Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was prepared for the June 25, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Leaving Town; Starting Up
Five years after an Irish physicist opened an office
in Princeton for his brother’s electronic commerce company, he has
closed the office and opened another company. Kevin McGuire, the brother
of the Irish CEO of Trintech, founded a software development lab in
1997 with physicists who were taking a leave of absence from Princeton
Plasma Physics Lab.
Trintech is doing well globally but needed to cut costs, hence, the
closing of the software development office in Princeton. It is a direct
supplier and an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) supplier of
card payment software and electronic commerce solutions for bankers
and retailers.
Over the years Trintech has closed locations in San Jose and Miami
and bought a handful of companies including Globeset, a company in
Texas that is now the U.S. headquarters. The Texas company has a product
called PayWare ReconNet that provides nearly 300 banks, retailers,
insurance companies, and telcos with reconciliation and collection
item tracking solutions. The address: 15851 Dallas Parkway, Suite
940, Addison TX 75001, 800-416-0075; fax, 972-701-9337. Email: info-usa@trintech.com
The Princeton office started on Poor Farm Road, and moved to 4,000
square feet on Independence Way (U.S. 1, December 3, 1997). At its
biggest, in 2001, this office had 6,000 square feet and 45 people
in 2001. Some of the Princeton workers transferred to Dallas and some
are now working for McGuire’s spinoff, Princeton Payment Solutions
at 501 Forrestal Road. They include one of Trintech’s first employees,
Marilee Thompson, plus Fang Zhou and Diane Berger.
McGuire grew up in a family of 12 in Dublin, graduated from University
College Dublin in 1976, and did two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in
plasma physics at Oxford. He came to work at the Plasma Physics Lab
in 1979.
He started his own value-added reselling companies, selling Trintech
software in the United States, and has an independent sales team. “I
took five or six of the staff, and they have given us a fairly good
reseller agreement,” says McGuire. His main sales product is
a credit card payment system for SAP’s enterprise resource planning
suite. “We are putting a big effort into modernizing it and putting
a marketing and sales focus on it.”
He is hiring and is particularly looking for SAP consultants. “When
we try to sell our product, people want to talk to SAP experts,”
he says.
Marketing starts with lists of corporations that have SAP installed
on Unix systems. Installing the Trintech system on the sales and marketing
modules can make accepting credit cards an automatic, seamless process.
Swipe the card and the system makes the call and gets the authorization,
just like in the supermarket. “We are also working to acquire
another product, a refinement of back end transactions, to resell
it for Trintech,” says McGuire.
His friends at Advanced Energy Systems, an accelerator and energy
technology firm on Forrestal Road, helped him find space in their
building, just a short distance from his first employer, Princeton
Plasma Physics Lab.
He has eight employees now, and some are working from home. To finance
the company he used his severance money and he has various maintenance
contracts as well. “Now I have the opportunity to start my own
company,” says McGuire. “It feels good. Things are slow in
this economy but beginning to pick up a bit. It’s a good product and
Trintech has given us a good deal. We are putting a lot of effort
into it because we know the business. With our SAP experience —
well, the big corporations have to start spending soon.”
“We have to hope for the economy to turn around. Timing is everything.”
Trintech (TTPA), 5 Independence Way, First Floor,Princeton 08540. 609-919-6000; fax, 609-720-1020. Home page: www.trintech.comPrinceton Payment Solutions, 501 Forrestal Road,Forrestal Campus, Princeton 08540. Kevin McGuire. 609-919-0700.Top Of PageMedical Start-UpPaula and Mario Uribe left 9 to 5 jobs to start a businessthat combines retail and healthcare. At a corner storefront, nextto Carlucci’s in the Southfield Shopping Center, they sell and renteverything from wheel chairs to breast pumps.MP Medical Supplies carries liftchairs, scooters, walkers, roll-a-tors,commodes, and other durable medical equipment, plus braces, splints,and supports for backs, necks, wrists, arms, elbows, and feet. “Inaddition to the elderly market, we are targeting the healthy adultswho are active in sports and then hurt themselves,” says PaulaUribe.Mario Uribe came to this country from Santiago, Chile, when he wasa child. He and Paula were high school sweethearts in Manhattan andhave been married for 35 years. Their 34-year-old son Brian is a federalagent in the treasury department, and 30-year-old Kevin won an Emmywhen he was a gaffer for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.Paula’s father was a social worker who had studied violin with JaschaHeifetz. She went to Lehmann College in the Bronx. Mario graduatedfrom Canisus College in New York State and worked for such companiesas Xerox and New Bridge Networks. Both she and Mario were employedin New York for Bennett Surgical before deciding to open their ownbusiness here. “We did research and decided this was the bestplace to settle,” says Paula.The couple has invested a little over $250,000 to start up their shop,which opened in May, and their business plan calls for grossing morethan $1 million annually in both sales and rentals.Most medical equipment stores rely on the rentals — the hospitalbeds and the wheelchairs, says Paula Uribe. “The rentals are theannuities. But we want to provide things on the retail side, becausethe elder people like to touch things. Three fourths of our 2,000square foot store is in retail.”Drugstores and other medical supply stores are their competition,but they did the demographics and figure there should be more thanenough business. As for drugstores, says Paula, “You want to measuresomeone into how they will fit into a wheelchair. A drugstore doesn’thave the time to show the clients how the equipment works.”MP Medical Supplies, 335 Princeton-Hightstown Road,Southfield Shopping Center, Princeton Junction 08550. Paula MereinUribe and Mario Uribe, owners. 800-806-9604; fax, 609-275-8828. E-mail:mpmedicalsupply@aol.comTop Of PageExpansionsSonali Corporation, 21 Englehard Drive, Monroe08831. Meena Jagtiani, president. 609-860-9925; fax, 609-860-9926.This 20-person wholesale clothing company expanded from 45 EverettDrive, Building C, to 15,000 feet at 21 Englehard Drive in Monroe.Phone and fax are new.Princeton Care Center, 728 Bunn Drive, Princeton08540. Robert Kovacs, administrator. 609-924-9000; fax, 609-921-2451.The 119-bed privately owned nursing home moved from Quarry Streetto a new building on Bunn Drive. It was formerly known as PrincetonNursing Home.Top Of PageStock NewsFirst Washington State Bank (FWFC), Route 130 andMain Street, Windsor 08561-0500. C. Herbert Schneider, president andCEO. 609-426-1000; fax, 609-426-9624. Www.fwsb.comFirst Washington FinancialCorp, holding company for First WashingtonState Bank, begins trading on the Nasdaq SmallCap market on Wednesday,July 25. It had been trading on the OTC Bulletin Board to the NASDAQSmallCap Market. The bank has 11 branch offices in Mercer, Monmouth,and Ocean counties, and it is a joint venture partner with Lakewood-basedWindsor Title Agency LP.RCN Corporation (RCNC), 105 Carnegie Center, Princeton08540. David C. McCourt, chairman and CEO. 609-734-3700; fax, 609-734-4586.Home page: www.rcn.comEvergreen Investment Management Co. will loan $41.5 million to RCNin exchange for warrants for 4.15 million shares of common stock atan exercise price of $1.25 per share. This loan covers the $40.5 millionin interest expenses that the company paid in the last quarter of2002.In its overall debt restructuring effort, RCN has wiped out $1 billionin debt in the past two years but at the end of March it still showed$1.73 in red ink. RCN offers such bundled services as cable, telephone,and the Internet to residential customers. Earlier this year it soldits Princeton area business to a new company, Patriot Media Communications.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesAllstate New Jersey Insurance Company, 2273 Route33, Suite 205, Hamilton 08690. Kevin M. Zola, exclusive agent. 609-587-2196;fax, 609-587-2436.Kevin Zola has moved his Allstate insurance office from 341 WhitehorseAvenue to Route 33 and has a new phone and fax.Bike-Time LLC, Box 295, Cream Ridge 08514-0295.Tom Flaherty, president. 609-758-1400; fax, 609-758-1400. Homepage: www.bike-time.comTom Flaherty moved his bike-trip business from Bordentown to CreamRidge. He does corporate wellness programs, social events, and countrybike tours — providing bicycle rentals and tour guides (U.S.,April 24, 2002).Top Of PageContracts AwardedInmat LLC, 216 Route 206, Valley Park, Suite 7,Hillsborough 08844. Harris Goldberg, president & cofounder. 908-874-7788;fax, 908-874-7672.InMat Inc. has received a Phase II SBIR contract to develop improvedchemical protective gloves for the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Centerin Natick, Massachusetts. “In Phase I we were able to demonstrateInMat’s capability to develop new nanocomposites that were designedto meet the needs of our customer,” said CEO Harris Goldberg.InMat’s elastomeric nanocomposite coatings are aqueous, non-hazardouscoatings with no volatile organic compounds. This technology is beingused by Wilson Sporting Goods in its Double Core tennis balls (theofficial ball of the Davis Cup), enabling those balls to hold theirair pressure longer than any other pressurized ball (U.S. 1, October16, 2002).Taylor, Wiseman & Taylor, 2007 Eastpark Boulevard,Eastpark at Exit 8A, Cranbury 08512. Gary Vecchio PE, regional manager.609-655-9525; fax, 609-655-4656. Www.twt.comThe engineering and surveying firm has a two-year contract with thestate department of transportation for Statewide Primary Control andGlobal Positioning surveys. “TWT has a long history of workingwith the New Jersey Geodetic Survey on many GPS projects,” saysJesse Kozlowski, the firm’s survey technology manager. “The nexttwo years will be very exciting as we develop the next generationof wireless technology.”Top Of PageDeathsEdward Shecter on June 19. He was president of the TotalQuality Resources and chaired the education committee of the Princetonchapter of the American Society for Quality Management.Aaron Lemonick, 80, on June 19. A physicist, teacher,and administrator at Princeton University, he had been dean of thegraduate school and of the faculty.Tony Stefanelli, 87, on June 21. He was the founder ofStefanelli’s Garage on Bayard Lane.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
