2009 was a good year for PYMNTS. This week, we’re celebrating our seventh birthday. Check out the letter from our CEO Karen Webster about where we’ve come and where we’re headed.
PYMNTS.com turns seven today! Can you believe it?
Wow, it seems like just yesterday — and I remember that day so well.
We were hosting one of our closed-door confabs in New York and used it as the official launchpad for PYMNTS.com. In front of 50 of the coolest innovators in payments (tweet at me if you were there and remember…), we had Warren Buffet by video describe the importance of getting the right content to decision makers — the PYMNTS mission — and from that moment on, we were off and running.
Thankfully, we look a lot different than we did that day ☺ — and we no longer have to tell people that “it’s pronounced ‘payments.’” But our mission remains the same: to give innovators a platform to tell their story and get it in front of the most influential players in payments, commerce and retail.
The way we tell those stories today has also changed.
We host what people tell us are the most prestigious events in payments, commerce and retail, and we now produce a whole suite of content that uses data to give our partners a chance to tell their stories about innovation in unique and compelling ways. Our podcasts and podcast series give a voice to our innovators and our live broadcasts (Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays) give us a chance to have a little fun with interesting guests with unique stories to tell. We’re told that our surveys are among the most credible sources of data on the innovation that matters most to your decision making on issues like mobile payments adoption (including Apple Pay adoption research and data), fraud attempts, cross-border payments optimization and checkout friction. That mix of content and the way we tell our story has helped us become the most respected and highly trafficked platform in the payments and commerce sector.
Of course, we’d never be what and who we are if it were not for you — our devoted readers.
You are what inspires us every day to bring you the content that we think will rock your world, add value to the work that you do and, yes, challenge your way of thinking. I am fascinated and inspired by everyone I talk to about the innovations they are working on and how they see the future unfolding. I really enjoy listening and learning from you because I respect how hard it is to change anything in payments — as much as we all want to see things change and change faster.
I will always be grateful to everyone who took a chance on us in those early days and believed in our mission before we had even a single eyeball on our website, before “native advertising and content marketing” were a thing, and who remain among our staunchest supporters seven years later.
So, for a platform that’s all about “What’s Next,” we’ve loved having a ringside seat alongside everyone who’s driving What’s Next in payments, commerce and retail for these last seven years. We’ve come such a long way from day one — so have you — and we can’t wait to see where you — and we, together — go next.
From all of us here at PYMNTS.com, thank you!
And happy birthday to us!