Steven Cadenhead, fondly referred to as Mr. Gulf Coast around the Florida Panhandle, has been the owner of Gulf Coast Merchant Services for 15 years and brings an impressive 20 years of experience in the payments industry to every interaction he has with his customers. Coming from humble beginnings in Crestview, FL, Steven graduated from high school and went to college on a full baseball scholarship. With his gift of gab, Steven then found himself in the sales and finance side of the automotive industry after graduating. From there, he quickly reached upper levels of sales and management in the payments industry as he really enjoyed how the industry changed daily due to new technologies. Feeling that the company he worked at wasn’t adapting as quickly as the industry warranted, Steven decided to take his impressive track record of sales and industry background and launch Gulf Coast Merchant Services. Within no time, Steven had banks, processors, software, hardware, and technology companies vying to sign on with Gulf Coast Merchant Services. While there were a few hard lessons to learn along the way involving large vendors overpromising and underperforming in service and support, Steven was determined to value each customer as a person and not just a number. As the business grew, Gulf Merchant Services started servicing and supporting most of their products in-house to ensure that customers continued to feel both special and important. He met his wife, who was also a college softball player, in his second year in higher education. They had their son in 2003 and he is now a baseball player as well. Steven’s son graduated this year and was part of the 2022 Pace High School 6A State Runner Up in Baseball. Additionally, Steven’s son received a full baseball scholarship to continue his athletic and academic career. Outside of watching his kiddo play baseball, Steven loves to deer hunt and bream fish and finds that the quiet time provides the perfect opportunity to com
