HealPay Blog

By Amit Chowdhry via Forbes.com

Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, HealPay was founded by Erick Bzovi and Lancelot Carlson. HealPay started off by developing accounts receivable software. Today their flagship product is known as SettlementApp. SettlementApp is designed for large billers like attorneys, collection agencies, and medical practices that are owed money.

The SettlementApp gives people friendly options to pay their bills over 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and so forth. HealPay uses data from the past to see what people’s preferences are. HealPay charges a small installation fee and generates revenue from each transaction. HealPay hopes to increase the volume of their transactions in the future so that the installation fee can be eliminated.

Today there are over 750,000 active accounts of people who can log in and make payments through HealPay.

Rent Roll
Bzovi told me that HealPay started to develop a new service called Rent Roll three months ago. Bzovi and the HealPay team were inspired by markets with recurring billing. Many landlords, including their own, were still requiring snail-mailed checks every single month. RentRollApp makes it possible for landlords and real estate management companies to collect rent online and through mobile devices.

RentRollApp can set up recurring payments using autopay and the funds can be directly deposited into a landlord’s bank account. Impressed by the service, a property management group that has 350 units in Sterling Heights and Trenton, Michigan recently signed a deal with HealPay

Funding and Growth
HealPay raised seed funding over a year ago with plans to go through a growth round later in the year. The company’s seed investors actually piloted some of HealPay’s software to help iron out kinks. Bzovi believes entrepreneurs should focus more on asking early adopters for investment money and less on so called “Rockstar VCs.”

In the company’s first year, they were not able to provide merchant services. After building relationships with payment processors and banks, HealPay has evolved from a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company to become more transactional.

Companies like Stripe, Dwolla, and Braintree cast a huge net in online payments. Bzovi told me that HealPay is currently focused on “vertical markets” rather than becoming a broad wallet or payment form provider. ”We focus on personalizing the checkout experience and shortening it with less clicks,” said Bzovi.

Business Challenges
When I asked Bzovi what some of the challenges with signing up clients are, he told me that the “on-boarding process can be challenging since many clients have legacy systems.” He added that some “businesses are naturally skeptical about the cloud so education is always part of the sale.”

This is why HealPay strives to be PCI and HIPAA compliant. The company takes security of their clients very seriously and keeps an eye on market trends and regulations.

History Of HealPay’s Founders

The founders of HealPay met several years ago while participating in Michigan’s startup community.

Bzovi worked in the real estate industry in Southfield, Michigan after graduating from Michigan State University. Bzovi first got involved in startups after his boss raised around $4 million to launch a hunting tournament similar to the professional bass fishing tournaments on ESPN.

This project ended up failing, but fortunately some of the funding was salvaged. Bzovi, his boss, and another friend used the leftover funding to start an ad network from the ground up called Outdoor Hub. Outdoor Hub rapidly accumulated 300+ websites that focused on the outdoors vertical. Bzovi’s job at Outdoor Hub was to oversee ad operations and ad inventory across the exchanges. In just 3 years, Outdoor Hub grew to 15 employees and hit $5 million in annual revenues.

Through these experiences, Bzovi saw major failure and major success. This is when he decided to take a similar risk of his own.

After working on several startups and his own consultancy in Michigan, Carlson moved to California in 2008. While in California, he joined a music sharing startup. Soon after that failed, he joined Engine Yard where he helped managed the hosting of Ruby on Rails applications. Carlson also wrote a book related to Ruby on Rails programming.

Why Ann Arbor?
I asked Bzovi why he decided to open the company office in Ann Arbor, Michigan versus other cities. He said that he wanted to embed HealPay “in an environment with hackers and hustlers.”

“In Ann Arbor coffee shops, you will overhear people talk about cloud computing and hacking together projects regularly,” he said

He also pointed out how there are great tech organizations in the area like Tech Brewery and MPowered. When running into a technical issue, there are many people in the area to talk to for help.

By KATREASE STAFFORD via AnnArbor.com

HealPay, an Ann Arbor-based technology company, has grown since its May 2010 launch and co-founder Erick Bzovi said he hopes to continue the upward trajectory as he rolls out some new software.

HealPay, 106 E. Liberty, Suite 302, has continued to expand the development and sales of its software for the debt collection industry and large companies with delinquent accounts. HealPay’s Settlement app software allows people to pay off debts through collection agencies online.

In 2011, the company had close to 500,000 debtors signed up through its software. It now has more than 750,000 active accounts and Bzovi expects that number to continue to grow.

“We’ve definitely grown,” Bzovi said. “I think we had a good year. It’s been a consistent upward growth and it’s been managed growth. Hopefully we can hire more people.”

HealPay also has secured more companies that use the settlement app, including the Ann Arbor Credit Bureau.

Ann Arbor Credit Bureau vice president Thomas Oldani said he tries to focus his collectors on their mission of helping people with debt resolve their obligations.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Bureau CEO Thomas Oldani said Bzovi approached him a while ago, but the initial app didn’t work for his company because of some logistical issues.

“Their product has changed a little bit and turned into a product gateway,” Oldani said. “It didn’t take very long for us to see that what they created was more in tune with what we were looking for. Every time I talked to the larger players, there were siginificant startup costs and we just couldn’t see the return on the investment.”

AnnArbor.com reported in December that Association of Credit and Collection Professionals data show debt turned over to third party collection agencies was only collected at a rate of 17 cents on the dollar until the economic recession began in 2008.

When the recession began, the collection rate dipped to under 10 cents for every dollar of debt passed onto the agencies.

However, Oldani said when the app launched, he saw a “significant increase” in payments.

“It continues to grow and we’re really impressed by it,” he said. “They gave us an online option that we didn’t previously have in place. When the economy turned south in 2008, one of our focuses was to do business with people that are in this state.”

Bzovi said the bureau was the company’s first local client.

“You need to start in your backyard,” he said. “Ann Arbor created this center point for us to expand.”

Next, Bzovi said he plans to target local hospitals, medical billing sites and the west side of the state.

Although the company has found success with its collection software, Bzovi said he and co-founder Lancelot Carlson, decided to create an app for a different industry.

“We just signed up another collection attorney in Cincinnati and we’re continuing to grow that outside of Michigan,” Bzovi said. “The settlement app is still our flagship, but we didn’t want to just be collections. We’ve kind of opened ourselves up.”

Bzovi has launched another app, the Rent Roll , that allows landlords to collect rent online, which Bzovi said is something many don’t offer.

“We’ve actually been successful selling that,” he said.

Bzovi said he recently launched the app with a company that owns 300 property units in Sterling Heights. Bzovi said his real goal is to get into the Ann Arbor market.

“What we see is there are so many businesses collecting checks and checks are dying,” he said. “There’s a huge movement to digitize money and until we can remove checks completely, they’re inefficient and with technology, it’s quicker.”

The business has four full-time employees and as it continues to expand, Bzovi said he’ll consider hiring more. With two universities in Washtenaw County, he said the talent opportunities abound and he believes Ann Arbor is a prime spot to attract tech talent.

“There’s more exploration and more creative thought here,” Bzovi said. “It felt like a tech hub versus Detroit. The tech field is definitely here.”

source – http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/ann-arbor-debt-collection-software-company-sees-growth-breaks-into-rental-market/

We just got back from the DBA show in Vegas and met a bunch of great people. We were able to demo our software to several attorneys, 1st and 3rd party billers and hope to bring a few new clients on board.

Now its time to get back to work!!!

~Erick Bzovi @ebzovi on twitter

A month ago something rare and refreshing happened in Detroit.

David Kirkpatrick, author of “The Facebook Effect”, imported a vibrant assortment of tech titans into the Motor City for Techonomy. Jack Dorsey, Steve Case, and Tim Draper spoke to a packed audience of entrepreneurs, innovators, and business leaders all seeking to learn more about how technology is impacting the way business is being done today.

In between sessions, I interacted with certified badasses like Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, and Danae Ringelmann, founder of Indiegogo. Both shared their thoughts on the changes surrounding Venture Capital, The JOBS Act, and the advent of crowd-funding.

A fascinating take-away from my conversation with Ringelmann was learning about motives for why someone participates in a crowd-funding project. It’s much deeper than what you see at face value, and provides greater insight into why people put money or resources into any endeavor. Whether individuals are investing in startups, or investing in a crowd-funding project that sparks their interest, the core reasons why people invest remain relatively constant.

Ringelmann classified these as the 5 P’s:

- For Passion; to create something with true desire.
- For Participation; to be a part of something bigger than oneself.
- For Perks; to receive something of value.
- For Pride; to gain recognition.
- For Profit; to make money.

Sadly, unless Sigmund Freud is your co-founder, psychoanalyzing investors just isn’t feasible (and is generally ill-advised regardless). Fear not, for there is a silver lining. With sites like AngelList, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo on the rise, transparency is just around the corner.

Raising money is never easy but today, thanks to crowd-funding, knowing your audience has never been easier

~Erick Bzovi @ebzovi on twitter

Detroit Hosts National Tech Conference Featuring Dan Gilbert, Steve Case, Jack Dorsey.

What words come to mind when you think of Detroit? Some time ago, we asked this question of our GrowDetroit readership. Some answers reflected total hopelessness, while others conveyed promise and opportunity.

We are inundated with tales of a Detroit turnaround in the National media as of late: debates around whether Detroit can be saved, whether it should be left to die, or even if it’s already on the verge of a comeback have all become common speaking topics. Regardless of your stance on this issue, one thing is clear: The city that 100 years ago epitomized innovation and progress has become the first Western “post industrial city“.

So what is to become of Detroit in the 21st century? On September 12th, an organization called Techonomy will seek to address how a community so deeply entrenched in manufacturing can evolve and grow in an era of rapid change and progress.

Read the rest of Alex Southern’s piece here: http://www.growdetroit.com/can-technology-redefine-detroit/

HealPay has tweaked its business model, allowing the downtown Ann Arbor-based company to grow and add to its staff.

HealPay created debt-collection software about a year ago. Since then it has expand its platform to include payment processing and credit card transactions. “We make money on transactions now instead of licensing fees,” says Erick Bzovi, CEO & co-founder of HealPay.

That has allowed HealPay to grow from its original two co-founders to a staff of six employees and two interns. It is also looking to hire a mobile app developer.

Read the rest here: http://concentratemedia.com/innovationnews/healpayannarbor0205.aspx

Debt collection is an ugly subject. Detroit-based startup HealPay hopes to make it a little less so —and to make debtors feel empowered — with their flagship collection service, SettlementApp.

The system, said co-founder Erick Bzovi, is “designed to make it easier for consumers to pay their bills. By giving consumers options to pay over time or in advance for a discount, businesses see a higher conversion rate.”

The problem they set out to solve was one of accounts receivable. Client creditors — mostly collection agencies and attorneys, as well as some financial institutions and commercial real estate firms — direct debtors to the SettlementApp traffic portal, where they are given a choice of targeted payment plans. If all goes well, more people choose to (and are able to) pay up.

Still, debt collection can be an ethical and emotional minefield, which is one reason HealPay works with original billers as well as third-party agencies.

Read the rest here: http://techli.com/2012/07/healpay-debt-collection/

HealPay is the latest startup for serial entrepreneur Erick Bzovi, who teamed together with co-founder Lancelot Carlson to bring innovative fintech (Financial Tech) web apps to market.

HealPay currently has two billing applications aimed at enterprise available today. However, they plan on continually producing easy to use, but robust applications to handle financial tasks efficiently.

We got the opportunity to talk with Bzovi about HealPay and their fintech app development startup.

Read the rest here: http://nibletz.com/2012/05/michigan-startup-healpay-developing-innovative-fintech-web-applications-interview/

Every so often the rails community adopts new best practices and patterns because someone figured out a better way to architect their applications. One great example was when everyone was urged to push the logic out of controllers and move it into models. This solved a lot of issues for most applications. Now we’re able easily isolate and test away the logic on the model layer instead of the hard to isolate controller layer.

Pushing the logic to the models created a nasty side effect however. Our models became completely bloated and hard to maintain. They contained logic that we tried to abstract away into model classes or new modules inside of the lib directory with one-off abstractions with no clear home. I’m sure some of us already knew there was something wrong, but perhaps it was only a gut feeling because no one piped up! It wasn’t until I saw Uncle Bob’s keynote speach at Ruby Midwest 2011 that I realized there was a huge flaw in the status quo of rails development.

Read the rest here: http://lancecarlson.github.com/2012/05/15/dci-and-decoupling-business-logic-from-ruby-on-rails.html

We are excited to introduce our newest intern, Hakki Tomanbay, to HealPay!

Hakki emailed us a few weeks ago and began ‘hanging out’ at our office. After several weeks of job shadowing, we decided he would be a good addition to our team. Here is his story:

“I am a college student with little to no fear. Call me crazy but I will go for something without seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! I think this mindset makes me a great asset to a disruptive startup like HealPay.

After I caught wind of them looking for interns I immediately started inquiring with Lancelot & Erick about their business model and the technology they use. My focus was to know everything about their business. I am studying computer engineering but am also enrolled in a public speaking class. I decided to hit two birds with one stone and elected to give my speech on HealPay. My job was to give a persuasive speech on why collection agencies should use their SettlementApp.

I worked with Erick to get my pitch down and was able to deliver a solid presentation to a group of students who were left wanting to know more. It felt great. Creating something from nothing – fascinating.

It was an uncomfortable experience, but I believe that is how you learn and grow. By putting myself into an uncomfortable position I was able to push my boundaries and open new doors."

~Hakki Tomanbay
“From small beginnings come great things.”

Want to know how to get your startup funded? HealPay’s co-founder is here to help.

“HealPay was bootstrapped initially, but once we had some traction we hit the fundraising trail,” said Erick Bzovi, who co-founded the payment processing application with Lance Carlson. “We talked to several VCs in the Midwest and learned quite a few things.”

Bzovi provided Benzinga with the following three tips for entrepreneurs who are looking to get funded:

• If you’re looking for money, ask for advice. And if you’re looking for advice, ask for money.
• A lot of VCs are in an identity crisis mode. Find out if they truly make early stage investments. Most say they do, but actually don’t.

“We knew the investment climate was rosier for early stage startups in Silicon Valley and NYC, but we quickly realized our best chances of making it to the next iteration was to bring on strategic capital,” Bzovi said of his own startup. “We got lucky and found a group of angel investors with years of experience in the ARM space. The relationship has been great so far. I highly recommend entrepreneurs looking to raise funds to build strategic relationships in their domain first. Strategic relationships beget strategic capital.”

Last month, Bzovi said that HealPay opened its own office in downtown Ann Arbor. “Being a Spartan in Wolverine country is not fun; it’s terrible.” Bzovi joked. “But I don’t think there is a better place in Michigan to launch a company. Ann Arbor has all the right ingredients to be a real entrepreneurial hub. Some of the smartest people in the world are within walking distance, from Teacher to TechTransfer to TechBrewery.

Originally posted on 01/17/12 by Louis Bedigian from Benzinga

Dear Internet,

I am writing you regarding some exciting updates to our company. 

Over the past year, we’ve focused on innovating the account receivables space by introducing new & exciting web applications. 

Currently, when you visit HealPay you can access our free Invoice application. Thousands of contractors and small businesses have signed up and continue to enjoy the service. Just recently, we received some press as a one of the Best Invoicing Tools amongst Design professionals. This was uplifting news for us!

Aside from our Invoice app, we’ve been developing another useful business app. SettlementApp is designed for large businesses who want to offer settlement options to their customers. Over and over again, we discovered that customers respond with greater satisfaction and loyalty to businesses that offer flexible payment options. This app allows businesses to traffic out custom settlement options to their customers in just minutes.

So, what updates are being made???

- HealPay will simply be our media site. You will be able to access our blog, Watercooler and other future developments here.
- Our Invoice app will be rebranded as BillerApp. We will be open sourcing the app as well! More info on this shortly…

Onwards & Upwards

We are extremely excited for 2012… We just moved into a new office in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan. We feel re-energized, excited and committed to building a great company.

Thank you for all the support & have a wonderful Holiday Season,

Erick Bzovi
co-founder
734.272.4729
ebzovi@healpay.com

For many coders, a necessarily fuel for productivity is our background music. Filled with the right combination of tracks, I’m able to zone out outside distractions and build momentum as I code. For me, what is most productive day-to-day changes significantly. Sometimes it’s classical, sometimes it’s rap, but most of the time it’s electronic. I find lyrics can be distracting at times, but for the most part I can tune it out.
Some of my favorite artists for allegro coding include:

Sorta old school artists
- Orbital
- Prodigy
- Banco De Gaia
- Timo Maas
- Hybrid
- Enigma

Dubstep
- Nero

- Skrillex

- Bassnectar

- Rusko

DnB

- Dieselboy

- High Contrast

- AK1200

Other goodies

- Deadmau5 (dead-mau-5?)

- Calvin Harris

- Squarepusher

- Avicii

- Paul Van Dyk

- Shpongle

- Booka Shade

I recently discovered the music service Spotify and paid for the premium subscription so I could listen to all my playlists in my car and while coding. It’s the best thing since Napster. What does everyone else listen to? I’d be glad to share more artists in my playlists if anyone is interested. I’m also curious what gets other programmers in the (M-x) code mode?

~Lancelot Carlson
@lancecarlson

What’s a sure-fire reason to pay off an overdue $500 credit card bill — or a $3,000 medical debt?

James Angelo chuckles a bit at the question.

“What we don’t ever know is what it’s going to take to get someone to pay their bills,” says Angelo, who joined his brothers in their debt-collection business in 1986 and now is president of J.J. Marshall & Associates, a collection agency in Shelby Township.

Angelo recalled one case in which all it took was one letter from his agency to convince a man to send a $10,000 cashier’s check to cover a debt. But at the other extreme was one consumer who had to be taken to small-claims court over a $400 dentist bill.
Many of us know one side of debt collection — people harassed by calls, or debtors illegally threatened by rogue collection agencies.

But Angelo pulled out his mini-recorder and played for me bits of the nasty calls he’s gotten — including profane tirades from people who say, basically, no, they’re not going to pay any money — but in far more colorful language.

These days, it’s tough to collect, and that hurts a business in which fees are based on a percentage of money recovered.

Angelo said his company, operating out of a small office building on Collection Drive — seriously — had 36 employees in 2008 before the financial meltdown but is down to 24.

His employees also took a 15% pay cut — “every one of us, including me.” As business has improved somewhat, 5% of that was restored in July.

Angelo said there is plenty of debt out there to recover, but layoffs, declining incomes and Michigan’s eroding population have made it harder. Nationwide, gross collections are down roughly 40% from the heyday of the 1990s.

That was triggered by the rush to refinance homes, which required consumers to pay up on old outstanding debts. They willingly wrote checks to collection agencies and others to clear up their credit reports, Angelo said.

“Without even really trying, we were really booming in the late ’90s,” he said.

These days, collectors may be more willing to negotiate.

Continue reading here: http://www.freep.com/article/20111127/COL07/111270416/Susan-Tompor-Debt-collectors-may-willing-negotiate

To the rest of the tech world: Detroit, Michigan must appear dead.

Detroit doesn’t have any startup launch parties and we certainly don’t praise funding announcements. Venture capital investment in Michigan companies during the first six months of 2011 plunged to its lowest level in 16 years. Ouch.

Unfortunately, this means our stories are never published in TechCrunch! #wahhh

Go ahead and run a search query on TechCrunch for the keyword Detroit. Thats right, there are only 3 stories this year with Detroit in the title.

So why do so many of us view TechCrunch as the holy gospel, as if it’s something that we can relate to?

Put That Coffee TechCrunch Down.

In the famous Glengarry Glen Ross monologue, the young Alec Baldwin emphatically grabs the attention of his underperforming sales team by calling them out. With a few expletives, he successfully drives the point home and gets them focused.

I’m not a physiologist, but rabid consumption and obsessive re-tweeting of the myriad of stories, like a photo sharing app raising $41 million dollars, seem to distort ones expectations. It creates a false sense of reality and that is the last thing we need clouding our minds in Detroit.

More Production, Less Consumption.

The startup community in Michigan is alive and well. Entrepreneurs are here and when we get together we get stronger. When we share our startups, our stories, and our failures the feeling is real.

Having worked in Detroit area startups for 5 years, I can confidently tell you there is a renewed interest in the city and its surroundings. Look no further than Michigan’s own Dan Gilbert.

You wouldn’t know that by reading TechCrunch.

(original post: http://www.growdetroit.com/put-that-techcrunch-down)