Introducing Yan Makher, Aeropay's New Head of Product

Before Yan Makher ever talked to the team, he already believed in what Aeropay was building.

Yan Makher brings more than 15 years of experience across payments, identity, fraud, and customer-facing platforms, with a merchant-side perspective on what makes payment products work and a product leadership approach centered on listening, alignment, and helping teams move in the same direction.

We sat down with Yan in his first week to find out what drew him here and what he's focused on next.

What drew you to Aeropay?

I have immense trust in Dan and the vision for what Aeropay is building. Getting to work with him again was a big part of the decision. But the product was the other piece.

I looked at the pay by bank space and what stood out was Aeropay's user experience, flexibility, and fraud tooling. Coming from the operator side, I know how much flexibility matters. Different merchants have different needs, risk tolerances, user bases and configurations. Aeropay had the ability to adapt in a way that stood out.

And last thing, I just love to build. Product is my favorite thing in the world, besides my kids and family. Aeropay gives me so many ways to do that work at scale and really make an impact.

What parts of your background feel most relevant here?

A lot of it translates. I've worked across payments, identity, fraud, compliance, and user experience. In my last role, I helped build a player account management (PAM) system from the ground up, focusing on user creation, authentication and identity, compliance tooling, and payments. That maps pretty directly to what Aeropay does.

I also understand the types of users we're working with, their behaviors, and how payment products show up in the checkout experience. I know what happens when someone gets declined, what they're most likely to do next, and what that means for operations and customer service.

The fraud side is another area I've spent a lot of time on. The goal is always to minimize fraud while keeping conversion high. There's a real difference between stopping fraud at the door when it's clearly fraud, and being aware of risk early so you can put the right controls in place before it becomes a bigger issue. You're never going to stop every bad actor, so the product has to be flexible enough to account for that.

‍What are your initial goals with the team?‍

The first thing is making sure we have the right process in place. Not too much process, but enough. A way of looking at whether we're actually moving the needle and solving the right problems.

Aeropay has grown quickly, and when that happens, the system has to keep evolving. Some things are tactical, short-term work that helps solidify the platform. But then there's the more strategic question of how we evolve over time to serve different verticals, different merchant needs, different end-user needs. One size fits all doesn't apply to everything we do.

The network is also a big opportunity. Aeropay has merchants across different verticals, but at the end of the day, it can still be one user across that network. If we can be confident in that user across the network, we can remove friction for the people we know really well and be smarter about risk where we need to be. And then there are areas where the bar across the industry is always getting higher, like analytics, merchant experience, onboarding. We have to keep leveling up alongside it.

‍How do you think about the relationship between Product and Engineering?

I think of it as a three-legged stool: Product, Engineering, and User Experience. Those three need to be working in tandem.

From the product side, it's the what and the why. Why are we doing something? What problem does it solve? What's the outcome we're trying to drive? Engineering brings scalability, speed, and reliability, and they need to poke holes in product requirements so we're not looking at things through just one lens. User experience keeps us honest about the end user.

For us to be successful, we need to stay in sync. Engineering needs to understand why something is a priority. We need as many smart minds in the process as possible. That's how we can be confident that what we put out there will actually have a positive impact for users, merchants, and Aeropay. I've seen the team here. The confidence is there. Now it's just time to do the work.

Pay by bank is still gaining adoption in the US. What do you think needs to happen?

‍A couple of things.

One is removing friction. Historically, pay by bank required your routing and account number. Who knows those offhand? That's real friction. When you use Aeropay for the first time, that should be the only time you have to go through that. From there, the network effect should make it easier everywhere you go.

The second is incentives. There's not always a reason for someone to switch. As an end user, you're usually going to take the path of least resistance. So you need to give people a reason to get through that first step, whether that's rewards or something else that makes them try it, use it, and keep using it.

And then on the merchant side. If pay by bank can lower costs without worsening the end-user experience, there's a reason merchants want it front and center. That's how it becomes mainstream: by making it easier to access, giving users a reason to try it, and giving merchants a reason to prioritize it.

‍What are you most excited about working on?

‍Getting everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction. One of the biggest roles of a good product leader is helping orchestrate that. Not in a "one person has all the answers" way, but in a way that makes sure everyone understands where we're going and how their work contributes to it.

The only way the boat moves in the right direction is if everyone is rowing together. Engineers understand what we're building and why. Product is evangelizing the reasoning and justifying the work. Everyone, including operations, sales and customer success, sees the problems we're solving for merchants. That's product leadership.

One of my favorite things so far has been listening. People across the company have been excited to share what they're seeing, and that energy is real. Aeropay is a major player in a very competitive fintech category, and rallying around what comes next is genuinely fun for me.

What should your new colleagues know about you that won't show up on your resume?

‍One new thing in my life this year is running, which is absolutely awful. But that's also kind of the point.

I don't know if I enjoy it while I'm doing it. Something usually hurts, and I'm out of breath. I'm thinking, "Why am I doing this?" But the second I finish, there's this feeling of, "I cannot believe I just did that."

I started small, maybe half a mile. Then a little more. Then three miles, then five. Recently, I ran 9 miles, which I never thought I could do. Now it's become something I think about and plan around. It's an hour by myself, sometimes longer, and it's become a kind of therapy. Every time, it's still a surprise.

‍Welcome to Aeropay, Yan. We're excited to have you on the team.

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