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There are so many things small businesses have to worry about and money going in and out should not be one of them. Some people say cash is king, while others swear by credit cards and analytics to stay on top of their business.  Still many ask  what is the right method to go with?  Ultimately the best solution may be different depending on your size, transactions, and who is handling the money.  We meet up with Brian and Mike from MerchantE on how to receive funds in the most efficient secure and transparent way possible. 

Video Transcription

Harry Brelsford  0:07 

Hey, 420MSP back with another logo in the community merchant II. How, how you doing Mike and Brian, how you doing today?

MerchantE  0:16 

Great. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for having us on. Appreciate it. Great, sir.

Harry Brelsford  0:21 

Hey, Brian. Hey, quickly, tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you come from before you ended up in the cannabis segment? Both of Yes.

Mike McKendrick  0:29 

Well, we’ve both been in the FinTech industry for a long time I’ve been with FiOS. worldpay before that global payments. US Bank. So long time the last 20 20-25 years and in finance and FinTech and Brian, you’ve got that similar similar career

Brian Higgins  0:49 

similar background three, three or four competitors before merging. He had been here for seven years. Absolutely love it. And definitely building something with the cannabis and CBD nation. What’s going on in the world?

Harry Brelsford  1:01 

Yeah, absolutely. Good timing. What’s your business model? What

Mike McKendrick  1:04 

is merchantE merchantE is one of the world’s largest acquirer. So you’ve acquires or have the direct relationship with the with a bank. And so you don’t have a middleman with you who have heard of ISOs, or referral partners, those guys, you know, do business and they’re very popular out there and do good business. But an acquirer actually has the relationship with the with a bank, which is really important to Cannatech space. Because, you know, we have that relationship, we control that relationship. So there’s not somebody getting in between us. And you know, that, that that bank on that end, there’s not a middle man in between us, which probably important in what you’re trying to do in the Cannatech space and roll that out. And a lot of the bumps and bruises in the in the fall starts that you’ve had of, of, you know, partners that are thinking they’re getting into this space, and then hey, we’re not able to do what we said we’re gonna do. So that’s we’re trying to, you know, do what we say we’re going to do and jump in to this cannatech space, you know, full on, we’ve got some, you know, really aggressive goals for 2021 2022. And we’re excited to jump in, you know, headfirst and support the cannatech space going forward. So

Brian Higgins  2:23 

excellent. I would add to that is a lot of the lot of our competitors out there worried about being shut off. And that’s definitely something we do not have to worry about. We have got a ton of support from our sponsor bank, as Mike alluded to, and presented so eloquently earlier, there’s a big difference between us and everybody else out there, and we are not looking to shut off. We are looking to grow this line of business cannot stress that enough. Very

Harry Brelsford  2:46 

Yeah. Yeah. And who are your customers? I’m just still tracking with you here.

Mike McKendrick  2:53 

We’ve got we’ve got a lot of different verticals. So merchantE plays in a lot of different different verticals, as far as you know, in Canada tech, and outside of Canada tech. So, uh, so, you know, you name it, we’re playing a lot of different verticals, we do, you know, billions of transactions every every year. So, you know, very, very large organization. But yet, we’re only about 300 employees. Were really a kind of a niche player and kind of a boutique acquire, you’ve heard of some of the big names out there acquires I don’t have to mention them I worked for for most of them in the past. But you know, there it’s hard to get an answer from a lot of those those guys with us, we have a direct impact relationship with the CEO so we can get quick answers. We can move. We’re very nimble. And so that’s why we’re a great fit for the cannatech space.

Harry Brelsford  3:46 

Yeah, and in the cannatech  space, so obviously the dispensary’s but the work with the processor manufacturers and the growers to scale the whole supply chain

Mike McKendrick  3:57 

right now it’s just a CBD and hemp right now as far as what our main focus is, you know, we can do pin debit pin debit in those other areas, but as far as credit card transactions, it’s mostly no CBD and hemp right now. So, you know, obviously, it’s, you know, we’ve got a lot of Federal Regulations, we’ve got a wait to get in and, you know, to get those approvals to jump in those other areas, so we can’t do those other areas in credit right now. But as far as CBD and him were all in on the credit transactions and can approve credit transactions,

Brian Higgins  4:36 

dispenser, definitely dispensaries are definitely going to be a core concentration for us next year, because none of our competitors are doing it right now, or I should say none of the other five true merchant acquires as Mike presented, but definitely are going to do and go after strong the dispensary side of it.

Harry Brelsford  4:54 

All right, and people can get more information. I’m assuming it’s merchante.com correct. Yep. All right. Well, gentlemen, thank you for, you know, we’re all better when we speak up and contribute to the community. You know, I’d like to say we’re all in this together. Thanks for your time.

MerchantE  5:10 

Thanks, very appreciate it. Thanks for letting us join you.