People

THE ENTREPRENEUR’S ENTREPRENEUR

PayCertify took off when CEO Chase Harmer found an easy way for e-commerce sites to add more profit to their bottom line through rebates on their processing fees and marketing expenses. Now he’s offering hope to aspiring entrepreneurs via a podcast.

Unless you’re managing the backend of an e-commerce site, PayCertify is not a household name. The company’s financial technology solution which, as the name implies, verifies an online buyer did knowingly make a purchase, and is blazing past bulky legacy integrations previously required for online stores.

They also offer another unique value: the ability to virtually eliminate all credit card processing fees. The service makes life easier for retailers big and small, something PayCertify CEO Chase Harmer says is key to their success.

“We are specifically for merchants. The bigger that you become, the more you have to do to protect yourself,” he says of online stores.

Hackers and other scammers are one thing, but Harmer observes another need: online hotel reservations. People make reservations online, but then never show up or check-in. When the person receives a no-show charge, they would claim they never made the reservation. Harmer says retailers have the same problem when consumers deny they ever received items ordered and later used. PayCertify helps to eliminate this and collect what is rightfully owed.

Unlike other payments companies that give the consumer the benefit of the doubt in nearly every refund request, PayCertify puts merchants first. They also have created a proprietary Fee Rebate Generator, and Media Rebate Generator, which enables merchants to eliminate up to 100% of their processing fees and add up to 10% to their bottom-line net profit. While other merchant processors struggle to integrate their systems with less features in under a month, PayCertify can do it with a couple of lines of JavaScript.

“All of our tools become accessible. That’s the cool thing about our platform,” Harmer says. No big installation, no slowing of momentum. “We’re silent partners. No one knows we are there,” he says.

PayCertify, which he describes as “much more robust than any of the other top three major payment processors,” processes payments, mitigates fraud and enables sites to act as their own credit card issuer, notably with rates as low as one percent.

“It is at the core of what we do,” he says, adding that the low one percent rate has made them a popular choice, compared to others offering 2.4 percent. “It’s a big difference for anyone,” but also something not found anywhere else.

PayCertify took off when CEO Chase Harmer found an easy way for e-commerce sites to add more profit to their bottom line through rebates on their processing fees and marketing expenses.

As his company strives to help e-commerce companies adapt to ever-changing markets and evolving threats, Harmer himself has found yet more success in a different place: on air.

His podcast Beta2Boss has been inspiring entrepreneurs and other business-minded professionals for nearly two years. It features interviews between the charismatic Harmer and other notable CEO’s who made it big in a compelling way. On his podcast, everyone has a story to tell.

“We started the podcast for entrepreneurs,” says Harmer, who wishes he knew then that he knows now. “I never had a mentor and I’ve made every mistake in the book, so I wanted to put something out there.” People just starting in business, he says, are faced with daily challenges, both external and internal. “You really doubt yourself, nothing is going right. We wanted to make it so people could learn from my mistakes, and also learn from other stories that are motivational.”

Beta2Boss has nearly 50 podcasts available on its website and the eponymous Instagram page boasts over 100,000 followers. “I think we should be over 200,000 in the next few months. People are looking for quality podcasts. We have good content and great guests.”

Harmer, like many of his podcast guests, is a self-made man. He was on a track scholarship to Cal Poly when he decided to leave school and go to work. A college degree isn’t necessarily a must-have for those who want to be their own boss, he says, and he applies that to his current employees. “I never look at resumes. I’m more concerned about who the person is and how hard they’re willing to work.” A college degree on its own, he says, won’t get you to the next level.

After 20 years in a variety of financial technology businesses, the future is exciting to Harmer. Artificial intelligence is something he believes will change the world around us. “There’s so much information. Why are we gathering information? We want to service the consumer. AI will gather intelligence to service consumers better in the future,” he states, and in the payment industry, he believes it will help customers make more accurate and efficient decisions. The innovating companies who use or develop AI “are going to be so much more aggressive and change the game for so many different businesses,” he says. “There’s always something new.”

In the meantime, Harmer’s focus is on his podcast and how PayCertify can help his clients cut processing costs and boost its overall revenue. “Our mission is to help 10,000 entrepreneurs. Cross that off the list. Once we have 10,000, I’ll be happy. It’s a landmark goal.” He gives himself two years to do it.

Victoria Kertz, Staff Writer, California Business Journal

In addition to writing for CBJ, Victoria has written for Laguna Beach Magazine, Newport Beach Independent, Saute Magazine, The Fullest, Local Dish Magazine and Blue Sky The Color of Imagination. She holds a business degree from Appalachian State University.