Pre-Square, merchants under $100K in revenue were barred from processing cards
Jim McKelvey · Square: Jim McKelvey. He Lost a $2,000 Sale, Then Built a $10 Billion Company · Feb 23, 2026 · at 39:42
Square co-founder Jim McKelvey describes the legacy merchant services industry barrier that prevented small businesses from accepting credit cards.
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“Basically, if you didn't have a 100,000 dollars of business, You would not take credit cards. That was sort of the cutoff. Because it was too expensive. You had to have a sponsoring bank. You had to have a certain level of accounting. You had to have a physical location. You had to have a business that had a certain stature. Like, none of the small businesses could make those requirements.”
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