4 Questions with Aeropay's new CRO, Andrew Gleiser

Today, we are thrilled to announce that Andrew Gleiser is joining Aeropay as Chief Revenue Officer. Andrew is a seasoned sales, marketing, and customer success executive with experience scaling and managing organizations across the marketing and financial technology sectors at growth and enterprise-stage companies. With proven success at companies such as Google, Stripe, and the Fintech unicorn Array, he has grown revenue in the hundreds of millions for firms with usage-based technology products. We sat down and interviewed Andrew to get to know him better as a person and leader.

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What drew you to Aeropay? What are the biggest opportunities you're excited to tackle?

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ACH as a payment method always made sense to me: lower costs for businesses with increased flexibility over traditional credit cards. That said, I believe what has been holding merchants back is both the ease of conversion (it’s not fun to have to type in your account and routing number after all) and ACHs former reputation as being slow to settle. After my first chat with Dan Muller, the founder of Aeropay, I knew he had a hit on his hands, a solution that makes it possible to securely pay with ACH in under a minute, both online and in-store. Because of Aeropay’s steadfast focus on compliance and efforts in building partnerships with innovative financial institutions, we have found an excellent product-market fit with underserved industries such as cannabis and gaming, where I am excited to double down to help these emerging businesses thrive. I also believe Aeropay’s suite of products is the platform that can help merchants of all shapes and sizes reclaim lost top-line revenue, while also increasing customer loyalty. I am excited to be a part of that process, and I can’t wait to help our current and future customers grow their businesses. 

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What predictions do you have for the future of payments? Specifically in underserved industries such as crypto, gaming, and cannabis?

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When I was at Stripe, I came to realize two very important things. First, payments is by no means just credit cards and cash, but a complex web of banks, issuers, networks, and legal constraints that makes navigating the crucial act of getting paid exceedingly convoluted. Second, many businesses are disadvantaged by the existing payment infrastructure and interchange networks that so many consumers rely on to purchase goods and services. The obvious example of this of course is for emerging industries such as cannabis, crypto, and gaming, where traditional financial institutions have either been reluctant to take on the opportunity due to slow-evolving risk tolerances, or fully unable to move forward due to federal regulations lagging behind various states’ legislation. The less apparent examples are businesses with high average order values, such as rent payment platforms, online jewelry retailers, and software providers who have been forced to give away hundreds of basis points of their topline revenue for the sake of greater consumer adoption. With cost-effective alternative payment methods such as Aeropay gaining broad consumer adoption, I believe that businesses of all shapes and sizes, whether in-store or online, b2c or b2b, will be able to reclaim their hard-earned revenue while not sacrificing ease of conversion. The industry is ready for innovation; with more and more Americans each year embracing mobile payments, BNPL, and other non-plastic methods, consumers are more willing and flexible than ever to pay their favorite merchants in different ways.

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What are some fun facts about you?

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One of my secret abilities is that I am fluent in Japanese; I lived in Japan for around 2 years and have a B.A. in Japanese History & Poetry. In short, my college education qualifies me to be a bad Heian Court poet, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! I’m also a massive self-proclaimed nerd and have a vast Star Wars lego collection, including a Millenium Falcon signed by the Lego designers. I’m also a proud daddy to my 16-month-old daughter, Reina Yujie, who I fully intend to train in the ways of The Force!

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Let’s settle this, who has better pizza. Chicago or New York?

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As a Chicagoan it pains me to say this… but I love a good NYC pizza. Something about folding a big slice and scarfing it down with a solid pilsner. I absolutely adore Pequod’s and Barnaby’s Pizza too.

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Follow Andrew on LinkedIn.