Cloud-based Payment Gateway

First -- you must be a qualified payments professional. Although there is no hard and fast rule on the number of years you have to be in the industry, on average most companies we work with have been around for well over 5 years.

Second, you must maintain good standing in the industry. We tend to shy away from companies that have been involved in frequent litigation or who have a staff of attorneys that want to prove how great they are. You have to remember, we've built these products for everyone to use and we've used our best efforts to make sure they work and that they're secure. If we compromise integrity or our agreements that could potentially harm everyone down the chain.

Third -- You have to be willing to learn about the products and services offered in the gateway. We've simplified the process as best we can -- if you don't spend the time to learn what they can do, you can't expect your merchants to be able to use them to their full potential. In that case you're not doing your job and more than likely you're not going to make much revenue. In that case you'd be better off handing off your clients to a commercial gateway and pray they don't steal your customers or sell them a competitive product you offer.

Fourth - You 'GOTTA' be a little odd. We've discovered that our best partners are characters with fun personalities. We're all different and that's what makes us great ... but yet we're all the same. We all strive towards the same thing -- to be happy. One of our mentors use to always say, "So lighten up Francis -- be a little weird and have fun." But not too crazy that you can't function. - ( James T.!)

That depends on what you want. We know that answer sounds like a cop out and you're probably right. But the real answer depends on how much development work is needed to get you going. You can simply use the 'Co-Branded' version of the gateway and that will cost you ZERO. That's right $0.00. You can get started right now in less than 15 minutes if you simply want to use a Fluid Pay^® branded version of the gateway.

Most companies however want to keep their customers in their own environment and maintain their own look and feel. We call that a 'Transparent Branded Gateway'. A 'Transparent Branded Gateway' looks and feels like you've built the gateway and you've spent resources on it, which helps add to your credibility. In reality, to build a simple transparent branded gateway, you won't need that much money and it shouldn't take too much time to build. First off, you'll need a domain name and an SSL certificate so when your customers come to your site -- it's your site and it's secure. Second, you'll need some of our API documents (API, Tokenizer, Fluid Cart ect.) -- which will really help you save time and money.

If you wanted to really go nuts -- we've had some companies build their entire offering around the gateway. In that case you've guessed it - the costs are higher. Our API is 100% exposed and if you wanted to, you could actually build your own front-end to our platform.

The amount you make depends 100% on how much VALUE you provide your customers. It seems like when you're worried about how much money you're going to make (or in some cases lose), you typically don't have much of it. However, when you're concerned about doing the best work for your customer and you focus on others rather than yourself -- you can earn barrels full of money. The revenue you generate is dependent on your business model and the number of products you offer. In our experience our Partners that understand the products make a ton more than those who just go through the motions. Have a plan of action before asking how much you can make.

Now that's a question we're really excited to answer. Why? We are the ONLY FULLY 100% cloud-based gateway in the industry and the number of cloud-based products we have is tremendous and completely scalable. Volume does not affect us the same way it would affect other server-based gateways in the industry. We've built more Revenue Generating products than almost any Gateway in the industry as well, even those who have been around the longest. From the most-basic easy-to-use virtual terminal to an entire suite of products such as "TOKENIZER" which helps merchants quickly set up a hosted payments page removing themselves from the burden of PCI compliance.

Our Motto:

CANI -- Constant And Never-ending Improvement.

From the beginning we recognized the payment industry was too complicated for most merchants - it contained a minefield that was littered with hazards for unsuspecting non-professionals. Most merchants are not capable of navigating the complicated nature of the payment industry and are unable to determine which products to use to maximize efficiency, security, and growth. The penalty for not knowing the industry is significant and for some companies, disastrous.

We do not want to complete with our partners. We truly believe and act on the fact that the merchants are the partner's, not ours. If we took merchants directly, why would partners want to use us? We are a partner-centric company and want the value of the platform to come from the partners. Plus an additional benefit is merchants want to know they have someone in their corner taking care of them the whole way. Partners should always be in front of their merchants and this gives us more time to do what we love - develop new, exciting, and industry leading products for our partners to offer to their merchants.

Today, security is the most important topic in the payment industry. We've all heard of the many breaches that have happened to major players in our industry. We have even written many GreenSheet articles over the years regarding fraud trends. That being said, Fluid Pay^® is always implementing new and improved security technology. For example, "WatchDog"... a fraud management tool used to set rules and filters to zero in on preventing and detecting suspicious transactions. WatchDog is the first payment tool to use a machine learning algorithm as well.

Not all companies in the payments industry have implemented the same capabilities. If truth be told -- we have some dinosaurs in this industry that are more concerned with their profits, martini lunches, expensive cars, houses, and jewelry than they are with protecting merchant's data/property.

The only thing we can do to truly protect ourselves is to train like mixed martial artists. There is an old adage that says "Stop conflict BEFORE it becomes one... in other words, take steps to AVOID being the victim."

That's simple and a great question... because that's our business model. We let our partners take the applause! In reality, we don't "let" the partners accept anything they don't deserve. Our partners have earned the right to accept the applause because they're in the trenches fighting the daily battles. They are the rainmakers who close deals and make it possible for all of us to earn a living and along with everyone else we appreciate that. Haven't heard about Fluid? Let's keep it that way!

Fluid Pay^® was founded in 2017 and started building gateways from day 1. However, our executive team has over 25+ years in the payments space and technology industry. Our President & CEO Ted Cucci is one of the two original founding members of Network Merchants, Inc. (NMI). Jeff Rooney and Nick Cucci also started their careers there as well, helping build the platform out during their 10+ years each there as well.

That's a good question. Can you? The fact that we've been doing business for more than a decade and haven't shared even the name of a transparent partner with anyone -- including other partners - should be some indication. Remember, our entire business model is based on the premise that we don't compete with our partners. We believe our entire business is based on trust and we understand your customers are your most important asset. You are ours. We promise we will treat your customer list and accounts as confidential information and that we will do everything in our power to maintain your trust.

See answer to question 9.