Primer wasn’t born out of theory but from the frustration of watching merchants struggle with payments that should work for them, not against them.
At PayPal, my co-founder Paul and I saw how rigid, fragmented systems weren’t just inefficient—they were stifling innovation, limiting growth, and creating headaches for businesses.
Payments were never meant to be this complicated. Yet years of outdated infrastructure and disconnected solutions have locked merchants into inflexible systems that limit their progress.
It was clear the status quo had to go.
That’s why we made it our mission to bring true openness to the payments ecosystem—creating a unified infrastructure that breaks down barriers and makes payments accessible for everyone. By integrating the best tools and services in a seamless, interoperable way, we empower merchants to innovate, adapt, and scale without limits.
Primer isn't here to fit in—we're here to redefine the industry. And people are taking notice. Merchants, PSPs, and fraud prevention platforms are joining us because they see the future we're creating—and they want in.
While we’ve come a long way in the last five years, our journey is really only beginning. We’re challenging a deeply entrenched industry, tackling the hard problems others have ignored, and redefining how businesses approach payments.
As we close out the year, I want to share five reflections on how far we’ve come—insights that have driven us, challenged us, and will propel us forward as we continue reshaping the future of payments.
Reflection One: Open and interoperable
We founded Primer with a simple belief: payments should empower businesses, not hold them back. This belief drives everything we do, and I sometimes like to frame it as we’ve created not just a platform but a new narrative for payments that prioritizes merchants’ needs above all else.
The ripple effect of our work is unmistakable. Conversations around payments have shifted dramatically—PSPs and other major players now tout openness, interoperability, and flexibility. Concepts they barely acknowledged a year ago are now central to their messaging.
But these claims of openness often come with caveats. PSPs play a vital role in enabling payments, but their model inherently creates conflicts.
As providers whose core revenue comes from processing payments, can they truly prioritize merchant choice? Are they incentivized to recommend competitors’ solutions when it conflicts with their bottom line? Merchants are increasingly questioning these claims, and rightly so. We’ve created not just a platform but a new narrative for payments that prioritizes merchants’ needs above all else.
That’s where Primer stands apart. We anticipated this shift from the start, empowering merchants with an agnostic and interoperable platform by design.
That said, we’ve always seen PSPs as our partners in the payment ecosystem. Our role isn’t to compete with them but to complement their offerings, strengthening the entire ecosystem and becoming more merchant-centric.
When one of the world’s largest financial institutions tells us that Primer is the best way to drive adoption of its payment solutions, it’s not just a validation of what we’ve built—it’s proof that collaboration can make the industry stronger, more open, and better for everyone.
Reflection Two: Payments as a growth lever
Over the past year, many merchants have experienced a wake-up call. They’ve taken a hard look at their payment setups and realized: Wait a minute—what I’m using isn’t just outdated; it’s actively holding me back.
For years, businesses trusted a single PSP or provider to meet all their needs, which felt sufficient then. Others, seeking more flexibility, built multi-PSP setups, only to face complexity, inefficiency, and scaling challenges.
The shortcomings of both approaches have become increasingly apparent.
Now, the narrative is shifting. The question is no longer “What can I do with what I have?” but “What’s possible if I rethink everything?” And this is where things get exciting.
We’ve seen established brands and high-growth companies like Banxa, Conforama, Dabble, GetYourGuide, Lime, New Look, and Printify take a leap of faith and not just tweak their existing stacks but reimagine them entirely.
Underpinning all this is the realization that payments are more than just a transactional layer. They are a strategic lever for growth, efficiency, and customer experience. As a result, incremental changes aren’t enough in today's competitive marketplace—they’re embracing transformation. And, with the right tools and strategies, they’re achieving it.
Reflection Three: Beyond payment orchestration
From our Unified API, which simplifies integrations, to tools like Agnostic 3D Secure, Monitors, Reconciliation, and Observability, we’ve built solutions that help businesses optimize payments and realize their full potential.
At the heart of this is our pioneering Workflow engine. Primer was the first to introduce workflows to payments. It provides a dynamic canvas that empowers teams to design and execute their payment strategies exactly as they envision—without writing a single line of code.
Workflows offer advanced payment routing capabilities, enabling merchants to direct payment traffic based on pre-defined conditions such as currency, payment method, or account funding type. Teams can also leverage metadata to build highly customized workflows. For instance, some Primer users have created dedicated workflows for VIP customers to deliver personalized, frictionless payment experiences.
It’s worth clarifying that Primer is more than a payment orchestration solution—it’s a platform for reimagining every aspect of the transaction lifecycle.
For example, we enable merchants to trigger Primer workflows directly from alerts generated by our Monitors tool. These workflows can automatically triage issues and notify the right teams through their preferred tools, such as Slack or Jira.
Staying true to our principle of openness, we're empowering merchants to create payment workflows that seamlessly connect with tools beyond the Primer ecosystem. This flexibility unlocks limitless possibilities. For example, some customers call its internal fraud engines before authorization, while French retailer Maisons du Monde checks inventory in real-time during transactions.—it’s a platform for reimagining every aspect of the transaction lifecycle.
This isn’t just automation; it’s a revolution in how businesses handle payments that is driving a broader shift in the merchants we work with by making payments a first-class citizen across every part of an organization.
Whether it’s finance, operations, marketing, or engineering, each team can create tailored workflows, optimizing the entire payment lifecycle—not just payment acceptance.
Our holistic approach is unmatched in the industry. While others focus narrowly on orchestrating PSPs or providers, we’re extending workflows to a broader range of use cases and redefining what’s possible in payments.
Reflection Four: Distributed yet unified
Disrupting an industry takes more than great ideas. It requires people who are relentless about the mission, resilient in the face of challenges, and driven to make an impact.
From the beginning, we’ve sought out individuals who embody these traits—who are not only aligned with our goals but also deeply committed to them.
Being remote-first has been a huge enabler. Talent isn’t confined to one city or country; we’ve always believed the best people can come from anywhere. That’s why our team spans the globe, united by a shared purpose. It also allows us to build deep local expertise and be close to our merchants and partners.
Culturally, we’ve always strived to be everything legacy companies are not. No office politics. No endless bureaucracy. No rigid hierarchies. Instead, we’ve cultivated a workplace defined by agility, openness, and collaboration—a place where ideas are encouraged, decisions are made swiftly, and creativity thrives.
This ethos mirrors who we are as founders and a leadership team. At Primer, it’s never been about egos or titles. We’ve worked hard to create an environment where everyone feels valued, supported, and connected. Approachability and humility are baked into our DNA, ensuring a strong sense of belonging for every team member.
We’re immensely proud of the culture we’ve built—a culture that fosters community, empowers individuals, and keeps us laser-focused on achieving our mission together.
We're currently hiring. Explore our open roles and help us shape the future.
Reflection Five: We’re just getting started
Primer has grown from an ambitious idea to a force shaping the future of payments in the past five years. As we look ahead to 2025, it’s clear we’re on the cusp of something transformative—not just for our company but the entire industry.
The journey so far has been about building, learning, and proving what’s possible. It’s now about scaling that impact, realizing the vision of unified infrastructure, and solidifying our role as the de facto payments framework for businesses everywhere.
The industry’s validation and our partnerships tell us we’re on the right track. But more importantly, they remind us that this is just the beginning.
As 2025 approaches, we’re ready to accelerate—to take Primer and the industry to the next level.
Here’s to the next chapter.
