Daniel Joseph Price (born May 13, 1984) is an American entrepreneur and social media personality. He is the co-founder and the former
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...
of credit card processing company
Gravity Payments. He is the sole
shareholder and
board member
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
of the company.
He gained recognition in 2015 after he raised the minimum salary for employees of his company to $70,000 and lowered his own wage to $70,000 from $1.1 million. Price has been active on social media, especially
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, where his posts have been widely shared.
Price has been accused of several physical and sexual assaults between 2013 and 2022. After pleading not guilty in May 2022 to misdemeanor charges of assault and reckless driving, he resigned as CEO of Gravity Payments on August 17, 2022.
Early life and education
Daniel Joseph Price was born on May 13, 1984, in
Lansing, Michigan.
His father, Ron Price, worked as a business consultant and public speaker. He is the fourth of six children
and was raised in an
Evangelical Christian
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
household.
When he was young, his family moved to
Nampa, Idaho
Nampa () is the largest city in Canyon County, Idaho. Its population was 100,200 at the time of the 2020 Census. It is Idaho's third-most populous city. Nampa is about west of Boise along Interstate 84, and six miles (10 km) west of Meridian. ...
, where he was homeschooled until the age of 12.
He attended and graduated from
Nampa Christian High, a private school. While in high school, he joined a Christian punk rock band called Straightforword, playing bass guitar.
After the owner of a coffee shop where the band regularly performed complained of high credit card processing fees,
Price said he was able to negotiate the fees down for the owner. His father was working in the credit card industry at the time and Price began to assist him.
Price then focused on launching a credit card processing business instead of pursuing music.
Price moved to Seattle to attend
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is a private Christian university in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1891 in conjunction with the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church as the Seattle Seminary. It became the Seat ...
(SPU), a private Christian university. He graduated from SPU in 2008.
Career
In 2004, while a student at Seattle Pacific University, Dan Price, 19, started Price & Price as a
merchant-services company along with his older brother, Lucas Price, 24.
Lucas provided the seed money for the venture
and was the original majority owner of the company.
Dan became CEO in 2006.
The brothers renegotiated their ownership stake in 2008
and renamed the company
Gravity Payments.
In 2010, Price was honored as the National
SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year and was invited to the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
to meet President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
.
He won
GeekWire's Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2013.
''
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...
'' magazine named him Entrepreneur of 2014.
On March 16, 2015, Price was served at his house with a lawsuit initiated by his brother Lucas.
The lawsuit alleged that Dan Price was overpaying himself and engaging in minority
shareholder oppression.
Price was accused of freezing Lucas out of major business decisions for their company in violation of their 2008 agreement to have two-person board meetings.
On April 13, 2015, with reporters from ''The New York Times'' and NBC News in attendance, Price told Gravity Payments staff that he was raising the company's minimum salary to $70,000 and reducing his own compensation from $1.1 million to $70,000.
The story quickly went viral.
Price cited "High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being," a 2010 paper by
Daniel Kahneman and
Angus Deaton
Sir Angus Stewart Deaton (born 19 October 1945) is a British economist and academic. Deaton is currently a Senior Scholar and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at the Princeton School of Public ...
of
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, as motivation for his choice of the $70,000 minimum.
Dan Price later admitted that some of the statements he made to the press about how he funded the wage raise at Gravity Payments were not true.
In July 2016, the lawsuit filed by Lucas Price was concluded when
King County Superior Court
The Superior Court of Washington for King County (more commonly, the King County Superior Court) is the largest trial court in Washington state. It is based at the King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue, in downtown Seattle, Washington. It als ...
Judge Theresa B. Doyle ruled in favor of Dan Price on all counts.
After the pay raise announcement, Price became a celebrity, making numerous television and magazine cover appearances, and reportedly earning at least $10,000 per
public speaking appearance. Writing for ''Esquire'' magazine, Natasha Zarinsky called him "a folk hero for the age of inequality."
The company said that employees contributed to buy a
Tesla for Price as a show of gratitude, but two experienced employees in Gravity’s marketing department later said that Price himself came up with the Tesla gift idea,
and no Gravity employees saw a reduction in their wages to pay for Price's car.
Bernie Sanders appeared with Price on
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
and later tweeted, "At a time of massive wealth and income inequality in our country, Mr. Price set an example others should learn from."
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich (; born June 24, 1946) is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 in ...
, the former
United States Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and as the head of the United States Department of Labor, controls the department, and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all ot ...
, called Price "the one moral CEO in America" in a speech about the immorality of capitalism.
An ''
Upworthy
Upworthy is a website dedicated to positive storytelling. It was started in March 2012 by Eli Pariser, the former executive director of MoveOn, and Peter Koechley, the former managing editor of ''The Onion''. One of Facebook's co-founders, Chris ...
'' article in November 2021 began, "Dan Price is the go-to example for business done right."
The salary move also triggered a backlash, including from
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...
and from some Gravity Payments clients who accused Price of
communist or
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
motives. Two Gravity Payments employees resigned in protest.
Price told ''
Inc.'' in an interview for a November 2015 cover story that he sold all his stocks, emptied his retirement accounts, and mortgaged two properties he owned, obtaining $3 million, which he put into Gravity Payments.
"I wanted a larger margin for error," Price told CNN, explaining that the additional funding was related to his promised minimum wage increase.
Property records searches showed that Price had not mortgaged his homes at that time, and he acknowledged this in a February 2016 court filing. Price later mortgaged one of his properties in March 2016.
Price told ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' in July 2015, "I'm renting out my house right now to make ends meet for myself."
In August 2016, he told the ''Today'' show that he only rents his home during the summer and that his decision was not made solely out of financial necessity.
In March 2020, Price said that the pay raise has worked well for his company in particular, but he hesitated to call it a full success because
income inequality
There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...
in the broader world has continued to grow. He extended the same minimum wage to all employees of ChargeItPro, a company Gravity Payments acquired in 2019.
In 2015, Price accepted a $500,000 book deal to be published via
Viking Press
Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquir ...
. He planned to write about the establishment of Gravity Payments and about socially conscious business.
Price lost the book deal, and his representation by the talent agency
WME, after a ''Bloomberg Businessweek'' article in December 2015 reported that his ex-wife had accused him of domestic violence.
His first book, ''Worth It'', was
self-published
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ...
in April 2020.
Price resigned as Gravity Payments CEO on August 17, 2022, telling employees that he needs to step aside from his CEO role to "focus full time on fighting false accusations made against me." Tammi Kroll, Gravity Payments' chief operating officer, replaced Price as CEO.
Social media
Price has made frequent use of
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
to post
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
-leaning critiques about socioeconomic issues. Some of his posts were widely shared as
Internet memes. Most of his posts were
ghostwritten by Mike Rosenberg,
a former reporter for ''
The Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington ...
'' who was suspended from his job in 2019 after revelations that he sent sexually explicit messages to another journalist.
In September 2020, Price tweeted, "52% of young adults now live with their parents, the highest rate ever, surpassing even the Great Depression. The most educated (and most in debt) generation in history did everything they were supposed to and got this. The system. Does. Not. Work." The post went viral a year later; one instance of it was shared over 15,000 times. ''USA Today'' fact-checked the tweet and found it to be accurate as of its original posting date, although out of context; the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
was responsible for the sudden spike in this figure.
One of Price's tweets, about
Dick's Drive-In's high wages and low prices, was shared over 70,000 times.
In March 2022,
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
flagged a screen shot of a Price Twitter post about oil company profits, which had gone viral on its platform, as part of its efforts to combat
misinformation
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is ''deliberately'' deceptive. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source, and so are unreliable and often unverified, but can turn ...
.
PolitiFact wrote that Price's tweet was "mostly true," stating that "while it was correct in its assertion that oil companies have recorded record profits, it ignored that those gains followed pandemic-era losses."
In July 2021, Price posted on
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
in favor of
work from home, saying that
introvert
The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...
s benefit from it, garnering nearly 28,000 reactions and more than 1,000 comments in response.
Price accused Twitter of
"shadow muting" his account in June 2021, noting an over 90% decrease in tweet impressions and profile views, month over month.
Legal issues
In 2013, Price entered an Irish pub in Seattle, sat at a table of people he did not know, and was asked to leave. After the bar's manager escorted him out, Price allegedly assaulted the manager.
Price was arrested and charged. The charges were later dismissed.
In October 2015, Price's ex-wife Kristie Colón recorded a
TEDx
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
talk at the
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...
in which she alleged that Price threw, punched, slapped, body-slammed and waterboarded her while they were married. Price's representatives notified the university that they considered Colón's remarks to be
defamatory
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
. The university later deleted its video footage of Colón's talk, which it had been planning to publish in December, and deleted information about her from the TEDx event's web site.
Price denied her claims of abuse, said the events Colón described never happened, and said that his wife never filed a police report. Price's father denied Colón's accusations in an interview with the ''Idaho Statesman'' in December 2015.
In January 2016, Colón published a blog post standing by her accusations.
In April 2022,
Price was under investigation by the
Palm Springs Police Department for felony rape of a drugged victim stemming from an April 2021 incident in Palm Springs, California.
On August 15, 2022, Palm Springs Police told ''The New York Times'' that they had referred the case to local prosecutors.
In February 2022, Price was charged with misdemeanor assault, misdemeanor assault with sexual motivation, and reckless driving after a 26-year-old woman accused Price of forcibly attempting to kiss her. The woman also told police that Price was
driving while intoxicated
Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...
. Price's attorney issued a statement denying the woman's claims.
The assault with sexual motivation charge was later dropped;
Price pleaded not guilty to the other two charges on May 31.
On April 19, 2023, a city court dismissed the remaining charges without prejudice.
Personal life
Price resides in the
Magnolia
''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...
neighborhood of
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...
.
He was married to Kristie Colón (née Lewellyn)
from 2005 until their divorce in 2012.
''The Netline'' reported that the couple married "after Dan's Christian parents demanded that they marry or end their relationship."
Bibliography
* Price, Dan. ''Worth It: How a Million-Dollar Pay Cut and a $70,000 Minimum Wage Revealed a Better Way of Doing Business'' (2020)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Dan
American chief executives of financial services companies
American financial company founders
Businesspeople from Idaho
Businesspeople from Michigan
Businesspeople from Seattle
Living people
Seattle Pacific University alumni
1984 births