Behind Heartland’s Leaf Investment

“I believe the point of sale is that for small business owners what the phone is for you and me.”

Aron Schwarzkopf, founder and CEO of Leaf, may truly believe in his company’s mobile point-of-sale (POS) technologies, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that his solution had the distribution necessary to put his company’s name in the conversation with major mobile (mPOS) players like Square.

On October 1, Heartland Payments took the next step with Leaf, going beyond its reseller agreement to provide a $20 million strategic capital investment to the company.

Leaf plans to use the funding to increase the size of its staff and fuel more research and development. But to Schwarzkopf, the union represents a synergy between two companies that goes deeper than finances. In an interview with Market Platform Dynamics (MPD) CEO Karen Webster, Schwarzkopf stressed how both companies have one important thing in common: a true belief in having a completely open platform.

“I’m a very lucky entrepreneur,” Schwarzkopf said. “When I was looking for my round of financing, I was able to find not only money, but money that comes with a lot of value. Value that doesn’t interrupt absolutely anything in my path and my team’s path.”

However, that isn’t all Schwarzkopf revealed in his interview with Webster.

What makes the relationship between the two companies unique?

Webster immediately set the tone with this question, asking Schwarzkopf to provide more insight into the marketing language that surrounded Leaf’s Heartland deal. Schwarzkopf responded by discussing how what makes the deal unique is how both companies are primarily focused on providing value for small merchants.

“What was very unique is that both Heartland and Leaf have a philosophy in mind that the small business owner is by far the most important thing. We found value for them and value means providing different types of services,” the Leaf CEO said.

What value does the investment deliver to Leaf and how will SMBs benefit?

To this question, Schwarzkopf stressed again that both companies have the philosophy that they’re merchant-centric. But, the biggest value in Heartland, according to Schwarzkopf is Heartland’s industry experience and track record.

“I think they’re a pioneer in the industry in terms of understanding how to move from being a single revenue source to being a value play and having multiple products and services,” Schwarzkopf said.

How does Leaf see its app store evolving? For the answer to this question, along with more insights into the Heartland deal, listen to Webster’s full interview with Schwarzkopf here.

*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.