Clear API Docs Enable Fast Issuing
Andy Su, co-founder of Pry, on how fintechs choose the right BaaS partners
Readable API docs are a proxy for whether a card program can be launched by a small team before the business case is fully proven. In this market, the real product is not just card issuance, it is how quickly an engineer can create cards, set spend controls, run test transactions, and fit that workflow into onboarding and KYC without months of bank coordination. That is why clear docs matter so much at Pry’s stage.
-
For Pry’s use case, virtual cards are the simplest wedge. Pry wanted to issue a separate card per vendor, wire that card into budgeting and bookkeeping workflows, and avoid per card fees that would kill unit economics. Good docs lower the cost of testing that product loop quickly.
-
Lithic’s positioning was built around self serve card issuing, modular integrations, and getting developers to live testing fast, rather than making them wait through long enterprise sales and implementation cycles. That lines up with a startup that values a one month prototype over perfect long term economics.
-
This also explains the contrast with Stripe and direct bank relationships. Stripe can be easy when a company wants a standard program inside a broader payments stack, while direct sponsor bank setups make more sense once volume is high and the company wants tighter economics, custom compliance, or more control over the bank relationship.
The market is heading toward a split between fast developer first issuing products for software companies adding cards as a feature, and deeper bank linked setups for fintechs whose whole model depends on interchange. As more vertical SaaS companies embed spend controls and payouts, the winners will be the providers that make virtual cards feel like ordinary software infrastructure.