In this member spotlight from Collector magazine, read how Cleveland Brown used his entrepreneurial knowledge creating technology software for public schools to help him jump into the ARM industry.
2/4/2021 14:00
Cleveland Brown, CEO and cofounder of Payscout LLC, found he had a knack for entrepreneurship early on in his career in payments, technology and education that eventually led him to the accounts receivable management industry.
Here is an excerpt from a Collector magazine Origin Story on how he got his start in the industry, in his own words.
"I grew up in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay area, so I tell everyone I have Apple and IBM in my DNA. My career began on the financial side of payments and technology in 1992 working for Union Bank of California. At the time, the bank used high-density floppy disks to install and test the first at-home banking platforms, a process that would ultimately enable automated bill payment through dialup modems. When I graduated from UCLA, I focused on the entrepreneurial side of payments and technology, starting one of the first ecommerce platforms integrated into the K-12 public education system (another highly regulated sector!).
I built software for public schools. During that time, I found it very challenging trying to navigate building systems for schools and found a way to help. After successfully implementing the platform throughout large school districts in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Unified School District, I shifted my focus to global payments and traveled abroad to consult at the government level. It was a natural progression to apply the work I did in public schools to the financial industry and debt collection. I started to build technologies that could be used by consumers, merchants and financial institutions to successfully enable global transaction processing in highly regulated scenarios. In 2008, I formed Payscout as an ecommerce payment platform for banks abroad. I partnered with Manpreet Singh in 2011, using a payments model that blended domestic and global ecommerce merchant payment solutions with regulatory technology designed to optimize compliance."
Read more on how Brown’s family had a big influence on his career, his focus on advocacy and advancing technology in the accounts receivable management industry here.
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