Although Park Place Payments is headquartered in Los Angeles, the company has its sights set on growth in the Houston market.
Park Place Payments is a payment processing company founded and operated by women. Samantha Ettus, founder and CEO, launched the company after observing a lack of diversity, transparency and customer service in the payment processing space. Around 80% of Park Place's account executives are women, and around 40% are people of color, Ettus said.
"One of the reasons I first started Park Place is because I saw so many really talented people being left on the sidelines," Ettus said. "They didn't have real income-generating opportunities that would change their financial circumstances."
The company uses a direct-sales business model, which is popular among people reentering the workforce after taking time off and those searching for more flexible gig work opportunities.
Account executives work as independent contractors selling payment processing to local companies. They then earn a monthly commission on each credit card sale processed for the duration of the account. Account executive are not charged a fee to join, and they do not purchase inventory that needs to be resold. Free training is provided by Park Place.
The company has recently grown its sales force to more than 1,000 account executives, around 12 of whom are located in the Houston area. Park Place Payments aims to bring on even more account executives in the region to better serve customers using its payment processing services in the Houston market.
"When they sell one payment processing account to their local business, whether it's their dental office or their kid's pediatrician or their dry cleaners or hair salon — they start earning recurring revenue for the life of the account," Ettus said.
While headquartered in the LA metro area, Park Place has a number of ties to the Houston region. Houston was one of six cities where the company tested its model when first launching in 2018, along with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C., Ettus said. Nancy Decker Lent, a founding member and vice president of account executive success for Park Place Payments, is based in The Woodlands.
Park Place Payments is a portfolio company of Houston-based venture capital fund Curate Capital, which led the company's $1.5 million seed funding round announced in May. The fund's portfolio is industry agnostic, but Curate Capital focuses on investments into early-stage companies with promising products or services tailored to women.
