On this episode of the Bourbon Friday Show, we had the opportunity to talk to Michael Seaman, CEO of SwipeSum.

Helping Companies Find the Best Payment Solution

Family business and Arch Grants recipient SwipeSum wants to change the game for any and all companies that take credit card payments. Traditionally when a company takes credit card payments, a percentage of that payment goes back to the credit card merchant—sometimes as much as 8% of each transaction.

According to Seaman, the second-highest business expense, behind labor, is the fees associated with accepting payments. With SwipeSum, the main objective is to eliminate or reduce these fees.

“Our goal is to act as an extension of any company, like a Chief Payments Officer” says Seaman. “We’re building software to accelerate and optimize what we do—and if you accept payments, we try to minimize and eliminate any fees associated.”

Using their financial statement reading technology, SwipeSum has the ability to download and analyze financial statements, break down the true cost, and help companies choose the best payment solution for them. Best of all, it’s free to use and the initial consultation only takes about three minutes to complete.

“It’s very fulfilling when you can go to a St. Louis company that’s been here for 100 years, and you can walk in and say, you know, here’s 30,000 more dollars that you can keep—you don’t have to change any processes—you just signed a different agreement, nothing changes.”

If you’re interested in learning more about SwipeSum and their services, you can go to https://swipesum.com/solutions/ for more information.

Bourbon Innovation

As always, the Bourbon Friday team does their best to choose a fitting drink for the occasion.

The bottle this week was Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon. Hailing from the same town as our guest this week, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is made by Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, KY.

The namesake of the bottle, Elijah Craig, also has an interesting story. Though never proven to be totally accurate, Elijah Craig has been said to have been the first person to use charred barrels for the aging process, which is now a key component for producing what we now know as bourbon.