Merchants

Episode 304 – Fanning the Flames: Meta Muse, Instinct, and the Current State of Agentic Commerce

Glenbrook’s Chris Uriarte and Drew Edmond revisit the state of agentic commerce, exploring emerging consumer interfaces like Instinct and Meta Muse, access to merchant catalogs and data, and the challenges of turning agent-driven shopping into actual transactions. They also share their firsthand experiences making an agentic purchase through Meta Muse, and the industry complexities that still need addressed.

Episode 303 – Fanning the Flames: Every Payment, Every Environment, All at Once

This episode is a follow up to Drew Edmond’s 2025 payments performance optimization series, and an accumulation of what he has learned about how optimization actually works today. And here’s the short version – for subscription payments and for subscription businesses, an individual transaction success depends on a lot more than just the payment.

Tune in as Drew outlines a data-forward approach that spans every environment a payment touches, highlighted by clips from previous guests from the payments performance optimization series.

Episode 297 – A New Era for Card Issuing, with Nikil Konduru, Lithic

Drew Edmond and Chris Uriarte chat with Nikhil Konduru, Chief Commercial Officer at Lithic, to discuss modern card issuing infrastructure and where the market is headed. Tune in as they break down the issuing stack, discuss issuer-side tools to improve authorization outcomes, and explore implications for cross-border payments and agentic commerce.

Episode 296 – Fanning the Flames – Beyond Borders: Navigating Your Global Payments Strategy

Going global with your payments strategy requires far more than choosing a single payment provider: companies must weigh local acquiring versus cross-border acquiring, country-by-country payment preferences, entity structure, tax implications, compliance requirements, authorization performance, currency handling, and provider coverage.

In this episode, Chris Uriarte joins Glenbrook colleagues Samantha Gordon, Simon Skinner, and Drew Edmond to explore the complexities and potential benefits for merchants and platforms to consider when expanding payments globally.

Episode 293 – Unlocking Merchant Growth in Emerging Markets, with João Del Valle, EBANX

In this episode, Drew Edmond is joined by João Del Valle, CEO and co-founder of EBANX, to talk about the origin story of EBANX, why Brazil has historically been such a difficult market for non-Brazilian merchants, and what João has learned as the company has expanded into new regions.

Listen in as they cover some of the biggest topics shaping the next phase of global payments, including Pix and Pix Automático in Brazil, payment optimization when looking at local payment methods, and perspectives on agentic commerce and stablecoins.

Episode 291 – The Complex and Growing World of Platform Payments, with Blake Breathitt, Adyen

In this episode, Chris Uriarte speaks with Blake Breathitt, Senior Vice President of Platforms and Financial Services at Adyen, about one of the biggest growth engines in the industry over the past few years – platform payments.

Listen in as they discuss the nature of this interesting segment of the industry, the nuance behind platform payments, and just what’s driving this platform payment phenomenon.

Episode 290 – The Evolution of VAMP and Card Network Fraud Monitoring, with Keith Briscoe, MRC, and Allan Shearer, J.P. Morgan

In this episode, Chris Uriarte welcomes Keith Briscoe, VP, Advocacy and Education at the Merchant Risk Council, and Allan Shearer, Executive Director, Head of TMT Relationship Management at J.P. Morgan, to focus on the evolution of card network fraud monitoring programs, and in particular, VAMP, Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program, which combines fraud and dispute metrics to better manage risk at both merchant and acquirer levels. Listen in as the group discusses industry reactions, data transparency and reporting challenges, and implications for enforcement of new thresholds.

Episode 275 – The Criticality of Optimizing the Payments Experience, with Anne Hay and Mike Kaplan, PayNearMe

In this episode of Payments on Fire, Chris Uriarte welcomes Anne Hay, Chief Marketing Officer, and Mike Kaplan, Chief Revenue Officer, from PayNearMe to discuss the evolution and optimization of the payments experience.

Episode 271 – Sufficiently Solving the Non-Sufficient Funds Puzzle with Chanan Lavi, Kipp

In this episode, Drew Edmond is joined by Chanan Lavi, CEO and Co-founder of Kipp, to discuss solutions to the major problem of non-sufficient funds declines, as well as the implications for merchants, issuers, and consumers.

Episode 268 – Rethinking Payment Optimization Through the Merchant of Record Model, with Rehman Baig, FlexFactor

In this episode, Rehman Baig, Chief Product Officer at FlexFactor joins Drew to talk about how FlexFactor is rethinking payments optimization through a Merchant of Record model. For most people in the industry, “Merchant of Record” is usually associated with global tax compliance and marketplaces, not optimization. But FlexFactor is using it to directly address failed payments and auth rate challenges in a way that merchants simply can’t do on their own.