Business

Daniel Stafford and Robby Switzer: Meet the Entrepreneurs Who Help Small Ecommerce Businesses Make Big Money

Published

4 years ago

October 26, 2021

Daniel Stafford and Robby Switzer aren’t your typical e-commerce entrepreneurs. Before 2015, they were fishermen who worked off the coast of their Alaskan home. Since fishing is a seasonal enterprise, both men spent the off-seasons working construction to make ends meet. But life was about to change for the two men, who met on a fishing vessel in 2010.

In 2014, Stafford was the proud new owner of a $300,000 fishing vessel, bought with the dream of entrepreneurship.

“This active, adventurous lifestyle suited us for a long time because we were able to thrive by outworking the competition, which, looking back, was a sign of things to come,” Stafford said. “We’d sometimes skip sleep so we could squeeze in a few more hours of work – even up to 20 hours a day.”

Unfortunately, about three months later, his boat capsized. With the boat being underinsured and losing upwards of $100 thousand dollars, Stafford needed a new plan, and combined forces with Switzer.

Together, two men spent time evaluating their work lives and came up with the same answer: They were unwilling to leave their families for months at a time to continue to pursue a fishing enterprise. With their decisions made, the men decided to work together to create what would eventually become Shopanova.

Building a Successful Enterprise

It took a few missteps for Stafford and Switzer to find their footing as entrepreneurs. They started their business venture by making marketing videos and marketing assets for clients. Still, cold-calling only got them so far, and they were working too hard to be barely breaking even.

Joined by Patrick Schilling, a former member of Stafford’s crew, the men regrouped to form Shopanova. Their new venture was built on the discoveries they made about the power of Facebook advertising. Once they learned the platform’s nuances, they were ready to help others harness the power of advertising for their e-commerce businesses.

“Now, we’ve created our own processes and effective sales funnels to fully leverage the power of advertising online for our clients,” Switzer said. “We are helping everyone make more money than ever, including our growing Shopanova family.”

Prioritizing the Client

Stafford and Switzer built Shopanova around the idea that the client’s vision is of the utmost importance.

“We are always going to prioritize the client’s unique niche and their needs, above all else,” Switzer said, “The customizable plan we put together is specifically tailored to all of these things. That’s what sets us apart.”

With those values, Shopanova has helped over 100 e-commerce stores scale their businesses to new heights of success. How? The duo’s Brand Velocity Framework leverages all of the latest social media platforms, email and SMS marketing, and micro-influencers to help curate a fully customized plan to scale their client’s businesses and increase their ROI on their marketing initiatives. They also offer creative services such as video production and product photography to further enhance their client’s online presence.

The team at Shopanova focuses on a select list of vetted clients. In fact, they vet every client with a three-stage process, making sure they are ready to undertake Shopanova’s 100 percent turnkey operation. Although they receive over 500 applications a month, they only accept 3-5 percent as clients.

“We are pretty selective about our client base because we want to make sure every single client gets the revenue they deserve,” added Switzer.

When a client signs up for Shopanova’s services, Stafford and Switzer’s team goes through an in-depth audit of their online presence and eCommerce systems. Once their evaluation is complete, they can recommend a plan for business growth that is based on the client’s specific needs within their niche areas.

In the end, Stafford and Switzer care about the success of their clients, as much as the realization of their own dreams.

“Every time we hear an amazing success story from a client, we’re thrilled,” Switzer said. “We’ve seen our clients expand by leaps and bounds, and we’re thrilled by those results. That makes all of this worth it.”

“We want to be the kind of brand that creates an impact,” Stafford added. “We don’t want to be recognized just to be recognized. We want to be recognized because of the kind of value we create.”

About Shopanova

Shopanova is a modern growth media buying agency for eCommerce shops. They have been able to grow their clients’ monthly revenues from 5-figures all the way to 7-figures and beyond. Shopanova has been featured in Yahoo! Finance, Bloomberg Business, NBC and more. For more information on how to build a generational online brand and scale your business to millions, please visit https://shopanova.com.

Business

Inside the $4.3B Quarter: What’s Fueling Black Banx’s Record Revenues

Published

2 weeks ago

January 16, 2026

Matthew Wiles

Every quarter brings fresh headlines in fintech, but few make the kind of impact achieved by Black Banx in Q2 2025. The Toronto-based global digital banking group, founded by Michael Gastauer, reported an extraordinary USD 4.3 billion in revenue and a record USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, while improving its cost-to-income ratio to 63%.

These results not only highlight the company’s operational efficiency but also mark a pivotal moment in its journey from challenger to global leader. The big question is: what’s fueling such impressive financial performance?

Customer Growth as the Core Driver

One of the clearest engines of revenue growth is Black Banx’s expanding customer base. By Q2 2025, the platform had reached 84 million clients worldwide, up from 69 million at the end of 2024. This 15 million net gain in six months demonstrates both the attractiveness of its services and the scalability of its model.

Unlike traditional banks, which rely heavily on branch expansion, Black Banx leverages digital-first onboarding that allows customers to open accounts within minutes using just a smartphone. This approach is especially effective in regions underserved by legacy institutions, where access to affordable financial tools is in high demand.

More customers don’t just mean higher transaction volumes—they generate a compounding effect where network size, brand trust, and service adoption reinforce one another.

Real-Time Payments and Cross-Border Solutions

A major contributor to Q2 revenues is the platform’s real-time payments infrastructure. Black Banx enables instant cross-border transfers across its 28 supported fiat currencies and multiple cryptocurrencies, helping both individuals and businesses bypass the traditional bottlenecks of international banking.

For freelancers, SMEs, and multinational clients, this means faster liquidity, reduced foreign exchange costs, and simplified global operations. The demand for real-time financial services is growing rapidly—Juniper Research projects global real-time payments turnover to hit USD 58 trillion by 2028—and Black Banx is strategically positioned to capture a significant share of this market.

Crypto Integration as a Revenue Stream

Another key revenue driver is crypto integration. While many traditional institutions remain hesitant, Black Banx embraced digital assets early and has built infrastructure to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Lightning Network. In Q2 2025, 20% of all transactions on the platform were crypto-based, reflecting strong customer appetite for hybrid banking services that bridge fiat and digital assets.

Revenue comes not only from transaction fees but also from value-added services like crypto-to-fiat conversion, staking yields (4–12% APY), and blockchain-enabled payments. For customers in markets with unstable currencies, these services act as a financial lifeline, further expanding the platform’s relevance.

AI-Powered Efficiency and Risk Management

Record revenues would be less impressive if costs ballooned at the same rate. But Black Banx has proven adept at balancing growth with efficiency. Its cost-to-income ratio improved to 63% in Q2, down from 69% a year earlier, thanks to heavy reliance on AI-powered automation.

AI now drives fraud detection, compliance, and customer onboarding—areas where traditional banks often struggle with cost inefficiencies. By automating these processes, Black Banx can process millions of transactions securely while maintaining profitability at scale. This level of efficiency is rare in fintech, where high growth often comes at the expense of margins.

Regional Expansion and Untapped Markets

Geography also plays a role in fueling revenues. Much of the Q2 growth came from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America—regions where demand for mobile-first banking continues to soar. In 2024 alone, Black Banx reported a 32% increase in SME clients from the Middle East and Africa, signaling the strength of its positioning in underserved markets.

By extending services to populations previously excluded from formal banking—migrant workers, rural communities, and small businesses—Black Banx taps into vast pools of latent demand. The strategy proves that financial inclusion and profitability are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing.

Diversified Revenue Streams

Another factor behind Q2’s record revenues is Black Banx’s diversified business model. Income is not tied to a single service but spread across multiple streams, including:

Transaction fees from cross-border transfers and payments.
Crypto trading and exchange services.
Premium account features for high-net-worth clients.
Corporate services for SMEs and international businesses.

This diversification insulates the company against volatility in any single segment, creating stable revenue growth even in shifting market conditions.

Michael Gastauer’s Strategic Blueprint

Behind these results is Michael Gastauer’s long-term strategy: scale aggressively but with efficiency, innovation, and inclusion at the core. His vision has always been to create a borderless financial ecosystem, and Q2 2025’s performance is evidence that this vision is not only achievable but sustainable.

By balancing mass-market accessibility with premium features, and by blending fiat with digital assets, Gastauer has positioned Black Banx as a category-defining player in global finance.

The Road Ahead: Toward 100 Million Clients

Looking forward, the company’s goal of reaching 100 million customers by the end of 2025 will likely be the next catalyst for revenue growth. More customers mean more transactions, more data insights, and more opportunities to refine and expand its service offering.

If current momentum holds, the USD 4.3 billion quarterly revenue milestone could be just the beginning of an even larger growth story. The challenge will be ensuring systems scale securely while maintaining trust in an environment where privacy and compliance are paramount.

A Record That Signals More to Come

Black Banx’s Q2 2025 performance—USD 4.3 billion in revenue, USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, 84 million clients worldwide, and a lean 63% cost-to-income ratio—is more than a financial milestone. It is a signal of how the future of banking is being rewritten by platforms that are borderless, crypto-inclusive, and data-driven.

What fueled this record-breaking quarter is not one innovation but a combination of strategies—scalable onboarding, real-time payments, crypto integration, AI efficiency, and expansion into underserved regions. Together, they form a model that doesn’t just challenge traditional banking but actively builds the foundation for global dominance.

For Black Banx, the road ahead is clear: the $4.3 billion quarter is not an endpoint but a launchpad for even greater scale and profitability.