Ace Marks, LLC, was founded with the idea that luxury products should be available at affordable prices, and by cutting out the middleman, they were able to make that dream a reality. The company gained a cult following through a Kickstarter campaign around affordable, luxury, Italian-leather men’s shoes, and that initiative built them not only an instant customer base, but also a true community.
“We launched on Kickstarter in 2016, and back then we were the most funded footwear project in crowdfunding history. That’s really how we got our name and our brand out there,” said Paul Farago, founder and CEO. “We have built a nice connection with our early customers and that’s helped us grow our AceMarks.com business organically”
With that personal relationship in the foreground, it goes without saying, Ace Marks expects to be able to provide a similar connected experience when sending payments to their supplier-partners, starting with better transparency around the transaction.
“We use Veem for international payments to pay our footwear suppliers in Italy,” shared Farago. “It’s nice to be able to send our supplier a graph that shows the status of the wire and where it is in the chain. That’s been helpful to show them that it’s on the way.”
Beyond payments transparency, Farago points to Veem’s added layers of security as a differentiator. For example, because the service confirms bank account details, it makes for a more seamless, certain transaction on both ends.
“I explain to our suppliers that Veem is a more secure service,” said Farago. “Because there is so much fraud out there these days, I let them understand we’re doing this for everyone’s safety.”
In fact, Farago recalls just how grateful he was for Veem’s security when he was hit with a ransomware attack last year. The assault wiped out his QuickBooks content—the majority of his payment history—and he had to rebuild everything from scratch. Because Farago paid all of his suppliers through Veem, he had the records from those transactions logged, and Veem played a significant role in helping to recreate Ace Marks’ accounting history.
“Being able to be able to go to Veem, seeing who we sent all of the wires to, having the easy-to-navigate transaction history, and being able to download all of the invoices and documents, all of that was very helpful in reconstructing our books,” shared Farago.
A year later, Ace Marks is still working on the recovery process, but the headache the attack caused has made them all the more thankful for their diligence and history with Veem.
“We pay all of our suppliers only through Veem. So, I knew that I had all of the information at my fingertips going back to 2017,” Farago noted.
Yet, according to Farago, these benefits are the icing on the cake, and as Ace Marks continues to expand its business, he sees these sorts of secondary advantages growing. From deeper integration with QuickBooks, expanded bill pay use cases, and even workflow solutions, Veem brings a lot to the table for a growing business. But it’s the more cost-effective, efficient experience that will continue to bring new customers into the fold.
“The pitch is that it does the same thing we’re doing now, but it’s much less expensive, easier to use, and integrates with our back-office tech stack allowing us to automate processes and maintain a lean operation. At the end of the day, these are the biggest selling points. What else do you want if it meets those criteria?” concluded Farago.
Veem is a global payments network built for businesses. We began in 2014 with the intention of making international money transfers as simple as purchasing a cup of coffee. Since then, we’ve revolutionized the way businesses pay and get paid around the world by empowering owners, accountants, and financial professionals to take control over their payment processes. We level the playing field by providing enterprise-level financial tools and negotiating power to the small businesses who need it most.