PayIt rings in new year with expanded executive team, repeat GovTech 100 honors
January 13, 2020 | Startland News Staff
GovTech leader PayIt continues its rapid growth after a massive 2019 funding year, thanks to the hiring of another key C-suite executive — a 20-year veteran in enterprise software sales and leadership.
The move puts Neil Graham in the role of PayIt’s first chief revenue officer, and brings the executive team of the industry award-winning Kansas City startup to six. Graham began work Monday, arriving most recently from San Diego-based Tealium, where he served as vice president of Americas, helping scale and grow company revenue from $18 million to more than $100 million.
“As we got to know those that have worked for and with Neil, we grew more confident that Neil was someone of high aptitude, high integrity, highly competitive, and a leader that excels at delivering highly-valuable, digital transformation solutions to clients,” said John Thomson, PayIt CEO and co-founder.
Graham is expected to drive PayIt’s continued scaling and expansion of digital government solutions within the U.S. and abroad throughout 2020 and beyond. The startup already has doubled in size since December of 2018, according to Thomson.
Before his five years at Tealium, Graham ran the western sales territories for Jive Software and spent nine years with Salesforce, both in a sales leadership role and as a top performer in the enterprise sales space.
In addition to Thomson and Graham, PayIt’s leadership also includes Mike Plunkett, COO and CFO; Richard Garbi, chief technical officer; Alex Otrezov, chief marketing officer; and Mike Wons, chief client officer.
Otrezov, a former Uber marketing head, was hired in 2019, a few months after PayIt secured a more than $100 million investment from New York-based Insight Partners.
Click here to read more about PayIt’s 2019 investment news.
Graham’s hiring comes on the heels of PayIt earning a fourth-consecutive spot on the GovTech 100 list — “a compendium of 100 companies focused on, making a difference in, and selling to state and local government agencies across the United States.”
Click here to check out the full GovTech 100 list.
“The PayIt platform brings the potential to transform how government delivers secure, omni-channel, and easy-to-use experiences to hundreds of millions of citizens like you and me every day,” said Graham. “After spending time evaluating new market opportunities, PayIt became clearly differentiated for me due to its rock solid technology, rapid disruptive growth, and it’s world-class team. I’m elated to join the company and help significantly build, scale and grow the go-to-market operations.”
Featured Business

2020 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Kauffman report: KC ranks 28 out of 40 in entrepreneurial growth
Fewer Kansas City companies are growing to become medium- or large-sized firms, according to a report released Thursday by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. It’s a common story across the U.S., as the nation rebounds from the slump of the Great Recession, the report says. The 2017 Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship report suggests the…
Housing trends show young professionals don’t care about Troost’s stigma, UC-B says
Lance Carlton initially was skeptical of developing east of Troost Avenue, he said. “But the mentality of the market has changed,” said Carlton, co-managing partner of UC-B Properties, which brought its offices to the 4300 block of Troost in August 2016. The company helped prove an appetite for residential development on the corridor with 19…
Mac Properties plans four-corner food startup village at Armour and Troost
Mac Properties’ Kansas City arm wants to turn a “sleepy intersection” on Troost into a four-corner incubator for thriving residential and restaurant activity. The vision is to create a “food startup village” as the foundation of the development, which would bring 400 new market rate apartments to Armour Boulevard and Troost, said Peter Cassel, director…
Wonder developers eye emerging businesses and creatives for Troost
Business is brewing at the former Wonder Bread bakery. With a flurry of activity at 30th and Troost, the historic site is undergoing a transformation: from yet another vacant space on the corridor to an anchor for residential and commercial life on Troost. “They’ve gutted the inside and they’ve done a ton of work,” said…


