A Remarkable Industry

Welcome to Digital Transactions’ annual Buyer’s Guide. Here, you’ll find just about all the products and services—along with the vendors and their contact information—you’ll need to run your business.

Or to start one, for that matter. We have found over the years that the payments industry, particularly in the United States, is one of the most fertile fields for new companies. Here, entrepreneurs have, year after year, sprung up offering a wide array of products and services for processing, software, hardware, you name it. And many have flourished. PayPal wasn’t always the e-commerce giant it is today. Nor was Shift4 always the big acquiring power it has become.

Not all payments stories are success stories, of course. But we have a few thoughts on why many outfits that emerge in this field find it to be a fertile one—and why many beat the odds against survival.

One factor, let it be said, is simply grit—the conviction that a product or service is needed and better than anything already on the market. Add to this definition the determination to succeed. I have met many payments entrepreneurs in the 35 years I have covered this industry, and among the ones who stuck around, grit is the common quality that comes readily to mind.

What else? A willingness to work long hours? To sink personal savings into a venture about which friends and family may have grave doubts? Dare we mention the much-derided vision thing? I have often felt vision is much-derided mainly by those who don’t have it or understand it. Granted, it comes with many definitions. But the one that makes the most sense. in the context of payments, is the ability to see how some API not yet written, or some device not yet built, or some strategy not yet devised, will meet a pressing need and hence succeed. And this can be true even if the new entrant isn’t the only one with a given offering. If the mousetrap is sorely needed by enough merchants, banks, and go-betweens, it has a chance to succeed.

Anything beyond the vision thing? Well, money, of course. It may take a far bigger sum than the founder originally envisioned. But not an impossible sum. Many payments startups are lean. But the thing to keep in mind is that payments is all about the movement of money. A startup that promises to do that faster, cheaper, and more reliably will have a better chance than a startup in most other industries.

So enjoy the products, services, and companies you encounter in this guide. They are the fruit of a remarkable industry full of remarkable people.

—John Stewart, Editor, john@digitaltransactions.net