What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
When I was 19, I got a track scholarship to Cal Poly. It was my dream. But I decided to play a pickup football game over Thanksgiving and messed up my knee pretty badly. I lost my scholarship. Without sports, I didn’t want to stay in school. I felt like there were so many opportunities out in the world that I was eager to take advantage of. I got into door-to-door sales for companies like AT&T and Comcast. From there, I jumped into credit card processing and ultimately decided to start my own business. I’ve been at it for 22 years now.
What accomplishments are you most proud of?
I’m tough on myself, so it’s hard for me to evaluate our work honestly. But when I really look at it, only three companies in the world can do what we’re doing. We’ve done it with less than $21M in capital, and the next lowest raise for a company similar to us took $180M. It wasn’t easy, but we got here with a lot less than others have. That’s something I’m very proud of.
What motto do you live by?
My motto is burn the ships, win or die trying. I have it tattooed on my stomach. It comes from a story about when Hernán Cortés and his men first landed to conquer the Aztec empire. Supposedly, Cortés burned his own ships so that his men couldn’t retreat. They were either going to die there, or they were going to win. There was no way back home. So they had to fight with everything they had.