Dan Price
Dan Price | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | CEO of Gravity Payments |
| Known for | CEO of Gravity Payments, and for setting a $70,000 minimum wage |
| Website | GravityPayments.com/danprice |
Dan Price (born 1984)[1][2] is an American entrepreneur and business executive. He is the founder and CEO of Gravity Payments, a Seattle-WA based credit card processing company.
Price received national recognition in 2015 for announcing that all employees at Gravity Payments would receive a minimum wage of $70,000.[3] He was named Entrepreneur Magazine's 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year.[4]
Life and career
Price was born in Lansing, Michigan, in May 1984. He was one of six children. His family moved to Wisconsin and then rural Nampa, Idaho, when he was 5.[1][5]
Gravity Payments
Dan Price founded Gravity Payments in January 2004 at the age of nineteen.[6] The idea struck him when he was playing in his rock band, Straightforword, at a local coffee shop in Idaho. The owner started having problems with their credit card processor and felt ground down by the high fees. When Price looked into it, he realized that he could do it cheaper, more efficiently and with better service.[3][7] Using experience and contacts from having played in the band, and with advice from his father, Ron Price, a businessman, he acquired 200 clients by his senior year of high school.[1]
From there, Price decided to go from helping his clients negotiate with credit card processing companies to offering the service himself. [8]
Though many of his clients had been with him for years, Price didn’t take it for granted that they would agree to trust him in his transition from negotiator to the one handling their money and data. But many did.[8]
“I never intended to make a lot of money, or really any,” he told Entrepreneur Magazine. “I was really upset at this industry for the way they were treating my clients, and I just wanted to blow the thing up. So I was like, ‘I’m going to charge a third of what everyone [else does].’”[7]
$70,000 minimum wage
In 2015, Price made national news by announcing that he planned to raise the salary of every Gravity Payments employee to a minimum of $70,000.[3] He was reportedly inspired by reading an article cowritten by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton analyzing data from a happiness and well-being study conducted by the Gallup Organization. The analysis showed that emotional well being rises up until about $75,000 in salary.[9]
There was a range of responses to this action, ranging from support to anger.[10] Eventually, two top employees left to protest what they saw as unfairness in the pay scale, and the company lost a few clients, but they are reportedly still growing.[10]
Awards and recognition
- 2008 Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40[11]
- 2010 National Small Business Administration "Entrepreneur of the Year" [12]
- 2013 GeekWire "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" [13]
- 2013 Inc. Magazine "Hire Power Award" [14]
- 2014 Seattle Business Magazine "Executive Excellence Award" [15]
- 2014 Entrepreneur Magazine "Entrepreneur of the Year"[16]
References
- ^ a b c "CEO Dan Price on His Decision to Make Entire Company's Minimum Wage $70K/Year". people.com. 2015-05-11. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
- ^ "Truthdigger of the Week: Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price". truthdig.com. 2015-04-25. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
- ^ a b c "One Company's New Minimum Wage: $70,000 a Year". NY Times. 2015-04-13. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
- ^ "Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price named 'Entrepreneur of 2014′ by Entrepreneur Magazine". geekwire.com. 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
- ^ "Credit him with business savvy". seattlepi.com. 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
- ^ "Dan Price IMDB". IMDB. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
- ^ a b Schnuer, Jenna. "Meet the Winners of Our Entrepreneur of 2014 Awards". Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
- ^ a b Schnuer, Jenna. "Meet the Winners of Our Entrepreneur of 2014 Awards". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
- ^ "High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being". pnas.org. 2010-04-04. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
- ^ a b "The $70,000 Minimum Wage Experiment Reveals A Dark Truth". cheatsheet.com. 2015-08-14. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
- ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2013/05/final-countdown-for-40-under-40.html?page=2
- ^ Cook, John (June 8, 2010). "President Barack Obama honors 26-year-old Seattle entrepreneur". Puget Sound Business Journal.
- ^ Soper, Taylor (May 10, 2013). "Revealed:The winners of the 2013 GeekWire Awards". GeekWire.com.
- ^ Truzzi, Gianni (November 24, 2013). "Meet the Job Creators". Inc. Magazine.
- ^ Truzzi, Gianni (January 24, 2014). "The 2014 Executive Excellence Awards: Dan Price". Seattle Business Magazine.
- ^ "Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price named 'Entrepreneur of 2014′ by Entrepreneur Magazine". geekwire.com. 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2015-04-21.