Getting hired by Fintech makes workers feel like winners

TAMPA – Fintech is the alcohol industry's PayPal. ¶ The financial services and data company handles billions in beer, wine and spirits sales payments for retailers and wholesalers. ¶ The company's customers include the likes of Trader Joe's and Publix Super Markets, Target and Walmart, Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International, Great Bay Distributors and Pepin Distributors. ¶ And Fintech made the Top Workplaces list for small businesses at No. 34.

So what makes Fintech a unique company in the world of information technology?

Payments for regulated products such as alcohol must be made in cash, money order, cashier's check or electronically to meet deadlines set by each state. Some states require payments within 24 hours while others give up to 30 days.

It's a vestige of the era just after Prohibition, when the states began to levy taxes on alcohol. Electronic payments make it easier for companies to pay their alcohol bills on time.

Though some small businesses still like to pay with cash, the information and technology era has given Fintech a niche in the payment services industry. It also means that Fintech accumulates an enormous amount of valuable data on distribution and sales of products for its customers.

That's leading to growth, with the company increasing its workforce by roughly a third in the last year.

The growth continues at such a high pace that CEO Scott Riley is moving his operation to a 30,000-square-foot space — more than three times the space the company currently occupies.

Fintech will fill the entire second flour of a glass building off Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offices. The new location replaces cramped quarters about 4 miles north in the Woodland Corporate Center, where Riley said workers have been "sitting on top of each other."

The move, he said, meets two needs: the growing number of employees who stay with the company and the influx of new workers.

Employees credit the culture that Riley fosters, one in which leaders are to serve their staffs.

"It's about giving them freedom to do their jobs," Riley said. He calls it the "inverted pyramid" style of management.

"You feel important," said Ben Boehm, vice president of finance and a six-year employee. "Maybe it's the most important thing about your job, feeling like you're important."

Linda Ritch joined Fintech 12 years ago. She said Riley's "inverted pyramid" style of management is one of the things she values about the company.

"I feel comfortable going to my manager if I have an opinion or concern," said Ritch, a product support analyst for the company. "They value our input."

And when Ritch had back-to-back maternity leaves in a year, no one complained.

"No one ever made me feel bad," Ritch said. "I do love the flexibility."

Riley makes clear that "family comes first" at Fintech.

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"If something's not going right with your family, you need to go fix it," Riley said he tells his employees.

By the numbers, Fintech is a small company with about 70 employees. That size allows for more of the family type workplace that some brag about and others long to experience.

Alexis Hilton, a department manager who has been with the company nine years, left Fintech when she and her husband moved to Orlando to sell real estate.

Then the real estate market crashed and she was living a life of regret.

"It was really hard for me," Hilton said. Fintech was all that was on her mind.

"You need to go back to Fintech," Hilton said she was told. "You're always talking about it."

So she returned.

Most employees don't leave like Hilton did.

But then Riley is particular about his employees.

No egotists. And no liars.

"If we catch you lying, you're fired," Riley said.

No lying through "admission," either, he adds. That is, don't say you know how to do a job that you don't know how to do.

Make a mistake? Just admit it, Riley said. "Now don't keep making the same mistake."

He looks for those who work well with others.

"You've got to be a team player," Riley said.

The team culture at Fintech is so pervasive that office parties often yield 100 percent participation, such as last Halloween when every pod was decorated and every employee wore a costume. Hilton's group sported a Comic Con theme, and she dressed as R2-D2.

Riley talks of the company like a proud father. It began with just two employees and Riley expects it to soon top 100.

With the company's growth has come wide acclaim. Fintech's numerous honors include a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year award.

Fintech also has been recognized for its benefits packages, which include health coverage for the entire family that is 100 percent paid by the company and a 401k retirement account with a dollar-for-dollar match. There's also profit sharing, cash awards for top employees, monthly catered meals, bagels on Fridays and quarterly massages.

The company's new facility has a gym and a restaurant on site.

Good benefits, Riley said, are "the only way you keep good people. The most valuable commodity we have is our people."

Riley often gets a gut feeling, some intuitive inspiration about people before he hires them. He has created and run a handful of businesses, so he has a keen sense of what he believes will work.

His intuition led him to hire senior project manager Misha Hart. She worked 20 years in hospitality before she met Riley.

"I fell in love with his passion, how devoted he was to his people," Hart said. "When you get hired, you feel like, 'Damn! I won!' "

Contact Ivan Penn at ipenn@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2332. Follow @Consumers_Edge.