Hiram Hernández, Sr.
Chief Executive Officer
First Capital Payments
The co-founder and CEO of his company, First Capital Payments, Mr. Hernández is a native of Comerio, Puerto Rico. He started his professional career as a cameraman for El Nuevo Día, the local newspaper, and later on he worked for El Vocero, before deciding to open his own publishing company which he operated for eight years. He published several trade magazines in the land of his birth.
As years went by, he pursued other opportunities in Costa Rica before moving to the Unites States and settling in Florida, prior to his move to our city. His decision to relocate in our community was prompted by another business opportunity, a grocery store which had become available. He purchased the business, moved his family to Rochester and successfully run the store for 17 years.
A few years after he retired, his son Hiram Jr., encouraged him to return to the business world and pursue yet another opportunity: they opened First Capital Payments in 2001. This new enterprise only had two employees, himself and his son. The company has continued to grow and now has a total of 15 full time employees in Rochester. His first customer base was Monroe County and now spans west to Buffalo and east to Syracuse. In the spring of 2008, he opened his first out of state location in Tampa, Florida and has appointed his daughter Mirella Hernández as the President of the Corporation, with his son Carlos Hernández as Sales Director. Today, First Capital Payments has a customer base of over 2000 and growing.
First Capital Payments is a member service provider for Visa and MasterCard Associations, the first of its class in upstate NY. First Capital Payments sets up and maintains the credit card payment systems for over 2000 merchants and processes over $15 million dollars a month. Hiram said that “there is still much room for growth, and as my business grows so do the opportunities for the community“. His future plan is “to be the biggest payment processing company in the US“.
Hiram is also concerned with the economic well being of the Rochester community. He assists his small and medium size customers with cash advancements of up to $100,000 for projects banks consider too risky.
Mr. Hernández has been involved in many endeavors in our community. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Rochester Hispanic Youth Baseball League for the last three years and coaches a team every year. He believes that in order to make a difference, one must do more than talk and more than donate money. Under his direction, First Capital Payments participates in the Rochester Works Youth Program. During the summer, youth from Rochester spend time in their office learning how a business functions and being exposed to a work environment.
“My commitment is to build a better future and to sculpt lives, which in turn makes success easy“, a statement from an honorable gentleman who understands that a better community begins with our youth and their families.
