Fintech Takes x Pipe presents Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts Episode 4: Build, Buy, or Partner?

Welcome back to our new miniseries Vertical SaaS: Fintech Disruption by a Thousand Cuts, sponsored by our friends at Pipe.

In episode 4, we attempt to tackle the age-old question: build, buy, or partner?

Hosts Alex Johnson and Luke Voiles (CEO of Pipe) sit down with A.J. Axelrod, VP Payments & Financial Services at Clio) to explore how Clio’s uniquely designed to handle the unique complexities that lawyers face every day.

Clio is a vSaaS operating system for lawyers, and A.J. (extremely) thoughtfully walks us through how Clio decided what to build, what to buy, and when to partner.

Spoiler: legal-specific finance is a different beast —every transfer has to be auditable, or you’ll have a compliance failure (and lawyers, famously, read the fine print!).

Payments started as integrations and evolved into Clio Payments, now with support for cards, ACH, wallets, QR codes, and text-to-pay, all tied into legal accounting requirements.

This episode is a front-row seat to what fintech strategy really looks like when it’s built for the people doing the work.

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Thanks for listening!

This episode was brought to you by Pipe. Pipe helps vertical SaaS platforms unlock fast, flexible capital, right inside their product. Learn more at pipe.com/fintechtakes.

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