As a Merchant of Record, FastSpring’s enterprise-grade platform enables companies of all sizes to scale globally by offloading the operational complexities of payments, subscriptions, and international tax compliance. This new partnership with LLR Partners will allow FastSpring to further accelerate its product innovation, expand its go-to-market capabilities, and invest in strategic initiatives that deliver deeper value to its global customer base.

The investment from LRR arrives as global digital commerce faces a pivotal shift. Businesses are increasingly moving away from fragmented payment setups in favor of unified solutions that handle the “heavy lifting” of international expansion. LLR Partners, a private equity firm known for its deep roots in the technology sector, identified FastSpring as the primary engine for this transition.

“We see a unique opportunity to back one of the most experienced and capable teams within the ecommerce enablement category,” noted Devon Bembery, Vice President at LLR Partners.

Bembery emphasized that the partnership is designed to move beyond simple capital injection. By collaborating closely with both the FastSpring leadership and Accel-KKR, the goal is to aggressively push the boundaries of product innovation and launch strategic initiatives that solve the most pressing pain points for digital creators and software developers today.

Accel-KKR, which has anchored FastSpring’s growth through its most recent years of scaling, remains a cornerstone of the company’s board. Their continued involvement ensures a balance of historical institutional knowledge and fresh strategic perspectives.

“FastSpring has built a strong foundation as a leading digital commerce platform, and we’re proud of the progress the team has made,” said Andy Rich, Managing Director at Accel-KKR. “We’re excited to partner with LLR Partners on this next phase, combining our strengths to support continued innovation and help accelerate FastSpring’s long-term growth.”

This “powerhouse” partnership among the three entities signals a commitment to making global commerce more accessible. By combining LLR and Accel-KKR’s expertise with FastSpring’s operational excellence, the company is poised to redefine what it means to be a Merchant of Record today and in the future.

For more information on how FastSpring helps software companies scale, visit https://www.fastspring.com.

About FastSpring

FastSpring is how AI, SaaS, gaming, software, and digital product companies sell online in more places around the world. We handle all payment needs from checkout to taxes so you can go farther faster. Founded in 2005, we are a privately owned company headquartered in Santa Barbara with offices in Amsterdam, Austin, Belfast, Dublin, Halifax, and Singapore.

About LLR Partners

LLR Partners is a lower middle market private equity firm focused on investing in software and tech-enabled companies. LLR has raised over $7.5 billion and has partnered with over 130 companies. We believe in creating value through partnership to help companies grow every day. To learn more, visit www.llrpartners.com.

About Accel-KKR

Accel-KKR is a technology-focused investment firm with over $23 billion in cumulative capital commitments. The firm partners closely with management teams of software and tech-enabled businesses, working alongside them to build long-term value and drive sustainable growth by leveraging the resources of the Accel-KKR network. Headquartered in Menlo Park, Accel-KKR has offices in London, Atlanta, and Chicago. To learn more, visit https://www.accel-kkr.com/.

The post FastSpring Announces Strategic Investment from LLR Partners to Accelerate Growth appeared first on FastSpring.

Example: You want to create a subscription. You can ask:

“How do I create a subscription?”

The AI responds with step-by-step guidance:

“To create a subscription, go to Catalog > Subscription Plans and click Create Subscription. You will need to define the price and interval.”

From there, you can follow up:

“Can you explain the interval options in more detail?”

The AI keeps context and replies:

“Certainly. The interval determines how often the customer is billed. You can choose Adhoc, Day, Week, Month, or Year.”

This conversational approach helps you explore features in depth without having to repeat questions or scroll through multiple pages.

Key features of the new AI search:

• Context-Aware Follow-Ups: Keep the AI “in the loop” so follow-ups build on previous answers.
  
• Use Your Own AI Tools: On any doc page, you can use your own ChatGPT or Claude with that page’s content as context and even copy Markdown for internal use.
  
• Faster Navigation: Quickly find the right docs and related topics without guesswork.
  

Note: The AI works from documented content only. If a topic isn’t covered yet, it may not have an answer. Documentation remains the source of truth.

The new AI search turns documentation into a conversation — making answers faster, exploration easier, and learning more intuitive.

Explore the Ask AI documentation to discover features, tips, and best practices.

The post AI-Powered Answers, Right in the Docs appeared first on FastSpring.

The latest version of the FastSpring Store Builder Library (SBL), v1.0.5, is now available. This release delivers improvements in speed, security, stability, and features to our JavaScript library, ensuring your checkout stays modern, optimized, and competitive. If you’re still on an older version, now is the perfect time to upgrade.

What’s New and Why Upgrade

SBL v1.0.5 brings key improvements that enhance both your store’s performance and your customers’ checkout experience:

• Faster Checkout: Optimized load times and responsiveness to boost conversions.
• Enhanced Security: Patches for known vulnerabilities to protect buyer data.
• New Features: Access functionality and enhancements exclusive to this version.
• Improved Compatibility: Smooth performance across modern browsers and mobile devices.
• Greater Stability: Bug fixes for a more reliable purchase flow.

Upgrading ensures your storefront stays secure and easy to use while reducing errors and providing the latest tools to improve the buyer experience.

Updating to the Latest Version

To integrate SBL v1.0.5 on your site:

1. Go to FastSpring Dashboard → Checkouts → Popup Checkout → “Place on your website.”
2. Copy the updated <script> snippet.
3. Paste it into the <head> section of your site to load the latest version.

Risks of Not Updating

Continuing to run an outdated version of the SBL can negatively impact your store with:

• Security holes that could expose buyer data or compromise transactions.
• Slower performance that can lead to increased cart abandonment.
• Missing features that limit your store’s potential.
• Browser compatibility issues that break the checkout on newer devices.
• Unpredictable bugs that hurt your customer experience and trust.

Upgrade Timeline

Most upgrades take 30-60 minutes, or up to 3 hours for complex setups. 

The process involves:

• Reviewing your current implementation.
• Updating your script reference.
• Testing to confirm smooth functionality.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check my current version?

Inspect the <script> tag used to load the SBL on your site, or ask your FastSpring CSM.

Will updating affect my custom code or integrations?

The update is designed to be backward-compatible, but testing is recommended if you use custom or deprecated features.

Can I test before going live?

You can test the updated SBL in a production environment using a test product or a test purchase using test cards available on checkout. Reach out to Support for help with testing workflows if required.

Does FastSpring provide update support?

Contact our Support team if you need any assistance.

How often should I check for updates?

We recommend reviewing quarterly or whenever a new release is announced.

Where can I find the changelog?

See the full version history in the SBL documentation.

Are there any breaking changes we need to be aware of?

To clarify, the migration from your current legacy Store Builder Library (SBL) to v1.0.5 is straightforward, and there are no breaking changes in the core methods or API calls that you’re already using. All existing calls (e.g., fastspring.builder.*) remain fully supported.

Stay Current. Stay Competitive.

Keeping your Store Builder Library up to date is one of the easiest ways to protect your storefront, improve the buyer journey, and future-proof your checkout. Don’t wait — upgrade to SBL v1.0.5 today.

Explore the full documentation and update steps in our FastSpring SBL documentation.

The post Unlock New Features and Faster Checkouts With Store Builder Library v1.0.5 appeared first on FastSpring.

Below, check out some of the awesome ways FastSpring team members have been celebrating around the globe. 

To learn more about FastSpring’s meaningful history in the fintech and ecommerce space, check out our podcast episode with one of the original cofounders and the original CEO of FastSpring Dan Engel, and current CEO David Nachman. Read more, watch, or listen here. 

FastSpring Celebrates 20 Years Around the World

There were many ways we made sure to celebrate this impressive milestone for FastSpring — from employee swag boxes and cookie deliveries to office parties with cake cuttings and toasts! 

Employee Swag and Remote Celebrations

FastSpring’s success wouldn’t be possible without our amazing team members, many of whom are distributed and remote across North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. 

To help thank everyone for their contribution to this momentous achievement, employees received gifts such as premium travel backpacks and gourmet stuffed cookies!

Amsterdam

At FastSpring’s Amsterdam office, team members went all out to decorate the office space and celebrate with cake and champagne! 

Belfast

The Belfast team supported a local LGBTQ+ baker in Lisburn called Frootcake, which was a great way to recognize FastSpring’s anniversary and celebrate Pride Month at the same time!

Halifax

Since a few of our team members throughout Canada are originally from Ukraine, the Halifax office celebrated FastSpring’s birthday with a Київський торт (Kyiv Cake) and Живчик (Zhyvchyk), which are traditional Ukrainian treats. 

Austin

In Austin, Texas, a crew got together to celebrate with a lot of FastSpring orange! 

Santa Barbara

At our home office in Santa Barbara, California, the party planning committee went above and beyond!

FastSpring: Powering the Digital Economy® for Two Decades!

For twenty years, FastSpring has been powering global payments for SaaS and software companies, video game publishers, and other digital goods businesses. As a merchant of record, FastSpring provides a fully managed payment solution including checkout, fraud mitigation, comprehensive sales tax and VAT compliance, and more. Founded in 2005, FastSpring is a privately owned company headquartered in California with offices in the UK, the Netherlands, and Canada.

To learn more about FastSpring’s meaningful history in the fintech and ecommerce space, check out our podcast episode with one of the original cofounders and the original CEO of FastSpring Dan Engel, and current CEO David Nachman. Read more, watch, or listen here.

Set up a demo or try it out for yourself.

The post It’s Our Cake Day! FastSpring Turns 20 appeared first on FastSpring.

Likewise, in the tech-meets-ecommerce space, there were very few SaaS companies out there, live service gaming didn’t really exist yet, and software companies wanting to sell their software globally had very, very few options.

And the options that were available left a lot to be desired. 

That’s why on June 28, 2005, four tech founders — including Dan Engel, current Founder and Managing Partner of Santa Barbara Venture Partners — got together to found FastSpring. 

Twenty years later, we’re still going strong! Now led by CEO David Nachman and backed by Accel-KKR — and with technology more advanced and stronger than ever — FastSpring is celebrating its 20th anniversary by looking back on how we got here, applauding today’s team for our current successes, and looking forward to a bright future in the payments industry as an experienced partner our customers can trust. 

In this special celebratory post, we share:

• A special twentieth anniversary episode of Growth Stage, interviewing both FastSpring’s co-founder & first CEO Dan Engel and FastSpring’s current CEO David Nachman. Jump to podcast.
• A brief history of FastSpring, with some fantastically nostalgic photos of the team throughout the years. Jump to history. 

Growth Stage Podcast EP34: What It Takes to Build an Enduring Business

Building a lasting business isn’t easy. 

Knowing what really makes a company succeed long term can be even harder.

That’s why it can be helpful to learn from companies that have stood the test of time.

In this episode of Growth Stage, we celebrate FastSpring’s 20th anniversary with insights from its first CEO, Dan Engel, and current CEO, David Nachman. They share:

• What has helped FastSpring thrive for two decades.
• What mistakes to avoid when building your own business.
• What it really takes to build something that lasts.

Whether you’re planning to exit in two years or fifty, take a moment to step back and think about the long term future of your business. Watch or listen now!

Jump to video.  |  Jump to history. |  Jump to transcript.

Podcast Full Interview: Audio

Listen online or find it on more podcast services.

Podcast Full Interview: Video

Transcript available at the end of this post.

A Brief History of FastSpring (With Photos)

FastSpring was founded in 2005 with only $30,000, by a distributed team of four tech founders who only all got connected “through the transitive property,” Dan explains. “I only knew Jason, but then he knew Ken, and Ken knew Ryan.” 

Dan had had an idea for a shopping cart upsell product — which didn’t come to fruition — but after meeting Jason Foodman in 2005, Jason pointed out that the upsell product couldn’t even exist unless they owned the shopping cart in the first place. So Dan asked, “Well, what if we create our own shopping cart?” 

And since Jason was already working with someone who wanted to create a product with the ecommerce infrastructure to compete with Digital River, FastSpring was born. 

Dan recalls that he, Jason, Ken White, and Ryan Dewell all connected remotely from four different U.S. states via email and messengers, not even meeting in person for about the first four years as they worked on FastSpring; “Maybe every six months there’d be a phone call.” Dan and Jason handled front-end sales, while Ken led “phenomenal customer service,” and Ryan “just was an awesome coder.” He recalls Ken describing Ryan as “probably the best guy on the planet to build what we were building.”

Since all four guys had been CEOs already, they were all familiar with working on their own areas without needing much guidance. “We split up the business into silos, Dan explains. “Ken handled support, Ryan development, me on the sales side and also all the CEO role, and Jason on the sales side and some other stuff too. And that worked really well.”

The First Mission of FastSpring: The Golden Rule

Just what were the founders of FastSpring trying to build? 

“I think we wanted to build a business that treated its customers the way we thought we should have been treated as software vendors,” Dan says. They each had felt wronged in some way when working with Digital River or with payment companies that weren’t built to work with software companies, so they set out to build a solution with a driving force to “put some good into an industry that had a lot of bad experiences.”

He also describes Digital River in 2005 — only about nine years old then — as already having become an inflexible “technology dinosaur.” 

“So we wanted to build that next generation system.”

“I think that’s really what our driving force was: to put some good into an industry that had a lot of bad experiences.”

Dan Engel, Co-Founder and first CEO of FastSpring

“And we thought if we were just normal, nice people that cared, we could accomplish that,” he recalls. “And we did. Took a while, but we did.”

FastSpring’s Growth Trajectory

After a humble start in 2005 with only four ambitious people and $30,000, FastSpring took a little while to get off the ground. Dan remembers that “Not raising capital, going slower, sticking with Java, sticking with one developer — all those things made us go slower.”

But FastSpring eventually began growing quickly when they became popular in the Mac software community, which became their initial niche. “Eventually, we took over for Digital River and others as kind of the leading provider for Mac developers,” Dan explains. “But until then, it was a very slow moving train and we didn’t know what was around the corner.”

Besides having next generation technology and blowing away customers with service, FastSpring also offered pricing that contemporary competitors couldn’t beat.

“So how do you get anyone to switch away from FastSpring? They didn’t. We had retained I think 98.7 % of our customers, year after year after year, in an SMB business with thousands of customers,” Dan recalls. “I’m a venture capitalist now; I invest in software companies. I’m yet to find a company in all these years that matches what FastSpring obtained in its metrics.”

“I’m yet to find a company in all these years that matches what FastSpring obtained in its metrics.”

Dan Engel, Co-Founder and first CEO of FastSpring

By 2010, FastSpring had grown significantly, with Deloitte & Touche’s 2011 Technology Fast 500 awards ranking FastSpring the #1 fastest-growing company in the Greater L.A. area and #13 in North America. 

Then in 2018, Accel-KKR purchased a majority stake in FastSpring. By then, FastSpring counted companies such as Microsoft and Adobe among its customers, with services provided by around 80 FastSpring employees. 

FastSpring’s Mission Today: Unleashing Innovation Around the World

Today, FastSpring is a global leader in the payments, subscriptions, and tax management space as a leading merchant of record. With offices in Santa Barbara, Amsterdam, Belfast, and Halifax, FastSpring has grown to have over 130 employees serving 3200+ companies throughout more than 200 regions, with support for 21+ languages and 23+ currencies — all while filing over 1,000 tax returns every year, so that the companies who use FastSpring don’t have to.

Providing an industry leading platform for SaaS, software, video game, and other digital products businesses to sell and monetize their products around the world is a privilege we’ve earned over the last 20 years, but we haven’t forgotten where we came from. 

Current CEO David Nachman echoes original CEO Dan Engel’s thoughts about FastSpring’s mission, but builds upon it. What gets David excited is enabling and democratizing the software industry so that people anywhere in the world can build software and compete with bigger, more capitalized players in highly developed markets.

“It’s gotten dramatically easier to build software anywhere and do it in a really, really competitive way,” David explains. “What hasn’t gotten easier is selling it globally.” In fact, in many ways, thanks to increasingly complex tax codes, proliferating payments options, and the increase of fraud, selling software cross-borders or monetizing a game outside of an app marketplace has only gotten harder. 

“So you’ve got this paradox of, you can develop software now at any scale anywhere in the world, but it’s not easy to bring it to market successfully without a solution like ours,” he says. “And that’s what we do.”

“By democratizing software development and commercialization of it, ultimately, we’re playing into a trend of unleashing more innovation around the world.”

David Nachman, CEO of FastSpring

“By democratizing software development and commercialization of it, ultimately, we’re playing into a trend of unleashing more innovation around the world,” David continues. “That’s kind of the big lofty mission that excites me. And I think it excites a lot of people here.”

Twenty years is quite a milestone, so we’ll be celebrating all month! That includes cake cuttings and toasts with our team members around the world on June 28, our official incorporation day and 20th birthday. Check back later this month for photos, and here’s to the next 20! 🥂

Podcast Transcript

David Vogelpohl (00:04)

Hello everyone, and welcome to Growth Stage by FastSpring, where we discuss how digital product companies grow revenue, build meaningful products, and increase the value of their businesses. I’m your host, David Vogelpohl. I support the digital product community through my role at FastSpring, and I love to bring the best of the community to you here on Growth Stage. In today’s episode, I’m super excited. What we’re going to be talking about is what it takes to build an enduring business.

David Vogelpohl (00:32)

We’re going to do that through the lens of celebrating 20 years of FastSpring, the company that puts on Growth Stage and joining us for that conversation to celebrate FastSpring and talk about building an enduring business. I’d like to welcome first FastSpring’s original CEO and one of the original cofounders, Mr. Dan Engel. Dan, welcome to Growth Stage.

Dan Engel (00:53)

Thank you very much. I’m excited to be here and I’m excited we made it to such a successful 20 year journey.

David Vogelpohl (01:00)

I can’t imagine what it must be like to look back on your legacy and have this be something so enduring be part of that. And I know you’ve done a lot since then. And I’m kind of curious to learn a little bit more about that here in a bit. Also joining us for this conversation to kind of take a look at the past and where we are now. I’d like to welcome FastSpring’s current CEO, Mr. David Nachman. David, welcome.

David Nachman (01:23)

Great. Well, thank you, David. I’m also super excited to be here and I definitely owe some gratitude to Dan. Wouldn’t be in my role today if it weren’t for what he did 20 years ago today.

Dan Engel (01:30)

Mm-hmm.

David Vogelpohl (01:33)

Now it’s so interesting to think about those long-term effects our short-term decisions sometimes have. And so we’re going to try to peel back as much as we can here on this episode, ⁓ to give folks a view into what it takes to build an enduring business, what mistakes to avoid along the way and how to build a business that stands the test of time.

So ⁓ we’ll kick it off. David Nachman, I’d like to start with you. ⁓ For those, maybe this is their first time seeing the Growth Stage podcast or they’re not familiar with FastSpring. Could you explain what FastSpring is and what you do here?

David Nachman (02:13)

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. What we do is pretty straightforward. We are an end to end e-commerce platform for companies that sell digital goods on a global basis. So it’s often software companies, it may be gaming companies, maybe other forms of digital goods, but the commonality for everybody that’s selling on our platform is they’re trying to reach a global audience, which isn’t really an easy thing to do.

in commerce and payments. There’s a tremendous amount of complexity there. And they’re all selling digital goods. So that’s what we do. I am the CEO of the company. I joined the company about six years ago, just over about a month ago from six years ago.

David Vogelpohl (02:55)

Oh, wow. Congratulations on the six year mark there. A little over 25 % of FastSpring’s history, it sounds like. And then Dan, tell us about your connection to FastSpring and what you’re doing now.

David Nachman (03:01)

⁓ yeah.

Dan Engel (03:07)

Well, let’s see. It was ⁓ 2005 that ⁓ I met our co-founder Jason Foodman. And I had an idea for something we wanted to do having to do with upselling into shopping carts. And Jason said, well, that is a really good idea, but we’re not going to be able to do it unless we own the shopping cart. ⁓

And I said, well, what if we create our own shopping cart? And Jason said, well, it just so happens I’m working with a guy on that concept to compete with Digital River, which was the 800 pound gorilla at the time that had come out in 1994, went public, became worth a billion dollars. And so we decided that we would build that e-commerce infrastructure and shopping cart capability. We never ended up doing my idea

having to do with upsells, but obviously the foundational part that we needed is what became the business over time.

David Vogelpohl (04:05)

And this is you, right? Is this from around the time of the founding? These are the original founders, correct?

Dan Engel (04:11)

Yeah, that could be. I’d have to see exactly what year that was, but that’s uh — Jason’s all the way to the right hand side on the other opposite end of me. then Ken and Ryan. And what’s interesting is I only knew Jason, but then he knew Ken and Ken knew Ryan. So through the, I don’t know, transitive property or whatever it is, we all kind of knew each other. And that’s how we started working together. And we were all in four different states from one another.

And ⁓ we did it despite not being in the same place. And we actually went for about four years, I believe, without ever even seeing each other. Everything was just email and ICQ, which is chat. And maybe every six months there’d be a phone call. But some of the guys weren’t the type of people that were dying to get on the phone or meet in person that didn’t have the same personality as maybe Jason and I did as kind of the more salesy front of the business.

David Nachman (04:50)

Thanks

David Vogelpohl (05:05)

Was that the balance between you four where you and Jason were more on the business side and the other two for Ken and what’s the other person’s name? Yeah, Ryan. ⁓ and they were more technically focused.

Dan Engel (05:15)

Ken and Ryan. Yeah, totally. Yeah,

Ryan just was an awesome coder. He was probably the best guy on the planet to build what we were building. I mean, that’s what Ken said at the time, because he had built a company called RegNow, sold it to Digital River. By the way, all three of the other guys built and sold companies like FastSpring to Digital River. So we knew this space really well, and they knew it even better than I did. But yeah, Jason and I were on the business side, and Ken…

is amazing dealing with people through email. But he won’t pick up the phone. But we had phenomenal customer service that he led. And Ryan just wanted to code and wanted to own it himself. Didn’t want other coders. Didn’t want to spend time managing other coders. He just wanted to build his dream, again, the next generation of what he had built before using Java technology and doing things in a way that would be much more beneficial over the long term.

David Nachman (05:46)

answer.

you

Dan Engel (06:08)

over the existing solutions like Digital River, which became kind of the technology dinosaur that was inflexible. So we wanted to build that next generation system.

David Vogelpohl (06:17)

It sounds like there was a lot of synergy there between you four and a good balance. And it seems like you and Jason were able to kind of team up, I guess, on the business side and then Ken and Ryan on the technical and customer success side. It’s also interesting to hear about your virtual posture as co-founders back in that day and using ICQ and thriving in that kind of environment.

Um, of course, way pre pandemic, this was 2005 when the company was founded. Um, and then to hear about how much Digital River played a role in your company, in your lives back then, and to think of FastSpring’s enduring nature, even going beyond, you know, Digital River, um, uh, offering in existence, I guess, uh, recently kind of winding down there. Um, and to think about how that’s an interesting representation of FastSpring’s enduring

Dan Engel (07:06)

Mm

David Vogelpohl (07:13)

⁓ but maybe that’s one of the ways I might think about an enduring business. ⁓ I’ll start with Nachman on this question. David, to you, what does it mean to build an enduring business? What is that? How do you define that?

David Nachman (07:29)

Yeah, I think, I mean, the first thing I would say for a business to be enduring is it’s got to be adaptable. This business, like just about any business, there’s ebbs and flows and there’s times when everything is going great and there’s times when it’s a lot more challenging. And, you know, in my experience, like there’s a lot of things that need to go into strategy and execution to succeed as an enduring business. But I think the foundation of all of it is the team and the culture.

If you look at the businesses that I think have endured over time, it’s often the team and the culture that really, really stand out because the challenges are going to change over time. And you need a team that knows how to adapt to that. And if you’ve got the right team and people are passionate about what they’re doing, know, in my experience, generally they’re going to figure it out.

None of us have a perfect crystal ball. Certainly, I’m sure Dan, when you started this company 20 years ago, you had no idea what some of the challenges might look like today. But I think you built a great cultural foundation that I think still persists today. I think a lot of the elements of the culture that were there when you started it are still like a real, real strength for us. So to me, that’s kind of the foundation of all of it to build an enduring business.

David Vogelpohl (08:47)

Yeah. I like that idea of flexibility. What’s the saying — “Steady seas don’t make skilled sailors,” and like,

Dan Engel (08:48)

you

David Vogelpohl (08:53)

⁓ being able to roll with the punches and adapt and survive and thrive. I could see that being critical to building an enduring business. ⁓ Dan, what about you? What does it mean to build an enduring business?

Dan Engel (09:06)

Well, it’s kind of the same things because what he’s talking about there about adaptability and flexibility, that’s exactly what I was saying earlier. We specifically built a system from the ground up ⁓ that had the adaptability component that was missing from the competition.

That’s why Digital River doesn’t exist anymore. That’s why we were able to ultimately leave them some degree in the dust because they weren’t able to change with the times. And we knew, because we all had been customers of Digital River. mean, everybody was back then. It’s a long time ago. And we knew that they couldn’t deliver when we needed new functionality and features. They were stuck. Right. So that was a really big part of it. But I think culturally, you know, the biggest advantage FastSpring ever had

was based on culture and how we treated our people, meaning like the employees, the partners we had, and then how that trickled down to how they treated the customers. And we had a theory, which is not too novel, but isn’t practiced as much as it should be, that customers should be treated like gold. And we had happened to be in an industry where the competition felt very much the opposite. ⁓ They just

A lot of these companies were led by kind of arrogant folks that didn’t think too much about the customers. And, you know, you’d write into PayPal, nobody had ever sent you anything back or Digital River couldn’t get your account manager to respond. So we came up with rules like you’re going to hear a response within, I think it was 24 hours, even on weekends, even on holidays, ⁓ guarantees like that. And we absolutely delivered on it. We strive to wow.

every single customer, both the end user and our merchants, you know, the software companies. And the kind of things that they were saying were, and I don’t know if it’s still on the website anymore, but the old testimonials that I used to throw up on the website were like, I feel like I just left the spa, or I’ve never had this kind of experience in a services business before. We were blowing people away. And how were we able to do that when we had like four support reps and our competition had like 250?

because we’re just normal people that cared. That’s all. And those were the kind of people that hired and people like themselves who gave a damn. And we had been in the shoes of the customers who were frustrated working with Digital River. So we tried to build a business that would be the opposite. And it totally worked. And also it’s an advantage that we had, which didn’t really cost money, that nobody could beat. No competitor could beat. They could try to match it.

you know, blowing away your customers and wowing them with the experience, but they couldn’t ever beat it. And so part of what made the company so enduring is we had low prices and couldn’t really beat us on pricing. We had next generation technology instead of kind of the inflexible dinosaur tech of our competitors. And we blew you away with customer service. So how do you, how do you get anyone to switch away from FastSpring? They didn’t. We had retained

think 98.7 % of our customers year after year after year in an SMB business with thousands of customers. I’m a venture capitalist now, I invest in software companies. I’m yet to find a company in all these years that matches what FastSpring obtained in its metrics.

David Vogelpohl (12:16)

I can attest that nature has lived on and we see similar levels of success in ⁓ our business today, including winning awards like a ⁓ gold Globee and silver Stevie for that customer success. I think that foundation you laid and the seeds you planted are still bearing fruit.

Dan Engel (12:37)

Good. That’s great to hear.

David Vogelpohl (12:39)

Excellent. Yeah. Super cool to see that, ⁓ endure the test of time. Cause I know service can be one of those areas that definitely erodes over time, especially over like a 20 year history. ⁓ it was also interesting to hear you talk about how, if you have a team, if you hire a team and develop a team who cares, that’s like so critical to building that differentiation in that enduring nature.

And I thought that connected well to what David had shared a little earlier around flexibility and developing teams in that same way to address challenges that you have no idea what’s coming around the corner. ⁓ and I thought that was an interesting connection there. ⁓ speaking of like how, speaking of missions by sake of example, what was FastSpring’s mission in the beginning, you talked about like being better than Digital River, but like, was it more than that? Like, how did you view the mission of the company at that time?

Dan Engel (13:33)

I think we wanted to build a business that treated its customers the way we thought we should have been treated as software vendors. Everything that was wrong with the experience of working with Digital River and its competitors and non-software specific platforms like PayPal, we wanted to correct that because we felt wronged ourselves.

⁓ So I think that was a big part of the mission. And we thought if we were just normal, nice people that cared, we could accomplish that. ⁓ And we did, took a while, but we did. And we did displace a lot of those alternatives. ⁓ mission-wise, I think that’s really what our driving force was, ⁓ is to put some good into an industry that had a lot of bad experiences.

David Vogelpohl (14:21)

David, 20 years later, how do you define FastSpring’s mission now?

David Nachman (14:26)

Yeah, so I think a lot of what Dan just shared is still very true and very important in what we’re doing. ⁓ What gets me excited is kind of the bigger trend we’re playing into in enabling. And for me, it’s about democratizing the software development industry. And what I mean by that is if you look over the last 20 years, since the company was founded, barrier after barrier has come down that allows people

to build software anywhere in the world at any scale and compete with much bigger, much better capitalized players in highly developed markets. going way back, open source, developer tools, cloud computing, online marketing, now we’ve got the AI boom. So it’s gotten dramatically easier to build software anywhere and do it in a really, really competitive way. What hasn’t gotten easier?

is selling it globally. It’s actually kind of gone in some respects in the opposite direction. Tax complexity around the world has gone up a ton. Enforcement has gone up a ton.  The regulatory environment around data has gone up. Payments has gotten a lot more complex. The proliferation of payment methods around the world uh is pretty incredible, and the adoption of a lot of these payment methods  is really high. Fraud

⁓ is going up. I don’t know if it’s exponentially, but it’s certainly going up at a high rate and the complexity of that fraud is going up. So you’ve got this paradox of, you can develop software now at any scale anywhere in the world, but it’s not easy to bring it to market successfully without a solution like ours. And that’s what we do. ⁓ and if you look around the world, there’s, know, no monopoly on development talent in places like Silicon Valley. And there’s talented developers everywhere in the world now.

but there were barriers to them competing. So By democratizing software development and commercialization of it, ultimately, we’re playing into a trend of unleashing more innovation around the world. That’s kind of the big lofty mission that excites me. And I think it does excite a lot of people here.

Dan Engel (16:18)

you

David Vogelpohl (16:39)

Excellent. Love hearing that. ⁓ Dan, so we’ve talked about like it’s a 20 year episode, right? So we’re doing like the worm and fuzzy stuff, but I want to go to like the stuff that made you lose sleep at night in the early days of FastSpring. Tell me about a big mistake you made that like almost tank the company or just like took you in a really bad direction. I mean, we are publishing this, so like take that into heart there, but

Dan Engel (16:53)

So.

David Vogelpohl (17:08)

Was it, was it deprecating this website? mean, this is a fire of a 2025 website, but like, me about the mistakes you

Dan Engel (17:11)

Ha ha!

looks a little pruney to me. ⁓ Well, obviously we made lots of mistakes. think, you know, one key decision was we kept coding really just within Ryan’s domain and didn’t hire a bunch of developers. And I think there were benefits to that and costs. And sometimes we were frustrated we weren’t going faster. ⁓ Because when we came out, a company also came out around the same time. unlike us who did everything

by the way, with $30,000, I put ten grand in, that’s all I ever put into FastSpring. We had a competitor, the head also sold their company to Digital River and they put like 35 or 50 million into their company and they started eating our lunch. So that made us kind of frustrated and concerned because they were getting a lot of clients we had hoped to get. So that was one decision. And also I think using

Java, think, had a lot of benefits, but also I think it slowed us down as well. Now, in the long term, it was beneficial and a great decision because it kept us flexible and extensible. But let’s see. So one of the scarier things that happen is, so when you’re processing payments, there’s risks that you might process in payments that are violations of, say, your relationship.

in your agreement with say a Visa or MasterCard. And we got really good at policing and avoiding any transactions going through the system that would violate any of those agreements. like with hackers, you figure out a solution to avoid the hacking and then the hackers find a way around it and then you find a solution to solve that and then they find a way. So it wasn’t perfect, you know, it’s life. And we had a particular incident where some

content got through that we did processing for is a tiny amount, but it still was very problematic. And that was very costly to us. We had to deal with MasterCard and you know, to have an angry MasterCard is a real problem because you can’t stop working with MasterCard if you’re accepting credit cards, right? That kind of got this duopoly or whatever you want to call it. So that was an example of a really scary experience when we had to deal with, you know, people like Visa MasterCard and

some of the risks around processing that could have really hurt our business and changed things. ⁓ And I would say, in terms of the team that we had, we got along incredibly well. It probably didn’t hurt that we weren’t in the same office and hardly ever saw each other. That can really have a lot of benefits. The biggest fight we ever had, and when we had it, I thought, my God, this is gonna be such a battle for years, was picking the name.

⁓ After we had that, that was like a real battle and I didn’t know what the future would bring. And we went years and years with really not having any fights, maybe until the end when we were selling the business and not everyone wanted to necessarily sell at the same price and money gets people to fight. But ⁓ other than that, ⁓ we really made a great call with the kind of team that we had as founders because we had a team of four former CEOs.

which meant we were all able to kind of do our own stuff without anybody needing to help us. Right. And so we, we, we, we, we split up the business into silos, Ken handled support, Ryan development, me on the sales side and also all the CEO role and Jason on the sales side and some other stuff too. And that worked really well. but, ⁓ anyway, so those are some thoughts on some of the things that were challenges over the years. and,

not, raising capital, going slower, sticking with Java, sticking with one developer. All those things made us go slower. And for me, made me anxious. ⁓ but some of the other partners, they were okay with waiting and having the business take a long time. And it sure did. My wife, ⁓ nicknamed it “SlowSpring,” ⁓ because, ⁓ you know, it was like year three and a half or something and we still weren’t getting anywhere. And I kept telling her, it’s right around the corner.

David Nachman (21:15)

it.

Dan Engel (21:22)

Finally, things picked up. They picked up because we became popular in the Mac software community. We found a niche, right? ⁓ I don’t know what would have happened to FastSpring if we hadn’t found that niche. ⁓ But eventually we took over for Digital River and others as kind of the leading provider for Mac developers. But until then, it was a very slow moving train and we didn’t know what was around the corner.

David Vogelpohl (21:44)

think that’s a bold lesson for people watching and listening who are just starting out and thinking about how to get traction about how you were able to kind of niche down in your core ICP and find that, you know, kind of handhold foothold to start moving further up the mountain. I also thought you had tension in some of the mistakes where you talked about the desire to go faster and invest more, but then you talked about growing pains around things like dealing with hackers and

maybe processing transactions you shouldn’t have and how that affected and put risk into your business. And so like with FastSpring, you know, we’re offering payments and subscriptions and tax compliance and a lot of startups are like compliance. What are you talking about? I’m blowing and growing. I’m, ready to go. Do you think that like maybe moving slow and being more purposeful did have value other than just being, you know, “SlowSpring” and making you a little frustrated with the growth?

Dan Engel (22:41)

Probably. Two of my partners would say definitely yes. They would be, yes, they are more patient people than I am.

David Vogelpohl (22:44)

Would those be Ken and Ryan?

Nice. I like that. ⁓ But yeah, I think about that a lot, you know, in this day, I don’t know how much you’ve kept up with the merchant of record space, but there’s a decent number of startups getting into it. And so I just imagine what it must be like to start from near zero and develop these rules, and this experience, and this understanding, and a platform that reacts to it all. ⁓ Certainly a grand adventure, but definitely no easy task.

Dan Engel (23:15)

Yeah.

It

was, and I think one error was that we didn’t really have expertise in the whole merchant account payment processing business. I mean, yes, software and what used to be called shareware, and the Digital River side of things. But the actual — like all the intricacies of working with like, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AmEx, PayPal, and doing global payments and different currencies and different really didn’t know that stuff.

And so sometimes we learned some hard lessons because of our ignorance. ⁓ It would have, if I were to do it again, I would bring someone involved in the early days who really had spent, I don’t know, 20 years in that payment we didn’t have to figure out what we didn’t know. I think that was costly to us. And I think that was something missing, a missing ingredient that fortunately, we were successful despite it.

David Vogelpohl (24:07)

Did you underestimate the complexity of payments?

Dan Engel (24:10)

I think so. Yeah, I think so. ⁓ And the deep understanding that was needed to really know what we were working with and what we were doing and how it was viewed by others playing all different roles in the industry, the ISOs, IPSPs, the Visas and Mastercards, the acquiring banks, the gateways, we just didn’t really have a great understanding of how all of those different parties were seeing us in their world.

And so we didn’t necessarily navigate it the best way that we could have if we had known more.

David Vogelpohl (24:45)

Sage advice. ⁓ As you look back at your time with FastSpring, founding it, bringing it up, eventually selling it, and the roles and companies you’ve led since then, what lessons did you learn in your FastSpring days that you took forward into your future adventures?

Dan Engel (25:03)

Well, you know, we built FastSpring to not be able to fail because we had all been serial entrepreneurs and had built businesses. Some worked, some didn’t. And one thing that I figured out is if you don’t have a clock tied to money and burn, it’s really hard to go out of business. so…

We built the business from scratch with almost no money. Like I said, I put in 10 grand and the co-founders contributed their time for no cash, just for equity, right? Significant equity, founders equity. ⁓ And so the only way the business could fail is if we lost interest. Nothing external could really make us fail. It really was in our control. So it’s a question of, we lose interest before we get enough customers that this business is big enough that we care about it? And it’s making a difference for us. So with that,

⁓ It gave us quite a runway to be able to figure things out, which took really four years to really start taking off. And believe me, the first three years wasn’t just fun. And of course, while you’re building it, you don’t know if you’re ever going to make it, so you might be wasting your time. So it’s not always the most motivating every day. But I’ve built every business since like that, ⁓ where it’s either profitable for day one or it just doesn’t have that burn and that pressure.

Because what’s the number one reason businesses go out of business? They run out of cash. So if you can get rid of that risk, you’ve got a really good chance of making it. So I’ve had a lot of successes in my career. FastSpring is one of them. There’s a whole bunch of other things I’ve done and all that. And the thing that they all have in common is they all failed before they succeeded. I mean, people don’t see that. They just see the news headlines and great exit for FastSpring, or Picasa, or what I did at Google, or

GoTo Meeting in Santa Barbara. But all those things failed first. So the only reason I’ve been able to figure out how to build these businesses successfully now, including my venture capital firm, is because of all the things I did that failed in the past. And so I think that’s the biggest lesson that I bring forward to every business I do and hope to pass on to other entrepreneurs and to my children and whatnot, that it’s really the failures where you learn how to succeed.

David Vogelpohl (27:12)

I imagine what that must be like. So these are the years and the number of employees from back in those days. And you were saying like, it really took you better part of this time period to get it ramped up. And then you can start to see the business grow over time. It’s very efficient business still during that time.

Dan Engel (27:29)

Well, keep in mind, so in 2013, that was 23. They weren’t really employees, 12 full-time. The rest were part-time contractors. We made them employees later after we sold the business. But that was at a time we were doing over $100 million in revenue. We had 12 full-timers. So it was very efficient and we did not in any way measure ourselves by number of people. It was by revenue and profit.

David Vogelpohl (27:51)

That’s great to hear. ⁓ so Dan has founded the business with his co-founders and they’ve gone on this grand adventure, eventually selling the business. ⁓ Nachman, tell me the backstory between about when you joined the business and what you were kind of doing right before that.

David Nachman (28:11)

Yeah,

I’ve been in B2B tech just about my whole career. Immediately before joining FastSpring, I was running a business that had a very highly tailored content management platform for local government.

So it was cities and counties, they would host a website on it, but also we would power a lot of the constituent facing functionality. you we sort of powered the digital city hall strategy that, you know, a lot of local governments are moving towards. We had sold that business to someone who was really consolidating all of the gov tech industry.

Dan Engel (28:32)

.

David Nachman (28:53)

And I found my way indirectly to FastSpring, was drawn to it for a whole host of reasons. But that’s ultimately, you know, what brought me here or the backstory in terms of what I was doing before I got here.

David Vogelpohl (29:08)

And then as you entered the business, what were your perceptions at that time? ⁓ How did you think about FastSpring’s mission then versus now? ⁓ We had this great meeting the other day where we were like, where did you get wrong about FastSpring when you first joined the company? What about for you, David? What did you get wrong about FastSpring when you first joined?

Dan Engel (29:24)

Okay.

David Nachman (29:29)

Yes, I think some of

the same things that Dan mentioned. I’m not sure that I necessarily underestimated the complexity of payments, but I’m not a payments guy by trade and experience. We had a lot of generalists even at that point in the company. We had a lot of really passionate, a lot of really talented people. And I’ve kind of always been one of those people who believes, OK, if you get the

know, get smart people that are driven, they’re going to figure out problems. And yes, but they’re not going to figure them out as quickly. In many cases, it’s someone who’s got the pattern recognition of having seen that same problem 15 times before. ⁓ And I think I waited a little too long ⁓ to really bolster a lot of our domain expertise in the business. And as I started to do that, ⁓ just

Dan Engel (30:05)

you ⁓

David Nachman (30:23)

What it did in terms of accelerating the business was pretty profound. And it was one of those where I sort of stepped back and said, wow, I should have done that a long time ago. I’d say the other thing is when I came into the business, my perceptions were very positive of the business. Great solution, great customers, business growing at a very healthy clip. So it was a very healthy business. wasn’t a turnaround of any sort. It was how do we take it to the next level?

Dan Engel (30:30)

Okay.

David Nachman (30:52)

So what was missing in my mind was that it really wasn’t built to scale

to anywhere, you the size we are today or, where we think we’ll be over the coming few years. And like a lot of small businesses, a lot of single points of failure, you know, some of that was people, some of that was vendors, some of that was technology. The business sort of survived and thrived on individual heroics. So, you know.

not a lot of ⁓ systems in place, processes, et cetera. And we didn’t really have a leadership team that had scaled to where we wanted to go. So I felt like we did need to bring in people that were more experienced and kind of knew the journey that we were embarking on. And I think a little bit of what I got wrong there.

⁓ in some of these initial hires was I was very focused on getting people that, you know, kind of knew how to operate at scale. And culturally I missed on some of them in terms of abandoning a lot of what’s made the company so special and so effective, which is kind of the entrepreneurial scrappiness. And it’s a, you know, it’s a rare breed of person that has that hands on entrepreneurial scrappiness and can also scale. ⁓ you know,

Dan Engel (32:08)

you

David Nachman (32:14)

Often those are great founder type people that could do magic that a lot of more experienced company people can’t do, but they don’t scale as well. ⁓ So initially I did bring some of those people in and it just, they weren’t the right fit. ⁓ And over my first few years here, I started to really realize what’s the culture that really correlates with

success in our particular business. And part of it is this is the most dynamic, most complex business I’ve ever been at for its scale. I mean, we’ve got a very global footprint. We’re operating in highly regulated industries. We’re dealing with payments. We’re dealing with software. We’re dealing with complexity around tax. We’re dealing with a lot of regulation around data. It’s kind of infinitely complex. And this goes back to this notion of adaptability. ⁓

Dan Engel (32:47)

Okay.

David Nachman (33:11)

You have to have some level of scrappy entrepreneurialism to thrive in this business. But it also has to be paired with, you know how to scale a business and it’s not all about, hey, I’m just going to do the heroics to get us to the next challenge. It’s no, I’m going to build a foundation where if I’m not here, this business will still run quite well. So.

Dan Engel (33:25)

you

David Nachman (33:37)

So I think, you know, there are definitely things I got right, but there were some things I got wrong in trying to make that transition from more of a startup company to a really scalable company.

David Vogelpohl (33:48)

Yeah, that’s kind of like an awkward teenager-y zone a little bit. that’s a whole, sorry, go ahead.

Dan Engel (33:48)

Hm.

David Nachman (33:51)

That’s right. ⁓

We definitely went through our awkward teenage phase. I hope we’re out of that now.

David Vogelpohl (33:57)

Yeah.

Knock on wood on that one for sure. I still got to build the enduring business of the future, right? ⁓ We’re kind of getting towards the end here, so I want to make sure to hit on a couple of things here in the last little bit. Nachman, since I’m on you, I’ll stick with you for this one. But if somebody’s out there and they have a startup and they’re listening to all these points of view,

David Nachman (34:03)

That’s right.

David Vogelpohl (34:22)

maybe taking some notes along the way, but what’s the one thing that that person should ⁓ get from listening to you about building an enduring business? What’s your number one piece of advice?

David Nachman (34:33)

It’s embrace change and change before you have to. ⁓ You can’t build an enduring business doing the same thing for any period of time. period of time is shrinking with every given year. mean, given what’s going on with AI right now, ⁓ know, the timeframes over which things evolve is just collapsing. it’s, you know, constantly think about how your business is going to be.

reimagined and go do that. ⁓ Don’t let somebody else do that to you. You’ve got to get out in front of it.

David Vogelpohl (35:08)

Great one, embrace change and change before you have to. ⁓ Dan, what about you?

Dan Engel (35:14)

⁓ I would say treating your own people extremely well and having that then trickle down to how they treat your customers and the concept of treating your customers like gold and bending over backwards to ensure that they are just wowed by the experience of working with you compared to what they’re used to from alternatives. And then I think in terms of building a business, removing the obstacles as much as possible that

lead companies to fail, including dealing with things like burn upfront.

David Vogelpohl (35:46)

I it. I love the people first thing. I think this is like the Dan Golden Rule. Treat others as you want them to treat your customers. I love it. ⁓ All right. ⁓ Last question. Sorry about that little mic pop there. Dan, um we’re going to show this recording to the FastSpring team and they’re pretty much all going to listen to it and watch it. Do you have a special message for them to celebrate the 20 year FastSpring anniversary?

David Nachman (35:53)

Thank

Dan Engel (36:16)

A special message. Well, you know, I guess, you know, it’s I’m glad that everybody’s part of something with the humble roots and mission that we originally started on to try to offer a better alternative in an industry that was plagued with some negativity. But I think, ⁓ you know, I challenge everybody to really think about how to make the next 20 years of FastSpring successful, dealing with all the change. Change has been a big ⁓

theme here in our conversation. So we have all the different things happening around, say, AI, or how people purchase software, or what Apple’s Store looks like, and what they can and can’t do. All different facets are going to continuously change. And so I hope folks are thinking about how they can continuously adapt to ensure that FastSpring survives and thrives through all the shifts ahead. Some will be good and some will be bad for the company so that we can have this kind of a conversation again after another 20 years.

David Vogelpohl (37:12)

Nice, I like it. Dan, thank you so much for joining us for this conversation. It was super interesting to hear about your backstory and some of the things that went into building such an enduring business. But thank you so much for joining us today.

Dan Engel (37:27)

You betcha. Thanks for having me and congratulations on the 20 years and thanks everyone for doing such a great job at the business.

David Vogelpohl (37:33)

Thank you, of course. then David, thank you for joining and picking up the torch and then sharing your backstory here at the helm.

David Nachman (37:41)

Well, thank you for having me. I’ve enjoyed the discussion. I’ve learned some things about the business. I don’t think I knew Dan, so it’s fantastic to get the time to interact and learn a little bit about our roots and history.

Dan Engel (37:50)

Okay.

David Vogelpohl (37:52)

Excellent. And for those watching and listening, if you’d like to learn more about FastSpring, you can visit FastSpring.com. Thanks for joining us for the Growth Stage podcast. I’ve been your host, David Vogelpohl. I support the digital product community as part of my role here at FastSpring. And I love to bring the best of the community to you here on Growth Stage. Thanks everybody.

The post What It Takes to Build an Enduring Business: Celebrating 20 Years of FastSpring appeared first on FastSpring.

As FastSpring continues growing rapidly as a business throughout the next few years, the company also aims to set the standard in its industry for Customer Success and Support. This will require FastSpring to continue to expand its global presence, continue to strengthen and deepen customer relationships, establish new methods of interacting with leading customers, and enhance its ability to act as a highly consultative partner to customers to help fuel their growth and success.

“I am pleased to welcome Lindsay into the company to lead the Global Customer Operations team through our next chapter of growth,” said FastSpring CEO David Nachman. “Lindsay brings a wealth of experience leading global customer teams in high growth environments, as well as incredible depth of knowledge and experience in payments and ecommerce.” 

Said Walker, “FastSpring’s global customer organization and partnership approach extends beyond our best-in-class technology. We actively collaborate with our customers to share valuable insights, foster innovation, and unlock customers’ full potential in a dynamic and shifting global economic environment. As Chief Customer Officer, I know that by working together, we can create a thriving ecosystem where businesses can transcend borders and achieve lasting success in a competitive digital landscape.”

Most recently, Walker spent 4.5 years as the SVP of Customer Success at Checkout.com, where she built the customer success organization during a period of rapid expansion with a focus on a diverse enterprise customer base. Prior to that, Walker commercialized and scaled the customer success function at Adyen as VP of Account Management. She brings knowledge of the MoR model from her 4.5 years at Digital River’s World Payments subsidiary, and served in customer-facing and partnership leadership roles at other payments companies, including WorldPay and GlobalCollect (now part of Worldline). She has extensive relationships throughout the industry and has played a leadership role in critical industry associations such as the Merchant Risk Council.

About FastSpring

FastSpring powers global payments for SaaS and software companies, video game publishers, and other digital goods businesses. As a merchant of record, FastSpring provides a fully managed payment solution including checkout, fraud mitigation, comprehensive sales tax and VAT compliance, and more. Founded in 2005, FastSpring is a privately owned company headquartered in California with offices in the UK, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Click here to read the post on PR Newswire.

The post Press Release: FastSpring Announces Payments Veteran Lindsay Walker as New Chief Customer Officer appeared first on FastSpring.

In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview CEO of Nexus Justin Sacks about his thoughts on:

• The core challenges the partnership was established to address.
• How the integration works.
• Exactly how publishers can use FastSpring + Nexus to quickly launch a successful D2C channel.

If you’re sitting on your hands worried that launching D2C has to be a massively disruptive project, you may be surprised what is possible for you and your players. Listen or watch now!

FastSpring is how gaming publishers sell in more places around the world, and for nearly two decades, we’ve been a payment provider you can use to sell games or in-game items on your website, web shop, or embedded directly into your game with fully customizable and branded checkouts just for you. To learn more about how FastSpring supports game developers, visit fastspring.gg.

Jump to video.  |  Jump to transcript.

Podcast Full Interview: Audio

Listen online or find it on more podcast services.

Podcast Full Interview: Video

The post EP31: Introducing the FastSpring + Nexus Web Shop Integration appeared first on FastSpring.

When it comes to payment methods in South Korea, nothing is more trusted in mobile wallets than Kakao Pay, which has over 36.5 million users. And when buyers see a payment method they know and trust—they’re more likely to buy. 

Giving buyers payment options that are simple, quick, and familiar is the single most effective way for mobile gaming companies to increase conversion rates and maximize revenue. 

With FastSpring’s new, seamless Kakao Pay integration, South Korean mobile gaming or app companies don’t have to wonder if they’re leaving revenue on the table. 

Solution Overview

Adding the Kakao Pay integration to mobile and desktop checkout empowers companies to cater to local preferences, reinforcing market presence and building user trust and loyalty. Plus, users will be less likely to abandon their carts due to unfamiliar payment options. 

FastSpring’s Kakao Pay integration empowers both desktop and mobile app companies to enhance the following:

New User Acquisition. When purchasing is simple with a familiar payment option, users are likely to complete the transactions they’ve started.

User Adoption and Geographic Reach. When companies offer familiar and secure regional payment methods that align with user preferences and habits, they’re more likely to make repeat purchases.

Customer Satisfaction. When the purchase experience is fast and convenient, customer satisfaction increases.

FastSpring’s Kakao Pay integration is easy for developers to implement and makes purchasing familiar, quick, and easy. Let’s see this solution in action!

Solution in Action

Have you ever played the game Monster Field? Probably not. We created it to highlight how FastSpring’s Kakao Pay integration can boost customer acquisition for mobile gaming companies in South Korea!

Monster Field is based on years of market research and user testing, so when the game launched in South Korea, the company expected significantly higher adoption from new customers. In turn, they implemented a multi-channel strategy to boost awareness and acquisition—including live events and digital advertising—but still weren’t seeing the desired results.

Monster Field’s research team ran a shopping cart abandonment rate analysis to understand how many potential buyers abandon the virtual shopping cart before completing the purchase. What they found was astonishing. While the abandonment rate in other regions averaged fifty percent, buyers were abandoning their carts seventy percent of the time in South Korea!

Monster Field knew if it could close that gap and get conversions closer to the global average, it would boost its revenue substantially.

Monster Field’s dev team decided to toggle on FastSpring’s Kakao Pay option by simply checking the box in the FastSpring platform. Doing so enabled Kakao Pay as a payment method on all checkout flows for buyers in South Korea, including web, pop-up, and embedded. 

Kakao Pay allows Monster Field customers in South Korea to complete purchases in United States Dollars (USD) and Korean Won (KRW).

Two months after enabling Kakao Pay, Monster Field ran another card abandonment analysis and found they increased conversion rates by twenty percentage points in South Korea, putting the region on par with other areas where Monster Field is sold. And, across new and repeat customers, thirty-five percent of customers choose Kakao Pay at checkout.

Conclusion

Configuring the Kakao Pay integration is one of the quickest, simplest, and most effective steps a FastSpring user can take to increase customer conversion and revenue.

With FastSpring’s Kakao Pay integrated, customers breeze through the payment process in a familiar environment that converts hesitant browsers into satisfied customers.

No more abandoned carts. No more revenue left on the table. Give buyers a payment method they know and trust, and watch your conversion, satisfaction, and revenue grow.

Want to know more about how we’ve helped gaming companies improve localization and increase revenue? Or, are you ready to get started with FastSpring? Talk to our team today.

The post How FastSpring’s Kakao Pay Integration Boosts New and In-Game Purchases for South Korean Gamers  appeared first on FastSpring.

As the mobile direct-to-consumer (D2C) landscape continues to evolve through lawsuits and regulation changes happening around the world, Thurston will lead efforts to help enable mobile publishers through education, strategy, and technology to take advantage of this very unique opportunity in the history of mobile games. He will work with publishers on D2C monetization strategies that include the development of go-to-market tactics for promoting shops outside of mobile games, pairing web shop marketing with existing live service campaigns, and gracefully coupling in-game experiences with web shop experiences.

Thurston states that  “Now is the perfect time for D2C growth in the gaming industry, and I couldn’t be more excited to join FastSpring to lead the company’s efforts to help publishers embrace a D2C future. I’ve been honored to work for amazing companies like Scopely and SciPlay, and I’m looking forward to supporting the rest of the community in their quests to establish more direct relationships with players while strengthening their own financial success with D2C.”

Thurston led monetization and marketing for Monopoly Slots at SciPlay before moving to Scopely as a senior product leader for the wildly popular mobile titles WWE Champions and Yahtzee with Buddies. His expertise in modern mobile live service games and delivering excellent player experiences comes from balancing live service monetization, in-game experiences, D2C strategies, and go-to-market execution.

With his experience at top mobile publishers and a deep background in D2C marketing and merchandising, Thurston joins FastSpring to continue helping the mobile games publishing community to embrace a more open future. 

About FastSpring

FastSpring is how gaming publishers sell in more places around the world. For nearly two decades, FastSpring has been a trusted payment provider you can use to sell games or in-game items on your website, web shop, or embedded directly into your game with fully customizable and branded checkouts just for you. FastSpring allows you to offload the complexity of global payments, sales tax and VAT compliance, player payments support, and many other aspects of payments management. Spend less time managing your payments and compliance and more time making great games! To learn more about how FastSpring supports game developers, visit fastspring.gg.

Click here to read the post on PR Newswire.

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What Are Recipe Docs?

Recipe Docs are like your personal cookbook for integrating FastSpring into your business. Whether it be on your website or to backend systems, our Recipe Docs guide you through the steps to build out experiences that are tailored to your specific business use case. Each recipe cuts right to the heart of implementation without the need for any extra storylines like you’ll find in recipes across the web. The recipes include detailed and specific instructions and “ingredients” (e.g., sample code) that you can use to replicate the process in your own environment, making integration easy and quick.

Why Recipe Docs Are a Game-Changer

Not every user has a team of technical experts on staff ready to tackle complex implementations. That’s where our Recipe Docs come in. These step-by-step guides help you navigate the process of integrating FastSpring’s features without needing to rely on back-and-forth with our support team. Recipes empower you to take charge of your implementation by providing clear directions that demystify the process.

Some of the powerful capabilities you can unlock through Recipe Docs include:

• Capture Order Data from FastSpring Checkout: Allow for real-time access to transaction details for further processing or integration with your other systems.
• Preferred Payment Methods: Customize your checkout to offer the payment options that work best for your customers, boosting conversion rates.
• Encrypt the Session Object: Ensure secure, complaint handling of user data to protect user privacy.

What’s Available Now?

Currently, FastSpring offers six detailed recipes, covering both API and SBL integration methods. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just getting started, these recipes provide an excellent starting point for integrating key features into your existing workflow.

Some examples include:

• Seamlessly adding new payment methods to improve the customer experience.
• Authenticate accounts via account ID to ensure proper access to your products.
• Using subscription management tools to improve customer retention.

The great part? You can easily assess whether FastSpring’s integration options align with your business goals before diving into a full implementation.

Built for Your Success

One of the standout benefits of Recipe Docs is the ability to self-evaluate FastSpring’s integration capabilities. By following these recipes, users can independently test and explore what’s possible with the FastSpring platform — saving time and avoiding potential roadblocks. 

Got Ideas for More Recipes?

The FastSpring Recipe Docs are continually evolving, and we’re always open to hearing what additional recipes you think would be helpful. If you have suggestions or feedback, we’d love to hear from you!

Explore Recipe Docs and start building your ideal FastSpring experience today. Or, reach out to our team directly.

The post Discover FastSpring’s Recipe Docs: Simplifying Implementation for Users appeared first on FastSpring.

FastSpring Customer Success Team Gets Exceptional Results

Our customer success team was honored with this award thanks to three key achievements: 

1. Exceptional Results

We consistently surpass targets and achieve unprecedented growth, exceeding customer expectations and showcasing our dedication to excellence.

2. Strategic Agility

We take a proactive approach to identifying opportunities, implementing innovative solutions, and adapting to market changes — all of which reflect our strategic vision, keeping us ahead in the industry.

3. Customer-Centric Culture

We prioritize customer satisfaction, nurture a collaborative culture, and ensure seamless teamwork across departments, demonstrating our commitment to exceptional service and successful project execution. 

What Our Customers Say

These accomplishments are echoed by FastSpring customer feedback responses about their customer success managers (CSMs), including: 

• “The customer success manager collaborated with us on revamping our customer journey and redesigning the checkout experience by implementing an embedded checkout, resulting in a notable boost in conversion rates.”
• “Our customer success manager played a pivotal role in enhancing our average order value (AOV) by facilitating FastSpring’s integration of a shopping cart in the fourth quarter of the previous year. This integration empowered our customers to make multiple product selections within a single order instead of being limited to a single product choice without the convenience of a cart.”
• “Our dedicated CSM has consistently demonstrated exceptional responsiveness and proactivity in her role. We are truly delighted to have her as a dedicated CSM for us, and her contributions have been instrumental in our success.”

SocialBee’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Bee Ovi Negrean is continually impressed by FastSpring’s support and customer success. Read more about his experience here.

The Globee® Awards

The Globee® Awards, named with a portmanteau of the words “global” and “business,” were created to recognize various types of organizations around the world, specifically in business and technology categories. They present awards in nine categories, including Customer Excellence, American Business, Business, Cybersecurity, Disruptor, and Women In Business.

From the Globee® Awards for Customer Excellence Gold Winner page:

“To be recognized as a Gold Globee® Winner, an entrant needs to attain an impressive average score of 9.0 or above, or have the highest score in their category, according to the judgment of the evaluators. This distinction marks the recipient’s superior performance, innovation, and leadership in their field, distinguishing them as leaders of excellence. The Gold Globee® Winner accolade celebrates not only the individual or organization’s notable achievements but also encourages the broader industry community to aim for and achieve high standards of excellence. It is an acknowledgment of the winner’s hard work, talent, and commitment to their area of expertise.”

We know how hard our customer success team works to ensure our customers and their businesses succeed, so we’re not surprised they’ve been honored with this award! 

If you want your SaaS, software, video game, or digital goods business to benefit from FastSpring’s continued commitment to customer success, set up a demo or sign up to check out the platform yourself.

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FastSpring Support Rises to the Challenge

It was clear to award judges that FastSpring’s team had moved strategically to make the voice of the customer the center of improvement efforts, with results showing in customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, net promoter scores (NPS), and first response target times in 96% of cases. 

These efforts were described as particularly impressive given how much our company is growing, which can present challenges for any customer support team — but our team stepped up to address challenges by better understanding and meeting customers’ needs.

Steps taken by our support team to accomplish these goals included customer journey mapping, engaging with customers one on one, integrating artificial intelligence in our support processes, and even implementing interdepartmental service level agreements (SLAs). These steps helped our team move back to a more customer-centric culture, which has further empowered and engaged our team members, too.

We’ve also integrated artificial intelligence with our documentation search tool! Read our blog post to learn how it works, or go to our documentation to try it out for yourself. 

The Stevie® Awards

The Stevie® awards were created in 2002 and have become the world’s premier business awards, with Sales & Customer Service, American, International, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East & North Africa, Women in Business, and many other sections of awards having been established to recognize excellence in business all over the world. 

This award is the product of a lot of hard work by our support team, and we’re not surprised they’ve earned this distinction!

Need FastSpring assistance? Experience our team’s excellent service firsthand by submitting a service request from inside the FastSpring app or via our service portal.

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