New Company Agora Advantage Sets out to Help Small Businesses Succeed with Their Online Merchant Marketplace and Revenue Opportunity
Fremont, California (PRWEB) November 09, 2015 -- Agora Business Solutions and MerchantSystems.com have announced the creation of Agora Advantage through a merger of their two companies. This helps complete the formation of a vision brought by a third company, Unique Advantage, which helped found MerchantSystems.com in 2013. With these three companies now combining forces, Agora Advantage looks to change the way business owners search, negotiate and purchase products for their business by saving them time and money with the Agora Merchant Marketplace. This proprietary virtual marketplace delivers rates and terms negotiated on behalf of small businesses and has been designed to make services available for lower costs than business owners would find “at retail”.
“There’s really no secret to our success”, says Brad Lewis, President of Agora Advantage. “We simply apply the scale of large numbers when negotiating on behalf of our members. Match that with the tireless work of our product development team to attract powerful partners to the lineup of our Merchant Marketplace and we’ve got a winning equation! One of the unique components of our model is that we focus on including multiple parties in the revenue flow.”
Agora Advantage will also offer a unique system for individuals and business owners to create significant recurring income. This “Revenue Inclusion” model allows those who help businesses obtain membership to earn lasting income while keeping their own schedule. Business owners simply join, share the benefits of the Agora Merchant Marketplace with other businesses, and are able to earn income on every sale from the marketplace made once that business becomes a member.
Day to day operations for Agora Advantage will be run by co-founders Todd McDonald (CEO), Stuart Rosenbaum (COO), Brad Lewis (President and CMO) and Steve Aust (Executive Chairman). To launch, Agora Advantage will use a direct sales model to take their products and services to market. With their combined experience in the network marketing space, team building and merchant services, this venture projects to gain a large market share over the next 36 months, including growing their nationwide sales force by tens of thousands.
"I couldn't be more excited about the merger between Agora Business Solutions and Merchantsystems.com.” says Todd McDonald, CEO of Agora Advantage. “This merger brings together a very experienced senior management team with complementary skill sets, and strengthens the product offering for both the independent reps and small business owners. I believe this merger sets a strong foundation for the future success of Agora Advantage and its participants."
Todd McDonald (CEO) previously served as President of Agora Business Solutions, Chief Operating Officer of FlexKom International, and the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer for FlexKom America along with owning several other businesses. Prior to that, Mr. McDonald served as a partner at KPMG for nearly 20 years where his experience included working with public and privately held companies, from small start-ups to large, multi-national, multi-billion dollar companies, including a Fortune 1000 client. Mr. McDonald has extensive experience in IPO’s, debt offerings and mergers and acquisitions.
Stuart Rosenbaum (COO) co-founded US Merchant Systems in 1992, where he currently serves as CEO. His business development and strategic alliance strategies have helped the company serve more than 80,000 clients since 1992, and process billions of dollars in credit and debit card transactions. Mr. Rosenbaum also co-founded IntelliPay- a leading internet payment gateway, IntelliCash- an ATM sales and service company, Payquake-a low cost online payment solution and first payment partner for Go Daddy, Convenient Payments where he currently serves as Chairman, MerchantSystems.com and Merchant Smart Capital.
“I believe the combined vision of Agora Advantage's founders and the experience of the team and its board enables Agora Advantage to be a formidable force in the B-to-B service and products space and provides one of the best business models for independent representatives to establish long term and valuable income streams.”, said Stu Rosenbaum, COO. “This will prove to be both a rewarding and valuable endeavor.”
Brad Lewis (President and CMO) began his career in banking in 1998 and would later transition into the risk management space as he became a financial advisor. Mr. Lewis has held executive management positions at both Unique Advantage and MerchantVT, the companies he created in 2010. He was a member of the Board of Directors for both companies which were developed to serve the small and mid-sized business community in the electronic payment processing industry. Brad co-founded MerchantSystems.com, where he served as President and a member of the board of directors.
Steve Aust (Executive Chairman) has built a career of solid business experience that spans over 30 years. Since 1991, he has successfully raised over $100M in Venture Capital for several direct sales companies. Among these firms is the VideoHomeShoppingNetwork.com, Visionquest.com and 2ExtremeSports.com where he also assisted the company succeed with its initial public offering. He performed in the top 100 Networkers for 12 years with various direct sales companies with over 250,000 distributors. Mr. Aust also played professional basketball for the European League as well as the Summer League for the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I am very excited that Agora Advantage will empower small to mid sized merchants with a powerful suite of quality solutions at a price usually reserved for much larger companies.”, says Steve Aust, Executive Chairman. “We look forward to building a world-class team of independent representatives that will assist in rebuilding America one merchant at a time.”
For media inquires or for those interested in learning more about Agora Advantage, please visit AgoraAdvantage.com or contact Melissa Echazarreta from the Agora Advantage corporate headquarters by phone at (844) 544-4411.
Melissa Echazarreta, Agora Advantage, http://agoraadvantage.com, +1 (844) 544-4411, [email protected]
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