The juggling act

Senior blends student life with business

By ADRIANA MATHEUS, Features Writer

Published: November 8, 2006

At age 19, Dan Price was taking conference calls in his closet in Third East Emerson for companies seeking out a reliable business to process credit and debit cards for six-figure yearly transactions. Some of these calls took place with a cacophony of video games and expletive retorts as background noise.

Dan Price is a 22-year old entrepreneur who attends SPU while co-running the largest credit card processing company in Seattle, Gravity Payments. Price's gist of what Gravity Payments does: they take money from the customer's account and put it in the business account.

Price and his older brother Lucas, 28, began Gravity Payments in Lucas's living room during February of 2003. After three years, Lucas is excited about the growth they are experiencing, and said, "We're just starting to see the rewards and starting to see the business blossom."

Most small businesses in Seattle are using Gravity Payments for their credit processing transactions. Some businesses close to the SPU campus include Kwanjaii Thai (Fremont), Gordito's (Queen Anne), and Fremont News. Price said if a student were to name any small local business, chances are Gravity Payments is most likely its processor.

Gravity is more of a wholesale processing company saving local businesses anywhere from 10 to 15 percent with improved pricing because of their local proximity to businesses. Price says he and Gravity's employees feel passionately about local businesses, saving their customers over $1,000 per year depending on the size and revenue of the business.

How does Gravity Payments choose employees? Currently employing 15 full-time employees, Price attributes their excellent staff to choosing employees using the method of axiology.

Axiology is a "branch of philosophy dealing with ethics and values." (who said this?) The Price brothers applied this idea to Gravity, taking a person and fitting a job to them rather than fitting the person to a job.

This attitude toward employee management is apparent as an integral part of how the Price family applies their values in the business world. Axiology was introduced to Dan and Lucas by their father, Ron Price. Ron Price is an organizational consultant working through his own business, Lifequest. His clientele include Hewlett Packard, Pacific Steel and Recycling, and First Bank of Idaho.

Axiology is a means of employment most college students usually do not experience during their summer job quests and may be unfamiliar with. This is an interesting outlook on the workplace that Price has to offer the community of SPU.

However, the idea of axiology is not all Price has brought into the SPU bubble. Price represents what entrepreneurship embodies: he took business risks that initially yielded little gain, and then flourished and expanded into a company recently benchmarking at its millionth dollar. This benchmark means Price's company has saved the businesses it works with a total of $1 million in the past three years.

In another aspect of his life as an SPU student, Price is currently working on a self-designed major combining music and communication. Price said he enjoys his major because it gives him a liberal arts major interspersed with maybe two business classes.

Price added that his choice of a major helps him to manage people, something his brother Lucas commends him for.

"Dan is very natural in dealing with people, along with his ability to be extremely diplomatic," he said.

Not only is Price balancing work and school, but he recently married his good friend from high school, Kristie Price. Kristie also attended SPU and graduated last spring, completing her degree in English in three years. Dan and Kristie married in August of 2005.

Working and being married has not phased Dan or Kristie.

"He [Dan] has been working since starting college; he has been working since we've been together," Kristie said.

Both Price's wife and older brother attribute his ability to manage different spectrums of his life to his energy.

"He stays up later and gets up earlier... being productive and accomplishment are really important to him," Lucas said.

The Dan Price most SPU students know is not a reflection of an uptight businessman.

"Because Dan has been working for such a long time and playing the role of someone much older, school is really his time to be a kid. People see him as fun-loving; not a very serious guy. Sometimes people are surprised to find out that he owns his own business," Kristie said.

Dan has been involved in both Chambers Singers and Concert Choir, and experienced a variety of both good and not-so-enjoyable classes.

"It's not all suit and tie," Kristie said.

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