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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 25 N OV E M B E R 2 5 , 2 0 1 9 F O C U S B A N K I N G / F I N A N C E ZipLine, which also offers mobile payment solutions to retailers, employs 50 people in Deerfield Beach, Fla., and 25 in Portland including a CIO and CEO who had worked at Power Pay. ZipLine says finding staff hasn't been a problem. To win business, ZipLine's in- house business intelligence team led by Chief Marketing Officer Kristen Bailey makes return-on-investment calcula- tions for each potential client, based on data analyses from colleagues focused on consumer engagement. ZipLine can then present its case for helping clients boost loyalty-program member enroll- ment and transaction volumes. "We get our arms around the entire guest experience on behalf of our merchants," Bailey explains, "so instead of just tossing the technol- ogy over the fence, we now do the exact opposite. We hug the merchant to help them build their relationship with their customers." Goodrich, who says he's learned more from running ZipLine than all his other businesses, puts it this way: "It's kind of gone from a science proj- ect experiment to an accepted form of payment in this space." Looking to extend its loyalty program services to other sectors, ZipLine is starting to talk to restaurants as well. Revved up for 2020 Like ZipLine, MuniciPAY — which was carved out of Nationwide Payments when it was sold to EVO last year — is expanding beyond its core business. Currently a cloud-based payment system for 1,500 municipali- ties in every state except Hawaii, it has turned its attention to hospitals and other medical facilities that use a multitude of payment systems. By the first quarter of 2020, the eight- employee firm plans a new software release to existing customers as it revs up for faster growth. "We think 2020 is going to be a pretty significant year," says co-founder and CEO Jamie Nonni. "30% to 40% is being hopeful, but I really think it's going to be significant in terms of rev- enue and transactional business." Kevin Busque, founder and CEO of a company called Guideline that automates retirement plans for small businesses, has big plans of his own for 2020. e San Mateo, Calif.-based startup employs 50 people at a Portland office it opened this sum- mer, and expects to hire 30 more in 2020. A new direct-to-con- sumer product was set to launch as Mainebiz went to press. FALL IS THE PERFECT SEASON TO EVALUATE YOUR OUTDOOR LIGHTING FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT EFFICIENCYMAINE.COM 866-376-2463 / SOME RESTRICTIONS APPLY Incentives available for high-efficiency LEDs. LESSONS FROM FINTECH ENTREPRENEURS Tell everybody about your ideas beforehand … If you can't defend your business from Day One, you probably shouldn't start it. — Kevin Busque Guideline Pick a product that has a viable long-term demand for growth. — Jamie Nonni MuniciPAY "Recruiting for Portland has been quite easy for us," says Busque, who's lived all over the world including Maine's northern Moosehead Lake region. "We are getting some engineering talent out of Boston attracted by the whole live- and-work-in-Maine movement, and we get people already living in Portland." Meanwhile in Westbrook, Joseph says DAVO has not gotten any takeover yet, but he knows there will be an exit somebody. "e reason we're success- ful right now is nobody's figured out how to do what we do," he says. "As we grow, we certainly know people are watching." Renee Cordes, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at rcordes @ mainebiz.biz P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F G U I D E L I N E P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F M U N I C I PAY

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