founder

Samantha Ettus founded Park Place Payments in 2018. She was not a typical startup founder. Her goal was to transform how financial services are sold to small businesses.

As a best-selling author and host of the women-in-business podcast, she built a career around supporting women pursuing their dreams. Then, at a speaking conference, she saw a gap in the market that could attend to the needs of small-business owners and create jobs for women.

From a venture capitalist’s point of view, the ideal entrepreneur:

• delivers sales or technical advances such as FDA approval with reasonable probability,
• tells a compelling story and is presentable to outside investors,
• recognizes the need for speed to an IPO for liquidity,
• has a good reputation and can provide references that show competence and skill,
• understands the need for a team with a variety of skills and therefore sees why equity has to be allocated to other people,
• works diligently toward a goal but maintains flexibility,
• gets along with the investor group.