Page 19 - GS20802

CompanyProfile
Building a new sales standard
hen real estate professionals Kavan
Thanasith and Travis Chrisman faced the
2008 market crash, they began looking for
W alternative career options. Thanasith was
first to move into payment processing as an agent for
an ISO under First Data Corp. Chrisman followed after
Thanasith moved to his next ISO.
In 2013, the two partnered, opening Carlsbad-based
Coastal Pay, with Thanasith becoming chief executive
officer and Chrisman serving as president. "I realized I
had to stop building other people's companies," Thanasith
said. "We wanted to create a new culture and wanted to
do it right."
Higher ambitions
According to Thanasith, the industry was "full of rotten
apples that messed up the ecosystem." He and Chrisman
wanted to open a different kind of ISO. "We wanted to
keep employees happy and sell ethically," he said.
Initially operating as a First Data ISO, the pair grew
Coastal Pay by 300 percent in the first 12 months and 600
percent the following year, Thanasith noted. "We grew
to a 20,000 square foot office, 150 employees, a couple
hundred traveling sales professionals, and a call center
making appointments for them," he said, adding that
although the organization was working as planned, it was
"a very expensive infrastructure to maintain — especially
in California — so we decided to make a shift."
The new strategy
Two years ago, Thanasith and Chrisman modified Coastal
Pay's main business model, a move that significantly
impacted existing operations. "It was definitely an
unraveling, because our company is huge on culture,"
Thanasith said. "We're all about growth and helping each
other, and no one wanted to leave the family culture, so
we found ways to repurpose, if possible."
As part of that, they created a program for sub-ISOs and
independent agents, believing that their differentiator
was a keen understanding of the difficulties the feet
on the street face, such as registration and building
infrastructure like a CRM system, which typically costs
ISOs between $5,000 to $10,000 per month.
"It's what keeps these guys from growing, so we wanted
to provide them with the tools they need to thrive,"
Thanasith said. "We provide them everything from
coaching, to training, to access to a centralized system,
so they can have that solid structure to build on and a
platform that will help them make money without a lot of
investment."
ISO/MLS contact:
Vanessa Cattaneo
Vice President of Sales
vanessa.cattaneo@coastalpay.com
408-310-2766
They first boarded a sub-ISO from Nepal as a pilot
program and helped that ISO set up and expand, using
the high-touch, hands-on support approach they'd used
for building their business. "We like to help the partners
grow, because if we help everyone else grow, it helps us
too," Thanasith noted.
According to Thanasith, their sub-ISO model flourished
because Coastal Pay had pre-existing relationships with
banks and processors and offered the sales force a higher
revenue share than other parent ISOs. "They [sub-ISOs]
have access to all of our processor relationships with those
buy rates," he said. "They can bring in whatever deal they
want and we pretty much have a bank for it. It's plug and
play, and then we work to nurture them from there."
Going forward
Thanasith indicated Coastal Pay now has 140 sub-ISOs
submitting business now and a hope to grow that pool by
10 more each week. "We want to continue strengthening
our infrastructure for our partners and agents," he said.
Thanasith also heralded Coastal Pay's efforts on the CBD
front. "Everybody started asking us about CBD, and one
of our biggest milestones was being at the forefront of that
industry," he stated. "Coastal Pay has excellent banking
relationships for CBD, so we'll be first in line when new
banks open up for payments."
In addition, to add value to its sales offerings, Coastal
Pay is collaborating with Coastal Labs, a sister CBD
company founded by Thanasith and Chrisman in 2018,
which Green Hygienics Holdings signed an agreement
to acquire in 2019. "Our two operations are now helping
each other," Thanasith noted.
19