In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA – TJ Hyland, Head of eCommerce Partnerships at Payoneer - a global leader in eCommerce financial services, shares his professional story of entering the eCommerce industry, the early hacks he used to find Amazon sellers to sell financial services and how he was able to develop warm relationships with eCommerce sellers to better serve their needs. With the strength of building strategic partnerships and constantly innovating, Payoneer has become a global leader in servicing and supporting the rapid growth of the eCommerce industry with 17 offices worldwide and one of a kind corporate culture.
Find out more about TJ Hyland & Payoneer.
Learn more about GETIDA’s Amazon reimbursement solution software.
Yoni Mazor
So, TJ, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for taking the time to see us today. How are you feeling how you've been?
TJ Hyland 00:38
Absolutely only I appreciate you. I know, we were joking before but you know, in this COVID-19 working from home situation, you gave me a reason to take a shower today. So I appreciate that.
Yoni Mazor 00:48
My pleasure. My pleasure. It always strikes me that every time we meet, it has some sort of liquid involved. Because you know, we had a good time together. Back in the summer, we went to a cruise ship in New York City, it was an awesome time you guys, you know, fan your sponsor this event, you essentially, for lack of a better word, it was like a yacht is like a big ship, you know, was for dinner and music and cruise around New York City. It was great. That's kind of the first time I got a chance to really spend some time with TJ get to know him. And today gave more reason to take a shower. So, you know, all the good times?
TJ Hylanc 1:21
No, I mean, what you're referencing is we put on a VIP event for our customers and, you know, just something to kind of show appreciation and who doesn't like going out on the boat for a couple of hours. We had some drinks, we had some barbecue, so it was a pretty good time. Glad you enjoyed it.
Yoni Mazor 1:39
Thank you so much. It was awesome. Because you know, these days before the crisis before the Corona, and it's like, it looks like a faraway dream Sweet dream. Okay, so today I want to, you know, I want you to expose yourself a little bit too, you know, people who are listening or looking at this episode. So let's start with your background. You know, where are you from? You know, where do you go to school? How did you develop your professional career, so feel free to share?
TJ Hyland 2:04
Sure. So I am born and raised in New York, grew up in a place called Breezy Point, which is in the very southernmost point of Queens, right near Rockaway, which, where a lot of people know about, I ended up going to college in Washington, DC. And then after that, I stayed in DC.
TJ Hyland 2:24
I was kind of, you know, kind of how I fell into this e-commerce world was almost by chance, I started working at a company called World's First which, you know, if you dealt in cross border payments for the last five years or so you definitely have run into them.
TJ Hyland 2:39
So I started working there almost by chance, I remember, I had a friend who works there, and my brother’s now-wife works there. And they were recently or they were about to launch the e-commerce desk in the US. And you know, be a little candid, I remember my brother talking to me about and he's saying, you know, it's really cool opportunity. They work with Amazon and I, you know, being however many years old, I was like, I don't want to work for Amazon. I don't want to work with Amazon. This is back in 2014. You know, if you ask me now, like, absolutely love to whatever you want. I'll show up at the door.
Yoni Mazor 3:13
That's interesting. Why did you have that mindset for me my personal experience, you know, we're starting with Amazon was around 2011. And it was up and coming. And it was a positive for me. It was like, you know, why not try this out? But what was your take on it back in 2014?
TJ Hyland 3:26
To be honest that at that time, I didn't even know that there were third-party sellers. I thought everything was just through Amazon. And I thought this was just some sort of like, I guess I didn't necessarily realize the value that Amazon held at the time. I thought that this job was actually with Amazon, which even if it was that would have been a great job. But I was just reluctant. I ended up going in for an interview just for a general sales role. When I got hired and I started like two or three weeks later.
TJ Hyland 3:56
And, it’s almost cliche to say the rest is history because I've been in this e-commerce payment space for you know, now it's coming on six or seven years and like it's all I know, it's all I breathe every single day. But to touch on that...
Yoni Mazor 4:10
It feels like DNA for you, huh?
TJ Hyland 4:13
Yeah, I mean, you don't move I have moved from Worlds First at that point to Payoneer and, you know, they're very similar companies paying you just a little bit different things. But in terms of helping businesses that are selling cross borders, it's super similar stuff.
Yoni Mazor 4:34
But was it trigger a few if you don't mind sharing with everybody? What was the trigger for you know, you switching it to Payoneer? I know there's a kind of a story behind that. Not, necessarily your story. It's more of a company story.
TJ Hyland 4:37
Well, yeah, so I actually left a little bit before that happened. But I'll back up. I'll tell you so I worked were well first in Washington DC for a year. And then we got a new CEO in the US and he wanted to open an office in Austin, Texas. So about a year and..
TJ Hyland 5:00
I decided that my team, our e-commerce team was the one that was going to move there to sort of open this office. So I did and I moved and I was very happy in Austin. I was there for about four years. And then in the fall of 2018, I ultimately was approached by Payoneer to head up the e-commerce team, e-commerce partnerships team in New York. So there's an opportunity for me to come home to New York and do similar things actually, probably a step up from what I was doing.
TJ Hyland 5:33
When I left Worlds First, but to touch on what you were saying about the world first, yeah, what happened afterward, I guess, essentially. Yeah. So I left in about October and then January of the next year, about three months after 90 days after, yeah, they ended up selling. Well, they ended up shutting down their entire US operation in preparation for their larger step, which was they sold to ant financial, which is a Chinese, Chinese finance arm of Alibaba. So, you know, in hindsight, you know, I was really nervous about leaving Worlds First, I love the Worlds First, I was there for, you know, many, many years. In hindsight, the move was incredible, because I was able to then be at Payoneer and, you know, when a lot of the sellers that I had worked with and a lot of the partners and businesses that I had worked with, we’re looking for a new solution and kind of lost because they kind of sprung the information on everyone in a matter of you know, one day and said You really have to get this figured out in it right?
Yoni Mazor 6:36
I remember those days were kind of dramatic days for all the, you know, the customer that they had and basically pioneer welcomed them all and open arms and luckily had you in the team to accommodate that transfer. So it's probably like a glove for you guys.
TJ Hyland 6:50
Yeah, I think it was a really unique opportunity. And you know, I'm super grateful that I was there already and learn new about Payoneer so that when that happened, I could, you know, be available and reach out to the relative people like, you know, the shipping companies and the VAT companies and all these people to message their clients because whether Payoneer was gonna message them from our own base or, you know, people reached out to me on LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever, you know, the partners that have these other solutions also have their customer basis, we're also looking for a new solution, kind of in a split notice. So ultimately, it ends up working out really well obviously Payoneer got quite a bit of business from World's First leaving the market.
TJ Hyland 7:34
You know, but there are some other players in the market too, that you know, OFX, that did pretty well, and got, you know, services these businesses as well.
Yoni Mazor 7:47
Got it. So let's test you know, your position in World First, you know, that was kind of your first dabbles with, you know, the professional world or the business, you know, you are your function really over there. And after your transfer to Payoneer, but what changed or developed afterward when she's transferred?
TJ Hyland 8:03
Sure. So to touch on the workforce, as I mentioned, I joined doing sort of an entry-level sales position. This is before the days of a lot of the software. So I would go on and, and look at Amazon, UK and try and find us-based sellers and look at Amazon Germany and France and Spain, and vice versa. And basically, look for them, find a company name and a lot of like research base, and then ultimately selling.
Yoni Mazor 8:32
So you run a scenario with me you’re in Amazon UK, you find a how do you find a seller, you know, walk me through this experience for you?
TJ Hyland 8:44
Sure. So this is the case of how it was, you know, six, six years ago or more, not necessarily the case anymore. But what we would do is a lot of Google search techniques. So you put amazon.co.uk in quotes, because that's the part that you really want. And then you'd put us or NY for New York or you'd put certain zip codes because on the actual page where it lists the products, it doesn't show any of that information. But when it shows your reviews, and you about the selling business, the UK region and European region required you to put your company information address and all that the US region did not Canada did not. So it was really an advantage to us so that we could use these Google search techniques, find that and then what you have to really do is sometimes there's a phone number sometimes there's not sometimes it's an email sometimes there's not most of the time not. So then you have to take the company name that you just found. And search on Amazon to see if they sell because sometimes the US provides different info. Not necessarily any more any better, but different. And then you go to like Google or other like company information, or you find a phone number may be or an email or
TJ Hyland 10:00
If there are more well known brands, a lot of times you can email info at whatever the brand is.com your guy like that.
Yoni Mazor 10:08
Interesting. So basically, as far as I understand, the European platform of Amazon was able to give you some sort of a thread, you can start pulling and pulling and pulling. And once you do, and, everything connects together, you're able to find, you know, the constant contact info of certain sellers. And let's say you found the seller, what your periods were, what do you do? What's the next day?
TY Hyland 10:32
Yeah, that was just to get a guy to the door, right? I was just on the phone, or like, sending an email or anything like that, from there. You know, it wasn't, it isn't really a tough sell, because from back then, it was you who were using Amazon currency converters..
TJ Hyland 10:48
Which was charging you premium anywhere, anywhere three to 4%, on, on your FX conversions, or you use a company like World First at the time, and we would charge anywhere from, you know, one to two and a half percent, you know, it, we're saving you money, there's no immediate one or 2% from the top. That's, that's great savings. Right. So if you're doing significant money overseas, which a lot of people were at that time, you know, it's a really easy way to add a couple dollars to your bottom line. And, you know, once there was always the trust factor, because there you know, I from a company, they don't know, found a number called them up, it's them this thing to change their bank accounts in Amazon. So it really took off, you know, in a lot of the community in Brooklyn, and how things spread around Brooklyn, and this guy's good, this guy's good use, this guy got a good rate, this guy can help. So, you know, word of mouth definitely helped grow the business and helped me get to meet a lot of different people too. So I did direct selling like that for about two years. And in that time, I feel like we at World First really captured the market of the largest sort of resellers in the space. So I had the opportunity to then transition over to our account management team. And, I really thought that was a logical move for me, because I was able to then build upon the relationships that I had already created from a sales perspective. And now instead of just bringing people onto World First, you're enabling and helping them to grow within a World First. So if you're just selling in the UK, sell a credit to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, if you're just selling into Canada, why don't you consider the UK and vice versa?
Yoni Mazor 12:35
So basically, by you know, you know, first of all, you give them the immediate savings. The next added value, as far as you guys are concerned, is, you know, expand their horizons, expand their understanding that there's more opportunities out there and make them you know, recognize it. And of course, if they do, you know, it’s going to be beneficial for them, and hopefully also beneficial for you guys, because it's gonna be more currency conversions, which is a win win proposition. That's an interesting combination.
TJ Hyland 12:59
Yeah. So like, we were incentivized to help them grow and sell more. So you know, we would really want them to get the best price on FX so that they had more money to turn around and buy more stock and sell more stock and then bring it back through us and kind of just constantly feed the circle. Or feed the flywheel.
TY Hyland 13:27
So from there, I mean, I did the account management thing for about two years. And then you know, with that you get very involved with the partners you know, like a cheetah First Choice Shipping, A Vast, like people that have Teikametrics, ones that I know I've been around here for a while. So I got to know these people a lot, and very well. So for the last six months, I was there, I was doing a bit of partnership, and then that kind of led me to move over to Payoneer.
Yoni Mazor 13:55
Okay, so let's transition into Payoneer now. So you know, it's a pretty good description of your, your world that World First. And now let's touch the second world of a world of Payoneer right?
TJ Hyland 14:07
Yeah, if I'm being honest with you, like I said, I was super nervous to leave well, first, it was really the only company I'd worked for had been you know, five years there, and you know, whenever you switch jobs whenever you do anything, you know, there's a bit of risk in but I've I felt like there could have been more potential upside for me personally, my personal growth and I was staying within the industry so I wasn't changing too many things. It's not like I was trying to go do head of partnerships at you know, a media company. That's I just wouldn't know what to do right.
Yoni Mazor 14:41
Right. It's more foreign to this, more strange to you anyway.
TJ Hyland 14:44
Staying within the e-commerce world in Payoneer. Now I realized, but they always did a lot more than just e-commerce, you know, helping cross-border sellers. So that's kind of where I am now. But you know, when I joined, it was a couple of weeks a month or two into you know, and then World First shut down. So that first sort of six months in that role, I was very heavily involved with helping sellers and bringing on those e-commerce partners, and really building the ecosystem up. There wasn't much of an ecosystem because I think a lot of the top partners were working with World First. So now they had the opportunity to work with me and to work with Payoneer. So we would want, I went through and, I would pick the top, you know, shipping company, like I said, and refunds and VAT and translation, and this and the other and ads, and, you know, have them work with us, yes, they have options, and they can work with whomever they want. But, you know, I had known them for the last couple of years. And, you know, that's how I've always done my business is very relationship-based. So I know more about people than just their name and their job title, you know, I know that this person has a husband and a wife, and this one has kids, and this one lives here, and vacations here. And this is what they do, because, in reality, you spend a lot more time with people on a work basis, whether it's in your own company, or companies you interact with, then then you do your own family on a daily basis. So you know, you want to have good relationships, you want to, you know, be with people that you like, and you want to talk to, you know, not you're not going to like everyone, that's just pretty easy to say. But you know, if you put the effort in and you show that you care more than just a transactional basis, or a transactional relationship, then there's really a lot of opportunities. And that's one of the big things about Payoneer is as a business, you know, my role aside as a business, it's, it's really relationship-based. And everyone from the top down to our CEO, Scott is, is a really, really awesome, really smart guy and like, knows everything that's going on in every part of the business. And he cares for you. And he knows where you live and what you do and what you do for fun and what you do on the weekend. So it just makes it a really great place to work,
Yoni Mazor 17:00
Right, you guys have like more at this point, probably more than 1000 you know, people in your organization, but someway somehow you guys are able to still make it feel like you know, a large extended family, you know, I say this as a client, you know, I use your services. And it's, and I feel it when I come to the events, and they you know, I, you know, I rub my shoulders with you and somebody else on the team is a very good talent and good, warm people are there, you know, I never met Scott. But if he's listening, then I can certainly vouch for the fact that it feels very warm, very welcoming. It's beyond the money. It's not just like you said, the transactions, it's, there's a culture, you guys really represent a culture out there and you're supporting a lot, a lot of the activities of e-commerce education, almost every show every event, every conference, you know, and especially the ones are focused on educating search sellers and expanding their horizons, you guys are there. I think that connects to you know, your initial, you know, workplace with World First, where you experienced that with that value. And you took it into Payoneer. And I think you're actually leveraging your skill, your interpersonal skill to develop that for Payoneer. It just puts it out there for them as a company to really support the efforts of e-commerce and empower them, you know, all the sellers, and they do it in a warm welcoming way. And that really represents your culture, my I guess your personal culture and the culture of the company. And it does resonate. So I found that very, very impressive that you guys are able to do it on such a large scale because, you know, I know that we know and our position we focus more on the Amazon side of things. But like you said, you guys are a whole world out there. There's, you know, share with us a little bit of outside the Amazon-like what's the scope for with Payoneer at this point?
TJ Hyland 18:44
Yeah, we'll talk a little bit about Payoneer first and I'll talk about what we do. We have 17 offices around the world, I think a little over 1600 employees. So our headquarters are here in New York. But like, as you mentioned, when we started we have quite a big presence in Israel, I think we have probably had about 800 people in Israel. And then we have a third hub in Hong Kong that really helps with our Asia region. So we have a couple of offices in China and Southeast Asia and the Philippines, Australia as well. So we actually just launched a new office about three or four months ago in Argentina. So it's our first real venture into Latin America. Yeah. So we have a woman named more Fernandez leading up activities in Latin. And she used to work at Mercado Libre. So that's the biggest marketplace. Yeah. And that's the biggest March I got the word Right. Yeah. In Latin. So, you know, we're hiring the best talent we're trying to, you know, continue to build on the culture that you mentioned, you know, when it's easier to have that in, you know, how, like New York or Israel or Hong Kong, but you know to fully resonate that out and make sure those people feel like they're part of the pain your family
Yoni Mazor 20:10
On a global level that's what I want to point out there a global level that's the greatest accomplishment here if you were good at where you locally based out of you know that's fine that's cool but if you're able to do it on a global level and replicate this kind of a feeling across the world and so many cultures that is, you know, you become a powerhouse in a way.
TJ Hyland 20:28
Well, that's exactly what you mentioned. Like it's tough enough being in different offices, but also different cultures, because you know how things work in China versus Israel versus New York, are obviously very different. Oh, yeah. But from a product perspective, as we touched on, so yes, we work with SMBs. We work with businesses that are selling across borders, helping them bring back their funds, better exchange rates, make international payments, stuff like that.
Yoni Mazor 20:54
Those are the fundamentals that are easy to understand for anyone listening, but what else? What else is out there for you guys
TJ Hyland 20:59
On the other side, we kind of sit in between the seller on this site, and we sit between the marketplace on this side? So we have an enterprise arm of our business that works with a lot of the marketplaces for mass payout solutions. So some people know this, some people don't but if you sell on Walmart, you have a Payoneer account
Yoni Mazro 21:22
By default that you guys are like, you know, back in the day used to be PayPal was, you know, the processing payment platform for eBay. Essentially, for Walmart, there's no other way you have to have a Payoneer account in order to get paid from the Walmart marketplace.
TJ Hyland 21:34
Right. So if you're selling anything on Walmart or getting on one payment, you have a Payoneer account. Now, the good part of that is if you don't want to use your Payoneer account, you don't need those funds to go automatically to your bank account. Great. I think the best part is that if you want you can stop those funds from Walmart back into your Payoneer account. And then it opens you up to a whole sort of variety of ways to do things with your funds if you need to pay a supplier or pay a freelancer to pay VAT or tax. And ultimately, yes, you can bring it back to your own bank account. Yeah, so with that we work with on the B2B side, we work with e-commerce sellers, we work with banks, and we work with you know, this is really just on the partnership front. But then we also launched from, for a seller perspective, we launched a working capital product last year. So it was really driven out of customer feedback. So we realized that you know, we can only do so much for international sellers, we provided all these different receiving accounts, we allowed them to pay VAT pay suppliers, but there was not a lot to do. And we also realize that the largest market in the US in terms of the number of sellers. And we don't have any product to service, the largest number of sellers in the largest market on amazon.com. So it really left a gap. So we went off and created our own working capital solution...
TJ Hyland 23:06
To really help fix and plug those cash flow gaps along the way. So whether you're selling overseas or selling into the US, you're eligible to use that solution.
Yoni Mazor 23:17
A small question about that. So let's say I sell in the US or sell in Germany, you guys offer the working capital and the foreign currencies. And so if I'll get you as a US seller will get us dollars in the US and we get the euros in and Europe. Is that? Is that the way it is?
TJ Hyland 23:27
Yeah. So right now we have it for Amazon, us, Walmart, us, and Amazon, UK. And we're soon to roll out in the other regions.
Yoni Mazor 23:49
In the Uk, it will be great British pounds. And so Exactly. So you know, the moment you open up a marketplace, you eventually essentially supplying the funding and the local currency. Right. So now we have that capacity, which is impressive. It's pretty. It's just a small technical question. I don't know if you know the answer. But does Amazon provide lending to European sellers? I know, of course, we all know that in the US Amazon capital provides lending but is that also the case in Europe or other Amazon markets? As far as you know?
TJ Hyland 24:1
So I'm pretty sure they do it similar to how we do it. So now really, there are some limitations on where the seller is based, but it's we are underwriting the amount that we're offering based on your sales on Amazon us so you can be based in say Canada selling on Amazon US and that's how we'll determine your offer. So you those clients, definitely clients of Payoneer US and that's kind of how it all goes into it. You know, we talked about the working capital solution I could probably talk for days it's really cool and, and you know, it's we have a lot of success stories on you know, helping people get that quick injection of cash to, you know, increase their ad spend or buy a new product or you know, their suppliers, offering a deal, if they buy 10,000 more units, it's it ends up being half, you know, three-quarters of the price that it would be, but they don't have that cash on hand. That's exactly what it's really meant
Yoni Mazor 25:10
So basically you're saying the elements of increasing your purchasing power and reducing your costs by having access to working capital, right. And we are only going to offer you what we know that you can payback. So every Walmart seller is automatically eligible for this working capital solution because we receive all the payments, we have all the payout data from Walmart, I'm sorry, from an Amazon perspective, we are able to look at it more through my MWS, the Amazon Web Services, the token. So we were able to see your payout date, your sales data, your returns, your default rate, and stuff like that. And there are quite a few criteria that go into it. But we're gonna offer you up to one month's payouts to be paid back over a certain period. So, you know, it's an intuitive product, it's really launched in our China office for our China region first, but now it's fully out in the rest of the world. A
Yoni Mazor 26:09
When you say launch and China's I suppose because your years were attentive to your clients and the clients in China were pretty much whispering on yours, we needed some sort of solution. So we needed a solution. And lo and behold, you guys actually said, oh, let's you know, let's give it a shot. Let's run with this. And that's what happened. Is that the case?
TJ Hyland 26:25
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was the native solution. And there were some other people to be honest, in the market that were starting to offer that. So it was a way to really stay competitive in the China market, which is one of our largest markets. So to really stay competitive there from a product standpoint, so it wasn't really as much about price. You know, in FX, we talked about, you know, what their what's your rate, what's your rate, this is really like, we need a product to complement these other products,
Yoni Mazor 26:56
An Ecosystem, you need a good ecosystem for, you know, not just getting my FX, but also other utilities of the value of money, you know, if it's working capital, or it's having a very comfortable platform that you guys have to process the payments in the VA is or somebody who's working overseas, can send you know, an invoice through the platform and pay it, you know, essentially, you know, similar to PayPal, so in that kind of capabilities, makes it a very turnkey platform for, you know, e-commerce, businesses that you know, work on a global level. And I think it's inevitable that things are just getting more and more global. You know, it's one more global cooperation between, you know, your suppliers, your sources, your content providers, your digital, whatever it is. And it just makes it seamless to have one platform which is centralized, you know, essentially in such a way where you can obviously get the competitive FX exchange when you get all these transfers around, but also processing all these digital payments all over the world. And then also getting access to capital to empower all these transactions. That's a good way to establish a solution, you know, for our age.
TJ Hyland 28:02
Yeah, just one point on that, and in creating a turnkey solution is, is to take industries like foreign exchange, and lending and sending international cross border payments, which are historical, you know, antiquated, and historically pretty difficult to navigate, especially if you're looking at doing it with a bank to make it feasible for anyone who's an e-commerce seller who may not have a finance background, who's just a seller and knows how to do and sells really well not to make this over-complicated for them all the way up to you know, a CFO of a really large corporation who can use the same platform and understand the same value adds from the receiving the sending the lending. Just to really, like you said, the turnkey solution is really a good word.
Yoni Mazor 28:58
What I would add to that is not only having a turnkey and convenient platform, which is intuitive, it's also the trust, the fact that against trust on a global level between all these, you know, a trade cannot really be successful and grow, there's no trust. So the fact that there's one place you can trust, that's a powerful thing. So you're empowering all these businesses, and you're pairing a global trade, which is not to be underestimated by any circumstance.
Yoni Mazor 29:16
But at this point, I'd like to kind of pivot a little bit into I guess, what are currently either your professional challenges, or your organizational in organizations a challenge that you're facing right now, you know, it could be related to the pandemic or not, and, what are the challenges and how are you facing that basically?
TJ Hyland 29:36
I think one of the easy ones to touch on is that, you know, I'm, I'm sitting in the guest bedroom and not in the office, so you're not? No, sir. You guys are close to Penn Station, right? What's Uh, yeah, we're on 30/30 and seventh. Central middle of Manhattan. There's a lot going on. There are people coming from New Jersey and Long Island and Upstate and wherever and you know, I really thrive on being around people and working and talking and bouncing around ideas off people. You know, I think one of the challenges for me personally, is to still have that drive and still have that creative flow of, Okay, well, this is what we thought was gonna happen. And now we're weekend and it kind of looks a little different. And now we need to rework what we thought. And, you know, one of the challenges with Payoneer always is we are a global company. So we have, you know, I rely heavily on people in Israel and people in Hong Kong, and I am always kind of trying to find a time to speak with them. So just staying connected is really a tough challenge. But I think from a Payoneer standpoint, and you know, personally, we've done really well with it. One of the things I talked about with my team is like when we have video calls, turn your camera on, like, I want to see your face know that you're engaged, talking to me, you know, if I turn my camera off, I could be on my phone, I can look over here, I could do whatever, you know, just listening, but when you have eyes, eye contact, keep you a little more engaged. And I think I personally think that that works and, you know, keeps people engaged,
Yoni Mazor 31:16
So if I understand this correctly, your challenges, the lack of human interaction, you know, physically in the office, when you get all these energies around from, you know, I used to be in the army back in the day. Sure. And once you were with the team, which is your buddy soldiers and urines, you know, you're activity, you're full of adrenaline and rush, and you're just you're stimulated from so many directions. So you know, creates a certain output, which is, you know, creates satisfaction internally, because you're able to create that to generate that. But now that, you know, you like to do some of those elements, it's hard to generate the same type of,
you know, experience, which you're so used to. So they create a gap. And by the way, you're facing it essentially, like all of us transitioning to the digital zoom age of you know, but when doing it, you're doing it in such a way where you're seeing it starts to be very visual, you know, so you can see the people interact. So I suppose if you get to the real deal, and stick to it, I guess you guys, you know, early beginning, shut to do it. And but now it has to be more consistent in order to, you know, keep creating it. So it becomes more of a routine that empowers you to generate not just with you, I guess with the rest of the team, all the dynamics needed to keep the certain level of output or even the well, maybe not just your company, any other company might be surprised that, you know, this is actually with turning out pretty well. For the companies. There are more collaborative efforts and output actually increased on some level, you know, it will be interesting to see after the pandemic, what's what kind of new ideas and new initiatives started, because of, you know, this whole restraining situation? And I know for you guys, you are creating something, I think it's very impressive. A virtual summit, right? You know, it's called, it's called Beyond, right? And that is very ambitious because when you guys do something you kind of do big. Yeah. So you know, you're generating a ritual event when you're going to bring, you know, speakers out there to educate and provide content. And I'm sure you guys are feeding this to the 1000s and 1000s of people in the network to create these virtual events for e-commerce, especially Amazon sellers. And they're doing all this remotely, you can't just, you know, sit down in a room together and brand and brainstorm and just make it happen as you said, facing the challenges.
TJ Hyland 33:25
Right and that's actually something really good and something that we're, you know, this time of year, usually from January to June is a really important time in the e-commerce world and events and going to meet other sellers, a for networking, to meet other service providers, if you are not happy with what you have. If you have grown in the last year, and you need to know you're selling internationally, what does it look like or, or now you need, you know, something like GETIDA to help your business you know, you don't you've never even thought about it before, but you don't and you wouldn't think about it until that company is in front of you. So we are putting on the Beyond conference. It's much more than just, you know, recorded webinars that will be released every 30 minutes.
Yoni Mazor 34:08
Now it's a live event, guys, it's a live event, and if you guys are available May 27 correct. 27th Yeah, good. Hopefully, I'll be there you know, you know, enjoy the event. Yeah, tune in this is gonna be live, you know, you see the speakers live. And also what I find interesting is the service providers out there is life, you can browse digitally in their booths. And if you have questions just shoot out, you know, it's a live thing. It's pretty cool.
TJ Hyland 34:32
Yeah. And that's what really our marketing team has done a really great job with it. And that's what's really, you know, enticed me and made me interested about this is it's not just the speakers talking for, their panels and whatever that looks like, which is great. And they're going to provide a lot of content. There's a whole exhibition side of it. So we'll bring in, you know, I think we already have 15 or 20 companies that can come in and, you know, as as a seller, you're able to go and click in GETIDA and watch your video and see what they look like. And if they have questions, they can live chat with you, or they can talk to you right then, and then get your email and they can send you more details. And then you know, when you don't get Tito, then you could bounce over to Teikametrics, and then you can bounce over to first choice shipping, or whatever you need.
TJ Hyland 35:17
And the other thing is, there's a whole part about networking with other sellers. So it's not just, you know, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
Yoni Mazor 35:28
That's pretty cool is basically what you're doing is making it as close as it can get to a real physical event. So you get the whole package, you get the speakers and the content, so you can educate yourself, and you know, expand your horizons, see the service providers out there. And also the people that are there, the, you know, people, your peers of the industry, they're their sellers, and, you know, rub shoulders with them, you know, get to know them, get to meet them share best practices, share what I call horror stories, you know, a lot of the sellers have horror stories. So you know, how they got challenged, and how they face the challenge, hopefully, successfully for everybody. You know, we all know that there are many, many pain points for sellers out there, especially on Amazon, it could be suspensions, it could be legal, it can be infringement, it can be so many things, and they just sit down together and share all the real-time stories that happened to them, and how they overcame it. And that, you know, that it grows, the community of sellers from year to year. And what I find interesting about what you said is that I never kind of noticed that, but you kind of you can hit the nail on the head is that, I guess for the first six months of the year, the sellers are out there kind of in the jungle trying to hunt and haunted hunt, and, you know, said set up their meals, and the second part of the year, that's when this stuff feasting on it, you know, the sourcing the best practices, acquired cost reductions, you know, whatever platforms EQs to scale up their, their game, that's what that what, that's what they do, you know, kind of the first six months of the year, right, with all these shows. And then, you know, obviously, when the second part of the year, especially the Christmas season, that's when they feast on it, they sell and they see like farmers in a way and the digital age, they plant the seeds, and hopefully they grow afterward. So I didn't realize that, and I appreciate the fact that you carved it out for me on a certain level.
TJ Hyland 37:08
I mean, I think you know, it's no secret and no surprise that the second half of the year into the holiday season is the busiest time for online sellers, whether you're selling domestically or internationally. So if you're going to make any changes in your business, you might as well do it in your non-peak season. So you know, we usually see a peak into about mid-Feb, then it slows down into March a little bit kind of picks up a little bit, depending on your industry, depending on what you're selling down out of summer. But then by September, you have to be ready for the holiday season. Otherwise, you'll be behind the eight balls, I have to be buckled up. Yep. Yeah, so just having these opportunities to meet these other companies to meet other people. And now what I've realized is, you know, if you are selling on Amazon, and you're having an issue with whatever, whatever that is, somebody else already had that issue, you're not the first one, you're definitely won't be the last. So the only real way to find out the best solution is to talk to Amazon, which you probably won't, or to talk to other sellers and see how they dealt with it. You know, there are experts that provide, you know, the material on different things, but you know, they may not be able to cover everything I know, you had, I think you had Chris McCabe on here a couple of weeks ago, Chris is one of the smartest, most well-respected guys around and, and he can help with almost everything. But you know, when I talked to him, he's like, Oh, we got this new case about this, something I didn't even know what was going on. So, you know, things are always changing with Amazon.
Yoni Mazor 38:42
So you know, you're hyperdynamic, I call it hyperdynamic, you know, it's like dog years, one month, 130 days in the Amazon space is like 30 years in regular brick and mortar space, you know, it's like dog years, one month for a dog for a human is like on the 20th for a dog. So in a way, it's kind of like the ratio things, it's hyperdynamic, always on the move, always on the run, you know, as you as you get hit, you take care of it, and you move along. And you guys are definitely a body out there that assists with a lot of the challenges.But that being said, you know, you know, I want to kind of start, you know, close up, you know, the session. So my question to you is, you know, what kind of message of resilience do you have for entrepreneurs, you know, out there during the covid 19 pandemic crisis.
TJ Hyland 39:31
I mean, depending on like we said, depending on your category, you could be having a great time right now, but the ones struggling the ones in pain, the ones that are, you know, licking their fingers, you know, it's okay, we'll give them napkins, but the ones that are not selling that much right now. Because, you know, maybe they sell something that's, you know, more boutique or more of a nice to have, there's a need to have an essential product. You know, I would just say that you know, when you started selling, it probably wasn't easy as well. So, you know, hopefully, in that interim, you've seen great success, but you know how to rebuild, you know, how to diversify, and whether that's diversifying onto different marketplaces where, you know, your buyer profile might be a little bit different, a little more skewed towards your exact product, or diversifying in products. If you have technologies that are pretty expensive. Right now, people aren't spending a lot of money on them, you know, they will sell, it's just a matter of when the economy comes back. So you are a seller, you know how to buy and sell and get a good price. So maybe diversify and start selling something that would be more essential. You know, maybe, you know, grocery is through the roof, in terms of sales. If you're a reseller, and, you can definitely find a good deal on something wholesale, and sell it retail. The other thing that I was considering only because I went to buy something on Amazon today is through FBA, fulfillment times are still like two, three weeks, even with prime. So if you can offer something, merchant fulfilled, and deliver it, within a week, your I'm going to buy yours, because if I can get it by April 30, which is seven days from now, versus May 5, which is what it's telling me, you know, of course, I want the thing in seven days or the other sooner time. So like we said, you know, pulling different levers to get different results, you know, there's no, nothing I can tell you right now to say, boom, now you have a million-dollar business. And it's always been that way. And that's always the resilience of Amazon sellers is, you know, fighting clawing to get the buy box or fighting decline to get a better price here or on purchasing or better price with this software. So you're constantly looking to do that, and keep doing that. You know, it's just a little it's a hurdle, you know, yes, the economy or the unemployment rate might be through the roof right now. But in reality, I personally think the economy is going to be okay. In the longer terms, yes, it's going to take a while to come back.
Yoni Mazor 42:22
Why do you think that is, though? If I want to touch it for a little point, like, why, why where's that, you know, your money, man, you work for a company that has a lot, you know, their, you know, their liquidity? You know, there is massive liquidity, they just said, you know, so from your perspective, I think it comes from a financial organization. What is the confidence level that you have? Where's it generating from?
TJ Hylan42:24
I think, you know, we should be in a really good spot, because we deal in the digital world. So if we were dealing with all retail businesses, I would be a little more worried. Got it. But everyone right now only, or most people right now only have the ability to buy things aside from groceries online. So if you're, if I'm looking to buy anything, I have to go online to buy. So us working with sellers, us working, you know, we on our enterprise side of the business I touched on earlier, we work with freelancers. So unfortunately, if if staffs are going to have to make budget cuts, you know, potentially, that's in the US, and they might look to hire either remote staff in the US for less cost less overhead, you know, don't necessarily have to play benefits and all that, or they can go for probably a cheaper option. And, you know, Philippines or Ukraine or Vietnam, who said the cost reduction elements, you know, for the digital world, you guys are simply accommodating that ecosystem, because you help them you know, reduce their costs and foreign exchange. And once they're trying to reduce their costs by not having, you know, staff on payroll, but they can outsource that when you come in into the picture helping them you know, process those payments. So one of the elements of cost reduction isn't to play in the digital age. For you, that means growth. Am I correct?
TJ Hyland 43:45
Yes.Yeah, Yeah.
Yoni Majzor 43:47
The brick and mortar, like he said, so in the digital world, when, you know, other brick and mortar businesses, are anybody trying to become more efficient on, you know, transferring their funds, it's easy, no brainer, they need to process payments on a global level, because, you know, they don't want to get somebody locally, when they could potentially I was just better talent, not saying the same talent, even better talent out, you know, somewhere else? And, you know, yeah, much, much less, this is a viable option that I think, you know, every organization should seriously consider now because they just want to be cheap and get the same thing for less, right, want to get something better. And if that's even less, by all means, but when they do that, they turn to you as a platform to accommodate that. And like I said, this is a case that's usually a momentum of growth through you guys.
TJ Hyland 44:36
Yeah, I mean, obviously, we would love if, if the economy was up here and where it was, you know, two, three months ago, and, you know, everyone's selling and everyone's buying and, you know, all the engines are turning but, you know, in certain situations like right now, you know, I think we are still pretty primed and in a good position to, to help these businesses and to help the overall economy because we have such a wide web and to help them fight through the storm and you know, whether it's June July August that you know things start to roll back to usual whatever that means or the norm...
Yoni 45:07
There is not going to be unusual anymore let's say 2021 will change and the global economy has changed hopefully for the better you know the first years you're not gonna see it but like you said that confidence level that it's gonna bounce around and things will be a bit different but that different hopefully be in a much better different. So, I want to kind of recap two points you touched: you know the message of resilience. The first part was you know for the sellers remember who you are and the fact that you are sellers and you become successful sellers, okay you know, yeah the entrepreneur spirit and you able to pull all these levers to get to the point of success and you will hyperdynamic throughout the whole time count on that that these are the same type of elements will help you you know, pass the storm either by you know, you know create creating new offerings or finding new ways to cut costs or whatever it is so you can rely on that. And the second thing is you know, the second point that we touch I want to kind of repackage in such a way, in this format. This is gonna because of the brick and mortar world you know, got shut down in e-commerce in the digital world will have to grow and that's it This is the moment we're just gonna explode and if you guys are in it already you know you might having kids right now but because it's going to explode right now is just going to keep you know exploding because more and more people will be used to it consumers new layers of ages or consumers 50 years old 60 year old 70-year-old 80-year-old had no other choice to buy online and then to buy online just to survive and now they're there that's a new blood into the system and you will be able to serve that blood very very soon. Okay, meaning you guys are service providers, at Payoneer and also the sellers themselves so you know hang on to your at your forte you know do whatever you can to survive the storm but once you know the dust will settle on this particular industry commerce in digital commerce. Yep, it's gonna be hopefully good news. So that is I want to repackage your message into these few components. So you know, viewers can take it with a sense of confidence and unbelief and really march forward towards their future success hopefully. All right, last words you know, I say goodbye to people you know, give you a count of your blessings.
TJ Hylan 47:12
Yeah, Yoni, I really appreciate you having us GETIDA Prime Talk, you know, you're doing really good things for the community. And happy to be here and continue to do this into the 2020 post-pandemic into 2021, whatever…
Yoni Mazor 47:25
And Beyond the Payoneer, beyond and beyond now, you got a new name that you guys represent beyond you know, this is the Virtual Summit May 27. You know, it's called the beyond, you know, I guess, teleconference virtual conference. Yeah, make sure you are there. Once again, thank you so much. You know, everybody, stay safe, stay healthy. Good luck and all the best, signing out. Take care
