Weekly Brief

Why I Started The Payments Observer

Juan Pablo Ortega

— 1 min read

Ten years ago, I co-founded Rappi. We grew it to 9 countries, tens of millions of users, and a valuation north of $5 billion. Along the way, I learned one thing that most people in tech underestimate: payments are the hardest part.

Not the app. Not the logistics. Not the marketing. The moment money moves between people, banks, merchants, and countries, everything gets complicated. Different rails. Different regulations. Different fraud patterns. Different consumer expectations.

Today, I run Yuno, a payment orchestration platform. We help businesses connect to hundreds of payment providers through a single integration. I spend every day in the guts of global payments infrastructure.

And I keep noticing the same thing: the people building payments don't have a great source of intelligence written by someone who actually builds in this space.

There are plenty of fintech newsletters. Most are written by analysts, consultants, or journalists. They're fine. But they miss the builder's perspective. They don't know what it feels like to debug a failed transaction at 2 AM across three different PSPs in three different countries.

What This Newsletter Is

The Payments Observer is my attempt to fix that. Every week, I'll cover:

  • The Signal: The 3-5 most important payments stories of the week, with context on why they actually matter
  • Builder's Take: My honest perspective as someone operating in this space, not watching from the sidelines
  • The Radar: What I'm watching, reading, and thinking about

The free weekly brief gives you the signal. Paid subscribers get deep dives: detailed analysis of infrastructure shifts, competitive landscapes, and the trends that will define payments over the next decade.

Who This Is For

If you work in payments, fintech, e-commerce, or digital infrastructure, this is for you. Whether you're a founder, product manager, engineer, investor, or operator, I want this to be the one payments newsletter you actually read every week.

Let's Go

The first proper issue drops next week. Subscribe (it's free) and let me know what you want me to cover.

See you in your inbox.

JP