Randy San Nicolas

In late 1998 while running a completely unrelated business, I stumbled across the opportunity to enter the electronic payment systems space by chance. I was looking for additional services to offer my customer base and within a few months I was on a plane from my home island of Guam to Los Angeles to meet with a small acquiring payment processor to figure out how to obtain acquiring sponsorship in order to chase down local business. Through that initiative, my company was able to establish an agent relationship with a local bank and eventually win a government bid to provide integrated merchant services to the Department of Revenue and Taxation of Guam. I eventually sold my company and made the decision to move to the states to get closer to some real payment systems action.

My next venture led me to Dallas, where I reside today. In 2003, with the help of an investor group, I co-founded a payment processor for prepaid issuance. Along with the funding of the processor start-up, our investor group infused additional capital to acquire a small bank in south Texas which would become our sponsoring financial institution. During this time frame I learned just about everything there is to know about setting up a third party processor and establishing a member bank. On the processor front, I lead a team of operations and development staff as we moved through each phase of the start-up process. Implementation of the authorization platform, third party processor registration with MasterCard and PCI DSS certification. On the bank side, I acted as the lead implementation officer for our issuing bank and interfaced with the association for the initial submission of Membership application documentation to co-authoring bank policies related to card programs. I also interacted with federal regulators whenever the bank needed to present card related issues. Supporting initiatives included establishing direct Fedline connections for ACH processing and working with bank staff to establish processes related to MasterCard's Daily Settlement Advisement routine. Once the bank and processor were operational, I assumed the role of Vice President and continued to lead a group of extremely talented operational and sales & marketing staff for the next 5 years. Unfortunately, the company eventually splintered due to differences in strategic direction and I was part of the group that decided to move on. It was a hard decision but I have no regrets. The experience was well worth it.

In January of 2008, I established a web application development company called Launchpad Group, LLC as way to keep a handful of loyal staff members from my previous company on the payroll. We picked up a few customers in the transition and the company continues to serve a few small businesses in the prepaid space with application development, creative design services and support today.

In August of 2008, I joined Dallas based On-Line Strategies, Inc., a technology solutions company specializing in designing, developing and supporting payment systems for issuing and acquiring organizations. My directive was to expand and build the company's presence in the prepaid issuing space. After just over a year, we are on our way to making an exciting mark in prepaid with some very innovative customers.

Compared to the payment systems professionals I am fortunate enough to surround myself with on a daily basis, I am a "rookie" and continue to learn as much as I can. I think my "in the trenches" and "sink or swim" experience has honed my desire and ability to get things done in the most synergistic way possible -- with and through other people. If you were to ask me what I enjoy today, I would say anything related to sales, marketing and business development. But as with all my past experiences, I am able to assume many roles, learn and become proficient in order to achieve an objective.

My passions outside of the payments business are my two children and training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu... oh, and good food.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you'll find the content informative, entertaining or annoying. If it provokes dialogue between us I'm happy. So, drop me an email to introduce yourself and let's talk shop.

Si Yu'us ma'ase.

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