Page 1 - gs260802

August 2026 • Issue 26:08:02

Who are you?

A different way to think about business

For years, I've had the same conversation with ISOs, ISVs,
software companies, processors, banks and entrepreneurs.
We talk about fraud, artificial intelligence, pricing,
competition, embedded payments, and where the industry
is heading. Eventually someone always asks, "Ted, where
do you think all of this is going?"

I thought about where the industry was heading and then
I realized something. I was repeating myself. Not because
people weren't listening. I was repeating myself because
we were asking the wrong questions. Everyone wanted to
know what technology was coming next. Very few stopped
to ask what kind of company they wanted to become when
it arrived.

That's the question that matters. This isn't an article about
payment gateways. It isn't about artificial intelligence. It
isn't about Fluid Pay. Those things are only part of the story.
By Theodore Cucci They're not the whole story. This article is about business.
Fluid Pay More specifically, it's about building a blue-chip company
that people can trust long after the technology has changed.
Editor’s note: Our lead article is typically developed by our editorial team,
but occasionally a contributed piece arrives that speaks so directly to The writing is on the wall. Business rarely changes
a conversation already unfolding in our pages that it belongs in this overnight. Lasting companies are built by recognizing
space. Theodore Cucci’s reflections on trust, integrity, partnership and
the choices that shape a company provide a natural continuation of our
recent two-part Q&A on transparency and ethics in the payments indus-
try. We appreciate Ted sharing the perspective he has gained over decades Contributed articles inside by:
in payments and his invitation to consider a deceptively simple question: Jaki Kackert .............................................................................................16
What kind of company do we want to build?
Jean-Philippe Niedergang ................................................................18
've spent most of my career in the payments industry. Elie Y. Katz ...............................................................................................20
Long enough to watch it reinvent itself more than
once. Long enough to see technologies come and go, Dan Frechtling .......................................................................................30
I companies merge, business models evolve, and ideas Monica Eaton .........................................................................................32
that once seemed revolutionary become everyday expecta-
tions. Andrii Shevchuk ....................................................................................34

Some of those changes made our industry stronger. Some Diarmuid Thoma ...................................................................................36
made it smarter. I'm not convinced they all made it better. Jean-Jacques Bérard ............................................................................38

Continued on page 26