Dave Baxter Transcript

Clint Betts

Dave, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's an honor to have you. You're the CEO of Solutions by Text. You've led teams at AOL, FIS, ACI Worldwide, and now it's Solutions by Text. Give us a sense of how you got here. How did you become the CEO?

Dave Baxter

It's a great question, and thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity-

Clint Betts

It's our honor, for sure.

Dave Baxter

Yeah. So it was five years ago that I got a phone call from a partner at Edison Partners asking if I'd be interested in being on the seat, taking a board seat in one of their port-cos. I respectfully declined because I didn't think I'd be the best man for the job. But then the conversation had turned into they were looking at a potential deal, Dallas, Texas, founder-led, family lifestyle, kind of a business, two brothers. I'm running sales for ACI Worldwide at this time, and I said, hey, by chance, is it the Cantrells, and is it Solutions by Text? He goes, how did you know that? Well, we sell them, and that's how I know who they are. Should we look at the deal? Yeah, sure. Why not? I think it's a cool company. The two founders are super, super interesting, unique guys, but you let me know how I can help out.

That was August. The deal falls apart in January of '21. And at the same time, I had commissioned a research piece with Datos because I'm obsessed with how people view and pay their bills. I built a beautiful business. Me, three guys on a go, we sell it to ACI Worldwide. And it was just that, really, the digitization journey of how Americans pay their bills. And it just came back. It was screaming mobile, one-time payments. Now, I know a little bit about mobile messaging and how effective that channel is. I knew the consumer was going to win, and that's when I had the aha moment. You guys, you missed payments. This will be the next evolution of how people view and pay their bills. Technology is getting better and better. We live in this land of clutter. We live in an on-demand real-time. Mobile is like your new Social Security number. Of the billions of messages that you send in and out of the platform, about half are attached to an alert or reminder. Why wouldn't you try to monetize those transactions? Why are you kicking them out to a payment provider? Well, we don't know anything about payments. I do. And that was the aha moment. I said, but this time, I think I want to be CEO. So, I asked the two founders if they would support me in that journey. And I immediately went back to Edison, laid it out for him, and it was a tough next, I guess, it would've been six, seven months or maybe a little bit more. And I had to not only convince the brothers to sell their business; I had to convince the CEO to take an individual contributor role. I had to convince Edison to give me a shot because I was the quintessential sales leader and storyteller. So, I had to convince them to empower me to be a first-time CEO. And that's how I got to where I am.

But I'll tell you something: I'm like two months into the job, and it was a family lifestyle kind of a business. And I mean, I thought to myself, oh boy, what did you do? What did you do? You destroyed your career. And if you had asked me, I would've said we would've been a payment company four years ago; boy, was I wrong? Payments are important. It's embedded on the platform, but I didn't have the instrumentation to link to really understand the power of the platform. And what I thought was the worst decision of my career categorically turned out to be by far the best decision of my career. I pinch myself every day now to be able to have the responsibility to lead SBT. CEO is just kind of a title. I prefer to lead from the back of the room and provide inspiration where necessary. And I haven't looked back. Yeah, it's been absolutely remarkable.

Clint Betts

That's incredible. So tell us what Solutions By Tech does by Text. Sorry.

Dave Baxter

So yeah, Solutions by Text. It's a very literal name-

Clint Betts

Literally, versus all of the company's names, you don't know what it means, and now you find out 700 years ago, they used it in Latin one time, and that's why they picked it. Things like that.

Dave Baxter

Yeah, exactly. I went down that journey; I couldn't stomach coming up with a silly name that nobody would remember or whatever. So Solutions by Text, so we kind of go SBT. So, what does SBT do? So we are a compliant-led mobile messaging company that focuses on consumer-fi Fi highly regulated industries. Our platform is called FinTechs because we sit in the center of telecommunications and financial services. And so we empower large financial institutions, large lenders, whether that's mortgage, auto, card issuer, marketplace lending, so on and so forth, to meet their consumers where it is that they want to be met over their mobile device. And it really characterizes this platform, which is a subscription. As I said, we lead with compliance, but we're really this orchestration layer for in and outbound messages.

So I go back, the company text, very literal, but there's a myriad of ways to meet consumers, whether that's rich communications services, end-to-end encrypted, Verified by Google, MMS, SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, on and on and on. So that's what we do. And we just have to obsess about use cases. We obsess about compliant templates. We think about how the AI journey is really empowering us to provide compliant in-and-outbound messages in a world of real-time and on-demand. Yeah, I mean, that's what we do. Mobile messaging company, lead with compliance, niche down, focus in consumer Fi today.

Clint Betts

What have you learned about leadership since you took this role?

Dave Baxter

It is lonely. As they say, it's lonely being CEO. I found in order to be a great learner; I had to go on a journey and really lean into the resources around me. That was the first thing I learned about being CEO. I didn't realize how powerful having great mentors, awesome financial sponsors, and great operating partners is because, look, I didn't know what I didn't know. And I've been very fortunate to surround myself with great people that empower me to be a great leader.

I like to lead kind of from the back of the room. I think about being an ally. I think about empowering people to be the best versions of themselves. When I wrote the original business plan, which then translated into POAP, or plan on a page, I actually started with the culture that we wanted to build, the culture that I wanted to build, which was a balance, a striking a fair balance between opportunity and accountability and building a platform where somebody can be the best version of themselves and being an exporter of talent and giving somebody an opportunity to put their thumbprint on something that they're really proud of. And then later on, they're going to look back at their time, and it's like I was a part of that.

I also think about being a great leader, at times, authenticity, transparency, honesty, removing ambiguity, high integrity, and also being willing to jump in the mud with somebody because you have to show people at times how to do their jobs and yet give them the flexibility to figure it out on their own. And I think being a great leader is consistency, clear communication, no ambiguity. However, I do think you have to have a tolerance for ambiguity. But for me, I think what has suited me well in being a great leader is being transparent, really straightforward, and high energy. One of our values is an ally, and it's meaningful because I want to be allies to one another. I want to be allies with our customers. I want to be allies to the industries that we service. And I think those are the qualities of great leaders.

I think it's like table stakes to be good at your job. If you're in an SVP, VP, EVP, or C-suite, you're going to be good at your job. But I also think that there's also a balance between you got to be easy to get on with, and you got to be a good person. You have to be a good person. And that is what I really take away from being CEO at SBT, I think. It's so cool being able to build a culture that I hadn't just described and working with people who are willing to take the hill with you and do things that are special. It's the best part of my job.

And I think, leader, you're put into that role because people trust you, so don't abuse that. Don't abuse that trust of being a leader and exploring your sense of curiosity in leadership. As well as, and at times, it's okay to be vulnerable. It was something that I had to discover, which had taken me a long time. It's okay. It's okay. You may not be great yet because you haven't had the opportunity to practice and just need a few more at-bats.

Clint Betts

Yeah, that's awesome. How are you thinking about AI, and how are you guys integrating it and using it?

Dave Baxter

Yes. So I said we lead with compliance. So, a few things: in real-time, we're monitoring in and outbound messages to ensure that those messages are compliant with the myriad of laws and regulations and the code of conduct from the carrier. So, these landscapes are very difficult to traverse. So, you need to be super mindful of whether it is the right message with the right content. How many times did I reach out to Clint? Where is Clint? So, all of these rules that we need to follow. Is it Clint? Did his phone get deactivated? So we're monitoring all that sort of in real-time and scoring these messages to keep our customers on the right side of compliance.

We also leverage large language modeling to figure out the intent of an inbound message, so when somebody is writing back, and if we have intent for taking people out of messaging or how do we then empower somebody to secure their debt or make a payment or have conversational commerce driven through AI. What are we doing to think about the effectiveness of those templates and use cases? As I said, four years ago, five years ago, I said, we would've been a payment company, boy was I wrong. So we leverage all of the new tools and instrumentation around us, and we think about how somebody opens a loan service, a loan market, new products and services from a bank, handles the specificity of billing and collections, and really all of those verifiable outcomes.

So I think AI, we have very specific things that we do for use cases, and I honestly think with the agentic, we're just scratching the surface of empowering our customers to have good conversations that pay off, enable them to get it right because compliance matters, get the reach because... That was my aha moment; it's the most effective and efficient channel. And then get the results. We think about the verifiable outcomes that we want our customers to extract extreme value from our platform. Higher conversion rates, lowering your cost to acquire customers, and having better customer satisfaction. If you think customers have choices, and Millennials and Gen Z are acquiring more debt than any other generation. 50% of Gen Z and Millennials will leave, and they will absolutely leave their financial institution if the financial institution does not text with them.

So I think about good conversations and self-service, that's what I think, and I think we're kind of scratching the surface there.

Clint Betts

What does a typical day look like for you?

Dave Baxter

I start my days pretty early. I like to get caught up early in the morning when nobody is up. So I like to have a little quiet time to myself, kind of catch up on my reading. I like to set myself up for success for the day, really thinking about where I'm going to make the biggest impact. I do not attend meetings if there's not an agenda. No agenda, no attenda, as I say. I don't go to meetings if there isn't a decision to be made. So, I'm very protective of my time. So, on a typical day, I start really early. I try to take a couple of calls while I'm walking just to get some clarity and get the blood moving. Family time is super important to me at the end of the day. I do like to work.

Clint Betts

Yeah. That's awesome.

Dave Baxter

I do. Yeah. It's funny, I was talking about this balance of... I'm kind of obsessed with SBT, and you have to be; I think it's okay. But I am very careful with my time. I go to meetings and only make decisions. I know when it's time to shut off and spend time with the family. Because look, I'm trying to build something great that hopefully I can leave something for somebody behind.

Clint Betts

Yeah. That's [inaudible 00:15:21]-

Dave Baxter

So there's kind of a typical day. But then there's also a of baseball, a lot of lacrosse, a lot of basketball, very involved in my community. So I'm coaching, or I'm helping out where I can just because I think I just wanted... For me, it's like family is always number one. Number two is my belief system kind of keeps me grounded. And then number three is work. And I'm pretty obsessed with work. So, imagine how obsessed I am with my family and community and my belief system. I think it really makes me a better person. And then you balance it with, as I said earlier, your integrity, honesty, and transparency.

Clint Betts

Yeah. That's great, man. What do you read? What reading recommendations would you have for us?

Dave Baxter

Right now, I'm reading Dare to Lead. It's funny you ask about leadership, right? I'm reading a book, Dare to Lead. We actually have a book club at SBT. We have a culture of curiosity. One of our values, I had mentioned ally, but one of our values is pioneering. So we're pioneers. So we have a really great group of people that have a super high sense of curiosity.

So anyway, I'm reading Dare to Lead. Going back to the whole leadership thing. I think leading today in this world of remote work introduces a whole new set of challenges. I think just generations, it adds... We have people who absolutely do not know going to the office is even a thing, and we're growing rapidly. So, I'm always trying to hone my leadership skills and really lean in on that. Yeah, so that's what I'm currently reading.

Not that long ago, I read Ben Horowitz's book, the Hard Things, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, right? For me, yeah, it's a good one. It really hit me. Because it is hard, right? I mean, it's hard. And I try to explain that to people. Everybody looks at, they look at SBT, and they look, it was this family lifestyle-led business, and now we're category killer, and everybody believes it was a straight line to the upper right quadrant. And no. No. A lot of nights, waking up in cold sweats. Did I make a good decision? Did I not make a good decision? Yeah. Yeah. Because it is hard, right? But hey, you know what? That's the fun part, right?

Clint Betts

Yeah.

Dave Baxter

That's the fun part. It wouldn't be fun if it was easy.

Clint Betts

Yeah, no question about that. There's a life lesson in there, for sure. That sounds right. Finally, we end every interview with the same question, and that is at Ceo.com; we believe the chances one gives are just as important as the chances one takes. When you hear that, who gave you a chance to get you to where you are today?

Dave Baxter

Gosh, I don't think it was actually one single person. A couple really stuck out to me when I was at FIS. I had a chance to build a business inside of a business and help expand a business unit internationally for FIS. That was a guy named Mike Bush, and of course, he gave me the job, and a couple of months later, he retired. But that was really my first crack at getting that international exposure, leading a business. That was really instrumental. He kind of took me from a sort of individual sales contributor guy, and I was a pretty good salesperson, but then he gave me a chance to become a leader. So that was my first crack.

And then the second guy was a gentleman named Phil Keasley; he was not met with a ton of popularity, but he really helped me out, not only with his time and mentoring, and I would say he gave me way more responsibility than I probably deserved and he made me step up. He made me step up. And even to this day, he's well retired, and I mean, my gosh, he was the vice chairman of Visa. He was the CEO of First USA Bank and the senior-level guy at Citibank and JPMorgan Chase. And I had the privilege to work with him. And so those two stick out.

But so many people along the way; I attribute all of my success actually to the people who put me in spots, supported me, or saw something perhaps that I didn't see myself. And, of course, my biggest rock star, my family. I definitely wouldn't be able to have the inspiration to be able to do this if it really weren't for those guys as well. But, too many people that I think about. Even the smallest of gestures oftentimes go an incredibly long way because when you're sort of living in the moment, you just don't know what you're really capable of until somebody gives you the chance. A lot of people gave me the chance along the way.

It was interesting, and that, to me, was super inspiring. I had a manager once said, I never wonder if you're working because you are so hard on yourself. You're so hard on yourself that I trust you implicitly. And he's like, you just want to ensure that you're going to make me look good. I'm like, yeah. Yeah, you're right. And I think that having that frame of mind has really suited me well. Give to Get is another great book, by the way.

Clint Betts

Yeah, that's a good book.

Dave Baxter

Yeah, I'm a big believer. I'm a big, big believer in it. I wish I knew that sooner. I wish I knew it sooner. It somehow all works its way out. I did not know that in my 20s, but it worked itself out, right? It does.

Clint Betts

Yeah. That's awesome. Dave, thank you so much for coming on the show. It means a lot to have you. Congrats on all your success. I mean, I had a million other questions for you. We could have you come back and talk all day. Really appreciate you coming on here, Dave.

Dave Baxter

Yeah. Hey, thank you very much, Clint. I really appreciate the opportunity. Obviously, I'm a storyteller. I love to tell the story. But more importantly, I participate in our finances and our sponsors, and I love getting together with other CEOs. Even though we're trying to solve different problems, we all kind of have the same problems. And it's just great that you do this, and I'm really thankful to share my story and hear other stories. And I think we're all just trying to get better at being better.

Clint Betts

Yeah, I think that's right. Thanks, Dave. Really appreciate it.

Edited for readability.