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Ben Abel Lastly, we found it important to be
BAMS responsive to the specific needs of
companies during this time. The way
1. There were several things which I think helped us successfully that many businesses dealt with their
navigate the perils of 2020. First off, several years ago, we customers had changed, and it was
transitioned to a heavily remote model, and by the start of 2020, I’d necessary to be responsive to that in the
estimate at least 70 to 80 percent of our team was already working value proposition we were driving our
from home (WFH). Because of this, when we decided to move most sales conversations with. This could
of the remaining team to WFH, the infrastructure and workflows have been contactless payment options
were already in place, enabling us to do so with very limited impact for retail operations, online ordering set
to operations. up for restaurants or emailed invoices
for our B2B partners.
Secondly, while we initially were heavily rooted in restaurants and
hospitality due to our proximity to Manhattan, we’ve diversified 2. With the gift of foresight, I think the
our target verticals over time to include some that have prospered most obvious answer would be to have
significantly during this time. Because of this, while we did purchased some stock in Zoom. Frankly
see some impact to our portfolio, it was far more manageable speaking, I’m quite proud of how our
than how I’ve seen some friends in the industry be affected. organization has handled the pandemic,
both in terms of how we’ve handled
employee and merchant relations. I
feel confident in saying the strategies
we applied on both fronts have been
successful, and the only thing I think
truly could have been improved in our
approach, like my prior Zoom comment,
would have been to implement them
sooner. For example, if we had ensured
every restaurateur had online ordering
up and running prior to the restrictions
to indoor dining, we could likely have
ensured that they were better prepared
financially for when they did face those
limitations.

Steven Feldshuh
Betterpay

This year has certainly been the most
challenging year since I have been in the
business, which is 20+ years. Approximately
1.5 years ago we rebranded our company
name from Merchant Choice Payment
Solutions East to Betterpay.

With the rebranding we also decided to
invest heavily in marketing and creating
a brand, and developing our own identity.
Obviously, no one expected that COVID-19
would interrupt and bring challenges to
every level of our organization.

The first thing we recognized was that we
would have to work remotely. This wasn’t
an easy task and required our people to
adapt to working remotely, and not have the
office energy surrounding them that you get
in an office environment. We are fortunate
in that we have great people that quickly

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