Take 5: The PayBev™ Team at IMI Agency
An in the Mix Feature Interview
PayBev™ is the financial tool driving sales and engagement through partnerships
October 17, 2024
PayBev™ is a financial and regulatory platform that manages voluntary beverage marketing support for hotels, restaurants, bars and retail. Building on years of hospitality experience and powered by IMI Agency, PayBev set out to focus solely on building the financial bridge between supplier brands and operator beverage programs.
The PayBev team is comprised of beverage specialists with backgrounds in IT and Programming to Marketing and Sales. In this in the Mix Take 5 interview PayBev Founder, Adam Billings, Senior Manager of Emerging Programs, Cody Henson, and Application Manager, Manu Mishra, speak to the creation and unfaltering evolution of PayBev showcasing the power of industry partnerships in Building Better Beverage Business™.
Mallory Ambrose: Can you share the story behind the founding of PayBev? What inspired the creation of the platform?
PayBev was the result of countless iterations of our financial services. What started as a way to improve our internal communication with account managers, evolved into a client-facing portal with specialized features. The breakthrough happened in 2017 when Adam Billings moved to New York City to develop emerging accounts for IMI Agency. The smaller and more nimble restaurant groups needed faster access to program financials for branded activations. PayBev was able to provide better speed and transparency than the traditional reporting process. The early success and encouragement from our clients led us to double-down on the technology and create significant value across all industry partners.
MA: Can you explain to our readers what PayBev is and its connection with IMI?
The PayBev application is a FinTech tool utilized to manage the marketing support funds for beverage programs offered by our clients. The application is used by IMI Account Managers, client end users, as well as our own internal accounting teams. For account managers and clients, the application allows them to review historical spending on their beverage programs year over year as well as create new investment and expense requests within the system. These requests are reviewed by our internal audit and accounting teams to ensure all business requirements and legal permissibility are met before being processed. The application integrates with our accounting system to ensure all support going in and out winds up in the correct IMI General Ledger accounts. The application also has reporting and trend analysis features that can be used by our clients to better manage their program health and future growth.
MA: What sets PayBev apart from other financial and regulatory platforms in the industry?
We’re the only one!
MA: With the recent launch of PayBev 4.0, can you share what prompted its development, how does this updated version differ from previous versions of the platform?
PayBev 3.0 received widespread recognition from our clients and helped create a unique solution for planning and monitoring beverage programs; however, the old system was not fully integrated into our accounting and payment processing systems. As such, the application was limited in its automation and efficiency on the backend. It also lacked various features that were suggested by our clients.
With PayBev 4.0, we have integrated APIs to process data faster and more securely across our various accounting applications. This has allowed us to better service the supplier investors and program vendors that are integral to our client programs. As a result of the system architecture, we have a platform to create feature-rich tools to support our clients.
For example, PayBev has a non-alc balance that is separate from the more restrictive alcohol support that is tracked. These non-alc credits allow our clients to activate programming with components that aren’t fully permissible using alcohol support alone.
MA: How does PayBev tailor its solutions to support the specific needs unique to each client.
Features like Program Fiscal Periods and Expense Tags allow our clients to better track their own spending and investments over time, and these can be customized in whatever way it is most meaningful to that client.
For example, the tag feature allows open-ended definition of tags and tag groups, essentially labels/categories that can be applied to all expenses. So one client can use tags to track their expenses over several different property locations, while another client can track expenses according to expense type (i.e. training expenses, transportation expenses, etc).
MA: How do you plan to keep PayBev relevant to the industry?
We have a dedicated development team that is working on security and efficiency, however, PayBev will not be restricted to financial transactions alone. We plan to integrate a more robust approval and planning tool for our clients as well as an online store for complementary goods and services.
MA: For entrepreneurs and startups in the hospitality tech space, what lessons have you learned from PayBev’s journey that you’d like to share?
Our approach has always been to listen to our clients and partners. We measure our success on solving their challenges and making their jobs easier. They have become our biggest champions.
Meet the Team
Adam Billings, Founder of PayBev™ & VP at IMI Agency
Adam is the Founder of PayBev™ and a VP at IMI Agency. He has held various roles at IMI from account management to creative services before setting into his current position of managing financial services. His passion for web development, application integration, and process efficiencies have led to innovative tools for the industry. Adam currently resides in St Simons Island on the east coast of Georgia.
Cody Henson, Account Support Manager, PayBev™
Cody is a 15-year hospitality industry veteran that has been Building Better Beverage Business™ with Emerging Accounts at PayBev™ since 2020. Prior to joining the PayBev™ team, Cody was managing beverage programs in nationally awarded restaurants and boutique hotels. As Account Support Manager, Cody leads a team that supports PayBev’s emerging chain clients in strategically structuring their beverage program to scale with their growth, drive topline sales and build strong partnerships. He found his passion for hospitality while studying marine science, which set him up to love a good spreadsheet, develop his methodical approaches to problems and get nerdy about cocktail technique. As an Atlanta native, Cody lives in the heart of the city with his partner Allison and two pets, Wednesday and Josephine. When not working on beverage-related projects, you’ll likely find him at a concert or local comedy show, playing croquet in the park or nestled up with a book.
Manu Mishra, Application Manager, PayBev™
Manu Mishra has over a decade of experience working as an auditor and IT Manager at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) prior to joining the team at Paybev. His experience with financial and regulatory surveillance and DevOps in a highly volatile environment lends itself perfectly to managing the core financial and accounting application for IMI Agency.
When he’s not busy being the Bad Boy of Tech, Manu watches a lot of classic and foreign films (think Cary Grant and Akira Kurosawa), reads history, and plays with his cats! He also moonlights as a literary fantasy podcaster covering The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones).
