{"id":3546,"date":"2018-02-26T08:07:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T13:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=3546"},"modified":"2026-02-16T06:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T11:06:47","slug":"how-vince-talbert-built-his-943m-payments-company-from-the-ground-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/how-vince-talbert-built-his-943m-payments-company-from-the-ground-up\/","title":{"rendered":"How Vince Talbert built his $943M payments company from the ground up"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/category\/technology-innovation\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Technology &amp; Innovation<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow Vince Talbert built his $943M payments company from the ground up\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2018-02-26T08:07:55-05:00\">February 26, 2018<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"How Vince Talbert built his $943M payments company from the ground up\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/how-vince-talbert-built-his-943m-payments-company-from-the-ground-up\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/andrewzaleski\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/02\/zaleski_largewebheadshot-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Andrew Zaleski\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/02\/zaleski_largewebheadshot-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/02\/zaleski_largewebheadshot.jpg 424w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Andrew Zaleski<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sage-block-classic-wrapper\">\n\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Editor\u2019s note: Our \u201cBusiness Builder\u201d series tells the extraordinary stories of entrepreneurs who have built world-changing companies, the challenges they overcame along the way\u2014and the lessons learned. \u00a0Keep reading to learn how marketer-turned-startup founder Vince Talbert steered his online credit company through several \u201cnear-death moments\u201d en route to a multimillion-dollar acquisition payday. The buyer? PayPal. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vince Talbert&#8217;s life as a business entrepreneur is peppered with what he calls \u201cnear-death experiences.&#8221; These are the moments in the course of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/size\/medium-sized-business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">building his business<\/a>\u2014online credit company, Bill Me Later\u2014when a sudden change in fortune came close to forcing him and his co-founders to shutter a business they eventually sold for $943 million to PayPal in 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Key advice from Vince Talbert on building a business<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finding the right business to start requires a great idea and savvy team to execute it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Persistence pays off. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some challenges are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/find-your-focus-silencing-the-distractions-that-stunt-your-business-growth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">growth opportunities<\/a> in disguise.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Find your niche: Your business can\u2019t be all things to all people. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A little luck doesn\u2019t hurt, either. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first came in 2001, when Talbert and his fellow founders were scrambling for business funding. They needed $15 million to launch Bill Me Later, and it came down to the wire: if they couldn&#8217;t come up with the money soon, Talbert, his co-founders, and small team of employees would be looking for new jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The company raised the money at the last minute, but this sort of high-wire act was one Talbert and his fellow founders would walk a number of times in the course of creating a company that changed the face of e-commerce. And in the process, Talbert learns some fundamental lessons about growing a business from the ground up. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Lesson 1: Look for a great idea, and a great team to start a business<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Talbert started his career in the 1990s working for banks, after graduating from Towson University, a state school just north of his hometown, Baltimore. Though his degree was in finance and economics, Talbert took positions marketing credit cards. In his first job at a Citibank branch, he oversaw the direct-mail campaigns trying to entice customers to sign up for credit cards. At First USA, a smaller bank in Wilmington, Delaware, he was exposed to a new tact: internet marketing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cCredit card businesses were all grown from direct mail,&#8221; Talbert says. \u201cI recognized that the internet was going to be the great, new direct-marketing channel.&#8221; Unlike a direct-mail package, an online credit offer could be as simple as checking a box.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Talbert and his co-founders (a group culled from the First USA ranks) started Bill me Later in 2001, they knew not only how to run a credit card business\u2014managing risk and fraud and lending to consumers\u2014but also this key insight: the best place to market credit online is at the point of sale. This founding team developed the software and services to allow consumers to pay with credit at the online checkout counter. Bill Me Later covered the initial costs, and then recouped its money the same way a credit card company does: through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/payment-processing\/\">transaction fees<\/a> on the merchant, and interest on consumers&#8217; outstanding balance.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Lesson 2: Keep fighting to get business funding<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bill Me Later\u2019s first test with an online retailer was a major success, and turned out to be all the validation the company needed to raise $15 million to build out its product. But the timing posed a major challenge: they\u2019d begun taking meetings in the weeks after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks. Worries about the economy made banks and VC firms loath to lend and, through October, Talbert says he and his co-founders struck out left and right. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this first &#8220;near-death experience&#8221; was averted when the team caught a break with Azure Capital, a relatively new VC firm that had just raised its first fund. Azure was promising to give Bill Me Later the money it needed, on one condition: The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/size\/small-business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">startup<\/a> had to launch its product with AOL, which was set to happen in a week. Only after the launch would Azure close on the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was a close call.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe would have run out of money the next week,&#8221; he says. &#8220;That prepared us for the future.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Lesson 3: Sometimes, you have to take a risk in business<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bill Me Later was holding merchants&#8217; debt on its books, which it initially financed through equity and debt deals cut with lenders and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/glossary\/venture-capital\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">venture capital<\/a> firms. Rapid growth was good for the company, but it also meant that Bill Me Later&#8217;s executives were constantly searching for more debt to fund their balances. Over the course of the company&#8217;s lifespan, Talbert estimates they raised $350 million in equity and $1.2 billion in debt.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOur challenge was we could run out of money in two ways: not growing fast enough, so not getting to the point where you break even; and growing so fast that we don\u2019t have enough capital to fund the loans.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Vince Talbert<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That challenge nearly caught up him in 2004\u2014the next near-death experience\u2014when the company&#8217;s debt provider couldn&#8217;t keep up with Bill Me Later&#8217;s growth. Luckily, through connections Talbert&#8217;s co-founders maintained, Citibank stepped in and offered to fund 100 percent of the startup&#8217;s balance sheet. But the deal was predicated on a risky endeavor: sharing all of the startup&#8217;s intellectual property.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was a business risk Talbert and team took, banking on their domain expertise. They figured bigger banks or competitors wouldn&#8217;t try to run them out of business by starting up a copycat product, but rather acquire them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Lesson 4: Meet challenges head-on<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were wrong. PayPal, which had been acquired by eBay in 2002, launched a Bill Me Later copycat in 2006 called PayPal Pay Later. (PayPal had twice previously tried to buy Bill Me Later, but Talbert and his co-founders spurned the overtures in the hopes of growing bigger and one day going public.) With a bigger bank account to throw around, PayPal could pay merchants to launch an e-commerce credit option using Pay Later. Bill Me Later didn&#8217;t blink: the board took another risk, allocating money for Talbert and the sales team to deploy the same strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;The competition actually came at the perfect time,&#8221; Talbert says, because it spurred them to double their efforts. By the end of 2007, Bill Me Later was doing more than $75 million in revenue. By 2008, PayPal dangled an acquisition deal in front of Bill Me Later once again. This time, Bill Me Later took it.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cDon\u2019t try to be all things to all people. Really figure out how to put together a bulletproof product in the marketplace so that, when you scale, you\u2019re consistently delivering value.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Vince Talbert.<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The initial offer was $1.2 billion. But this was September 2008, the beginning of the credit-liquidity crunch brought on by the mortgage collapse. The banks that had funded Bill Me Later&#8217;s balance sheet were drying up. Talbert and his co-founders knew this, yet again, could be the end. But the deal went through. PayPal acquired Bill Me Later for a reduced price of $943 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Lesson 5: Find your niche<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Talbert went on to work as the VP of Merchant Services at PayPal for four years. Looking back, Talbert says those near-death experiences along the way were what pushed him doubly hard and taught him the most important lesson in building a business:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Don&#8217;t try to be all things to all people,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Really figure out how to put together a bulletproof product in the marketplace so that, when you scale, you&#8217;re consistently delivering value.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s a lesson Talbert shares with startups in the Baltimore region, where he now plays the part of seasoned mentor and investor to the city&#8217;s entrepreneur community. In Baltimore County there is now a PayPal office, with more than 1,000 employees \u2014 who, in all likelihood, wouldn&#8217;t be there had Talbert and some friends taken a chance at launching an internet credit business nearly 15 years ago. To Talbert, that&#8217;s the best part of his company&#8217;s legacy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to our Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Get our latest business advice delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-ab515c6e-7e90-4c2f-a67e-113872516e8b\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"Working from home with tea in hand\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s note: Our \u201cBusiness Builder\u201d series tells the extraordinary stories of entrepreneurs who have built world-changing companies, the challenges they overcame along the way\u2014and the lessons learned. \u00a0Keep reading to learn how marketer-turned-startup founder Vince Talbert steered his online credit company through several \u201cnear-death moments\u201d en route to a multimillion-dollar acquisition payday. The buyer? PayPal. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":536,"featured_media":3552,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,49],"tags":[299],"business_type":[41],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[56,54,204],"persona":[98],"imagine_tag":[233,231],"coauthors":[721],"class_list":["post-3546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology-innovation","category-trends-insights","tag-cash-flow","business_type-growing-business","industry-ecommerce","industry-retail","industry-technology"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-us","author_name":"Andrew Zaleski","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/02\/paymentstechnology_2.jpg","imagine_tags":{"233":"Medium Businesses","231":"Start up business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/536"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35322,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions\/35322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/3552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}