Joining us now for an interview here at Money 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Diego Scotti, general manager of consumer at PayPal, and Anker Jane, founder and CEO at Built.
Gentlemen, welcome.
Great to have you both.
Good to see you.
And right after a huge announcement here on the Money 2020 stage, let me lay out a few of these line items to make sure I got them right beginning next year, 2026.
Users can #1 pay rent or mortgages directly through Venmo or the built app.
Number 2, use their Venmo balance for those payments.
And number 3, get rewards with all the neighborhood merchants already in the built network.
My listen to us.
I got it.
We pay attention.
My big question first, how and why.
So let's start with the why for either.
And I wanna take this.
Why is this the next iteration for this?
I, I, I tell you we are, uh, very focused on bed mode to create, uh, in a commerce experiences because what our customers are telling us is that they want to shop and do more things in the app, not only paying friends and family, but also, for example, paying rent.
When you look at the categories that our customers, uh, pay every month.
Rent mortgage #1.
85 million transactions on mortgages went on last year on Venmo only, so we thought that it was a natural, uh, partnership for these two brands to come together.
And then talk to me about the how, how is this actually gonna come together and what does this look like for the user experience?
This is, this is the key.
Everything about the way Venmo operates and build operates is how do you make everything around your home and neighborhood seamless and rewarding.
And now from the moment you move into a new apartment building.
You will instantly see your apartment balance in the Venmo app.
You can pay with your Venmo, split it with your roommates, but the utilities, the rent, walk down the street, get your first dinner in the neighborhood, have your itemized receipt synced right back into your Venmo app, split that with your friends. everything in the built neighborhood now is possible to pay with through Venmo and for us to have that customer base have an even more seamless experience where you live and get rewarded both with points and building your credit.
I mean think about it, you move into college, you move into your first college apartment which is likely a built property.
Now you can build your credit, earn rewards points all by just paying with Venmo.
The rest of us on the outside of these deals, we see the headlines, we see the relationships, and we scratch our heads, we say how did, how did this all come together?
Can you both take me back to the genesis of either how you two personally met or how you two firms recognized early on that this could really be something.
It's a great question because girls laughing this way.
No, no, because I don't know what he's lost, but no, but partnerships start with with people.
I'm glad that you mentioned that and, and the conversation, the first conversation that we had about this started as that, wait, wait a second, we have the same.
Target audience, the same customer base we have two incredible powerful brands that our customers love that truly truly love and then when we talk about decision around a product experience that is seamless that is innovative, and that allows the customer to do all of that we said.
And this is a natural evolution, uh, for us to keep talking and and and create this type of partnership and I tell you it wasn't only just because we like each other or because we thought it was a big part of it though I need that part, yeah, but, but also because it's very complimentary so when Ant was talking about.
Well now, uh, customers are gonna be able to split the rent, for example, with their friends that was something that is very core to the experience with them when we said well that should be core to the experience that we create together.
I mean look, everything new is old, right?
And I think one of the things you see is what are customers already doing and we were seeing customers in Venmo paying their rent.
We were seeing our built customers ask about Venmo.
And the capabilities that we had around seamlessly integrating with your building, rewards, credit building combined with the Venmo seamlessness of payments together then we said wait a second why are we creating friction between these systems?
Let's just bring it together so again you move in.
It'll match your Venmo account automatically.
I mean, that's the magic, right?
There's no setting up a card or a bank account or pulling up a account number and routing number, all these complexities that require you have to do today to move into an apartment building.
Now you just move in, fill out your forms, see your balance, open up your VenM app and pay.
But you mentioned those complexities.
I would argue they're likely.
A lot a lot more difficult on the backdrop of a general economic environment of uncertainty where we're seeing consumers and I imagine you're both trying to target they're pulling back on discretionary spending.
They see the headlines about macroeconomic pressure.
How do you hope you further alleviate some of those pain points that undoubtedly millions of Americans are already feeling if for no other reason than we're still in a relatively high interest rate environment?
Well, 1st, 1st of all, let me add when you talk about Vermo, uh, we're focused on those categories that are expenditures that our customers need to do anyway.
That's right.
So when you look at it again, uh, mortgages and paying rent, that's the number one category for our for our customers.
So in a way what we're trying to do is, uh, making sure that we add value to that both in terms of the experience but also the rewards, for example, that always is putting money back in.
The wallets of our of our customers within a way address really the problem that you're talking about yeah and by the way, so you think about the other side of the equation when the economy is having challenges, merchants and property managers and mortgage companies are investing even more to try to bring that business in and a lot of that money today is spent on things that don't give the customer direct value.
And so today with Built you have 45,000 merchants running off the Built loyalty platform.
You have over 5 million homes running off the B loyalty platform.
And now they can more seamlessly give value directly to the customer through our connected rewards ecosystem.
So whether that's an apartment building, giving you a reward for signing a lease and then welcoming you by taking care of your dinner down the street or taking care of your gym membership at your gym in the neighborhood and you as a customer being able to walk up, pay with Venmo, have that credit applied all seamlessly, that's the power of connecting the neighborhood with the customers directly.
And as, as you said, rent, groceries, dining, those things aren't going away as expensive as I mean I wish there and, and consumers and merchants, that's another, uh, point of connection between the two, companies.
We have the consumers, we have our merchants and the secrets also of PayPal is on the double sided network, the same thing in the way they operates their business between the property owners and the and the consumers, and that is. a very special way of creating value by connecting those two audiences.
Yeah, so here here at Money 2020 in Vegas we're all about the future of money, the future of these fintech relationships.
How do you both envision starting in 2026 and beyond after this newly announced partnership, what is the future of money, the future of payments look like from where you're both positioned after today's announcement?
Well, I'll just say one thing.
And what we hope for is that for our customers with Venmo it is so seamless you don't even have to think about it and then Diego can worry about how to handle the money movement.
We just, we just partner with Venmo and make it easy to pay your rent and your dining and your groceries and all your gym all in one ecosystem with Van Noy bills.
Yeah.
I would say two things.
The more uh technology keeps advancing crypto agentte whatever whatever uh technology goes, uh, the connection with the customer, the emotional connection with the customer that surrounds, uh, trust, value and ultimately love in terms of the connection between the brand and the customer is something that is gonna be critical for.
This year, next year, and 10 years from now Bild understands that PayPal and Venmo understands that and, and that's what you're gonna see us play investing in innovation, investing in technology, investing in distribution, a most important way investing in that connection with the customer.
That's amazing.
Diego Anker, congratulations on a figure here in Vegas.
Thanks a lot for sitting down with us, Scott.
It's to see you.
Thank you for having us.
