The Blueprint for Modern Business Growth with Albert Howard

Welcome to the Biz to Biz Podcast, your number one source for all business news. Hey, hey everybody, welcome to today's episode of B2B Vault sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems and our new product NPS One, the smart platform that does smart invoicing, payment links, and more to help you run your business. And today we have a special guest. All the guests are special. And, you know, I love diving in and talking to different entrepreneurs that are in the fintech industry, things that business owners need to know about, products business owners need to know about. And banking is always a subject that intrigues me. And I've been to some banking conferences and people always ask me about banks. Where can I bank? And all different questions like that. So I like learning about banking. And today we got the banker Albert Howard from Mini Branch, and this is a brand new product. And Albert, welcome to the show.

Allen, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me. You're right. I guess all guests are special. I'm just— I just happen to be today's special guest, so I look forward to it.

So tell us a little bit about like, where are you guys located?

Yeah, so we're located just outside of Greenville, South Carolina, and we are, as you mentioned, a fintech company. We kind of specialize in building out a communications platform, all right, that offers things like live chat, video chat, audio chat, texting, virtual assistant, chatbots, all those things for the banking industry. My specific kind of focus is on credit unions in particular.

Yeah, I went to a drive-through ATM one day at the bank Actually, all of a sudden there was somebody on the screen, right? And I looked to see if it was somebody inside the bank, but it wasn't.

Yes, you're right. Yeah, you got to experience, uh, what is the interactive teller machines, the, the ITMs. And, uh, yeah, in fact, I'll tell you, we actually see many different financial institutions when they find out about mini branch. If they have not gone down that ITM path, then they are going to the mini branch path that provides that connection. And the nice thing, Allen, is it's on every single one of their existing ATMs, so they don't even have to buy any special equipment like they do with the ATM. They can launch MiniBranch on any of their existing ATMs and any new ATMs they bring on. So they absolutely love it.

Well, that's crazy. So you're talking about like the ATMs that are, you know, FI, financial institution, not the ones like we put out, like in a bar or restaurant. Not so.

So just so you know, it's both. And so it can actually be, you know, applied. We actually, just so you know, we actually have an ATM company. It is called A1 ATM. It is a sister company of ours. And so, you know, our ATM company has thousands of ATMs across the country. And wherever that credit union or bank in some cases wants to deploy an ATM, we do have some in bars and in restaurants and in municipal locations and in conference centers and, anywhere that you can imagine. They call them— the credit unions call them SEGs, Select Employee Groups, and the banks call them at-work locations. Those are going to be the manufacturers, distribution centers, call centers, those kind of things. And yeah, I could work on any of those ATMs as well.

Oh, that's really cool because, you know, ATM, you know, ATMs are great because that provides financial access, you know, all over places. And especially when you get outside of a city in a rural area. You know, ATMs. Like, we worked with a small, um, bank up in— they're like way out, way outside of Atlanta, and we service an ATM in the mall there for them.

Nice.

An ATM in the mall so that people, you know, we provide the cash loading service through our relationship.

Yes, exactly.

To get their ATM loaded in the mall. Yep.

Oh my gosh, uh, I didn't even— I wasn't even familiar with that piece of your business, Allen. I think that is, uh, that's awesome and hilarious because you— if you dealt with armored car companies, like, you understand like the headache with that where sometimes they'll forget and leave a strap on the bills or those type of things. I know I see our ATM company folks, uh, they're sometimes following armored, whether it's Loomis or Garda or Brinks, to make sure that the units are up and running after they have, you know, cash loaded in and stuff?

Oh yeah, we follow— we have about 20 ATM locations, and then some of them are loaded by, um, by like, you know, by Brinks, and some of them are loaded by some other providers like you said. Or we even have, you know, ATM loaders because the locations are farther away from where they need to be.

Yes, exactly right. Exactly.

You know, Brinks would end up charging $500 to go and find a private loader that'll do it.

You're exactly right. That ATM may only make $250 once you factor in the surcharge, the interchange, and that Brinks is charging $500, or could be any armored company, not even to just pick on Brinks. But yeah, you're right. That is certainly where those individual loaders certainly come in handy or much better.

Yeah, you know, it's, it's an interesting business because it's like, you know, there's been a lot of, you know, one of the things with ATMs, and I know that the one ATM association, the one that's out of Jacksonville, NAC, you know, they've been trying to get ATM crimes to be federal, whether it's a bank or a private ATM. Yeah, I don't know, location. You know, that it's a federal crime to rob those ATMs. And I wish that that would happen already. And I don't know what the federal government's, uh, lack of—

yes, standing is.

You know, you're stealing money whether you're stealing it out of a hotel. Yep. Do it from the bank.

Exactly right.

You're still stealing financial institution money. Yep. And, uh, that's what's going on with that. So what inspired the the whole thing, because I saw— I was at a banking convention a couple of years ago, and the big thing they were trying to push on— there was a lot of companies trying to sell kiosks.

Yes.

I never really saw that kind of take off, this whole kiosk thing. So what inspired a mini bank?

Yeah, so, so mini branch. Wow. So what was it? So what inspired it? So let me take you back, uh, to 2020, right? Okay, so this is the height of COVID everything is happening. Many of these credit unions, they're losing access to their employee groups, they're losing access to be able to go and do account openings at these manufacturers, distribution centers, call centers, those type of things. And so they're already deploying ATMs. In many of these cases, they have ATMs on site to service these employees. And so they're like, you know, Albert, we love the idea of like an ITM, an interactive teller machine, what you yourself were able to experience with the person on the screen, but we just can't justify the cost. Albert, we're trying to get into these employee group locations, but we have no access. So that's what took us to the drawing board. Well, let's create a company that can help solve this and promote our ATM company as well as a differentiator that no other ATM company is able to say, hey, you don't like ITMs or because of the cost are ridiculous, we've got a solution. And so that is what took us to the drawing board there in Q4 of 2020, 2021, literally hundreds of hours in terms of thinking and building. And, um, I mean, just all of this, the parts that were involved with that. July of '22, we launched Mini Branch. In its initial concept, mini branch was created to help bring ATM business to A1 ATM or ATM company. And we actually launched an ATM for a credit union called Ironworkers USA Credit Union based out of Oregon, and they have an office in Washington State as well. Well, they launched an ATM 3,000 miles away in Boston, Massachusetts with mini branch integrated, being able to provide that instant connection. Now here's a really cool thing, Allen, is that That member or that customer, as banks would call them, all that they need to do is simply pull out their phone and scan that quick response code, that mini branch QR code that is applied on the screen or on the topper. It immediately launches our platform without the need of them to download any kind of plugins, ports, apps, or anything like that. So they're freeing up that ATM and now having that private conversation on their phone in a more private area, asking about how to get these overdraft fees refunded or how to join the credit union to become a member and those type of things. Allen, it was so successful that when I met with this credit union literally just last month at a conference in Savannah, Georgia, she said, "We have added over 4,000 new members." That is huge when you think of like where they were. I think they were at like, I don't know, 8,000 or so. Now they're just like absolutely crushing it. So that's a dramatic increase. And so it was so successful and she said, "Albert, if we can provide this level of communication and connection to members and potential members 3,000 miles from the closest branch, But now, bro, we want to apply this level of connection on everything. We want it on our print ads, we want it on our digital ads, we want it on apparel. And so sure enough, they ordered sweatshirts that said Bridging the Gap with a mini branch QR code on the sleeve that'll launch that immediate platform to provide instant connection to the credit union. And it was huge. And so this now at this point was about October of '22. We realized this was actually a lot bigger than what we had initially conceived. So many branches paused everything, all marketing, all branding, all conferences, relaunched in March of '23 with what you see now. So not only does it provide those ATM features without the ATM cost, but even the connection on the website, the live chat, the video chat, the texting for collections or loans and all of that. So it's been huge. And I will tell you, that was a huge differentiator from our ATM business as well. Like just the amount of banks and credit unions have been able to be added from that it was extremely successful. I mean, even year to date, A1 has added so many as well. But yeah, it's pretty good.

And the one thing is, is too, is that the, you know, credit unions can move a lot faster than a big bank because they're small. They're not like, you know, oh, we have this giant board of directors. Yeah, they can really get technology out in front of customers.

Sure.

A lot faster. And, you know, the smaller they are, probably the faster they're going to move because we've tried to deal with them before. Like, we had a meeting, we had meetings with, um, a bunch of small banks, credit unions, charter banks, and things like that. And we're talking to them, oh well, what are your problems with credit card processing, providing that to your client?

Yes.

And then they tell us Well, the biggest problem is when we see all our customers and we go to their locations, they're using Square, PayPal, other stuff because we have this whole long paperwork process, right? So I'm like, well, we could get you set up with our automated boarding, right? Yep. People can come in, click on the product that they want because we try to make it product-centric.

Yes.

Oh, I'm a nonprofit. Boom, here's what we have for nonprofit.

Yes.

Here, fill this out. And it's similar to, you know, boarding on Stripe, right? They just couldn't wrap their head around it. Yes. What do you mean there's no paperwork? What do you mean there's no paperwork? I mean, we have that with sales reps too. They're like, what do you mean you guys don't have paperwork? Yeah, there's no paperwork. There's no paperwork.

Seems too easy. Seems too easy.

Yeah, and I can imagine from the ATM perspective that that's going to, you know, attract credit unions or even, you know, credit unions to say, hey, you know, we want to have locations in convenience stores and, you know, how can we go to the convenience stores who use our banking services?

Exactly.

Get our ATM in there to get more business. You know, that way. Because obviously people, if they're going to go use an ATM, they want to use a free ATM. And if it's connected to a bank— yeah, credit union, like I was telling you we did for this one small bank— then they don't— they have, uh, free, you know, they get free ATM transactions.

Yes, I know, 100%. So we have another sister company of ours, it's called Get Branded. It's the largest ATM wrap design company that exists as well. Uh, you may be familiar with them. Um, I see you shaking your head. They're tremendous. And that has been Another big differentiator as well, we'll utilize their wraps. They use a patented material called Sharkskin. So it's tough, durable, doesn't peel, doesn't fade. And so we make sure like they understand that when we're out there even presenting to these credit unions or banks, we don't discriminate. We have both, especially on the ATM side, that we're representing their brand. We know that their brand is their greatest asset. And so they want it in a way that they feel happy and proud of it being represented. But yeah, I mean, just so you know, I mean, if there's any folks out there that own any ATMs, I would get that thing branded, put it branded with the— if it's a convenience store, Use their colors, their logos, but don't just leave it as a gray bland machine in the corner. We see when we put a brand, any brand, that it increases 20%. I mean, just month over month. But when you've got like a bank or a credit union brand on there, then it goes up dramatically and it just feels a lot more secure. To your point that it just feels a lot more safe. And then their members or their customers can also use it for free, those type of things. So that was our initial use case, Allen, was the ATM kind of focused to promote against selfishly our ATM company. ManyBranch doesn't care. We've actually partnered with multiple ATM companies to help give them a differentiator to go out there and win some FI business. So it's not like it is just, you know, A1 anymore. But yeah, so that happens to be now probably one of our smallest components because our virtual assistant that understands over 200 languages, it's there on their website, being able to help members and customers in some of these underserved communities. We see that now one of the top favorite, you know, features, the texting, as I mentioned, for collections or to remind them for payments or marketing. We see that as another top feature. Um, so a lot of these other features now, including on the website or online banking, those have taken off even a lot further and higher than that ATM piece. And don't get me wrong, Allen, it is not even where it's an ATM or mini branch. As you know, being in the ATM space, for somebody to get their first ATM, credit union or bank, you're talking over $100 grand for that first unit. You've got to do a core integration, you got check image processor, you've got all of these moving parts components. Plus the hardware itself. Uh, and, uh, yeah, and then you're looking at tens of thousands for each additional unit that you roll out. So we actually do have— I think of like a bank in Tennessee, a fairly large bank, good-sized bank, that partnered with MiniBranch to complement their ATM strategy. So they said, we've got ATMs in some of these bigger markets, bigger areas, particularly on our branches, but we've got all of these other standalone walk-up ATMs that are spread all throughout the state. We want to provide that level of connection. And in many cases, what they'll do is they'll test it out to justify the expense. If we see a heavy usage in this area, then we know let's put an ATM out there. Otherwise, now it complements their ATM strategy. They've got over 20 ATMs at this particular bank. So yeah, it's great. Like I said, we work with both. My particular focus happens to be on, on the credit unions with their community focus. I have worked for 4 different community-sized banks as well. I much more prefer somebody to go to a community bank if they're not with the credit union or credit union is not nearby, than one of the large big banks that you're just a number, you know, to them.

Yes. Like, you know, text messaging has been a— especially with Zelle, has been like a big problem in the past. So— but you guys are not passing— collecting any payments through there, right? You're just reminding—

No, exactly right. No, we're simply using like the links to other companies such as MessagePay or whoever it is that Chris is that credit union may be utilizing where they collect their payments from. And so that's all that that is. So it's not— I mean, yeah, you're talking about like a lot of the Zelle fraud that's like from a fraudster that's like, hey, log in here, right? Yeah, no, nothing like that.

So they're actually communicating that, you know, in multi-language is important because, you know, even one of the POS vendors we work with, we get a lot of people that you know, that their employ— maybe they speak English, but then their employees speak, you know, are Asian descent or—

Yes, exactly right.

And, you know, so they've all, you know, they added a Spanish help desk last year. That's helped us gain, um, gain customers. And now they added, uh, Asian, uh, like 5 different Asian languages. Yes. And, you know, when their employees call up, they able to get what they call the language line and press the button for what they want and the person answering the phone speaks their language.

Yeah, no, that's kind of similar to this. The nice thing about this is that the virtual assistant is able to understand the language that they're reaching out to. So whether it's Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Ukrainian, Russian, whatever it may be, that virtual assistant chatbot on that credit union or bank's website is able to understand and speak back to them in their language. But we also have a built-in language translator for the team members of that credit union as well. So that if they're only English speakers or again, a community bank, if they're only English speakers, but somebody's reaching out talking to them in another language, it will automatically translate for them in English. They could respond back in English and it translates back to them in their language as well. So eliminating all language barriers, giving them the ability to truly serve some of these underserved communities for sure.

That's amazing. You know, with AI and all the things that AI can do today.

Yes.

You know, we're seeing like, I'm sure some of this is AI, what you're using.

Oh, for sure. Yes, absolutely.

Yep. You know, AI is just amazing at what, what you can do from a, from a technology standpoint of doing things. Like, we see companies putting AI into the frequently asked questions area.

Yes.

And they might have 1,000 pages of documentation, but the, the user can just type in their question, and instead of searching through the whole 1,000—

exactly right—

the AI can look it up and go, oh, how do I an employee and boom, they're—

Exactly.

So, you know, these things are super, super important. So you say no credit union left behind. So how is that? What, you know, what do you expect to see out of credit unions in the next couple of years with this?

Yeah, certainly. I mean, so, you know, what we've been witnessing is a huge consolidation within the financial industry space. In fact, you know, even on social media today, I saw another bank merging with another bank. I think just last week there was another one merging with Comerica. So you're seeing it, and it's not even just the credit unions, it's even in the banks as well. You take a look at where they were in the '70s, kind of at the height, they had, you know, tens of thousands, you know, close to 12,000, 15,000 each, and then to where they are now, just over 4,000. So you are seeing a consolidation. And when you take a look at some of the top reasons why, whether it's a bank or credit union, again, my focus, why they merge, one of the top 3 reasons is access to technology for our members. And so what we're doing is we're We're completely eliminating that excuse where the only option is no longer to go and find a bigger credit union or God forbid a bigger bank if they are a credit union or even a smaller community bank to now be able to provide access to that latest in technology. So now with mini branch with a mission, with a focus of ensuring that no credit union is left behind, it's giving every single one of them the ability to have access to the latest in technology, but at a price point that they can afford. So that's who we built this out for. That's who our focus is on.

And yeah, it's been, It's been great. Yeah, I think, you know, when a lot of people, when they look at, you know, oh, where do I go for banking? And it's on you. It's really like we've seen the shift, like in business. So you have people that own businesses and, you know, you were talking about like employees. So, you know, sometimes, you know, a business, let's just say like a large manufacturer or a large call center or some kind of warehouse operation, and they decide Okay, we're going to bank at XYZ Credit Union. Now they could go to that credit union and go, okay, well, we have 1,000 or 500 employees in this business.

Yes.

We want to encourage them. The credit union could say, hey, well, we want to encourage you to get all these people to open up their bank account at our credit union. And now they could deploy, you know, an ATM and— yes, location to service people so they don't have to drive or call or get online to go deal with the bank.

Exactly right. No, and I'll tell you, that has been a huge differentiator. I worked in the bank in the branches for close to 10 years, and we, as we're, you know, one of dozens of other financial institutions in the area that are looking to try to get into these same manufacturers, these same distribution centers, these same call centers, as all the other banks down the road, as all the other credit unions down the road, honestly, as every other little, uh, life insurance agent, like all of these people want to have access to the employees. And so you've got the gatekeeper is there. And I'll tell you, I think one thing that set us apart early on was, man, we would spoil that gatekeeper. We'd go in there letting them know we're bringing donuts. It's a good tip for anybody else. And we would ask that specific gatekeeper like, hey, what, what's your favorite kind of donut, right? Like, we would make them feel special where it was a huge differentiator. We're not just trying to talk over them or who's your boss. We want to talk to them, man. They're the ones that would open up that door for us, setting up those meetings, bringing us on site for different health benefits and all these other things that they'd have. For the employees. And so that was huge. Not only that, but then we partnered with— when I was working at a local community bank, it was called Park Sterling Bank, got merged into another one called South State Bank. We used A1 ATM, the ATM company that I went to go work for, to deploy ATMs inside of these manufacturers, inside of these distributions, inside of these call centers. And I will tell you, no other bank or credit union can compete with us at that level because we now claimed that location. We planted our flag there., and we had full access. And I'll tell you, Allen, it was a lot easier to convince the employees to come bank with me when they can use that ATM fee-free, um, than it was for any of the other folks that were trying to convince them. It's like, well, you can't use it for free, but you could come down the road and we've got a location 3 miles down the road. It's like, dude, I've got one right here for you. Uh, and so yeah, that— just having that ability is tremendous. From our ATM company, we understood the value of that. And even from our ATM company's perspective, we would go and put ATMs inside of those manufacturers, distribution centers, call centers, these outwork locations or SEGs. And then we would then talk to the HR folks and let them know that there is also a way that their employees can use it for free. Do you have a local credit union or bank in your area that you work with? And if so, we'll go and talk to them. We— if they didn't, we would always go find a local credit union, partner that up. And now that credit union loved it. So now they're branding that ATM. We're doing a bin block to ensure that it's free for their members. And now they have access because HR is like, oh, absolutely, my employees would love that. And you tell me it costs me nothing. Now they're able to come over here and sign up all of these. I'm talking, we just did one in Pennsylvania, over 500 employees that's getting ready to be installed in a couple of weeks. And so now this credit union has access to over 500 employees. When you think of like a growth and scaling like ability, I mean, it just opens up so many doors. It's amazing.

No, it's definitely a big opportunity for like credit unions, small regional community banks.

Absolutely.

It's a huge opportunity because I think, you know, I always split up my customers into this like age group category. So we say, okay, 40 and above wants this and the people that are younger want more technology, right? Right. And the people 40 and above, they want to go to the bank. It's like I was saying to somebody, when was the last time you wrote a check? And I was talking to— I asked, I asked like a bunch of business owners. Yeah. When's the last time you wrote a check? And, you know, some of them say, well, I write checks all the time because I have clients that don't— they only want to— they only want a check or they want an ACH, and we don't want to send ACHs, right? Spend money on a wire. So we write them a check. And I was like, wow, that's That's crazy. And I said, I probably write less than 10 checks in a year.

Yes, exactly.

Because usually it's to the government.

Yeah, that's right.

Because they don't make it easy to do an electronic payment to them sometimes.

Yes, that's true.

So you have to, you know, you got to send them, okay, you got to mail them a check, blah, blah, blah. So you mail them a check. But the whole thing is this, is that the, you know, these credit unions can take advantage of of this whole thing. And not just, you know, for the younger workers, but then the older workers feel like, oh, I'll go to this kiosk and they know how to use basic technology and go, okay, I don't need to go to the— I don't necessarily need to go to the bank. I used to get upset with my bank. I had like a bunch of CDs when, uh, yes, rates were sky high.

Yes.

So I was like, oh, you know, all these CDs, and every single time they're 'Oh, you got to come to the bank and sign paper in person.' I'm like, 'What are you guys doing? Like, so hard for me to deal with you,' you know?

Yes.

Then I ended up using an online bank for all of that. Yep. And, you know, and, and they said, 'Well, why aren't you doing it with us anymore?' Because you guys make it too difficult. Who has time to go to the bank, you know?

Yep.

And all these things make it— and I think it also gives the credit unions a leg up on these like fintechy banks that it's like, there's no— they have no office at all, right?

Yeah, it's true.

You know, no office. And then all of a sudden, you know, the person, you know, gives them the— it gives you that both feeling, like, oh, I can do this on this little machine, or now I can call on the phone, and there is a branch if I actually really need to go there.

Yes, exactly right.

And, you know, I think that's an advantage that these smaller banks can really use. It's a great product. Where do you see like the future of all this going, like in the next couple of years?

Yeah, I think it's going to continue to see a lot of these digital tools being adopted by these credit unions. What has allowed them to get by over the past decade has just been a digital presence. But what now is going to get them through the next decade is going to be that digital connection. And so if you go to a credit union and you ask them, in fact, most community banks as well, like, so what sets you apart?

Part.

99.99% of them are going to be like, oh, well, our team, our community loves seeing our folks. You know, look at Miss Sharon has been here for 30 years, and so everybody comes in to see Miss Sharon, uh, you know, right? Like, those are the things that they continue to say. But that is not going to be the case, especially when Miss Sharon retires in a year and a half or 3 years. Uh, what's going to happen then? Like, you've got to have something else. And so what mini branch allows is it allows that face-to-face, that connection, that communication but wherever that member is now doesn't require them to be within driving distance or having to get— leave their office. Allen, like, right, you in this beautiful location that you're at, having to get in your vehicle, put on some, some pants and not just be in your jammies, and having to drive down, you know, to the actual branch and then go in there. You're dealing— you're fighting traffic. It just happens to be when school's getting out. You're dealing with all this just to go in to talk to them, to ask them about renewing their CD or making sure there's a travel notification on their card because you're tired of waiting on hold forever on the phone. And so those days are gone. Like, what in the world? So Any branch allows now you, the credit union, to meet the members where they are. I've been a member of a credit union since I was 9 years old. That very first credit union that I joined was Moxie Credit Union, thanks to my mom at that time and my parents who opened up that account for me. And so it was this credit union out of Modesto, California that gave me my first savings account. They gave me my first auto loan at 19 years old where I bought my first car. It was a 2001 PT Cruiser, midnight blue, loved it. The bank, Bank of America down the road wouldn't even approve me for a $500 loan. Secured credit card. Like, it was just ridiculous. Like, you're going to have to do more. We could start you off with a lower secured card, but there's nothing we could do here in terms of any other type of credit card for sure. And yet here was my credit union that gave me my very first auto loan. So I absolutely loved them. You know, there was tellers there that was like my specific tellers. I would wait in line. I'd be like, no, I'm away for Rosanna. You know, go ahead, you go, you go. I'm away to talk to her. And then once I got married, I moved not even 150 miles north, Allen, to Napa, California, where my wife was born and raised. And there was no Moxie Credit Union whatsoever. The only line of communication that they offered was a phone. And I hated that because it would go to some call center. I would never get a hold of that specific person that I knew, that I trusted, that, you know, that I loved really. This is my person right here. And those days are gone now. Now, you know, thanks to mini branch, it doesn't matter where your members go, whether they're traveling for work, they're traveling for vacation, they've moved because of work or family, they're still able to maintain that communication. I was in Europe earlier this year in July. We went to the World Credit Union Conference It was held in Stockholm, Sweden. We added a few additional countries since we were there. So we're standing in front of the Eiffel Tower there in Paris, France. I jump on one of our credit union partners' sites, Seaport Federal Credit Union, shout out to them. And I went and engaged in a video chat just to demonstrate the capabilities and how you can connect anywhere, not just in that region, not just in the country, anywhere in the world. Sure enough, the young lady jumps on there, she answers and she's like, oh my gosh, Albert, I had no idea when I would be answering this video chat that I would be seeing such a beautiful view. She was talking about the Eiffel Tower, Allen, not, not this mug right here. And so she's just like, man, this is wonderful, this is great. Like, and it just demonstrated that truly, like, wherever your members are, anywhere in the world, they're still able to maintain that communication with the folks that they know, that they love, that they trust right there back home. So yeah, really cool.

Yeah, it's, it's kind of amazing when you think about it and you look at these large financial institutions. We don't have to name them, but— and, and you look at how slowly they move with technology. And it's the same with the credit card processors, right? Um, how slow they move with technology for things like the help desk. You would think like, hey, you'd be able to— yes— and talk to someone at the help desk. And, um, or even like ATM business, you know, I started off in the ATM business with ATM Express, it got bought by PAI, bought by Brinks, and now it's this behemoth. And anything else it is, we can't— I mean, I used to be able to talk to the owner of PAI, call him, right? Pick up the phone. Hey, you got— you know, or any employees. And now it's like everything is just— so, you know, the thing is, is that fintech, fintech is moving very fast. Yeah, one of the first books I ever got from somebody when I started my company in 2001 was Who Moved the Cheese? And, you know, the cheese moves, and then, you know, you got to go where the new cheese is, right? Because that's where your money is. Yeah. And, you know, you know, I think that there's a big opportunity out there for these small companies, and maybe there's even more opportunity with what you're doing to provide, provide this kind of service into other types of applications for banking and maybe even for merchant services and things like that down the road. I mean, well, it's crazy.

You bring up a good point. And so let me just hit on this real fast and we can wrap it up whenever you're ready to wrap it up. But from the ATM perspective, like, we have to keep looking for differentiators. And so mini branch was a huge differentiator to be able to get into the financial industry space even more so. But then one of the additional things that A1 did as well is they started utilizing it on a smaller scale, testing it out in particular in the Greenville market with an armored carrier. So they would have mini branch, the mini branch quick response code, the QR code within the vault, because only armored can get into the vault, as you know, Allen. And if they had an issue, they could simply scan that, connect instantly to A1 ATM to ask any questions. There would be videos that would be on there where they're able to look at how to reset a particular unit, in this case, Genmega 2500s or 6000s, whichever units were out there. And literally from there they have the instant connection to A1. And so that was actually another very huge differentiator from the ATM company perspective is because, as you know, like managing armored was a huge piece and component. And so to be able to now let these financial institutions know, like, here is an additional component that we bring that if they have questions, we actually require them to go ahead and test out the unit before they even leave just to keep everything going fast. Because these guys, as you know, armored, like they move quick, like it's timing, so it's fast. And so the answers, everything is there. And now even a virtual assistant that is able to be there to help walk them through any questions that they have, like, hey, it's jammed, it's not working, it's coming up with this error code, how do I clear it? Whatever it may be. As you know, there's a lot of turnover in a lot of these armored companies as well. And so it's able to even help train some of the new ones also. So yeah, pretty cool.

Yeah, because it's frustrating for the business owner. The armored guy comes in, puts the money in the machine, and then it's still clogged up when they leave. And then armored companies have techs and they got to send a tech out.

Yes.

I'm like, why are you guys doing that? The guy's already there. Yep. Those guys aren't trained at it. It's like clear a jam, right? Really interesting story today about mini branch. So, you know, watch out. Maybe your credit union wants this, or tell your credit union, or you have a credit union and you're interested in getting in touch with Albert. We'll post post his, um, LinkedIn bio in the, uh, in the, in the notes of the podcast. And his website, minibranch.com, is a really interesting concept. I think we're going to watch this. I might have to call Albert and figure out how we can possibly offer this in our area because, oh yeah, see any— I don't see any, uh, credit unions in South Florida using anything like You're right, really interesting concept of how to gain a footprint into large employers, because even though with all this working at home stuff, there's still a lot of large employers.

Absolutely.

Yes, with buildings with hundreds, hundreds and hundreds, or even thousands. Yep. Of employees out there. And this is really interesting even for an employer. Hey, go to your credit union and say, hey, do you guys have offer mini branch, right?

Exactly.

Put in our facility. Yeah. Tell us a little, uh, so if you have, uh, 3 pieces of advice why a credit union should contact you, let us hear— let's— let us hear that. 3 to 5, like, things why a credit union should reach out to you guys.

Yeah, no, I mean, absolutely. So a couple of things. One, if you're looking to— which this covers literally every single financial institution out there— if you're looking to add accounts, if you're looking to add members, if you're looking to add loans, mini branch is the best tool that will help you not only impact each of those, you know, spaces within the credit union or community bank, but it also impacts literally like every single line of business within that community financial institution as well within that credit union. So if you're looking at adding loans, I mean, this enhances your marketing capabilities and there's so many different awesome and fun ways. Not only that, but you're also able to help navigate that member when they're asking questions about do you offer skip-a-pay or holiday loans or Christmas loans. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with that virtual assistant chatbot that is there working for you and for your credit union. You're looking to add members, kind of same thing. If you're looking at adding accounts, same thing again. It's able to help walk them through, you know, checking accounts, savings account, the different type of accounts that are offered there. It's tremendous from a collection standpoint. I mentioned texting from a marketing standpoint. You've got the mini branch capabilities. You've got the texting capabilities that the voice AI is the newest piece that we've just released. Allen, I'll tell you, they are getting very, very excited about that as that's been being rolled out now. Because as I mentioned, you can chat with that virtual assistant in English or whatever another language it is you wanna chat with them in, and it's able to translate there to them. You can communicate and chat with an employee and it's able to translate for that employee. But now even voice AI. So you could literally be talking to them in English. You could say, hey, I've got my, my sister-in-law. I've got my grandma here. She only speaks Spanish. Can you help her? She's there only talking Spanish to that voice AI virtual assistant chatbot as well. And it's able to communicate directly with them also. So just incredible, really impacts the bottom line. And, uh, you know, if you're looking to go to the next level, mini branch will get you there.

All right, well, thank you for joining us today on the B2B Vault podcast. And you can catch us on Apple, Spotify, anywhere you listen to podcasts. You can watch us on YouTube also. We, we're on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn especially. So I hope everybody enjoyed today's podcast. And if you need to get in touch with Albert, check out his website, minibranch.com. And again, B2B Vault sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems and our new product NPS One, the smart invoicing and payment tool. So everybody have a great day. Carpe diem and peace out. And thanks again for Albert for joining us today.

Thank you, Allen. I appreciate it. It was a great time. Yeah.