David Lin

Investors take note. The Sass-pocalypse is overly sold off. Innovation and AI adoption will look like this going forward. Time tested platform and capablities, like Intuit, combined with agentic orchestration. Both pieces create the big wins for customers.

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Sharing a simple breakdown of foundational Product Management metrics that help us to move forward from intution to intent.

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The latest credit card bill in congress is causing a stir. I'll share some thoughts based on my background in payments. 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐈𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐫 In the U.S., there are four primary credit card networks: Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. Discover and American Express operate as both the network and the card issuer, while Visa and Mastercard rely on financial institutions to issue cards. Among issuers, Chase holds the largest card portfolio, bolstered recently by its acquisition of the Amazon card program. 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 Large issuers such as Chase both authorize and process transactions for the cards they issue. Smaller issuers often partner with larger financial institutions or third-party processors to handle authorization and transaction processing on their behalf. 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐬 Merchants pay transaction fees on card payments that consist of three primary components: ✅Interchange fees paid to the card issuer ✅Network fees paid to the card network such as Visa, Mastercard ✅Processor markups paid to companies such as Square, Stripe, or Chase One insight that often surprises people: when a consumer chooses “credit” rather than “debit” when using a debit card, the card issuer typically earns more on the transaction. Should that distinction really impact the fee charged to merchants? 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞 Interest rates on unpaid balances are influenced by several factors. Credit score is the most obvious, but rewards programs also play a role with richer rewards often correlating with higher interest rates. 𝐌𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 Card issuers exert significant control over both merchant costs and consumer interest rates. If the goal of legislation is to reduce costs for merchants, perhaps greater focus should be placed on card issuers and processors rather than card networks alone. Additionally, while credit cards represent unsecured debt, there should be reasonable limits on interest rates. With the prime rate around 6.75%, it raises the question of whether interest rates ranging from 19% to 36% are truly necessary. I pay my balance in full each month, so interest rates do not directly affect me. However, I don’t believe consumers who carry balances should be disproportionately penalized. A return to simpler, no-reward cards may not be such a bad outcome if it leads to fairer pricing for both merchants and cardholders. https://lnkd.in/gpjbUpqa

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I just finished Julie Zhuo's "The Making of a Manager" — and while it's technically a general management book, it hit differently as a product leader early in my management journey. 🎯 Here's what stuck with me: 📌 Managers exist to get better outcomes. Not to feel important. Not to control. That simple reframe changes everything about how you approach the role. 📌 Delegation isn't offloading work you don't want — it's publicly declaring decision authority and trusting your team with the biggest problems, not just the routine ones. 📌 Owning your mistakes to your team isn't weakness — it's how you build psychological safety. Your team already knows when you've gotten it wrong. 📌 How you build and support your team is the strategy. You can't out-execute as an individual what a well-supported team can accomplish together. If you're stepping into management as a product leader — or navigating those early years like I am — this one's worth your time. New post on Beyond the Backlog 👇 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gg4VdZUB

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Today we announced new capabilities for our Shop Direct and Buy for Me experiences on Amazon, enabling now feeds to facilitate external merchants to list reliably their product listings and reach millions of Amazon customers. Excited on this feature, that is a win/win experience for customers, merchants and brands. Excited to be part of such important project.

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Corpay corporate payments brand Stored Value Solutions (SVS) has partnered with Zaxbys to launch an enhanced gift card program. The deal enables customers to purchase gift cards in the mobile app as well as store them in Apple and Google Wallets. Read the release. https://lnkd.in/eqY7TQqG

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Aakash Gupta posted a really interesting set of learnings sitting down with a fintech executive from Robinhood. One key learning that resonated with me is: re: Legal, "Assume Good Intent - They're not there to make the product worse. Their job is to make sure that we are safely shipping the products we want to ship in accordance with the regulations." A partner in Fraud once said to me, "Henry, don't think of us as a gate. Think of us as your business partners trying to give you the best advice. Imagine if our role didn't exist, it would be your job to think of all of the angles that might attack your product." That was phenomenal advice that helped me re-calibrate my working partnerships with legal, risk, compliance, and other teams.

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PayPal's getting embedded into ChatGPT. Starting next year, ChatGPT users can checkout directly with PayPal without leaving the chat. They're connecting their entire merchant network so sellers don't need separate OpenAI integrations. OpenAI already has Walmart, Shopify, and Etsy on board. PayPal's positioning as the payment layer underneath all of it. Also worth noting, they announced their first-ever quarterly dividend. Same day. The infrastructure's getting built fast. #ChatGPT #PayPal #AgenticCommerce #AI #OpenAI

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