I spent my career inside the embedded payments system. I built payments products at FreedomPay, launching real-time payments and Zelle at TD Bank, running a neobank portfolio at InComm, and leading product for a PE-backed vertical SaaS platform where embedded payments was the single largest revenue driver in the portfolio.
Across all of it, the same pattern repeated: platforms know payments is a revenue opportunity, but the advice available comes from people with a financial stake in which processor you choose. The guidance is good enough to get you started and bad enough to cost you millions over a five-year horizon.
Margin Labs exists because I got tired of watching platforms make decisions based on processor sales decks instead of independent analysis. I've sat on both sides. Negotiating with Fiserv and FIS as a buyer, building connectivity into processors as a vendor, and running the P&L that lives or dies on the net take rate. That's the perspective I bring to every engagement.
The through-line across everything I've built: payments revenue follows product experience. You can choose the right model, negotiate the best spread, and sign the right processor. None of it matters if merchants don't activate, transactions don't flow, and the product doesn't make payments feel like a natural part of the workflow. The platforms that win on payments win because product and payments are the same conversation, not two separate roadmaps.