AffiniPay: Practice Management & Fintech for Professionals

00:05From NASDAQ's Market site,

00:07I'm your host, Christina Anan.

00:09And joining me today is CEO of Afinipe, Drew Armstrong.

00:14Drew, thank you for joining us.

00:15Welcome to NASDAQ. Thank you for having me. Great to have you.

00:19Now, Afinipe serves over 245,000 customers across the legal and accounting industries.

00:24Talk to me about your products and your customer base. Yeah.

00:27So we provide the most essential workflow software.

00:31So thank core practice management that folks are using

00:33to run their practice as well as their core financial services.

00:37So we started in digital payments,

00:39so allowing people to collect for invoices,

00:42using digital payments, think credit cards.

00:44And then we branched into other FinTech products.

00:46So thank, pay later, we brought it into our markets,

00:49et cetera.'ve had tremendous growth over the past 20 years,

00:52including being named in Inc 5,000 fastest growing private companies.

00:56Congratulations. Thank you.

00:58And you've had a three year revenue growth of 217%.

01:01That's unheard of. What attributes to your success?

01:04Well, I think we put our customers first, right?

01:06And I think as a CEO,

01:09the thing I focus on is the product mindset,

01:11or you're saying, so what are the core pain points that our customers have?

01:15And if we provide them solutions that solve them really,

01:18really uniquely, and they love them,

01:20and they trust us, then they're going to let us do more for them.

01:23And so the core for our success has just been

01:26earning that right to keep providing them with new solutions.

01:29And that's driven a lot of growth for us.

01:31It really is that partnership approach with your customers.

01:34100%. I think what you find anytime you're serving

01:37a small firm is that they are really in business to take care of their clients, right?

01:44My dad was an attorney,

01:45and it was very much a calling for him to provide core legal services,

01:49and running the practice is almost an afterthought.

01:52And so, for us, we try to take all of the burden

01:55away by giving them really easy to use core software,

01:58and then putting all the core financial services in line in the product,

02:02so really you can run your practice out of a box, right?

02:05And that lets them take their time and energy and focus it on their client work.

02:09It's amazing. And, in turn, you're attracting great investors.

02:12You recently had a new round of investment from Jens Sar.

02:14What does this mean for the company's future?

02:16The thing that I loved about Gens Sar is they could really

02:19see the vision of what a modern practice could look like.

02:23So think about it as kind of all your core workflows,

02:26NAI, live in practice management,

02:29all your core embedded financial services solutions,

02:32while maintaining world class customer service and support.

02:36And so what it means for us is more product investment,

02:40new verticals, new embedded financial services solutions

02:44or FinTech products, if you want.

02:46And so it's really a lot more of the same,

02:48and so expect us to continue to invest in ways that

02:51our customers love that will just drive more growth.

02:55And frankly, I think when you take care of your customers and your team,

02:58that takes care of the investors.

03:00That's amazing. We touched on product expansion. You mentioned AI.

03:04You have a new product, Smart spend,

03:05and you've expanded in Puerto Rico. Can you talk to me about this?

03:08Yeah, so Smart Spend is our next big FinTech product.

03:13And so we started on the accounts payable side.

03:16Obviously, we had digital payments.

03:18We brought pay later into the market.

03:20This is our first accounts receivable side.

03:22So really, the ability for an attorney to go

03:25after all the customer expenses that they're incurring on an ongoing basis.

03:29So think, I take one of my clients out to lynch.

03:31I incur court fees. It allows them in a very modern kind of

03:36card program management way to drop that directly onto

03:39an invoice so that they know that they're going to get paid back by their clients.

03:42And so when we talk to attorneys,

03:44there's not only is it really hard for them to track all their time,

03:48but to track and recapture those expenses is

03:50a massive form of financial leakage for them.

03:53And so this really brings modern promise of think of Brex or ramp,

03:58but in a really verticalized way,

04:00specific for the professional.

04:02So we're super excited about it.

04:04We're partnering excuse me with Marquetta and Visa to bring that to market.

04:08The other thing that you mentioned is Generative AI.

04:10I think it's hard to talk about Generative AI

04:13and not look at the legal vertical as being one,

04:15and, frankly, the accounting vertical,

04:16where there's massive transformational opportunities at

04:19the core of it Practice Management transforms how people spend time.

04:23Usually, you get 10 hours back a week today,

04:26just using our practice management platform.

04:28With GN AI, we see the opportunity to increase that significantly.

04:32And You know, we're building out lots of different use cases,

04:35think document summarization, think in line drafting in a really smart and efficient way.

04:40And we've seen just massive appetite from our clients to, on one hand,

04:45get the power of NAI,

04:46but to do it with a really high trust partner in a product that they're already using.

04:51So we think it's going to be really transformational for us.

04:54It really is that holistic end to end approach.

04:56Exactly. It's back to the idea that,

04:58you know, people are lawyers and accountants to take care of their clients.

05:02They're not technologists, right?

05:03So the number one thing that we can do is basically give

05:07them all the tech innovation that they need without them ever having to think about.

05:11It's kind of like hiding your spinach,

05:12right for your kids in your smoothie or your muffin.

05:15They don't even know that they're getting it.

05:17And so we really like to be that partner,

05:20the tech partner that is going to help them future proof their practice.

05:23That's amazing. It's taking that heavy lifting off of

05:25their plate that they know they even have or need,

05:29and you're there as that support system.

05:31One thing we've been talking a lot with our clients about is

05:34what does financial wellness for you and your practice look like?

05:38So many of these are entrepreneurs,

05:40they're running small firms.

05:42Their families depend on them.

05:43And so how do we really help you think across

05:46software and financial services to make

05:49sure that you have the healthiest practice possible?

05:51You get the most time back possible,

05:53which means you can bill more, you can get more free time.

05:56And so it's really that opportunity to transform their practice in partnership with them.

06:01Your story is also so impressive as a female CEO.

06:05You were American bankers most influential women in FinTech for 2024, key executives,

06:10top 25 CEOs list for 2024,

06:13and you were named in Austin Business Journals,

06:15Top CEO in Austin for 2024.

06:18That is absolutely incredible.

06:20Talk to me what it's like to be a female CEO,

06:22particularly in the FinTech space,

06:24where there is that gender gap.

06:26Yeah. So the thing I think a lot about is as a tech CEO,

06:31what you're really trying to do is empathize with your clients and

06:35think about how all the innovation that is happening in the technology world.

06:39We talked about GNI, I think FinTech,

06:41there's a massive verticalization opportunity.

06:43We've ridden the Cloud wave,

06:45right, the SAS wave.

06:47And so part of what I love to do is spend time with my customers and

06:52really understand what are the things that

06:54they feel like are holding them back in their practice back?

06:57And how do we marry technology with their core needs?

07:01And I think as a woman CEO, you know,

07:04the ability to empathize and the ability to really listen,

07:07and then the ability to galvanize a team around that,

07:10I think is super powerful.

07:12I think my hope is that there's going to be many,

07:14many more female CEOs coming up through the ranks.

07:17One thing that we're super proud of is we have over 40% of our team are women at A FNIPe,

07:23and that's across all of our areas of our organization.

07:27R&D FP&A, all the different areas.

07:30And so I think the way that you kind of get that sea change in terms of closing

07:35the gender gap at the CEO level is

07:37one continuing to value the things that our customers value,

07:40which is empathy and listening and building teams,

07:43and two giving women the opportunity to demonstrate that at scale and company.

07:48So I feel very honored and privileged,

07:51and my hope is that,

07:53you know, with people seeing me leading the charge,

07:56they'll take more chances and give more women the opportunity.

07:59That's incredible and so inspiring.

08:01And with that, we know the sky is the limit for you and for Aina P. Drew,

08:05thank you so much for joining us.

08:06Thank you so much for having me and.