About The Author
The Merchant’s Guide, LLC (“TMG”) was founded by Michael E. Shatz, a software industry executive with over 20 years of experience in sales management, direct marketing, e-commerce, and payments. Over this time, Mike has been involved in many successful e-commerce and Internet-related businesses.
Before that, Shatz served as Vice President of Sales at Litle & Co. ®, a mega-boutique payment processor well known for its focus on Direct Marketing, customer service, and technically advanced systems. Mike’s 5-year stint culminated with the company achieving “#1” status on the 2006 INC 500® List, the prestigious list of America’s fastest growing private companies.
Mike’s prior accomplishments include opening the Northeast sales territory for Tradex Technologies, a start-up developer of enterprise-class, B2B e-commerce applications software. Tradex was later sold to Ariba® (NASDAQ:ARBA) for a record $5.6 billion. Prior to this, Mike served as Director of Business Development at OrderTrust, an innovative, privately held provider of electronic commerce transaction services.
Before this, Mike served as an Area Vice President at FTP Software, one of the first commercially successful Internet start-ups. Shatz led the company’s fastest growing division, which provided TCP/IP software to defense and intelligence organizations. Mike’s efforts helped position the software company for a highly successful initial public offering. FTP Software was later sold to NetManage which was eventually sold to Microfocus.®
Mike is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He has had articles published in such trade journals as DM News, Practical eCommerce and Electronic Retailer, and has been quoted in magazines such as CFO, Internet Retailer and Physician's Practice. Mike also serves as the Merchant Services: Guides and Directories editor at the DMOZ open directory project.
