Matchmakers: Recent Episodes
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Karen Webster talks with John Tobis, CEO of the Bouqs, about why he thinks his direct-to-consumer and subscription model can make the company stand out in a crowded field — a move that requires payments to play a big role, given all the players involved. Sustainability is also part of the equation — but will consumer really catch on?
Younger consumers — reflecting larger trends — wanted weddings as unique as they are and Mayflower Venues shares how it steps up to the challenge.
In this episode of Matchmakers, Ibrahim Oladele, co-founder and CEO of Vesicash talks about why using a new payment process in Africa could encourage more online sales and build more trust around eCommerce.
Mapillary has created a platform that uses crowdsourcing to map the world’s streets – in real time. Machine learning and other technologies help transform images into information so that logistics become logical and even autonomous cars can learn on the road (literally) as Mapillary CEO Jan Erik Solem tells Karen Webster.
Down to Shop explains how a quirky, gamified infomercial format, with a heavy dose of home shopping, is getting people, especially Gen Z, to tune in and buy.
In this edition of PYMNTS Matchmakers, Paul Koullick of Keeper Tax discusses how digital technology can prevent workers from overpaying or underpaying taxes.
The world is becoming one big marketplace — even of the marketplace doesn’t always look like one.
The hunt for technical professional services can be frustrating - a situation exemplified by the world of electrical engineering where there are many more jobs that need doing that engineers obviously available to fill them. But, Freelancer.com CEO and Chairman Matt Barrie told Karen Webster, it’s a situation they’re working on with Arrow Electronics with a new platform that matchmakers electrical engineers to the jobs that need them.
Shots Box discusses its online subscription retail service, providing liquor samples from craft distilleries, and the opening of its own brick-and-mortar store.
Karen Webster talks with Landed’s Alex Lofton about a new way to bring home ownership to workers who make cities function.
While most people are familiar with toting a utility bill to the DMV when it’s time to get a new license, most of us don’t look at it as a potentially powerful tool. The reason, Urjanet CEO Sanjoy Malik told Karen Webster, is that that information wasn’t able to be easily or directly share digitally. But a decade and six thousand utilities and added to the platform, he said, and they are aiming to change that in a big way.
In the newest edition of the PYMNTS Matchmakers interview series, Slyce CEO Ted Mann makes the case for why visual should take its place among the top retail tools.
Jitjatjo's marketplace platform offers hospitality and restaurant industry players access to vetted workers on demand, seeking to attract and pay talent well.
HoneyBook was built to be an all-in-one platform for solo entrepreneurs, linking every step of the business process from proposal to invoice and payments.
Spring brings three things consistently every year - birds, flowers and home buyers. And, according to Homelight COO Sumant Sridharan, 2019 is shaping up to be a busier than expected year.
Given the rather distressing news out of physical retail in earl 2019 - Neighborhood Goods plan to re-invent the department store might seem strange. But according to CEO Matt Alexander, consumers don’t hate department stores, they hate what they’ve become.
In the U.K., says Labour Xchange Co-Founder Jonathan Key in the latest Matchmakers podcast, millions of people are underemployed. Matching ad hoc employees with work they want to do and employers who need them right away can help create sustainable career paths, he said, while paying them living wages. Thus an anomaly in startup land: A trade union-backed online marketplace.
Wearables are hot, and are moving beyond fitness tracking to take on more payment and authentication tasks. But there are more to wearables than devices that wrap around consumers’ wrists. In this episode of Matchmakers, Tejash Unadkat, CEO at Motiv, tells Karen Webster why rings can give users more comfort, and can enable all sorts of tasks vital to daily consumer living in this digital world — tasks that include can include biometrics.
https://www.pymnts.com/news/wearables/2019/with-this-ring-i-thee-pay-and-buy-and-authenticate/
In this episode of Matchmakers, Karen Webster talks with Goodworld’s John Gossart about seamless online charity payments.
Doctor on Demand and Walmart partner to offer a telemedicine platform for instant access to high-quality doctors, affordable healthcare and immediate treatment.
The data shows that most millennials want to own homes - but the cost of paying high rent and saving for a down payment has proven to be a big stumbling block. Enter Divvy - and partial ownership platform that let's consumers work their way into homeownership with a very different model. Karen Webster talked to CEO and Co-Founder Brian Ma and COO Adena Hefets on how it works and how they think it can help.
Photographers wanting to sell their work on large-scale digital marketplaces generally face high barriers for entry and big bites from their royalty payments. Benji Lanyado, founder and CEO of Picfair, tells Karen Webster how he designed his marketplace as an exact opposite of the traditional model. Here’s how he plans to scale, monetize and manage payments.
In this episode of Matchmakers, Karen Webster talks with Collective Health co-founder Rajaie Batniji about how software can help drive down those costs while making employees healthier.
Getting involved in real estate - Sumant Sridharan COO of HomeLIght told Karen Webster for this week’s edition of the Matchmaker is in, should not be an experience described with the words “opaque” or “confusing” since real estate transactions are often the biggest and most impactful buys a consumer makes in a lifetime. And so the firm has decided to flip on the switch - starting with picking the right sellers agent and adding value from there.
Working out can be hard work - particularly for those just getting started. It may be even harder just to know how to get in shape - being that a personal trainer isn't an accessible option for everyone. Or at least it hasn't been in the past. Aaptiv founder and CEO Ethan Agarwal chats with Karen Webster about how Aaptiv hopes to change all that with an ever widening assortment of audio-fitness classes, on-demand and on offer for subscribers.
Connecting cleaners, I.T. pros and other workers with office managers have so far resisted the digital trend, but that could be changing. In this episode of Matchmakers, Dan Teran, co-founder and CEO of Managed by Q, examines the opportunities in that space.
Paul Shustak, CEO of Karen.care, looked for a software platform to streamline and manage the elder care process, and created the Karen.care platform to meet that need.
Katie McMahon, VP and GM of SoundHound, thinks there’s a better approach to ubiquity when it comes to the voice ecosystem: enabling an open platform that focuses on the partners and brands it enables.
As consumer responsibility for healthcare costs climbs (and deductibles along with it), many are looking for ways to better manage their healthcare dollars and get comparable service for a lower cost. Here’s how this week’s Matchmakers, ZendyHealth and Alegeus, are helping them do that – and what their marketplace approach could mean for the future of healthcare pricing.
Anyone how has ever spent an hour that felt like an eternity trying to hunt down a parking space in the city of Boston has prayed for a solution, any solution, to give them their time and happiness back. SPOT - a platform to connect those in need with a private parking space - aims to be the answer to all those angrily cursed prayers, in Boston and a host of other American cities. Karen Webster talked to CEO and founder Braden Golub in this episode of Matchmakers - about how SPOT does it, and why urban parking can be an “everyone wins” situation instead of the broken mess it is today.
https://www.pymnts.com/matchmakers/2018/see-spot-run-the-airbnb-of-parking/
Hitch Health is helping patients get to their medical appointments by matching them to rideshares, as interim CEO Susan Jepson tells Karen Webster.
https://www.pymnts.com/news/2018/hitch-health-care-rideshare-patient-transport-medical
Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Jens Wohltorf explains that, unlike ridesharing platforms such as Uber, Blacklane doesn’t contract with individual drivers. Instead, it works with professional, licensed and registered limo companies.
Traditional employers are looking at the benefits of paying employees for the hours they have worked. Tomas Likar, VP Strategy, Hyperwallet explains how technology is giving employers - and on demand platforms both - new tools to offer more flexible payment solutions.
https://www.pymnts.com/matchmakers/2018/real-time-payroll-gig-workers-salary-faster-payments/
Roadie is an on-the-way delivery service that connects customers who have shipping needs with drivers in their community who are headed in the right direction. CEO Marc Gorlin spoke with Karen Webster to explain how Roadie meets needs on both sides of the marketplace… and how one time, it really did play matchmaker for a couple that got engaged a year after their first delivery.
https://www.pymnts.com/matchmakers/2018/matchmakers-roadie-delivery-service-gig-economy/
Freebird CEO Ethan Bernstein founded his business travel company to enable corporate travelers to quickly and easily adjust plans when flight disruptions occur.
https://www.pymnts.com/matchmakers/2017/business-travel-rebooking-flights-freebird-corporate-travel-bernstein/