uilding a company is like jumping out of an airplane: It's always a risk, but you know you can rely on your experiences and hard work, just as you would rely on your harness and parachute, to help you land safely on your feet. And once you've done it, the next time doesn't seem quite as intimidating.

The CEO and founder of Laguna Hills, Calif.-based Global Electronic Technology, Inc. (GET), Steven H. Bryson, has used his varied experiences in payments to grow several companies. GET, his latest venture, is a full-service provider of payment processing systems and services, including credit and debit card, EBT, loyalty and gift card, online check, check guarantee and verification processing.

The company offers a proprietary Internet gateway with a recurring billing model and an Internet storefront; it is also a reseller of POS equipment, offering terminals below their cost.

GET's customer base is made up of 80% retail; 10% municipalities; and 10% high risk. "Our recurring billing, our virtual products and our Internet gateway make us ideally compatible with today's municipalities, power and utility companies," Bryson said.

Bryson has substantial experience in the payments industry, and he learned how to take risks early on: He is a three-year veteran of an elite unit of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

Bryson began his career in 1992 at Deluxe Data as a District Manager in sales, but worked there only four months before venturing off to start First Financial Processing Services, which he later sold to Lynk Systems, Inc. in 1995.

Bryson worked at Lynk for three years and became one of the top regional managers, growing the company's western U.S. region. Bryson eventually left Lynk and founded GET in June 2000.

"I noticed that our industry tended to be top heavy with people lacking technical experience and prowess," Bryson said. "The systems that the bankcard operated on then and today are legacy systems: older systems that lack the robust infrastructure with today's technology."

So in 2002, Bryson acquired a majority interest in Strategic Systems Group, Inc. (SSG), a mid-sized consulting firm, in business since 1991, that develops and implements ERP solutions and provides ongoing consulting services for companies such as Airborne Express, DHL and Motorola.

Bryson said he also acquired SSG for its knowledge workers. For instance, SSG's Chairman and founder, Brian Iimuna, is now the President of GET. Bryson also hired Kevin Hoehn to serve as Chief Operating Officer. Hoehn started his career with Imperial Bank, managing both risk and credit operations. He also worked at Comerica Merchant Services as VP Operations Manager.

"We've been able to do things such as CISP certifications and build front-end applications, and we've been able to do it in a 10th of the time it takes our larger competitors," Bryson said.

GET has achieved Visa Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP) compliance two years in a row; its most recent certification was in November 2003. "It means that our customers and business partners can feel comfortable about doing business with us, and that their cardholder data will be safe," Bryson said.

GET has also developed a proprietary gateway system, the Safeguard Internet Gateway, which enables businesses to authorize, process and manage credit card transactions from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser. The system is ideal for businesses, both large and small, that enter credit card transactions manually for mail- or phone-order sales.

Safeguard Internet Gateway provides virtual terminal and billing page functionality; sales reporting by card type, product type, time period and customer; deposit and funds-transfer reconciliation; chargeback reconciliation reporting; e-mail notification for account management; and integration with merchant systems.

The product also offers a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection for larger businesses, which enable orders and payments to be processed directly from the businesses' own back-office processing systems.

GET has about 20 employees at its headquarters, which does not include its sales staff and network. Bryson said GET has sales offices throughout Southern California: in Laguna Hills, Long Beach, Torrance and San Dimas, and ISO representation in 39 states. The company also employs seven full time developers, who work externally, but solely, with GET.

The company has risk, underwriting, administrative, accounting, customer service, technical support, deployment and distribution departments. It also is a reseller of POS equipment for Hypercom Corp., VeriFone, Inc. and Exadigm, Inc.; GET is Class-A certified with all of them and offers 24/7 Class-A support for the products.

In a recently formed one-year partnership with Hypercom, GET is now the sole provider of Class-A support for all of Hypercom's equipment being sold in the Western region. Class-A support means that GET does the terminal deployment and downloads, and it runs all systems from its headquarters, for both hardware and software.

"At GET the customer is always number one," Bryson said. "We understand that commerce is a 24/7 operation, so we must correspondingly adjust to this face of business. Providing 24/7 Class-A support is a logical, yet necessary step for us to take if we are to remain a leader in the POS industry."

GET is in the process of hiring more customer service and support representatives, all bi-lingual, to accommodate this higher level of service and to handle its growing business. "We're experiencing approximately 19% per month growth," Bryson said.

GET sells through the ISO and merchant level salesperson (MLS) sales channels; however, Bryson said, "We are currently open to expanding direct sales offices and funding those offices in marketplaces around the country. We do have a small mid-market direct sales force here in Orange County."

Moses Heredia is President of Global Electronic Technology of Los Angeles, an ISO/MSP that has been working with GET since October 2003. Heredia's company processes credit and debit, check, gift card, loyalty and EBT and sells POS terminals to small- and mid-sized merchants and municipalities. He said his customer base is 65 - 75% from the Latin communities.

Heredia, who worked with National Processing Co. for 10 years before starting his own company, has known Bryson for 13 years. He recently started his own ISO and partnered exclusively with GET because he "was impressed with the way Bryson conducts his business...Bryson is a man of integrity and of his word. I would not put all of my eggs in one basket if I did not have total confidence in him."

For ISOs and MLSs, GET designs a compensation structure depending on their needs and the size of their portfolio. "Each individual program is tailored to the needs of the individual," Bryson said.

Another attractive benefit for ISOs/MLSs is GET's partnership with Merrick Bank, which allows the company to offer Bank Identification Number (BIN) relationships to its ISOs/MLSs. "I'm one of the few small ISOs that has multiple BINs that I own," Bryson said.

A BIN is a unique six-digit number assigned by the credit card associations to member institutions to use in processing transactions. The number identifies which credit network a card belongs to, and which bank issued it.

Having access to BINs allows smaller businesses direct access to financial sources and eliminates the middleman, allowing more immediate transaction processing.

"We cut out the middlemen by offering BIN relationships, thereby georgiving our ISOs direct access to the card associations and the bank," Bryson said.

Heredia said he likes knowing where he stands with each account with GET, and the BIN relationship works well for his business. "It's been a great experience, and it means a lot to me and my agents."

From the beginning, Bryson has had his vision set on building a global company, and not only does GET's name reflect this, but so do its customers and alliances. GET has customers all over the world; Bryson also owns companies in both Eastern and Western Europe and in the West Indies.

He is currently seeking additional companies to acquire. "I am continually searching the globe for banking relationships and the formation of processing entities in other regions of the world," he said.

"I am currently and aggressively pursuing those avenues, and we already have several organizations that are live today."