#2 Complete Merchant Solutions

   You’ve got to give Complete Merchant Solutions credit. Its founders — Dave Decker, Trever Hansen and Kyle Hall — came together when the company they wanted to work for didn’t exist. “We met while working for another payment processor back in 2004,” Decker says. “The owners had zero interest in our input — all they cared about was padding the bottom line. And eventually that mindset cost them the company.” Cut to late 2007. Decker, Hansen and Hall gathered at Village Inn to put together a business plan and launch their own payment processing organization, “determined to build a very different company in CMS.” And with its integrity-driven, employee-centric, billion-dollar dreams? Different isn’t even the half of it.

The early days of CMS were intense. Especially for me (Decker) personally, as things were tight financially. I still don’t think my wife is aware of this, but our family survived the first couple months off of credit card cash advance checks. You know the ones you get in the mail and quickly throw away because the interest rates are so ridiculous? Those were my paychecks for a couple months. 

There was never a question of whether or not we would succeed. Kyle, Trever and I had burned the ships, as it were, and we were willing to sell off everything we owned, if that’s what it took, until CMS could grow legs. Fortunately, we landed some large accounts right off the bat and things took off quickly.

If there is one expression that absolutely drives me crazy, it’s when I hear someone who has become successful say that he/she is a self-made millionaire or a self-made man/woman. As if through their brilliance and hard work alone, they rose to greatness. Nobody on this planet has ever risen to greatness by his/her own efforts alone. Obviously success does require hard work, strategic thinking, guts. But there is always an element of luck, timing, good fortune or divine intervention. We are no exception.

Growing this fast is exhilarating. Trever, Kyle and I will quietly go out to lunch periodically to celebrate small milestones (and to set new ones) and we’ll reflect on how far we’ve come. We hope to continue to build this company for years to come, but we also recognize there is a delicate balance in life and in business, and although one might feel on top of the mountain one day, you could very easily be climbing out of the basement the next. 

Growing pains are brutal and there is no way to avoid them. Our particular industry is relatively volatile, and since we deal with the flow of large amounts of money, there are a lot unscrupulous people trying to figure out ways to defraud us. Early on, we didn’t have anyone who truly understood our vulnerabilities, so we would approve just about every account that came through the door. It didn’t take long for that to change. We were getting unsolicited merchant account applications from New York and California, and we just assumed it was the result of good SEO marketing. In actuality, these were predators sitting in dark rooms looking for suckers they could bleed. There is nothing quite like the realization that you just took a hit for six figures. The blood drains from your face and you literally need to sit down because you feel like you’re going to lose it. Fortunately, we are a lot wiser now.

We want our team members to be proud to be associated with the CMS brand. I’ve worked at companies where I felt manipulated or where I was embarrassed to say I worked there due to the way they did business … it was miserable. Money is worthless if you can’t feel good about how you obtain it. I’d rather live on the streets than be a dirt bag millionaire.

There is no debate of nature vs. nurture when it comes to being an entrepreneur. You are either born one or you’re not, and if you are one, there is an insatiable burning in your gut that will not allow you to experience happiness until you have figured out how to make your mark on the world.  

Utah Valley is an ideal place to build a company. There is a great energy and a huge talent base of hard working, honorable, capable people. There is zero chance of CMS relocating.