No Guts, No Glory: Acing Your Hockey Stick Journey

The payments industry rewards those who successfully navigate each critical phase of growth, described by Bobby Martin in his bestselling book, “The Hockey Stick Principles,” as follows:

• Phase 1: Tinkering: This stage takes founders from initial discovery and experimentation to commitment and willingness to take risks. As Wayne Gretzky said, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
• Phase 2: The Blade Years: This stage, which can last as long as 3 or 4 years, is when founders commit full-time to the venture, despite low or break-even revenue performance.
• Phase 3: The Growth/Inflection Phase: This stage occurs when a perfected business model begins to drive up revenue. Scaling up quickly can place additional pressure on the business.
• Phase 4: Surging Growth: This is the stage features accelerated growth and complexities associated with leading and managing an enterprise. To stay agile, a rapidly growing company must set goals and make major branding decisions. Will it become a corporate enterprise with a large footprint or stay lean with a smaller employee base?

While every founder’s journey is unique in some ways, Martin said these principles are universal. He encouraged business owners to embrace change and keep an open mind.

“You may discover a whole different way to make or deliver the product than you’ve expected; you may come to the conclusion that you need a partner; or you may even come up with a whole different idea that you think is better to pursue,” he wrote.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Payment professionals and enterprises constantly pivot in response to emerging tech, consolidation, and everchanging consumer behavior and regulatory trends.

Blazing Trails

Nick Cucci, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Fluid Pay Inc., traced his own payments journey to the early 2000s, when he began his career at a domain registrar called ItsYourDomain.com.

“I was young in high school and surrounded by amazing mentors that really helped me shape great habits very young,” he said, recalling the great advice he received from his father, Ted Cucci, and Jim McKenzie, the original founders of ItsYourDomain.com and Network Merchants, Inc. (NMI).

“They told me to Build the Machine; DO NOT be the Machine,” he said. “It took until my late 20s to realize what that meant, that time is your greatest asset, the one thing you can’t get back. As I get older, especially now that I have a family, I realize how valuable my time is and why I never want to be the machine; I want to build it!”

Building the Machine

Sometimes the best way to predict the future is to understand where we’re from and how we got here. This series will explore key lessons learned from the tinkering years and how payment pros can overcome barriers and surpass inflection points to achieve their goals.

As you reflect on your personal career journey, which phase most closely describes your current position on the ice, your tolerance for risk, and how fast you’re growing? As you look ahead to the future, where do you see the hockey puck going?

About Fluid Pay

Fluid Pay has built a secure Level 1 PCI Compliant cloud-based payment gateway to process transactions anywhere in the world, from a variety of devices. Working with ISOs, VARs, MSPs, and developers of all applications, our solution is maintained 24/7/365, enabling our partners and their merchants to run their businesses from a single, processor-agnostic platform.

No Guts, No Glory: Acing Your Hockey Stick Journey - May 11th, 2025