Matchmakers

Karen Webster talks with John Tobis, CEO of the Bouqs, about why he thinks his direct-to-consumer and subscription model can make the company stand out in a crowded field — a move that requires payments to play a big role, given all the players involved. Sustainability is also part of the equation — but will consumer really catch on?

Younger consumers — reflecting larger trends — wanted weddings as unique as they are and Mayflower Venues shares how it steps up to the challenge.

In this episode of Matchmakers, Ibrahim Oladele, co-founder and CEO of Vesicash talks about why using a new payment process in Africa could encourage more online sales and build more trust around eCommerce.

Mapillary has created a platform that uses crowdsourcing to map the world’s streets – in real time. Machine learning and other technologies help transform images into information so that logistics become logical and even autonomous cars can learn on the road (literally) as Mapillary CEO Jan Erik Solem tells Karen Webster.

Down to Shop explains how a quirky, gamified infomercial format, with a heavy dose of home shopping, is getting people, especially Gen Z, to tune in and buy.

In this edition of PYMNTS Matchmakers, Paul Koullick of Keeper Tax discusses how digital technology can prevent workers from overpaying or underpaying taxes.

The world is becoming one big marketplace — even of the marketplace doesn’t always look like one.

The hunt for technical professional services can be frustrating - a situation exemplified by the world of electrical engineering where there are many more jobs that need doing that engineers obviously available to fill them. But, Freelancer.com CEO and Chairman Matt Barrie told Karen Webster, it’s a situation they’re working on with Arrow Electronics with a new platform that matchmakers electrical engineers to the jobs that need them.

Shots Box discusses its online subscription retail service, providing liquor samples from craft distilleries, and the opening of its own brick-and-mortar store.

Karen Webster talks with Landed’s Alex Lofton about a new way to bring home ownership to workers who make cities function.

While most people are familiar with toting a utility bill to the DMV when it’s time to get a new license, most of us don’t look at it as a potentially powerful tool. The reason, Urjanet CEO Sanjoy Malik told Karen Webster, is that that information wasn’t able to be easily or directly share digitally. But a decade and six thousand utilities and added to the platform, he said, and they are aiming to change that in a big way.

In the newest edition of the PYMNTS Matchmakers interview series, Slyce CEO Ted Mann makes the case for why visual should take its place among the top retail tools.

Jitjatjo's marketplace platform offers hospitality and restaurant industry players access to vetted workers on demand, seeking to attract and pay talent well.

HoneyBook was built to be an all-in-one platform for solo entrepreneurs, linking every step of the business process from proposal to invoice and payments.

Spring brings three things consistently every year - birds, flowers and home buyers. And, according to Homelight COO Sumant Sridharan, 2019 is shaping up to be a busier than expected year.

Given the rather distressing news out of physical retail in earl 2019 - Neighborhood Goods plan to re-invent the department store might seem strange. But according to CEO Matt Alexander, consumers don’t hate department stores, they hate what they’ve become.

In the U.K., says Labour Xchange Co-Founder Jonathan Key in the latest Matchmakers podcast, millions of people are underemployed. Matching ad hoc employees with work they want to do and employers who need them right away can help create sustainable career paths, he said, while paying them living wages. Thus an anomaly in startup land: A trade union-backed online marketplace.

Wearables are hot, and are moving beyond fitness tracking to take on more payment and authentication tasks. But there are more to wearables than devices that wrap around consumers’ wrists. In this episode of Matchmakers, Tejash Unadkat, CEO at Motiv, tells Karen Webster why rings can give users more comfort, and can enable all sorts of tasks vital to daily consumer living in this digital world — tasks that include can include biometrics. https://www.pymnts.com/news/wearables/2019/with-this-ring-i-thee-pay-and-buy-and-authenticate/