Brian Shanahan is excited to launch his 5th payment processing company, Pineapple Payments powered by CardConnect, to provide payment processing technology for both brick and mortar and online businesses with a specific focus on mid-market E-Commerce, SaaS, and Enterprise technology integrations.
Through hard work and perpetual success over the course of a twenty-five year career, Shanahan has become one of the payment processing industry’s most recognizable names. After strong exits to NASDAQ companies with his first three payments ventures, Shanahan founded CardConnect in 2006. He served as CardConnect’s CEO from 2006 to 2014 and as Chairman from 2014 to 2016. CardConnect recently went public on NASDAQ and is currently trading under the symbol CCN.
Shanahan stepped down from his post as CEO of CardConnect two years ago to focus on the growth of his family investment office Penn Cove Group Capital based in Pittsburgh, PA. “After 23 years in the payments space without a break, it was time to slow down and explore other passions like our sports complex Cool Springs that we own and operate here in Pittsburgh.” If anything, Shanahan’s passion for the payments industry has only been reinvigorated during his time working on other opportunities in real estate.
“Payments are in my blood,” said Shanahan. “It was the right time to put another payments band together, because the mass consolidation of traditional payment sales organizations has tapered and the focus has now shifted to technology.” Shanahan led some of the payment industry’s consolidation at CardConnect himself through fourteen acquisitions over the course of six years. “Ultimately, CardConnect became a leading payments technology company over the past few years. It was a no brainer for us to power our efforts at Pineapple with their state-of-the-art payment platform and patented security tools,” said Shanahan.
Shanahan sees software as the biggest opportunity for Pineapple Payments, specifically the Enterprise market that has been somewhat left behind by the flood of business-to-consumer payment technologies in recent years. “Traditionally, larger scale companies have been underserved in the payments world,” said Shanahan. “The most challenging problem for most traditional processors has been tackling the complex hierarchy of payments that is now ingrained in Enterprise businesses and platforms. ”
Shanahan partnered with Jon Halpern and Brian Gross to execute on his vision to revolutionize the way mid-market technology companies leverage payment processing. As the Co-Founders of AthleteTrax, Halpern and Gross developed multiple payment platforms for recreational sports organizations and facilities. “Payments became the most important part of both our products and our industry at AthleteTrax,” said Halpern. In July of 2016, Shanahan and Halpern launched a joint venture for Pineapple Payments to be the exclusive credit card processing provider for both of AthleteTrax’s software platforms. “This is total win-win for both companies,” said Shanahan.
It was only shortly after the working relationship between the two companies began that the young and hungry entrepreneurs from AthleteTrax decided to go all in. Halpern and Gross joined the Pineapple team as President and COO respectively in November 2016. “Just like Brian with CardConnect a few years ago, we are confident in the team we built at AthleteTrax to push forward our mission in recreational sports. It was only logical for my partner Brian Gross and me to join Pineapple Payments to broaden our market opportunity and tackle a new challenge.”
Beyond Halpern and Gross’ collective experience building cloud-based payment technologies, Pineapple brings a unique offering to potential merchants and strategic partners. “When you swipe your credit card for a latte or a bag of groceries, there’s no need to think about how it all works,” said Pineapple’s Chief Operating Officer Brian Gross. “We believe that our simple pricing, secure processing, flexible reporting, and IT concierge all create a compelling value proposition and bring peace of mind to our merchants and partners no matter their core product or industry.”
Given Shanahan’s goal to build another technology focused industry leader in the payments space, he also enlisted former Goldman Sachs associate and DonorPro CFO Jeremy Kaylor to position Pineapple for financial success. “The payments industry is ripe for a new wave of technology acquisitions given the pace of innovative and quality SaaS and E-commerce payments tools grabbing hold of significant market share today,” said Kaylor. Pineapple’s seasoned management team has over fifty years of combined experience in payments, acquisitions, operations, and technology to become the main catalyst for the wave Kaylor referenced.
Ultimately, Shanahan is dedicated to growing Pineapple Payments in Pittsburgh and pushing technology forward for the city as a whole. “We want to invest between $80MM and $100MM into up and coming payments tech and call Pittsburgh our home while doing so,” said Shanahan. “We want to bring payment processing into the future and become Pittsburgh’s premier, homegrown technology company.”
About Pineapple Payments
Pineapple Payments CEO and Chairman Brian Shanahan founded the company in 2016 to take a fresh and technology oriented approach to payment processing. Pineapple is powered by CardConnect, an industry leading payment processing platform with the most robust suite of tools for any business. Leveraging CardConnect, Pineapple is targeting both brick and mortar and online businesses with a specific focus on mid-market E-Commerce, SaaS, and Enterprise technology integrations. Simple pricing, secure processing, flexible reporting, and access to an IT concierge team are just some of Pineapple’s unique value propositions for merchants of all shapes and sizes. Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Pineapple is hard at work growing both its team and customer base to become the premier technology company in the region.
About PCG Capital
PCG Capital was originally founded in 2006 as Penn Cove Group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Initially focused on land acquisition and development, Penn Cove Group saw dynamic diversification in late 2013. Holdings expanded beyond real estate into recreation and entertainment, technology, and payment and transaction processing. Continually growing and diversifying, PCG Capital has earned a reputation as a forward thinking company that delivers above market returns for its investors. By leveraging their experience, PCG is able to identify investment and development opportunities across a variety of industries and act quickly and effectively.
About AthleteTrax
Founded in 2012 by Jon Halpern and Brian Gross, AthleteTrax provides Website services, back-office management software, and payment processing tools for sports facilities and organizations. AthleteTrax’s home grown software products power everything from online registration and point-of-sale transactions to league and team management through scheduling, scoring, standings, and statistics. The AthleteTrax and MySportSort powered by AthleteTrax products serve more than 100 sports organizations and facilities across the United States ranging from large scale youth leagues to full-scale ice arenas and multi-sport complexes.