Harlow Payments and the Discipline Behind Durable Growth

Harlow Payments was founded in 2024 by a leadership team that had already spent decades inside the payments industry.

Before Harlow, its founders and executives helped build and scale EVO Payments, a global processor that was later acquired by Global Payments for $4 billion. That experience shaped how they think about payments, growth, and responsibility.

Rather than chasing hype, Harlow was created to fix what its leadership had seen break over time. Layers of bureaucracy. Rushed onboarding. Merchants treated like numbers instead of partners.

“The goal wasn’t to start another processor,” the team says. “It was to build the one we wished existed when we were on the other side of the table.”

Based in Melville, New York, Harlow focuses on small and mid-sized businesses across the United States. Its work centres on payment operations, underwriting discipline, and scalable technology, including embedded payments and AI-driven tools. But the company’s real differentiator is not technology. It is experience.

Everyone at Harlow has lived through growth, acquisitions, pressure, and failure. That shared history creates what the team calls “quiet confidence”.

“We’ve seen this movie before,” they say. “That keeps us grounded.”

Harlow measures success differently from most processors. Outcomes matter, but so do execution, trust, learning, and long-term stability.

“A win that creates future problems isn’t a win,” the team says.

At its core, Harlow Payments exists to treat businesses like humans, not account numbers. No noise. No spin. Just disciplined operators doing the work the right way.

Interview: Inside Harlow Payments

A Conversation on Experience, Discipline, and Building Trust

Q: Let’s start at the beginning. Why start Harlow Payments in 2024?

Harlow Payments: After years in payments, we felt something was off. We’d seen the industry from every angle — startup, scale-up, acquisition, corporate. Over time, merchants stopped being the focus. The goal with Harlow was simple: fix what’s broken.

Q: What specifically felt broken?

Harlow Payments: Speed without structure. Growth without alignment. Decisions driven by volume instead of quality. Most problems in payments aren’t technical. They’re operational.

Q: You all came from EVO Payments. How did that experience shape Harlow?

Harlow Payments: EVO taught us how complex payments really are. Scaling exposed where shortcuts hurt later. The $4 billion acquisition showed us what durability looks like. We carried all of that forward — the good and the painful.

Q: Starting over must have been difficult.

Harlow Payments: It was humbling. In payments, trust is everything. We had to earn it again. We didn’t do that by being louder or flashier. We did it by being disciplined and human.

Q: Was there an early moment that tested that discipline?

Harlow Payments: Yes. Early on, we moved too fast on a merchant that looked great on paper. Strong volume. Tight timeline. We relaxed some guardrails.

Q: What happened?

Harlow Payments: Friction. Support load increased. Risk signals showed up late. Nothing catastrophic, but enough to make it clear we’d drifted.

Q: What did you take from that experience?

Harlow Payments: The failure wasn’t the merchant. It was us deviating from our own standards. Speed without structure creates drag.

Q: What changed after that?

Harlow Payments: We tightened underwriting. Asked deeper questions upfront. Slowed launches when needed. And we empowered teams to say no.

Q: Saying no is hard in payments.

Harlow Payments: It is. But saying yes to the wrong fit costs more later. If it doesn’t feel right early, it won’t feel better later.

Q: How do you define success today?

Harlow Payments: Outcomes matter first. Then execution. Then trust. Then learning. A project isn’t successful if it creates future messes.

Q: How do you keep momentum during tough periods?
Harlow Payments: Facts over feelings. Break problems into small steps. Share pressure. No lone heroes.

Q: What motivates the team now?

Harlow Payments: We’re building the company we wish we’d had earlier in our careers. Clean operations. Real transparency. Zero tolerance for nonsense.