About Derrick Hess

I was born in New Orleans, where my family is from, and grew up on the Northshore. The companies I've built are all based in Louisiana, and most of my career has been in payments.

I got into this business the way a lot of people do: by accident. In 2003 I was working in Yellow Pages advertising sales at The Berry Company. One of my advertisers was an ISO, a company that resells card processing, and the more I learned about what they did, the more I wanted in. I started selling merchant services part time, signed my first merchant, and never looked back.

Since then I've recruited and trained agents, built my own ISO, and spent the last few years building payments software. The thread through all of it is the same: merchants should understand what they pay and have someone they can actually reach.

Career

1. 2017 to present Founder and CEO, ZeroPoint

   Louisiana merchant services for ISOs, agents and merchants. ZeroPoint started with the cash discount program we built before cash discounting was an industry standard. Since 2023 my focus has been payments orchestration, a single API that lets software companies take payments without carrying card data, and tools that let AI agents take payments safely.

2. Current Builder, GymPoint

   Gym management software with payments built in: memberships, billing, classes and card-present payments in one place. Designed and shipped with a small team in under a year, with more than 750 API endpoints.

3. Current Built Act751.com

   Louisiana's Act 751 has banned debit card surcharges since August 1, 2026. Act751.com helps merchants check whether their program is compliant and fix it, backed by a $5,000 Compliance Guarantee.

4. 2019 to present Founder, POS Hero

   A directory of more than 1,000 POS and software systems that shows which ones let merchants choose their own processor. It has been quiet for a while, and I'm bringing it back.

5. 2015 to 2023 Founder and CEO, Processing Solutions Inc.

   Built Processing Solutions Inc. from a single agent into a registered ISO, debt-free and with no outside investors.

6. 2008 to 2015 National Sales Director, PayProTec

   Recruited and trained merchant services agents.

7. 2003 to 2005 Account Executive, The Berry Company

   Yellow Pages advertising for local small businesses, where I first got into merchant services part time.

Credentials

• ZeroPoint® registered trademark, USPTO Reg. No. 7,197,174. Registered for payment device hardware, card processing, and connecting POS terminals to payment devices outside PCI scope.
• ETA Certified Payments Professional (CPP), founding class.
• Featured in The Green Sheet (2017) for the cash discount program we built.
• Built point-of-sale applications for the Clover ecosystem.
• Payments advisor to state and local government, utilities and public services.
• Payments consulting for Fortune 500 companies and crypto payments companies.
• BA, Business, Southeastern Louisiana University.

Community

I owe a lot to this community, and I try to give back where I can.

• Owned Hammond Boxing, a boxing gym in a low-income area of Hammond, as a way to give kids and adults a place to train. It was also the first gym to run GymPoint.
• Mentor, STartUP Northshore Coach Week.
• Judge for the Southeastern Louisiana University School of Business sales competition, and entrepreneur panelist for SLU's YEA! program.
• Past roles: Treasurer, Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce; Chairman, Ponchatoula Business Expo; chaired chamber fundraising events; member, Hammond Chamber of Commerce; Board of Directors, Hammond Young Professionals.
• Volunteer, Richard Murphy Hospice Foundation and Youth Service Bureau.

Outside work

I'm married with three kids and we live on the Northshore. When I'm not working, I'm usually in the garage with a classic or modern classic car. I like knowing how things work and fixing them myself, which is probably why I ended up building software too.