Payment Pulse – Ep. 23

Introduction: Choosing a payments partner isn’t plug-and-play. Here’s what our experience operating 20 vertical SaaS companies taught us about scaling payments successfully.

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Episode Transcript

Shannon: Welcome to Payment Pulse. Today we’re talking about something that does not get nearly enough attention until it’s already painful, and that’s choosing a payments partner.

Michelle: Ah yes, payments. The thing everyone thinks is plug and play until it is very much not.

Shannon: Exactly. Embedded payments are sold as this easy revenue unlock. And don’t get me wrong, they can be, but only if you choose the right partner.

Michelle: If you choose the wrong partner…

Shannon: Well, you get friction, surprise fees, angry merchants, support tickets galore. And then there’s are a lot of, “How did we not see this coming?”

Michelle: So today we’re breaking down the five, well, technically, six things vertical SaaS providers actually need to evaluate when choosing a payments partner, not just getting live, but thriving after go-live.

Shannon: So let’s level set first. Embedded payments aren’t a nice to have anymore.

Michelle: That’s right. They’re a strategic growth lever,

Shannon: That’s because they impact revenue retention, product stickiness, and merchant trust. Basically everything SaaS platforms care about.

Michelle: And the right partner doesn’t just process transactions. They help you monetize payments, retain merchants, reduce operational risk, and actually make smarter product decisions.

Shannon: But all of that depends on who you partner with.

Michelle: So let’s start with integration, because most ISVs think the finish line is “We’re live!”

Shannon: But spoiler alert, it’s not.

Michelle: The real problems usually show up after launch, when real merchants start doing real world things.

Shannon: Like weird transaction flows, or multi-device setups, or the first chargeback.

Michelle: Or that fun moment when finance asks, “Why doesn’t this settlement match our report?”

Shannon: And this is why the new standard is a production-like end-to-end testing environment and not just a basic sandbox.

Michelle: A real integration environment lets you test everything exactly how it happens in production, onboarding, approvals, declines, disputes, reporting- all of it.

Shannon: And it can be done safely because there’s no live money and no real merchants panicking.

Michelle: It also means that your product, engineering, finance, and support teams are all working from the same reality.

Shannon: So here’s the key takeaway. If a payments partner only offers a basic sandbox, they’re behind the curve. Full end-to-end testing isn’t a nice to have anymore. It’s the baseline.

Michelle: Okay, now let’s talk support, because this is where a lot of partnerships quietly fall apart.

Shannon: Oh yes. So ISVs here we have support and assume that it means everyone is covered,

Michelle: But what it often means is support for the ISV, but not their merchants.

Shannon: …Which turns you into first line payment support. So, congratulations. You’re now researching declines at 9:00 PM.

Michelle: A real partner provides dedicated support for both the platform and the merchants.

Shannon: So that includes SLAs, escalation paths, and this one matters proactive guidance.

Michelle: Like helping during onboarding feature launches or operational changes before something breaks.

Shannon: That’s right. So support isn’t just a cost center, it’s a growth lever.

Michelle: When support is good, adoption is faster, churn is lower, and your team isn’t drowning in tickets.

Shannon: So now let’s talk about pricing- the thing that merchants always ask about first…

Michelle: …And complain about first if it’s confusing.

Shannon: So SaaS providers often underestimate how much pricing clarity impacts adoption.

Michelle: If merchants don’t understand the fees or they feel surprised by them, they hesitate, or worse- they churn.

Shannon: The right payments partner offers transparent, predictable pricing for both the platform and the merchant.

Michelle: Clear statements, clear revenue share models. No mystery math.

Shannon: Mm-hmm. And flexibility. That’s because different ISVs monetize payments differently.

Michelle: So the key takeaway here is that pricing transparency builds trust, speeds adoption, and lets ISVs forecast revenue without crossing their fingers. Now this one is big, especially as platforms scale.

Shannon: If you’re managing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of merchants, you cannot operate blind.

Michelle: Without real dashboards and reporting APIs, everything becomes manual.

Shannon: That’s right. So spreadsheets, reconciliations, and more.

Michelle: A strong partner provides real time visibility into transactions, settlements, declines, disputes, and revenue at the portfolio level.

Shannon: So that means faster decision making, better forecasting, and quicker issue detection.

Michelle: And honestly, less stress.

Shannon: That’s right. That’s right. Um, so the key takeaway is that portfolio visibility isn’t optional anymore. It’s how ISVs manage risk and drive growth at scale.

Michelle: Okay. Now this is where the difference between a vendor and a partner really shows.

Shannon: A payments partner should care about where your business is going and not just where it is today.

Michelle: So that means sharing roadmaps, listening to vertical specific needs, and actually innovating alongside you

Shannon: It also means things like go to market support, co-marketing, co-selling, and tools that actually help you drive adoption.

Michelle: Because payments don’t sell themselves, especially to hesitant merchants.

Shannon: Value added services matter here too. Things like flexible funding, embedded finance, working capital, and things that actually move the needle.

Michelle: The key takeaway here is that when roadmaps and go to market are aligned, payments stop being a back office utility and start becoming a revenue engine.

Shannon: Yeah, so ISVs should evaluate payments partners across three dimensions.

Michelle: We have integrate, monetize, and grow.

Shannon: Yeah. So with integration, that gets you live with things like modern APIs, hardware support, and real testing environments.

Michelle: Monetization unlocks recurring revenue through flexible pricing and transaction management.

Shannon: And growth comes from things like support, visibility and strategic guidance over time.

Michelle: Integration is just the starting line, not the finish line. So before we wrap up, I do wanna address something that people ask us a lot. How do we actually know all of this?

Shannon: Right? Because this isn’t theory for us. We didn’t just study this from the outside.

Michelle: We’ve actually lived it. So between our teams, we own and operate more than 20 vertical SaaS platforms.

Shannon: Which means we’ve been the ISV making these decisions. We’ve integrated payments, launched them, supported merchants, dealt with disputes, pricing questions, reporting gaps, all of it.

Michelle: We felt the pain of choosing the wrong approach and the relief of getting it right.

Shannon: And that perspective matters because when you’re operating real platforms with real customers, payments stop being abstract.

Michelle: They show up in churn metrics, support tickets, cash flow, timing, and roadmap trade-offs.

Shannon: So everything we’ve talked about today, the testing environments, the support models, pricing, clarity, visibility- that comes directly from operating at scale.

Michelle: It’s what we wish we had known earlier and what we believe every vertical SaaS provider deserves from a payments partner.

Shannon: Because when payments are done right, they don’t just work in the background. They actively support how your platform grows.

Michelle: And when they’re done wrong, you feel it everywhere.

Shannon: So if you’re evaluating payments partners or even rethinking the one you have, this is the lens to use.

Michelle: You can find more resources and deeper dives on our blog at xplorpay.com. That’s X-P-L-O-R pay.com.

Shannon: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time on Payment Pulse.