; it’s about you—our partners. Whether you’re a SaaS leader, developer, or executive, we’ve reimagined our brand to better serve your needs and align with your vision. Our goal is to be the payments partner you can rely on, helping you unlock new revenue streams and deliver exceptional user experiences.

What’s Next?

Our elevated brand marks the beginning of an exciting chapter. From enhanced resources to innovative product launches, we’re doubling down on our commitment to making payments work for you. The entrepreneurial economy is thriving, and we’re proud to be at the forefront, empowering software platforms to seize opportunities and drive growth.

Join Us on This Journey

Payabli’s refreshed brand is a celebration of progress and potential. It’s a reflection of our mission and a promise to continue delivering value for our partners. As we move forward, we invite you to explore our new look and feel, engage with our tools, and envision how Payabli can help you achieve your goals.

Explore our updated brand and learn more about our solutions at Payabli.com

How ServiceTitan Drove Unprecedented Customer Adoption and Growth with Embedded Payments

Posted on January 6, 2025 by - Blog, Industry Insights

Author: Ershad Jamil former Chief Growth Officer of ServiceTitan

From the initial wave of businesses collecting payments through e-commerce sites to the current approach to embed payments into software platforms, if you’re leading a Vertical Software as a Service business (VSaaS), there’s no doubt you’ve started to think about the role payments play across your entire business lifecycle.  In fact, I was in the same shoes in 2015 when I began exploring payments for ServiceTitan.

In 2015, ServiceTitan, an all in-one-platform for home contractors, referred their customers seeking payments to a large payments processor.  This integration required customers  to onboard through the third party payment processor – leaving a disjointed customer experience in which the customer would bounce from the ServiceTitan app to the payment provider.

In addition, the ServiceTitan customer teams were focused on leading the software implementation, not the payment integration.  This led to onboarding bottlenecks for customers using the payment integration. Most of the customers did not have team members dedicated to payments and they struggled to understand why certain documentation, especially sensitive financial statements from contractors, was necessary.  This back and forth could lead to 2-3 month gaps in the onboarding – with little visibility between ServiceTitan and the payments provider.

While only 10-20% of ServiceTitan customers were using the payments integration, I believed that more customers would leverage payments—especially if the payments experience looked a little different. When surveying customers about their experience with the integration, they shared frustrations with the sales and onboarding process. Additionally, the approach to sales, which emphasized “match or beat your pricing,” often resulted in lower take rates for ServiceTitan, even though the product was delivering significant value that exceeded the quoted pricing as a VSaaS business, I knew it was critical to streamline business operations for our customers—and addressing the friction in our payments integration strategy was a key opportunity. By exploring different levers in payments—such as fully embedding payments into our platform and structuring pricing to align better with customer needs—embedded payments could become just as critical to our software and as much of a revenue driver as other core platform features. Allowing home service contractors to take payments directly through a web or mobile app would deliver a significant value add.

In review of the business case with ServiceTitan’s co-founders, head of finance, head of operations and developers, three primary benefits for why to embed payments came to the forefront:

  1. Improved customer experience – Our customers, home and commercial contractors, would be able to accept their customers payments via a web or mobile app, reconcile invoices & payments, view data/analytics via reporting, and more – allowing payments to be a fully integrated experience through the ServiceTitan platform. Not only would the  ‘all in one solution’ provide a better experience for the customer, but also a great opportunity to reduce onboarding time and friction as well as improve retention for our product.
  2. Simplified end customer experience – We understood that if the end customer (a homeowner, for example) experiences a great payment experience (i.e., tapping your phone via Apple Pay, taking a picture of a check via a mobile phone, etc.), it reflects well on the business (contractor) and in the end, reflects well on the software that business is using. Bringing delight throughout the entire process would increase utilization and satisfaction.
  3. Revenue expansion – Taking on more of the work to sell, onboard and support customers via our own integration with a payments partner, we could take a larger revenue share and offer flexible pricing structures that meet customers’ business models.

By 2017, we launched ServiceTitan Payments and it provided a meaningful impact to the company from a revenue and retention perspective.  Within three years, the vast majority of ServiceTitan customers were using the embedded payments offering.

It should be no surprise that other major VSaaS platforms like Mindbody and Toast have also launched embedded payments. There are also so many features that a VSaaS business could benefit from in addition to embedded payments like storing credit cards on file for recurring billing, ability to process a refund in the app, eliminating manual reconciliation, to help their customers streamline their operations.  To increase product stickiness and long term growth, embedded payments is a great starting point.

With support from Payabli I’m going to write a series of articles to help other vSaaS operators to think strategically to optimize their Payments business and avoid many of the pitfalls I encountered along my journey in building ServiceTitan Payments. Stay tuned for more content on driving payments adoption, maximizing payments margin potential, bundling additional fintech products and more.

View the full conversation with Joseph Elias Phillips and I below 👇

Builder Prime’s Transformation with Payabli – Powering Seamless Payments for the Home Improvement Industry

Posted on September 30, 2024 by - Blog, Case Studies, Industry Insights

Revolutionizing Home Improvement: Builder Prime’s Vision

Founded in 2016 by Jonathan Weinberg, Builder Prime is bringing efficiency to specialty and replacement contractors and offering an all-in-one business management solution. This powerful platform integrates CRM, estimating, production management, invoicing, payments, and more. Oftentimes specialty and replacement contractors faced significant challenges in managing deposit payments and final payments at job completion. By offering streamlined, automated solutions, Builder Prime enables businesses to operate more efficiently, win more jobs, and grow, while delivering exceptional customer experiences from lead to referral.

Builder Prime’s journey began with Weinberg’s own home renovation experience in 2007. With a background in software and financial services, he identified inefficiencies in the contractor industry and decided to develop a solution that would simplify the complexities of home improvement business operations. Today, Builder Prime serves a wide range of contractors, including specialty and replacement contractors, and is trusted by hundreds of home improvement businesses.

The Challenge: From Delayed Payments and Site Revisits to an All-in-One Solution

From the early days of Builder Prime, payments were top of mind for Weinberg and his team. As they streamlined the sales process, including contracts and e-signatures, they realized a major inefficiency in collecting payments. Customers relied heavily on manual, paper-based invoicing and payment methods such as paper checks or in-person credit card swipes. This not only delayed payments but also required contractors to physically revisit customer homes to collect deposits, adding time and travel costs.

In particular, specialty and replacement contractors faced significant challenges in managing deposit payments and final payments at job completion. The lack of integration between payments and the rest of Builder Prime’s automated workflow created friction in an otherwise efficient system, impacting both contractor operations and customer satisfaction.

Why Payabli?: The Game-Changer for Embedded Payments

Builder Prime initially partnered with a popular payment solution for software startups. However, they quickly encountered limitations with the provider’s basic package, particularly around pricing flexibility, risk management, and customer support. Additionally, their fee structures led to reconciliation issues for Builder Prime’s customers, as fees were deducted without transparency, making it difficult for customers to reconcile payments accurately.

Builder Prime needed a new payment solution—one that would provide visibility into fees, offer more robust support, and allow them to grow without taking on undue risk. After evaluating their options, they chose Payabli for its significant domain expertise in the field services vertical, trusted advisory, technical flexibility, and scalable economics offering that grows alongside Builder Prime.

Payabli not only offered a seamless integration process but also provided the level of trust and transparency Builder Prime needed. Builder Prime was able to customize pricing and fees, gaining greater control over their payments strategy and revenue. With a shared background in SaaS, Payabli’s team was able to deliver tailored solutions, including revenue-sharing opportunities and dedicated support and expert payment guidance around PCI compliance and chargebacks. Builder Prime’s decision to partner with Payabli was driven by the people behind the platform and the potential for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Flexibility drives 1000% growth

With the transparency and control Payabli provides, Builder Prime can now offer flexible pricing models from Flat Rate, Interchange Plus and Pass-through models that allow contractors to compliantly pass credit card fees onto customers or offer cost-effective ACH options. This flexibility has become a compelling selling point for Builder Prime’s customers.

Since implementing Payabli in 2021, Builder Prime has seen impressive growth, with payment volume increasing by 1000%. The payment integration has not only enhanced customer retention but has also become an integral feature that drives the overall user experience. Today, nearly half of Builder Prime’s users rely on the payment system, and the percentage continues to grow.

From the beginning, Payabli’s customer support and onboarding experience stood out. The integration process was fast, taking only a few weeks, and Payabli’s team provided real-time support, even setting up a dedicated Slack channel for quick access to engineers for technical questions. Payabli’s product continues to evolve and Builder Prime continues to enhance their payments offering as Payabli adds new functionality and products.

Payabli has helped Builder Prime deliver a superior customer experience by simplifying the payment process.

Additionally, Payabli has become a meaningful part of Builder Prime’s Business Model, helping boost business growth and enabling the company to confidently offer a solution that meets the needs of their industry.

Looking Ahead: Continued Innovation for Builder Prime Payments

Looking to the future, Builder Prime and Payabli’s partnership will continue to evolve. With plans to implement additional features such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and mobile check capture, Builder Prime aims to expand their payment capabilities further. Moreover, Payabli’s sophisticated payables solution will allow contractors not only to accept payments from customers but also to manage vendor and subcontractor payments—closing the loop on a fully integrated financial system.

Payabli has proven to be more than just a payments provider for Builder Prime—it’s a trusted partner driving innovation, growth, and efficiency. Together, they’ve transformed Builder Prime’s offering, delivering a seamless, integrated payment experience that meets the unique needs of home improvement contractors.

This partnership isn’t just about payments—it’s about creating lasting value for contractors, customers, and the home improvement industry as a whole. And with Payabli, Builder Prime is leading the charge.