Sustained value driving astonishing growth — Coastal Pay's winning way

In the beginning … When real estate professionals Kavan Thanasith and Travis Chrisman faced the 2008 market crash, each set out to find an alternative career path. They soon formed an independent sales organization (ISO) with Fiserv and Wells Fargo.

Powered by their shared entrepreneurial engines, the two had formed their own retail-focused ISO in San Diego by 2013. It quickly grew to include an inside sales team of close to 40 agents and seven managers who traveled the United States signing merchant accounts through mid-2017.

“That year, CBD hit the market,” Thanasith said. “It lit up consumer interest like a firestorm. We saw the opportunity and leaped.”

The CBD shift

The two went on to form the nation’s first CBD payment processor through the Texas-based Bank of Albany.

Starting with a team of 10, it grew to 100 in the first year and outgrew three offices in the first 18 months. The company made the list of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in San Diego, won the Chairman’s Council award, and even earned U.S. Congressional recognition.

But in 2022, their interests began to shift toward broader impact. “We were seeing the issues in payment processing and realizing the need for a value structure change,” Thanasith said.

Big ambitions, massive success

They recognized a common industry trap of overemphasis on cutting fees among independent software vendors (ISVs) in the payment processing space.

“Price is important,” Chrisman said, “but it can keep you from seeing the forest for the trees. We’ve built a model that goes beyond cost savings. It addresses merchants’ complex pain points and gives them greater revenue growth over the long haul.”

This new venture champions an unexpected tech stack that, while maybe carrying a higher upfront cost, delivers far greater value.

“We want to redefine the industry's understanding of value by prioritizing solutions that tackle the root of the problem, not just the symptoms,” Chrisman said.

Not your everyday gateway

This shift from a price to value focus has resulted in the ongoing development of Coastal Pay’s incredibly well-received suite of payment processing solutions.

The product grew by 300 percent in its first year and 600 percent in its second, showing no signs of slowing down.

Part of what’s fueling the success of Coastal Pay’s model is its focus on continuous improvement. “The modern payment space is constantly evolving,” Chrisman said. “That’s why the price-based approach doesn’t work; it’s too static. Our suite evolves alongside the industry… and it’s working.”

Coastal Pay’s Interchange Optimization and 3D Secure components are perfect examples. “Our Interchange Optimization tool is always analyzing transactions,” Chrisman said.

“It digs deep to maximize every swipe, finding every hidden opportunity to reduce costs, whether Level II or III data.”

The 3D Secure protection is equally active. “3D Secure circumvents chargeback liability and redirects it to the card issuer,” Chrisman said. “It protects our clients’ businesses and skyrockets customer loyalty—a major factor in their scalability.”

Coastal Pay’s other pro-growth features include a flexible surcharging tool that lets merchants set transparent custom fees to offset processing costs and a cash discounting function that reduces liability by rewarding cash-paying customers.

Ever the entrepreneurs, Thanasith and Chrisman haven’t stopped there. This year they launched the double-revenue-stream Signup Link product, which allows users to apply and onboard to the gateway in minutes.

Chrisman said, “On one side are our direct merchants, who can go to the site and use Signup Link to become Coastal Pay customers. On the other side is the white label piece.”

Chrisman said the white-label platform should be finalized within the next few months. “Once that’s done, the sky’s the limit.”

A wide-open, very bright future

Among their other Coastal Pay irons in the fire, the team just launched Coastal Cares, a non-profit donation link already seeing widespread use.

With that and a highly anticipated WooCommerce plugin and extension in development that’ll connect Coastal Pay to any WooCommerce shopping cart on the internet, Thanasith’s and Chrisman’s effort to shift the focus toward value is only gaining steam.

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