Dynamic Duos

When Mike Roth and Frank Capan are asked what their first entrepreneurial effort together was, Roth laughs: "Probably selling bubble gum on the playground." After a successful stint in the late '80s providing outdoor advertising and not-so-successful ventures selling sunglasses and diet cookies, Roth and Capan have found their niche marketing nonbank ATMs and providing subsequent management services to retailers and banks.

After seeing ATMs at a trade show in 1992, Roth, 32, and Capan, 31, researched the product for two years before starting Access Cash International Inc. with $30,000 borrowed from Capan's father. With approximately 8,000 ATMs in Canada and the United States, the partners estimate the company's 1998 sales will reach $45 million. They also plan to expand further by introducing their ATMs into more international markets.

When the company began, Roth and Capan marketed primarily to retailers on the promise that ATMs would bring more cash into their businesses. But a fortunate stroke of luck occurred in 1996 when two national ATM networks, Cirrus and Plus, dropped their bans on surcharging. The nominal fees charged on each transaction brought profit as well as convenience to retailers. "ATMs became much more affordable," says Capan. "And we've been fortunate to weather a lot of the competition and continue to improve our business and reach the point [we're at] today--the largest nonbank deployer of ATMs in the United States."

Contat Sources

Access Cash International Inc., (800) 723-2274, http://www.access-cash.com

Eat Your Words Inc., (888) 464-9673, http://www.eatyourwords.com

This article was originally published in the March 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Dynamic Duos.