AI-Native Payments that power growth for Vertical SaaS

Mitch and Ultan from Join It join Shiran to talk about building membership management software for the organizations everyone else overlooks — associations, nonprofits, breweries, wineries, and clubs that need to collect recurring payments and manage a real-world community. We get into why Mitch didn't build membership tools inside Eventbrite despite spotting the gap firsthand, how he knew it was time to quit his job, and why going from zero customers to one is the hardest part of the whole journey, harder than one to ten, or ten to a hundred. Other things we cover: Why over half of JoinIt's new customers in 2026 are still switching from spreadsheets and offline systemsThe "primary customer vs. secondary customer" framework for serving both the organization and its membersHow generative AI search broke their organic growth channel- and what they're doing about itCard testing fraud, payment restrictions across 50 countries, and other lessons from handling money at scaleWhere they draw the line between building a feature in-house and integrating with a best-in-class partner