On Our Team!

We just finished a 30 day review for one of our new clients, Empire Music. Joe Ravita started Empire Music in 2002 and is located on Washington Road in the Mt. Lebanon shopping district. Joe has a beautiful store where he sells guitars, accessories and also offers music lessons for many instruments! We were thrilled to show him how much he saved since switching to Team Merchant.

How We Got Here

The idea for Team Merchant came 6 months ago, holed up in a hotel room in downtown Chicago. One of us had almost a decade of experience in payment processing and the other two decades of experience building and running successful companies. We both agreed: payment processing is still a pain for way too many established businesses and non-profits. Instead of viewing merchants as numbers on a spreadsheet, we could offer better service, greater transparency, and lower fees. We believed there was a real need for a payment company dedicated to empowering merchants. Over 3 days in that hotel room, we developed a mission and a set of values to make our vision a reality:

Mission

Team Merchant is dedicated to empowering merchants through transparent payment processing and education.

Values

WWMRD (What Would Mister Rogers Do?)

We are positive in perpetuity.

We believe in doing what is best for our stakeholders.

We all share in successes and failures.

We are accountable to ourselves and each other.

In the 6 months since, we have hit the ground running. We launched in Chicago and Pittsburgh, designed a brand new type of customer experience, created an awesome logo, and launched our website. We partnered with multiple payment processors, gateways, and other payment solution providers. We’ve joined multiple chambers of commerce and small business organizations.   

We are most proud of working with some truly amazing first clients, helping them save more than $10,000 a year. Our goal is to save merchants over $50,000 in processing fees by the end of the summer and over $100,000 by the end of 2017. We also plan on announcing some exciting merchant education initiatives, as well as launching our partnership and ambassador programs this year.

We will be more than just a great vendor to our clients, but an advocate for all merchants. We believe we can change the industry by empowering merchants through education and radical transparency. At this moment, we’re incredibly thankful for all of the support we have received  and eagerly anticipate what the future will bring.