Ryan Rybolt is the COO of Infintech (Innovative Financial Technologies), a Cincinnati based company providing consultative payment processing solutions, product technologies and services to merchants, banks and non-profit organizations in nearly every industry throughout the nation. Beyond work, Ryan spends his time as the co-founder and director of Give Back Cincinnati, a 2000+ member social volunteering organization. Ryan was recently recognized as one of Cincinnati's top 100 Creative People and offered a position on the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce's Regional Leadership Forum.
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Ryan Rybolt Blog #1 - Building A Business in A Home Town
Posted By: Ryan Rybolt
2/19/2008
Building a Business in a Home Town
This is my first attempt at blogging, so bear with me as I fumble my way through this. I am the son of Ray & Roxann Rybolt, and brother of Reggie, Rachel, and Russ. (I know, I know) I grew up in Harrison, Ohio which, at the time, was a small town on the Ohio/Indiana border. Today, it’s one of the faster growing communities in our region. Looking back, I can understand how Harrison suffered from a regional identity crisis. It remains something of a regional stepchild. According to true "Glenway Avenue" Cincinnatians, it’s actually not the west side, but rather a collection of "country folk" or "Indiana east siders". Conversely, our Indiana neighbors believe us to be "city folk" rather than call us Hoosiers. Regardless, Harrison was a great place to grow up and I am blessed to have such a close, supportive family who still call it home.
Today, I live in Mt. Lookout with my wife, Kara, and our daughter Lyla (5 months old). I’m also the President of Infintech, a Cincinnati-based company specializing in electronic payment processing. I’d like to use my inaugural blogging opportunity to talk about what it’s like to be a Young Professional in Cincinnati leading a growing small business.
About Infintech
Many people ask what Infintech does and how we came up with the name. After all, it’s not easy to say without some assistance. For those of you having difficulty, it’s pronounced \in fin tek\.
Infintech was founded in January 2004 by me and my business partners Tom DeBord and Joff Moine. The name is a shortened version of Innovative Financial Technologies. Initially, the company was to be named FinTech, but as it was already taken, we used our combined creative energies as engineers and accountants to create Infintech.
The company specializes in electronic payment processing. Much like a magician, we turn plastic into cash. Infintech represents business owners who offer their customers an electronic form of payment including credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, electronic checks, etc. We ensure money transfers from cardholder to the business owner at the lowest cost possible.
Merchant processing is quickly becoming a commoditized business so it is important that we carve out a niche in the market. Instead of targeting typical retail business owners, Infintech set out to focus on emerging markets such as business-to-business, non profits, property management, and religious organizations. Shortly after launching the business, we identified resources to create the product we’ve become best known for: PledgeConnect. PledgeConnect is a turn-key online payment tool that enables religious and non-profit organizations, as well as schools and universities to accept ongoing payments online in a secure environment. The key to its success is its simplicity and its ability to allow organizations to more effectively forecast their member payments, contributions and payment cycles.
When we established our business model we also made the conscious decision to offer our services at low margins in an effort to maximize customer retention. We also align ourselves with respected parties (chambers, associations, etc), joining the buying power of the entire membership to offer the lowest costs to each member. We fully embrace the “get rich slow” philosophy and I’m happy to report that both strategies are working. Customer attrition is below 5%, as compared to the industry average of 25%...and we’re also getting rich, but EXTREMELY slowly.