Afshin Yazdian, CEO of Kurv | Episode 459
In this episode, Afshin Yazdian, CEO of Kurv, discusses how his company transformed a legacy payments business into a streamlined, SMB‑focused platform by eliminating friction, offering transparent pricing, and prioritizing human‑centered service. He shares his unconventional journey from law to fintech leadership, detailing how Kurv rebuilt operations, unified its leadership team, and grew activations tenfold in 18 months. The conversation also covers Kurv’s use of AI and machine learning to combat fraud and synthetic identities while maintaining high approval rates, and the importance of real‑time, omnichannel payments for cash‑flow efficiency. Finally, Afshin emphasizes culture as a strategic asset, arguing that clear communication and employee pride create a competitive moat in a commoditized market.
THE SIGNAL: Payments as the Small Business OS with US Bank's Shruti Patel | Episode 456
In this episode, Shruti Patel, U.S. Bank's Chief Product Officer for Business Banking, discusses how small businesses are navigating optimism and pressure from inflation and supply‑chain issues, emphasizing the need for working capital and lower operating costs. She outlines U.S....
Peter Dougherty, President of Spreedly | Episode 454
In this episode, Peter Dougherty, President of Spreedly, explains how an open payments platform enables global brands to launch faster, reduce vendor risk, and improve authorization rates by providing a unified layer for tokenization, fraud, KYC, and multi‑processor connectivity. He...
THE SIGNAL: SaaS Is Dead, Long Live SaaS + Payments | Episode 453
In this episode, Peter Galvin and Luis Peña explain how the SaaS landscape is shifting from horizontal subscription tools to vertical commerce platforms that embed payments directly into the user workflow. They detail how integrated, tokenized payment flows enable new...