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Insights and Expertise

mistake that I and countless other ISOs have made by
trusting "agnostic" providers. They mean well but none of
MLSs need to protect their them has a crystal ball that tells them when they're going

valuations by working with to sell. Once that happens, private equity will do what-
ever they want, and the first thing they will do is mone-
companies that offer a full suite tize payments. We saw it with Lightspeed and others, and
of in-house solutions. we'll see it again.
Every experience is a lesson, and this is one lesson I don't
want to repeat. Choose your partners wisely, and make
rates. How do they get away with that? It's simple. They sure they own their technology.
sell product.
Want to know more? Keep reading The Green Sheet and
consider following me on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/
If you're still thinking of yourself as a credit card person, in/allenkopelman) where we can share ideas and support
consider changing your title to Business Solutions Provid-
er. This business is changing faster than ever, and AI is each other.
pouring gasoline on software development, accelerating
our time to market. Allen Kopelman, a serial entrepreneur, is co-founder and CEO of
Nationwide Payment Systems Inc. and host of B2B Vault: The Biz
When ISOs try to recruit me, I ask them the following: to Biz podcast. Email him at allen@npsbank.com and connect on
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenkopelman/ and
1. Tell me about your technology. Twitter @AllenKopelman.

2. Tell me what kinds of merchants that you will ap-
prove.

Other than that, I do not care about the Sched- Snapshot of Upcoming Events
ule A, terminals or cash discount. Everyone
has that. I want to know if you own your own
POS, software and gateway, and if you ap-
prove so-called high-risk merchants. Quite a
few SEAA exhibitors did not have the right
answers to these questions and need to start
thinking about tech.

To quote Mike Nardy in a recent Facebook
post, "If you start building tech today, you're
already too late." And I agree with that assess- September 8 - 10, 2025
ment.
Fool me once Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
Scottsdale, AZ

Despite rumors to the contrary, the terminal https://westernstatesacquirers.org/
is not dead. Some merchants use countertop
terminals; others prefer vertically focused
apps and software. ISOs and MLSs need to
offer solutions based on each merchant's
unique preferences while protecting their
hard-earned residuals.

The SEAA exhibit hall had over 70 software
and POS vendors out of 136 booths, which is
over 50 percent of exhibitors. I've never seen
that many before in 24 years. I can't help but
wonder how many of them will be around
next year and how many will be bought by September 8 - 10 , 2025
ISOs and no longer be agnostic. The Marriott Marquis Times Square - New York

MLSs, I encourage you to get out and talk to https://informaconnect.com/finovatefall/purchase
those companies and forget about the pro- /select-package
cessor-agnostic players. Don't make the same
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