“It is my belief that if we provide to our customer base a next generation payment solution with real-time access and 100% merchant flexible terms coupled with true insight into their e-commerce payment flow, our marketplace success will continue to grow.”

Interview by Kevin Ohashi of Ohashi Media
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Peter Caparso is the North American President of Adyen. He holds a BA in Economics from Villanova and an MBA from Boston College. Peter joined Adyen from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) where he was the U.S. head of sales and account management for all global e-commerce operations.  Peter’s specialty is creating and growing US based operations for international companies.  Peter now heads up U.S. operations at Adyen, a next generation enterprise payment service provider that focuses on mid-large businesses that need flexible and cost effective payment processing.

MO:
Adyen seems to be focused primarily on the European market.  Your job is opening up North America.  Could you tell us about the differences between the two markets for payment service providers?  What sort of innovation and technology does Adyen bring from Europe to America?

Peter:
Although it is true that we have European roots, Adyen is striving to be a global payment provider for its customer base. Our current payment-reach includes North and South America, Central and Western Europe and we are now focusing on entering parts of Asia. At present, we process in 187 different currencies while offering over 75 local native payment methods all through one single integration point.

You are spot on in regards to the differences between the U.S. and EU marketplaces. Here in the US, we have become a credit card centric society relying on these payment vehicles for everyday purchases. Although the debit card has made some in-roads, we still use our credit cards quite heavily. In Europe, the payment mix is much more diverse. Dependent on the country, you may see credit card usage as low as 18% of the mix. Within Europe (dependent on the country) you can see different payment vehicles (such as Direct Debit, Bank Transfers or Internet Banking) used more frequently by the population.

Given the complexity of understanding the different EU country payment needs, we have taken this requirement and built a payment platform that is extremely flexible, transparent and provides our customers payment data in real time.  With this option, our merchant base can make decisions in real time to best suit their payment needs. One area that we have really focused on is the reduction or elimination of PCI compliance for our merchant base. We offer today an Adyen hosted payment page solution where our customers can control every pixel and element on the payment page. By providing this type of solution, our merchants do not have to touch any of the payment details and hence circumnavigating them away from the burden of PCI. For the record, should a merchant wish to host the payment page, we also offer a payment solution that facilitates that requirement.

MO:
Your expertise is working with US operations for international companies.  I think the majority of our interviews have been with US based entrepreneurs and many aren’t as focused on the international market.  What makes the US different from other major markets and what unique aspects does it have that foreigners struggle with when trying to open up the US market?

Peter:
The U.S. market is consistently demanding in both its need for information as well as access. Although I wish to be careful to point out that our customers in the EU are on top of their accounts, US customers seem to want 24×7 access. If you are not prepared to address a question or concern on short notice, the U.S. customer will not stand by. I believe we handle this by providing our customers dedicated account management teams that can be accessed quickly.

Another area I see where the U.S. is different is market flexibility. Given the recent prolonged recession that we have experienced, I am seeing more and more merchants asking for complete flexibility. One of the benefits we offer to our customers is a one year non-exclusive agreement. If, for any reason our service is not satisfactory, our customers can terminate with no early termination fees. It is our philosophy that we want to work just as hard to earn the customers trust 6 months after the contract is signed as we did before the agreement was signed.

MO:
One of your main roles is sales and you focus on enterprises as well as medium sized businesses.  A lot of startups struggle to break into the enterprise market, could you tell us a little bit about your sales process, how you find and close enterprise clients?

Peter:
To be honest, I am an old school salesperson and I have found many of our current customers by some of the basic methods. I read many papers and trade publications to see who is expanding and developing into new markets. These tidbits are often found in the local newspaper or Business Journal and can often point out who the key people are in the organization. I also pay attention to internet trade publications as well as attend some key trade shows to gather a pulse of what is going on in the marketplace. Lastly, our sales efforts involve a lot of cold calling to introduce who we are and what we do. Many people do not like to do it, but it is effective and has landed us some key accounts in the U.S. In a lot of ways, I feel Adyen is a back to basics company in simplifying the process both internally and externally.

MO:
Adyen has also entered the mobile payment space.  That has to be one of the more exciting areas in terms of market potential.  What sort of trends have you seen and what are the biggest challenges that are unique to mobile payments versus traditional internet payments?

Peter:
The mobile payment space is very hot with many players participating in the space. One area I have seen a lot of application for these types of payments is in the video gaming space.  Given how a lot of the social games utilize virtual currency, paying via a mobile phone is fast, convenient and age group accessible so it makes sense. Where I see some area of concern for merchants is within the tangible goods space as many mobile payment providers have to give a substantial part of the transaction sale back to the carrier. I think there will be some continued development within the space (in regards to business terms) in addition to some vendor solution consolidation within the next 12-18 months. However it is a space that bears watching.

MO:
I noticed most of the staff came from Royal Bank of Scotland; is that how the team got to know one another or was that a coincidence?  If it wasn’t a coincidence, what triggered the move from RBS to a startup?  What are the challenges of trying to do something like Adyen within a large bank?

Peter:
In actuality, the seeds of Adyen came from a Dutch payment gateway start-up called Bibit that was formed in the late 1990’s. Adyen was so successful in its market penetration that in 2004, the Royal Bank of Scotland acquired the company. Many of the team stayed in place working through the integration into RBS and as one of those people, I found the process both challenging and educational.  The trick was while adapting to the larger business format, trying to harness the enthusiasm and vigor of the start-up environment. I can speak for myself and say it was a positive experience but at the end of the day, I felt a calling to return to the start-up arena,which I thought  best suited me. Given how many of my former Bibit employees are with Adyen, perhaps they did as as well.

What I find rewarding today is that if one of my current customers makes a request for a feature function, we can quickly review in-house and determine if it is possible. All of our development is in-house and we have created many new features in our system via requests from our existing customer base. It is deeply rewarding to provide our customers solutions in an expedited manner.

MO:
What’s next for Adyen, you’ve developed a solid product and are opening new geographical markets.  Are there product improvements you’re working towards or are you generally more focused on sales?

Peter:
We are always striving to improve our product both from a functionality standpoint as well as payment reach. We add new payment methods every quarter and we talk to our merchants frequently (we “officially” have reviews every quarter however our dedicated account teams talk to our customer base daily). We have spent a lot of time investing in consumer analytics and incorporating that into our solution. In essence, we can advise to our merchant base, what pages their customers have viewed on their site and where they either consummated or abandoned the sale. We provide this information in real time so that our merchants can quickly augment their offerings to reflect their on-line sales. By providing our customers the tools, we help them to achieve higher conversion rates which results in a win-win for all.

It is my belief that if we provide to our customer base a next generation payment solution with real-time access and 100% merchant flexible terms coupled with true insight into their e-commerce payment flow, our marketplace success will continue to grow.